The line toward the small army of volunteers punching additions into the calculators stretched around the entire circumference of the University of Newcastle's Great Hall, circumscribing the scene like the Norse world serpent.
At one point, the most recent book hunter to join the queue stood, with their pile in hand, at the table where the sales were being put through near the door, knowing that they had an entire tour of the hall to go before they made it back again.
Like the mythic serpent that circles the world, with a head to its own tail, from time to time, the line would wiggle and shake as the bookworms' eye was caught by something curious in the stacks and they reached out to add to their teetering pile, or handed over an arm load to a partner before diving back into the hunt in the middle.
Books. More than 65,000 of them, were stacked in epic long-table piles throughout the hall as the Friends of the Univeristy's biennial book fair opened its doors for the first time in four years on Saturday.
The line to get inside was, at 10am when the sale began, stretched down the path that led to the Great Hall, and out into yard.
They came with boxes, with bags; they came with trolleys and totes, all on the hunt for a rare find among the countless tomes, or to indulge that hobby peculiar to the bookworm of casually diving into the pile and losing a few hours to sheer curiosity.
Natalie Hunt, with a youngster tucked into a carrier harness on her shoulders, stepped out of the throng wiht a pile of books as high as her outstretched arms. She had her chin rested on the top to keep it from toppling as Dimity Simmons helped her unload the haul into a cart they had in tow.
"We're looking for quality kids books, really" Ms Simmons said, after they collectively found a stunning illustrated Narnia collection as well as a copy of the Wind in the Willows, said.
"Fables, history, poetry, we have a little bit of everything," she said, as Ms Hunt cheerily added, "We've only jus started."
"I've been looking for a hardcover, colour Narnia for a long time now," Ms Hunts said. "We'll be here for a while, I think."
Across the way, in the Gardening section, Tammy Hulse had a haul of woodworking books on the top shelf of her trolley. The bottom shelf was for her daughter.
She came to the book fair 38 years ago on a first date with her now-husband Trevor. She didn't know at the time, but her future parents-in-law were also among the stacks that day.
She said the family had had recently made some space in the library and on Saturday, she was back to the fair to fill it up again.
"His parents were here somewhere, but I didn't know until years later," Mrs Hulse said, "They thought they would come and check me out. I must have made the cut because I'm still here."
Mr and Mrs Hulse have since had five children, as well as a granddaughter, all avowed bookworms.
"All my kids love reading," she said, "My granddaughter is only five and she can already read three or four sentences on a page; she is doing really well.
"This is such a great event. We've missed it a couple of years ... it's great to see a lot of people and you just get so much joy from reading."
As Mrs Hulse made her round again through the stacks, young graphic designer Andrew White, hauling an immense unabridged Websters Dictionary at the bottom of a pile of rare finds. He said he was drawn in by index notches throughout. He had also found a unique eye-sight testing book filled with images and collages designed to examine and diagnose colour blindness.
"They're plates for testing colour vision," he said, proudly.
"He has a love of typography, being a graphic designer." his partner, Jessica Wesche said.
The Univeristy book club's Sarah Hoadley and its president, Carmen Rickards, had taken a station at one of the calculating tables early in the day. They had both arrived early to get a jump on the hunt and each had a pile secreted away for when they had finished the day's work.
The club, which meets weekly and covers a book a month, had only become official earlier this year, but already has a following on Instagram and a group of members on the books.
"I think everyone will have to make their way around to every table," Ms Rickards said, smiling, "That's what we did."
The Univeristy's vice chancellor, Alex Zelinsky, was mingling among the throng at the weekend and said the event was testament to the work that the Friends of the Univeristy have achieved for the instuttion.
"They have been going since 1981 and they had the first fair back in '83," he said. "They've raised more than a million dollars and the last fair in 2019 made over $100,000.
"And all the money goes back into scholarships and supporting our students. I'm very proud of the univeristy and of the Friends and the community for coming out."
