A New Venue For The 30th

Labor Day Weekend Book Sale

The Friends of the Cyrenius H. Booth Library are celebrating their 30th Labor Day Weekend Book Sale during the historic tercentennial year of Newtown. More than 100,000 donated books and recordings will be on sale from September 3 through September 7 at Newtown Hall in Fairfield Hills.

Although the book sale has taken place on the Fairfield Hills campus since 1997, this is the first year it will be held in Newtown Hall, a former administration building (not to be confused with Edmond Town Hall located on Main Street). Because of the huge quantity of high quality books, only the rare and collectible books will be housed in Newtown Hall. The many other categories will be “back under the big top” in a large Century tent next to Newtown Hall.

Keeping the sale “user-friendly” is the aim of dozens of Newtown volunteers who work throughout the entire year sorting, pricing, and boxing donated books. The volunteers wear distinctive T-shirts, whose color and captions (such as “I Cannot Live Without Books,” and “Happy Bookers”) change each year, and can provide shoppers with category sheets to locate the 70 categories of books at what is one of the largest book sales in the Northeast.

Book lovers will find hardcover and paperback fiction, all organized into subcategories including classics, mysteries, science fiction, and romance. The nonfiction section will have a large selection of biographies, plus a wide range of other categories including art, architecture, math, engineering, computers, history, cooking, gardening, children’s books, home improvement, travel, and much more.

The rare book category is the highlight of the sale for dealers and bibliophiles to choose from among the hundreds of excellent collectible books. A few of the offerings this year include a gift edition of Michael Crichton’s Jurassic Park, signed by the author; Kenneth Grahame’s Wind in the Willows signed by the author; Edward Cooker’s A Treatise of Arithmetic, 1762; and Mr “J’s” (Elia Kazan) The World’s Best Dirty Jokes with a four line inscription by Kazan on fly leaf.

The collectibles include books that do not fit in the rare book category, but which are desirable for qualities other than just content, such as age and condition, pictures and illustrations, limited printing, or an especially good dust jacket.

Collectors of children’s books are invited to visit the children’s collectibles for first editions, books signed by the author, and books published as long as a century ago.

The children’s section is a must stop for parents, grandparents, teachers, and of course, young readers. This year there is an especially extensive selection of brand new Golden Books, new board books, new foreign language books, and Christian books, published by values-oriented and Christian presses, new from the publisher. Also available will be classics by beloved authors like A.A. Milne and Louisa May Alcott. For the first time, science fiction and fantasy paperbacks, like the volumes in the series including The Lion, Witch and Wardrobe, are in a separate category.

Although it is advertised as a book sale, a category that grows in popularity each year is music, featuring records, tapes, and CDs. This section, too, is organized by type — from opera to jazz to rock. Classical recordings are sorted by major composers.

 The book sale will be held from 9 am to 5 pm each of the five days. On the first day of the sale, eager shoppers who arrive early can buy numbered tickets, which go on sale at 7 am (and there will be no sales prior to this). An adult admission of $10 will be charged for admission between 9 and 11 am that Saturday, with free admission the remainder of the day.

Price reduction days will encourage the real bargain hunters. On Monday, all books and records will be half price, on Tuesday shoppers will fill bags of books for $5, and on Wednesday, books are free. Refreshments will be available Saturday through Monday.

Signs from Exit 11 on Interstate 84 will direct the book sale attendees to the site, located just off Mile Hill Road. The sale is sponsored by The Friends of the Cyrenius H. Booth Library, and all proceeds benefit the Library. For more information, call the Booth Library at 426-4533 or visit the website, www.biblio.org/chbooth/booksale.htm.