Book Sale To Feature New Additions And Old Favorites

By Sarah Scinto

Now in its 37th year, the Annual Book Sale hosted by Friends of the C.H. Booth Library has become one of Newtown’s most highly anticipated events of the summer.

This year’s sale, July 14 to July 18, will offer more than 120,000 books, CDs, LPs, and DVDs organized alphabetically into more than 85 categories.

“We only had one table of books when we started,” said Toni Earnshaw, director of publicity. “Now we have over 238 tables.”

Each year, the library accepts and sorts through countless donations to determine what will be placed in the sale. According to Denise Kaiser, a volunteer with Friends of the C.H. Booth Library, donations to the teen and young adult fiction section were exceptionally generous this year.

“We have every series you could want,” she said. “These books are becoming the classics, so they’ve also been moved to adult fiction.”

One notable donation to the young adult department was a British first-edition copy of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, which Ms Kaiser stumbled across and identified while sorting through a box of donations.

The children’s literature section is popular year after year, and volunteer Janice Bernard said this year is no different. She sorted more than 600 boxes of children’s books last year, and her final tally for this year’s sale will certainly rival that number.

Ms Bernard has noticed children excited to spend their own money on the reasonably priced books offered at the sale. “It’s their first real shopping spree,” she said, adding, “I think they’re going to be excited about the wide variety of special books that are available. This is going to be an extremely diverse year.”

This year’s collection includes several autographed editions of children’s books, and a broad selection of books in foreign languages such as French, Spanish, German, Swedish, and Korean.

Ms Bernard takes note of which books remain popular throughout the years. She said series such as The Hardy Boys, The Magic Treehouse, Junie B. Jones and Amelia Bedelia are consistently popular choices among children. “They’ll be excited to find a large collection of [popular] books in good condition,” she said.

This year’s sale will also offer an unprecedented number of CDs and LPs, including more than 1,000 opera LPs, 200 of which are autographed by the recording artists.

The popularity of the C.H. Booth Book Sale is a testament to the value people still place on reading. With the development of e-readers, many people feared that consumption of books would drop drastically. “Every year we’re afraid we’ll lose readers,” Ms Earnshaw said, “but every year we’re virtually cleaned out. We have more than enough readers, and book sales are the most affordable way to keep reading.”

The C.H. Booth Book Sale is nothing if not affordable. With several specials running throughout the weeks of the sale, you can walk away with a stack or more of books for less than it would cost you to take your family to the movies. “It’s like a treasure hunt,” Ms Earnshaw said, “But it’s more treasure and less hunt.”

The C.H. Booth Annual Book Sale is at Reed Intermediate School, 3 Trades Lane. Admission on July 14 will require a $5 donation to the library, but will be free for the remainder of the sale. For a full listing of hours and daily specials, visit www.boothbooksale.org or call 203-426-4533.

To hear some of the music that will be available at this year’s sale, be sure to tune in to The Newtown Bee’s Buzzcast  this week or visit us online at www.newtownbee.com.