June 29 marked another big step toward this year’s Friends of C.H. Booth Library Book Sale. The carefully sorted and boxed donations of hundreds of thousands of items that will create the inventory for the 46th Book Sale began arriving at Reed Intermediate School that morning.

Outside the Trades Lane school Wednesday morning, employees of WM Movers were using a forklift to remove pallets piled with boxes of books from a moving van. Pallets generally carried a dozen boxes — office paper boxes, each filled with donations and then closed with plastic wrap — and the truck was filled completely when it arrived with its first delivery.

As the pallets were removed from the moving truck, volunteers emerged from the school and began carrying the boxes inside. There, some volunteers were directed to place boxes in the gymnasium. Others headed toward the cafetorium. The two cavernous rooms will host the sale when it opens on July 8.

Friends of C.H. Booth Library board members and volunteers were joined by young adults for the first moving/sorting day. Wednesday morning, young adults “who just love books and want to help us,” according to Friends Publicist Nancy Dvorin, were among those helping with the move.

Newtown High School Cheer team members were also volunteering that morning. Members of the NHS girls’ soccer team were expected that afternoon, according to Book Sale Chair Denise Kaiser.

The Friends of C.H. Booth Library 46th Book Sale will return to Reed Intermediate School, 3 Trades Lane, Friday through Tuesday, July 8-12.

Friday will be a preview event, with the public admitted between 1 and 4 pm. Admission is $40 that day only, and ticket sales will begin at noon.

Saturday through Monday, hours are 10 am to 5 pm.

There is a $5 admission on Saturday for those age 19 and over (ticket sales begin at 9). Items will be sold at their marked prices.

No admission fee is required as of Sunday morning, through the remainder of the event. Items will be sold at half price on Sunday, and $5 per provided bag on Monday.

Tuesday, the final day of the sale, remainders are free and the event will run 10 am to 1 pm. Cash, checks, and debit/credit cards are all accepted payment, as is PayPal. Contactless payment will also be available.

Adult books will range from $1 for mass-market paperbacks to $2 and up for trade paperbacks and some hardcover titles, depending on the title and condition. Children’s books start at 25 cents; most fall in the 75-cent to $2 range.

The Specials & Collectibles Room has its own pricing, however. The special area, which houses rare and collectible items including valuable media and children’s books, is located in the Auxiliary Gym at the rear of the main gymnasium, and will be well-marked by enhanced directional signage.

“In the sale, we have everything,” Kaiser said in mid-June. Welcoming The Newtown Bee during a work session when volunteers were still sorting items at C.H. Booth Library, Kaiser was alternating between answering questions from volunteers and ticking off on her fingers the benefits of the sale.

“Every genre, every kind of book,” she said June 13. “We have books for kids, books for adults, books for any reader, and books for the young at heart.”

Looking at a cart filled with items organizers expect to be popular — Delia Owens’s Where The Crawdad Sings, a Jacques Pépin title, a DVD Star War Trilogy, board games, and puzzles among them — Kaiser shook her head and smiled.

“It’s mind-boggling, the range of donations we receive for this event,” she said. “We have a phenomenal collection of Judaica that came in just last week.”

Preview Afternoon

First dibs on the 90-plus well-organized categories will be granted to those who shell out the $40 admission fee Friday afternoon. Most of those will be book buyers, according to Friends volunteer Jo Andersen, who was at last year’s event (and previous ones) when the early buying fee debuted.

“The vendors all came, book dealers,” she said.

Kaiser agreed, saying the preview event also made shopping on Saturday “more comfortable for other patrons.

“Most people just want to browse, maybe buy one or two items,” she said. “Dealers are running around, trying to scoop up as much as possible. It was very much a business day.”

Andersen noted the preview day was very profitable for the library.

“For dealers and vendors, there was not much opposition to paying the $40 entry fee,” she said.

By Saturday morning, “it was much more relaxing,” Dvorin said.

Extra Inventory

Regardless of when someone visits Reed School during the book sale, they will find “knowledgeable, friendly volunteers ready to help shoppers find items they’re looking for, or even the category of their choice,” Kaiser said. “The sale has always been about serving all book buyers, from book buyers and dealers to those who love to come in on free book day and scoop up everything they find.”

The sale draws interest not only from across the state, but also the region. Volunteers have reported seeing vehicles with marker plates from Massachusetts and some of the middle states, Kaiser said.

Volunteers also spend their time resetting tables after books are moved around, and reloading tables.

“There is extra inventory under the tables,” Kaiser said. “We have so much, that we are constantly pulling from there.”

With COVID still around, some volunteers continue to wear masks during their work sessions. Many expect to continue wearing them during the sale. Friends President Richard Anthony said via a June press release that masks are strongly recommended.

Denise Kaiser said being able to utilize the school building has been a boon for a few years.

“The air-conditioning is great,” she said. “But we are also still in the shadow of COVID, so we are additionally grateful to have a large, capacious venue.”

Donations of books and other items will resume Monday, July 18, in marked locations at C.H. Booth Library. Multiple signs posted around the library building warn those who leave books during the donations pause that those books will be thrown out. At least one sign has also been posted at Reed School, in case anyone thinks that would be a suitable location to leave books for 2023.

The Friends of the C.H. Booth Library is a 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to providing financial and material support to this town’s library.

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Managing Editor Shannon Hicks can be reached at shannon@thebee.com.