Monday, November 30, 2015

What You'll Find at This Week's Book Sale

We're calling it our "biggest sale ever" and here's a preview of what you'll find.

Of course, there are holiday-themed books and items. You'll find children's Christmas books, adult Christmas-themed fiction, books on holiday crafts and cooking, a few books on Kwanzaa and Hauukkah, and even holiday Harlequin romances. Volunteers do their best to remove books that have been personalized, so many are suitable for gift-giving.  Most of these items are in the meeting room where you'll also find this table.


One of the baskets is filled with new holiday paperbacks like Joanne Fluke's The Candy Cane Murder. These are perfect stocking stuffers and only $1.00 each.

Those new paperbacks came from Penguin Publishers' northeast PA warehouse.  When Penguin merged with Random House, this warehouse was marked for closure. The contents were donated to area libraries. We got some for the Library collection and A LOT more for the book sale. How often does an opportunity for free new books come along?

We picked up a large number of Penguin Classics. Most are the familiar black spined editions. We've organized 6 shelves of these by genre and/or nationality (biography, poetry, Russian fiction, American/British literature, etc.). We also have some Penguin Deluxe Editions (Proust, John O'Hara, etc).


We also brought back some Europa editions. Europa is a small Italian publisher recently profiled in an article titled "Objects of Desire" in The New York Times Style Magazine. This decade-old press specializes in fiction with a "global outlook" and is known for its "European visual flair."



You'll find more children's gift books in the back room. And that's in addition to the hundreds of children's books arranged by age appropriateness, picture books, chapter books, etc. Why pay $3 to $12 for a children's book when you can buy them at our sale for $.50?

 When the South Side Branch closed, we were able to replace the half shelves we originally used for children's books with full size metal library shelving. That means we can display about twice as many books as we could in the past. Volunteers have placed books for younger children on the lower shelves whenever possible.




We haven't even unpacked the 15 boxes of ex-library children's books that came from the South Side Branch. Volunteers discarded the older, more worn books, and we still ended up with too many to display. Those books will go out on Half Price Day - for $.25 each.

Fiction is sorted by genre - mystery, action, fantasy, science fiction, westerns, historical fiction, LGBT,etc. - and then arranged in alphabetical order. Fiction fills the large meeting room. We ran out of space, so we've had to put more books in boxes on the floor than we usually do. Each box is limited to one author and is clearly labelled.


In the back room you'll find non-fiction for every interest - biography, history, art, religion, science, philosophy, poetry, etc. You'll also find new shelving. If you've shopped our sales before, you'll need some extra time to locate your favorite topics.



Our volunteers work hard all year long, cleaning and sorting books. You'll rarely find one that's damaged or soiled. The sale is easy to shop. Tables and shelves are clearly labelled by subject or genre.

We price to sell! We like to think of ourselves as the $1.00 Book Sale because that's what you pay for most hardcovers, trade (quality) paperbacks, CDs, and DVDs. Small paperbacks and children's books are $.50. Videos are $.25.

The public sale opens on Friday, December 4, at 10:00 am until 5:00 pm. Saturday hours are 9:00 am to 2:00 pm. Monday, December 7, is Half-Price Day from 2:00 to 7:00  pm. Tuesday, December 8, is $5 Bag Day from 2:00 to 7:00 pm. We supply the bags.

The Main Library is located at 515 Church Street between N. 5th and 6th Streets. Metered street parking is usually available nearby if our lot is full. Enter the sale from the Church Street entrance which is handicapped accessible.

2 comments:

  1. You and your volunteers have done an amazing job collecting, sorting, and organizing these books. Looking forward to the sale.

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  2. Thank you, Anne. The Library is fortunate to have such a dedicated group of volunteers.

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