The Greater St. Louis Book Fair at West County Center is this weekend! I went last night, when you had to pay admission, but it will be free for the rest of the weekend. I’ve always resisted the Opening Night admission fee, but I’m not sure why. It’s a good cause. After all, that’s why I give them all of my books, worth much more than the admission fee! This year, I went on Opening Night due to scheduling problems. It was that or miss it entirely!

For those of you outside of St. Louis, let me give you an idea of how big this is — the Book Fair takes up nearly a floor of a mall parking garage.

Here are a couple of clues about how many years I’ve been going to the Book Fair. I can remember when it was in a tent on the parking lot of the old Famous Barr building on Forsyth in Clayton. Paperback novels cost a quarter (or was it two for a quarter?). Now they are $1.50. I suspect that increase is not only inflation but also a more sophisticated used book market now that we have an online marketplace.

I had a good haul. From top to bottom, the titles are:

• Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff by Richard Carlson
• Think Thin Be Thin by Doris Wild Helmering and Dianne Hales
• Take Time for Your Life by Cheryl Richardson
• Writing the Wave by Elizabeth Ayres
• Life Makeovers by Cheryl Richardson
• A Writer’s Workbook by Caroline Sharp
• The Intellectual Devotional by David S. Kidder and Noah D. Oppenheim
• Steering the Craft by Ursula K. Le Guin
• The Art of Creative Nonfiction by Lee Gutkind
• Crafting a Life in Essay, Story, Poem by Donald M. Murray
• Your Brain at Work by David Rock
• Cinematherapy for Lovers by Nancy Peske and Beverly West

Have you read any of these? Where should I start?