Almost Free; for a Good Cause
Jan 09 '00 (Updated Jan 16 '00)
Hardcover books a dollar apiece? Paperbacks fifty cents? Art books, originally priced at fifty or seventy-five or one hundred dollars each, now costing ten to fifteen dollars? This year's bestsellers and last decade's specialty volumes (now out of print), classics to treasure and vacation reading to leave behind for the next person: just name it and you can find it at library booksales.
The trouble is, you can only find SOME of what YOU want at any one sale.
Many -- not all -- libraries hold semi-annual sales consisting of thousands and thousands of donated books plus any recent library discards. Usually a "Friends of the Library" volunteer group does all the work while the library provides the space; sometimes space is available in another public building. More space means more of the books are clearly visible, the categories into which they have been sorted are more specific and they may even be alphabetized by author. Less space means just the opposite: perhaps two tables of visible mysteries, for instance, with boxfuls of other mysteries two deep under those tables and none of it alphabetized, since the tables will be replenished by volunteer workers throughout the sale.
Take your wish list, unless you have an eidetic memory. Prepare to skim over a lot of spines. Be aware that some books will be incorrectly categorized, since few volunteers are experts in all areas -- the more categories you have time to skim the more likely you are to find the books you're looking for. If you can find the time and the stamina go through absolutely everything in your favorite categories. Or go through EVERYTHING, period. (Some of my best finds have been in the wrong places, i.e., what were textbooks by Asimov doing under the "General Paperback Fiction" table?)
Check the condition of the books as you locate them. Donations may be in mint condition or badly battered, but the majority are probably in the same shape they'd be in if you'd bought them new and read them once or twice. Library rejects often have broken spines but may be fine -- and may be fine FOR YOU anyway, if you just want a cheap copy of the book.
You won't find everything you want at any one sale. But if you can get thirty books for twenty bucks at a really big, well-organized sale and seven or eight books for five bucks on each of two succeeding days at a smaller sale where the stuff on the tables is replenished, you'll have made quite a dent in the ol' wish list. (After the library sales there are the used book stores. By the time you give up and pay full price for a book you simply MUST own, you'll have saved a wad o' cash and will be well able to splurge.) And you'll have acquired forty books for the price of one new hardcover!
All money earned by the sale will go back into the library. Some sales bring in fifteen to twenty thousand dollars due to the immense number of books sold. One of our local libraries, badly underfunded by the county, garnered funds for new information, circulation and children's desks, including computers, plus many new bookcases, carts and chairs, in just a couple of years. Pat yourself on the back for a good deed as you stagger out under the weight of your purchases! Better still, join your local "Friends of the Library" and volunteer to sort books for the sale: you'll get first pick of most of what you see while working.
Notices of upcoming sales will be posted in your local libraries and often featured in those little local papers nobody has to pay for. Come as early as you can to each sale, because the most desirable stuff goes as fast as people find it. And if you are a history buff for heaven's sake be waiting in line when the doors open! There are always a lot of GOOD history books, but they go faster and with wilder enthusiasm than books in any other category.
Happy hunting!
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