Dispatches from the Front Lines of Civility: The Reston Used Book Sale

It's the happiest long weekend of the year for closet claustrophobics and fans of frottage -- the semi-annual used books sale at the Reston Regional Library! Those of us with fond memories of being body-checked by patrons wielding enough books to make up a Ph.D. candidate's reading list, though, will be happy to know the Friends of the Reston Regional Library have made a few changes.

First, they've set aside another weekend for kids' book sales, meaning you'll no longer be able to train your kids for that upcoming trip on the Tokyo subway by pointing them to the far corner of the book-lined mosh pit room and telling them to squeeze their way through. Second, they've put up a bunch of signs telling people they'll be asked to leave if they don't follow the appropriate social norms expected for those of us who choose to venture out in public on a semi-regular basis. If you find the need to spell this out bizarre, you obviously haven't been to a book sale here before.

During our semi-annual trip to look for vintage copies of Garfield Gets Fat: Vols. 12-24, things did seem a bit more civil. There were a few monosyllabic grunts and a soupcon of body odor as we worked our way around other patrons, but overall it was a far cry from past years. We also spotted someone surreptitiously using a scanner, for who knows what nefarious purposes, but we're assuming Glenn Beck is involved in some way.

So book sale! Yay! Meanwhile, the Washington Post had a minor typo in its coverage of the sale. Turns out used trade paperbacks don't cost $10 each, but $100 each. No, wait -- that's our typo. They actually cost a buck. We can see how those tricky decimal points can trip up even experienced journalists! The sale runs through Sunday, supports a good cause, and has awesome deals if you're into that, whazzitcalled, "reading" thing, so we recommend checking it out.