Book Land

I’m still coming down from the rush of being in charge of the second hand books at our school fair.

For six weeks, I welcomed book after book, page after page of the good, the bad and the ugly. I found a cosy box and appropriate price tag for each title. The Girl with The Dragon Tattoo, American Psycho, Specky Magee, The 27^th Annual African Hippopotamus Race, Long Walk To Freedom, and even How to Have Great Sex circa 1989 found a fruit box to hide in (when in doubt file under Self Help.)

I didn’t have to do my usual weekly weights routine because you could guarantee someone would finally realize their encyclopedia collection was gathering dust and deposit a carton or two of them for me to carry and sort. Do you know how heavy these are?

I had my band of helpers each week that would meet me at the shipping container and lug books up to the sorting room. One of us would do the coffee run, some of us had toddlers in tow and together we’d sort and shuffle books around until we were ready to put the big coloured price code dots on. The fun non-dusty part!

On other days I had, what I affectionately named Book Land, all to myself. I worked on my own, occasionally stopping to sneeze (hazard of the job) or read a blurb. The background hum of school children playing was the ideal accompaniment to the job.

At that point I’d resigned myself to the fact that I would be a volunteer forever. No pressures to conform and appreciative recipients. Not much money in it (none in fact) but how lovely to be surrounded by one of my great loves – books!

In the final week before the Fair, I enticed extra helpers with my homemade banana cake and promise to have first dibs on any books.  The spirits were high and the girls came in shifts. We had a production line going and boxes were labeled, new books sorted and book raffle hampers were packaged. Conversation was light and bubbly for most of the day, but then someone asked:

    “What are you going to do next week when it’s all over?”

One answer led to another and we were talking about careers, or stalled ones at that. I explained how I love to write and feel that books are a part of my next career step and that for eight years I had willingly contributed to the family business, volunteering and raising the kids. In simple terms I now lacked the confidence to pursue what is rightfully my career passion.

It’s ironic that I was on my knees in a pile of books when this book marking moment happened. My friend mentioned a relative, who has had a book published, promotes building inner strength and may be looking for some casual help. Was this just a blurb I had read or could it be true?

Fast forward. I am taking this prospect one step at a time, but what happened in Book Land that day has reignited that belief in myself  and words, and here I am, with a few footy seasons in between, back on my blog writing.

If nothing comes of this and I am definitely a ‘don’t count all your chickens before they hatch’ kind of girl, it has turned the page for my next chapter of blogging. Perhaps not a blog every day for 100 days, but when I feel the urge to write.

It’s not just the season that has changed…