Dunedin residents' love of literature is alive and well if the frenzied yet determined approach of shoppers at the Regent Theatre 24-Hour Book Sale is anything to go by.
The young, old and bookish queued with suitcases and jumbo bags at the ready, thoughts of rare books and $7 Mills and Boon bundles on their minds.
I have been to the annual sale before, but never in the crush.
A countdown from a robotic voice, not dissimilar to Stephen Hawking's, ushered the start of 24 hours of book-buying heaven.
Within minutes, the serious book buyers had separated themselves from the perusers, leaving sweaty hoarders to dart from table to table, stacks of books with titles such as Hearing men's voices - Men in search of their soul spilling from their arms.
As I attempted to join the browsing line at the New Zealand table, it became obvious some buyers had honed their book search approach over many years.
"You circle each table at least five times because every time you go past you see something you haven't seen before,'' I hear one book sale veteran say.
"It's unbelievable.
"And then you come back at 4 in the morning because it will still be true then.''
Among the tables of faded Dan Brown hits and memoirs from the Real Housewife of (insert any city in America), I find volunteer Margaret Lindsay.
By the time you read this, Ms Lindsay will have spent nearly 24 hours making newspaper parcels filled with books for the thousands of shoppers who pass through.
"I do it because I love books and the friendship that goes with it,'' she says.
During her 15 years volunteering at the sale, Ms Lindsay says she has seen "a few funny sights''.
"We even picked up some cannabis off the floor once actually ...
"Everybody reads,'' she says, laughing.
Over the years, her greatest find has not been a book, but a diary.
"Three to four years ago, I found a WW2 diary and I managed to trace it back to the young man's family who are still here in Dunedin.''
Gems this year include a 1987 photo of the Otago Primary School Boys Rugby team featuring a "T. Brown'' which was discovered in the middle of a book, she says.
After an hour in the throng, I leave with a $3 stack of books.
Not quite a suitcase full - I left that to the rest of you.
