Winter (as a certain series has it) had definitely come on Saturday, the start of the Armidale Central Rotary Book Fair.
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A maximum of 9.6 degrees didn't deter book lovers, though.
Four to five thousand people, organiser Ian Garske said, came through the doors this weekend.
"We reckon when there's so many people you can barely move, there are at least six or seven hundred people in there," he said. "People come and go all day."
Although the book fair was doing well, Mr Garske thought numbers were not quite up to his expectations, due to the cold, miserable day and possibly the December sale.
Rotary is aiming to raise $65,000 this year, but might fall a little short, he said. The club raised $40,000 over the weekend - but last year they made $5000 more on the first day alone than in previous years.
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The book fair runs until Saturday, and Mr Garske encouraged the public to come again. There are 70,000 books for sale - 10,000 more than last year - and Rotary volunteers put out new stock on Sunday and Monday, with more to come tomorrow.
The rare and special books section upstairs has gone well; readers have picked through the popular and military history sections; and there is a huge collection of CDs and DVDs. On the final day, Saturday, readers will be able to fill a shopping bag for $5.
Boobooks' new owners Debra O'Brien and Yvonne Langenberg already have about 50 shopping bags, each holding 30-odd books, in their shop's back room.
"We've bought thousands of books!" Ms O'Brien said, laughing.
She estimates they bought 2000 - particularly classics, science fiction and fantasy, history, children's books, political science, and the arts.
"Because this is such a huge bookstore, we have to make sure that we're well stocked in a huge range of things," Ms O'Brien said.
They will be busy with the last week of the election (Ms Langenberg is standing as Labor candidate), but will bring books out little by little this week.
Next week, when the hurlyburly's done, and the election lost or won, they will make sure the shop is fully restocked again - a big job, Ms O'Brien said.
The two booksellers, their families, and friends were at the book fair from 8.30am to 5pm on Saturday, choosing stock under the eye of Boobooks' former owner Sally Rowe.
"Although we're both book lovers," Ms O'Brien said, "we've never owned a bookshop, so having somebody there to guide and support us has been such a wonderful, wonderful help."
Ms Rowe trained them how to be canny in selecting the books that would sell.
"It's really hard work," Ms O'Brien said. "You've got to think quickly."
Know your areas well, Ms Rowe advised. Ms O'Brien's speciality was classical literature (she was an English teacher in a former life) and science fiction ("To me, it's a philosophical way of viewing reality; an imaginative extension of political theory").
Ms Langenberg selected books on the arts, architecture, and gardening; while Ms O'Brien's husband Dale was good on history, and Greek and Roman classics.
Within those areas, get the books that will really sell - Tolkien for fantasy, or Asimov for science fiction, for instance.
"It's important to know that," Ms O'Brien said, "otherwise you'll just pick the things you love yourself!"
She was, though, intent on finding a copy of her favourite book, George Orwell's 1984. After hours of searching, she pounced on a copy at the end of the day. Expect it on a shelf at Boobooks soon.Juli