Bookfest? Bookfest!

Bookfest, you guys! I spent $57! I got all of the above!

For those playing at home, Lifeline Bookfest is a huge, second-hand book fair held at the Brisbane Convention Centre once or twice a year. The enormous sale has tens of thousands of books, separated by quality, genre, collectables and price. I'd never been before, and don't particularly know why  - probably some combination of geography, finances and general uselessness.

The community and the atmosphere was this perfect cocktail of friendly and intimate and horribly competitive and focused - the people are there to rec books and help you, but also, man, are they there to shop. One of my favourite moments of the day was heading in with my mum (her first time too), bagless and trolley-less, and all the other people making their way from carpark to the halls had a look on their face that said noobz.

We were there for hours really, running up and down the trestle tables of books, hoarding them in arms that would ache for days after. I came out with exactly twenty books, a lot of which I'd been eager to get my hands on for a while, and even more to flesh out my Australian women author collection. I'm particularly excited to read The China Garden, Pieces of a Girl (because, Jesus, I love me some Charlotte Wood) and What the Family Needed. I also grabbed all the Isabel Allende I could, because what I've read of hers in the past - particularly My Invented Country - sort of make my life.

There's another few days left of Bookfest - it doesn't finish until the 28th Jan - and I am hugely tempted to go back for sale day (because $2.50 a book was dear), and I really do recommend it. It's a pretty wonderful experience.