All the fun of a book fair

It was a fairytale moment for Joan Forester – an enchanting moment from 12 years of running the popular Tauranga Harbour City Lions book fair. Made all the toil worthwhile.

'He was quite a gorgeous wee boy,” says Joan. 'Aged three or four. He showed me a book he'd picked out. Then he sat on a chair and looked at me.” He didn't say anything nor did he want to buy the book.

'His embarrassed mother said to him ‘don't do this'.” Then she explained he was sitting there because he expected Joan to read the book to him. So business at the Tauranga Harbour City Lions book fair went on hold for Joan Forester while she read the story aloud, from cover to cover, to an audience of just one.

A small boy went home happy. And Joan stored the moment away, until today.

'The children are probably the best thing about the book fair,” says Joan. 'They get their piles of books together and they're very astute about what they want and don't want, what they will spend their money on.”

The Lions don't make much from children's books. 'But we want them to have books.” They're a kind of loss leader.

That's just one interesting dynamic of this popular book fair – and after 12 of them, after a few hundred thousand books and tens of thousands of purchases the Lions can make interesting observations.

For example sports biographies – often destined to be heavily discounted on the clearance table in bookshop sales. 'No one wants them,” says Joan. Yesterday's sports heroes it seems don't interest today's readers. 'No-one remembers them.” There are new heroes.

Behaviours are also interesting. The seasoned and discerning book fair scavenger may return to the sale three or four times in a weekend. 'They come with a list, they know exactly what they want, which author, which title. And if they don't find it the first visit, they will come back and look again.” And they will not buy a book simply because it costs one dollar.

Then there are the book fiends who hunt in packs. They set up in a corner. Someone goes sniffing for bargains, while someone else protects the pile in the corner.

Last year's Tauranga Harbour City Lions book collection turned up 25 copies of Dan Brown's ‘The Da Vinci Code'. What does that tell us? Well, firstly, when an author's had 200 million copies of his works published in 52 languages, a few are expected to find their way into a book fair. 'But there might be another reason,” offers Joan. 'It tells us a lot of people have read ‘The Da Vinci Code' and it may not be a book you read twice.”

No-one will know James D (Jim) Grant but they will know him by his pen name of Lee Child – and if someone gets so much as a whiff of Jack Reacher at the fair, the book flies out the door. He is an out-and-out favourite.

And John Grisham – America's favourite story teller – the attorney, politician and activist who also writes legal thrillers, has a significant following in Tauranga. So any copies of ‘The Firm', ‘Rogue Lawyer' or ‘Sycamore Row', will disappear quickly.

'There are also some beautiful books,” says Joan. 'And I suspect some of them have never been read. Some expensive gardening books – make a great present for the aged aunt.”

But they are all readers, fanatical readers. 'It's only booklovers who come to the sale, and they fossick for hours” says Lion Christine Currie. ”If they aren't real readers, they don't come. If they are real readers the fair is an occasion and they will be waiting for it.”

The annual book fair is on the weekend beginning November 10 at its new venue – Tauranga Racecourse. It's open on Friday night 5-9pm and again Saturday and Sunday 8-5pm. But the Lions need books now. Books can be dropped off at four points around town – the furniture shop ‘Living Quarters' in Bethlehem Town Centre, Liquor King at Brookfield, Payless Plastics in Cameron Rd and the Mobil Service Station at 490 Cameron Rd.

'We are waiting,” says Christine.

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