Book sale an enchanted forest for local princess

Emma Lorimer doesn’t know every penny raised goes toward literacy programs. She doesn’t need to know. Today, on that floor, it’s all about her new books.

Derek Spalding Times Colonist

Sometimes adults forget how fairy tales shape their lives.

At the Times Colonist Book Sale, these same grown-ups politely step around a tiny brown-haired girl sprawled out — belly down — on the basement floor of the Victoria Curling Club.

The rink, temporarily transformed into a book warehouse for the weekend, houses thousands upon thousands of soft and hard covers laid out on tables for the annual two-day frenzy.

Emma Lorimer doesn’t know that every penny raised goes toward literacy programs throughout Greater Victoria. She doesn’t need to know. Today, on that floor, it’s all about her new books.

Her blue eyes gaze at the three covers before her on the carpet. Her feet, tucked into a neat pair of pink runners, wave in the air above her. Two of her new books star the always youthful Cinderella.

Anything about princesses is Emma’s fancy right now. It’s in these fairy tale worlds that anything is possible.

Pumpkins become chariots, lamps grant wishes and — if a story lives long enough — people never age. It’s a place where grown-ups and children rarely meet, even though they’ve spent hours buried in many of the same books.

At home, Emma remembers her favourite stories by looking at the pictures. She can’t read yet, but that’s OK. She’s three. For now, her parents handle the words.

They keep the wizardry of imagination alive when they read to her every night before bed. First dad, then mom.

When relatives come to visit, like Nanna, Auntie Little or Grandpa John, everyone has a turn, which means Emma gets to stay up a little bit later; Emma always chooses the order.

Reality will eventually dispel the myths and magic of imaginary worlds: Kisses won’t wake sleeping beauties and tiny beans won’t grow into giant beanstalks.

But if Emma’s lucky, she’ll find the fairy tale in her own life and keep some of the magic alive.

$153,706 for literacy makes for ‘a very good weekend’

Derek Spalding Times Colonist

The annual Times Colonist book sale raised $153,706 on Saturday and Sunday, $282 more than last year.

The book sale has generated almost $1.7 million for literacy programs since its inception in 1998 and is part of the national Raise-a-Reader campaign. Money raised stays within the community and is matched by funding from the provincial government.

“It was a very good day. We had a very good weekend,” site co-ordinator Bob Taylor said after 6,100 people shopped over the two days. “I think we made a lot of people happy.”

Count customer Robyn Wharram among them.

For Wharram, the sale had initially looked like just another failed effort to pick up a used copy of Even Cowgirls Get the Blues.

Wharram has spent eight years searching used bookshops, she still could not replace a copy of the 1976 novel by Tom Robbins, which was “mistakenly” taken by an old roommate when the two branched out on their own. Wharram has been hunting for another one ever since.

She waited in line at the Times Colonist Book Sale on Saturday morning, searched almost everywhere inside the Victoria Curling Club, but once again — nothing.

Wharram returned on Sunday and, with another stack of books in her arms, waited for her mother, Jean Screech, to finish shopping. By chance, she looked down at a box on the floor. There it was.

“It’s proof you can come on Sunday afternoon and still find good stuff,” Wharram said. “For the past six or seven book sales, I’ve looked for it. I go into secondhand book stores looking for it. And here it is.”

Similar sentiments were shared by some of the 2,600 people who visited the rink Sunday. There were treasures to be had.

The children’s section was once again a hot spot for parents to find deals on some of the popular items.

Nanaki Dhami, 6, and her cousin Yuvraj Attwal, 3, displayed a couple of handfuls of books on the carpeted floor, relishing their new collection. Nanaki had reminded her dad, Anoop Dhami, about the sale and made sure the family came.

“She’s the one who told me,” Anoop said. “I figured if I bring them a couple more years, then they will get in the habit and come every year on their own.”

Sundays are great opportunities for people to shop without the massive crowds who show up the day before, many visitors said.

And with so many books, the sale could last much longer.

“The reality is we could have our book sale for two weeks, never mind two days,” said the Times Colonist’s Shannon Kowalko. “We have that many books.”

On Monday, teachers and non-profit groups were going through all the unsold books. They could take their pick, without charge.

The remaining books are sold by the pallet-load to a company called Discovery Books.