Lifeline Bookfest

Late last January Brian and I headed to our first ever Lifeline Bookfest.  I was prepared for a long day out, but was thinking I'd be done at the Bookfest within one to two hours and we would spend the rest of the day at nearby South Bank.  Wrong!

This is only 2/3 of the hall.  You can see games here but the book tables pack in a LOT more!  We are talking piles and piles.

This place is insane, in a good way.  I walked inside turned right and decided to start along one wall.  I had my head down, bum up (so to speak) searching for any and all glorious golden spines that we all know belong to The Golden Book collection.  I was there for the sole purpose of finding this book for my Dad's upcoming birthday.  He remembers reading it to my older brother when he was younger.  Dad's name is Peter so it was extra special to him.

Source

Now, if you have ever been to the Lifeline Bookfest you'll know how crazy an idea it was to look for one single book among the 2 million books for sale!  To be honest I had no idea exactly HOW BIG this fest was until I'd been there for nearly an hour.

Just to try to demonstrate the size, this is the games area.  There are 3 rows of tables, all illustrated by blue arrows.  The closest is row 1, and then the two arrows in the top right show rows 2 and 3!

So focused on searching out this book I didn't lift my head and look around for while after arriving.  When I did I realised that the Lifeline Bookfest is arranged into three sections - High Quality, Priced and Unpriced.  Here I was thinking I'd searched through all of the children's books, only to find I was only 1/3 done!

The Unpriced section was by far my favourite and really meant I could get a lot for basically nothing.  We also found a lot of out of print books in this section from series that Brian loves (The Munch Bunch).  It was great to be able to buy some for him.  One would think that taking your child to a place like this would be a disastrous idea but I found Brian's eagle eyes worked wonders.  At one time he said "Sesame Street" and pointed, I looked for 5 minutes and couldn't find it myself, so I picked him up and he pointed right to it.  He's also the one that found his prized Munch Bunch books!

I spent around $7 for the day and came home with just under 30 books!  I did end up finding the book I was searching for, it wasn't the Golden book but it was a Peter and The Wolf book with a read along record, all for the grand price of 20c!

One tip, apart from bringing something to help you carry your purchases home is to choose which place you want your lunch at first up.  We were in one section and went to the cafe as I was hungry but all they had were pre-prepared sandwiches, not suitable for my pregnant belly.  We had to exit one section and walk around and through the other section to get to the hot food cafe.  You pay for your purchases in each section.  If you like books and/or a bargain then this place is for you!

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Lifeline Bookfest June 2011

Dates:  Saturday 11th June - Tuesday 14th June
Times:  8:30am - 8:00pm (Saturday to Monday), 8:30am - 5:00pm (Tuesday)
Location:  Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre, Merivale Street, South Brisbane
Prices:  Entry is free.  All items in the High Quality and Priced sections are individually priced from about $2 upwards.  The Unpriced section was something ridiculous like 50c each or several for $1.  My memory fails but I'm almost certain the bulk deal on children's books was 5 for $1.  There are price charts up on the day.
Links:  Lifeline Bookfest           Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre - Bookfest Info