A Dunedin woman has spent hours searching through the offerings at the The Star Regent Theatre 24 Hour Book Sale - and not because she wants to buy.
She was looking for a book lent to her by her daughter, with the warning "Don't lose it".
It is not lost, exactly.
It is there, somewhere - one of 200,000 books in the sale, which starts at noon today.
"It's called The Long Journey Home or the Long Way Home, I think," the woman, who did not want to be identified, said.
"It's by Nathan Gray and it's about walking the Great Wall of China."
Running a hand across books on a table, she said, "It's quite small, and it has a shiny soft cover."
After she read the book, it somehow got into the wrong pile of books and was given for the sale.
She hoped her daughter would not find out the book, signed by the author, was missing "at least until after I'm dead".
She said last night she would be very happy to have the book back.
Sale convener Doug Lovell said such stories emerged every year, but he took the woman's name and phone number, just in case the book surfaced.
Footnote: Nathan Gray did write a book about walking the Great Wall. It is titled First Pass Under Heaven.
