This year the Friends Of The Library Book Sale is going to be the same weekend as the Fest. Usually they have it a week before, but I just checked the dates.

http://folacld.org/bksl.html

This thing is crazy. Tons of cheap books. They have it in the spring too, I just went yesterday and picked up a ton of stuff. It's a madhouse, almost just like Fest! Doors open at 9am on Saturday , and people line up around the block before the gates open.

Seriously, there is stiff competition, but it is possible to find almost any book you can think of for around $1.

They also have used DVDs, CDs, comics, and vinyl for sale. If you like having a large selection of any of these things for ridiculously low prices, avail yourself. You'll walk away with dozens of books for less than $30 or $40.
I picked up Ixnay on the Hombre by The Offspring for myself and Barry Manilow for the mom.
But make sure to set aside a couple hours for it, as you will browse for who knows how long before waiting in line for a loooooong time.

Thanks for this Phillip! I may just have to check it out.

I think I'm just gonna plan on mailing a box of stuff back to my house. Cheap books and Fest merch? probably not all fitting in my backpack.

Thanks for the heads up!

I'd like to say I'd go to this but the realities are that I'd oversleep or plane forget.

This year I overslept and didn't get there until right at 9, so a ton of people got into the comic book section before me. Probably a good thing, because I bought $30 worth of graphic novels anyway, those people ahead in line saved me some money.

For the record, that was 9 graphic novels, and one of them was $15, so I got the other 8 for under $2 each.

I also bought three "regular" books, for $1.50 each. I could have found more, but the crowd was freaking me out a little bit, and I already have a backlog of books.

I'm 350 pages into "Infinite Jest" right now.