The book sale in Ithaca is one of the three largest ones in the nation. It’s held two times a year, with about 300,000 titles for sale this fall and and 100,000 last spring. Collectors and ebay sellers come in hordes to rummage through shelves and shelves of books in the warehouse by the railroad tracks downtown.

It’s a paradise for book lovers, and so it was quite a treat for some friends to pick me up and take me over there late yesterday morning. Even if I’m not interested in buying anything (which I was) I find it exciting to see thousands and thousands of books and to smell the damp page leaves of a Dickens or Chaucer.

The book sale runs for about a month, with the prices decreasing every week, and the books being continually restocked. This weekend most books were $3, and trade paperbacks $1.50. However, over the next couple weeks the price will go down till 25 cents. . . and then comes the highlight of the book sale. On the final day, all books go at a dollar a grocery bag.

Most Cornell students seem to miss it, even though only a short walk away and on the bus line or.

Wasn’t it Erasmus who said, “When I get a little money I buy books; and if any is left I buy food and clothes”? If that describes you, you may be less hungry after visiting the Ithaca Book sale.