A little bit of sickness was not going to stop Willow from joining her father on an epic quest at the annual Regent 24-Hour Book Sale.
PhD candidate Mike Thames and his daughter, Willow, 9, were part of the first crowd of bookworms to push through the Edgar Centre doors at 10am yesterday to start searching for "their precious" — works by fantasy author J.R.R. Tolkien.
His daughter, still wearing her pyjamas, was off school sick, but was not going to let the sniffles stop her from attending the book sale.
Mr Thames said he was writing his PhD thesis on the works of Tolkien, and Willow was on the hunt for a Lord of the Rings set of her own.
"She’s big on The Hobbit and she's kind of stuck with it because I'm doing my PhD on Tolkien."
Willow was also on the hunt for titles that included Harry Potter, Narnia, How to Train Your Dragon, and anything else in the mystical realm to keep her occupied while wrapped up sick in bed.
For Mr Thames, PhD studies were "expensive and time-consuming", so any opportunity to stock up on $2 reading material was welcome.
Scanning the stacks of books in the foreign language section was Jeanette Robinson-Tromop, a Dutch speaker looking for some material to help pass on the language when her future grandchildren eventually arrive.
"I have the language and I'm determined to share it," she said.
A friend from her university days had a son who was celebrating a new baby with a woman from the Netherlands, and she had put a book set aside for them.
However, she would be using a good number of the books to brush up her language skills.
Dunedin woman Sam Clifford was struggling to hold the weight of her book haul she had collected within a record 40 minutes.
She said she was not looking for anything in particular, just good, enjoyable reads.
She had however, managed to find several books for her son.
"[He] is really into the 13-Storey Treehouse, so he’ll be right into this ... For me, I’m really looking forward to The Nest," she said.
Book sale volunteer Margaret Lindsay, appropriately wearing book-themed earrings, said she would not be taking any books home this year but was excited to see what people would be picking up.
She was a big fan of biographies and said sometimes "real life is often stranger than fiction".
The day was a result of many people’s hard work throughout the year, and she was happy to see it all come together for everyone to enjoy.
The book sale ends at 10pm tonight.
