Library book sale raises $4,000

The Friends of the Library Bookstore ended their biannual book sale Monday by giving away free books.

The book sale started Friday and was at the Monroe County Public Library.

Four days of ever-decreasing prices helped the Friends of the Library sell an estimated 10,000 books in three days, volunteer Barbara Wilcox said.

She estimated the sale raised almost $4,000 for the library, which would be a new record.

“We have all kinds of books, there are new books (and) old books, and a whole range of genres,” Wilcox said.

The book sale occurs twice a year to help the store clear out the stacks of books it keeps in a large storage room. The store, located on the first floor of the library, is open Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.

Sophomore Chris Thompson went to the sale and found a bag full of hardback books. But he didn’t stop there.

The sale also included VHS and cassette tapes, as well as CDs, which went quickly.

“One of the things that we have is a lot of tapes because the library is moving away from VHS and cassettes toward CDs and DVDs,” bookstore manager Faye Mark said.

The bookstore – just a small part of the library – goes through tens of thousands of books every year and features a children’s room as well as movie and music sections.

Mark said about half of the books come from the library while the other half come from donations.

“The library circulates books, so we’ll get things they order,” Mark said. “We also have a lot of people bring in their old books, and sometimes people even bring back the books they got here to donate again.”

The book sale was still buzzing with customers Sunday afternoon, despite that the books would be given away a day later.

“It’s so cheap,” Thompson said. “So I might as well just give the library the $3 and get a bunch of books.”