“We have a lot of everything,” Toni Earnshaw, publicity chair for the Friends of the C.H. Booth Library (Friends), said while surrounded by stacks of books in one of the group’s sorting rooms.

The selection around her was just a small glimpse into the more than 120,000 books, CDs, DVDs, and LPs that will be available at the Friends’ 44th Annual Book Sale, scheduled to take place Saturday, July 13, to Wednesday, July 17, at Reed Intermediate School.

The Friends Book Sale, Ms Earnshaw explained, “is considered one of the largest and best-organized book sales in the region… Every book sale is a treasure hunt. In this sale, you end up discovering more treasure with a lot less hunt involved.”

It has gained that reputation for the meticulous process the group takes to assess and price items before sorting them into 90 distinct categories that go on to be showcased throughout Reed Intermediate School’s lobby, gymnasium, cafetorium, and classrooms for the sale.

To accommodate the high volume of items, Friends Chair Denise Kaiser says the group has already ordered 225 tables to supplement the more than two dozen tables they already own and have access to in the building.

Plentiful Items

The Friends members never know what type of donations are coming their way, which makes each Book Sale experience unique to the years before.

“By far the vast majority of donations we have are dropped of anonymously, and we don’t know where they come from,” Ms Kaiser said.

There may have been an avid sports enthusiast relinquishing their collection of books related to boxing, because there is a wide assortment of biographies on past and present illustrious boxers — Gene Tunney, Jack Dempsey, Sugar Ray Leonard, Muhammad Ali, and Oscar de la Hoya — that are going to be available at the Book Sale this year.

In the sports section, there will also be contents of private museum collections of books on golf and a variety of books on outdoor sports.

Many of the sports books this year will have a special sticker on the spine indicating it has been signed by the author.

Also on the sales floor this year, American history buffs will enjoy the extensive collection of books on the Civil War that cover both sides of the conflict.

Those into classic movies will have a field day exploring the unusually broad selection of movies, including Casablanca, Gone with the Wind, and The Wizard of Oz.

Music lovers can find a plethora of sheet music from beginning to advanced levels, particularly for the clarinet.

Puzzle and game players can rejoice because not only does the Book Sale ensure all the items are inspected for completeness and condition, but this year, there is a wide selection of collectible and vintage offerings. One being sold is the Victory Series Picture Puzzle called Rangers Landing in Africa.

For those interested in transportation, there is a large number of Hayes Auto Repair manuals, as well as 105 bound issues of Automobile Quarterly [Volume 1, Issue 1 plus almost complete Volume 10 to 36 (1972 to 1997)] with the set being offered for $150.

Children’s Books

Friends volunteer and former elementary school teacher Janice Bernard has been involved with the group for more than two decades and is currently in charge of one of the Book Sale’s largest categories: children’s books.

“We focus on two age groups in the children’s area, and that’s the early readers and ages 8 to 12,” Ms Bernard said. “We have fiction and nonfiction that come in series and nonseries. The series seem to be the most popular, both in terms of what’s donated for the sale and what the children are reading.”

This year, in the easy readers section, there are classics such as The Peter Rabbit Library, nonfiction books from the Who Was? series, and popular picks that consist of the Junie B. Jones, Horrible Harry, and Molly Moon series. Additional series include, but are not limited to, Dork Diaries, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, and Captain Underpants.

For the 8 to 12 age group, there has been a recent donation of multiple hardcover books from The Last Apprentice series. The novels will be sold at the Book Sale for $2 each, which is a drastically reduced price compared to the books’ original cost of $17.99 for just one.

Ms Bernard says at the Book Sale there will be a table dedicated to vintage books — from the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s — where books are also just $2 each. This year, the vintage book table with have installments from The Bobbsey Twins, Nancy Drew, Anne of Green Gables, and The Hardy Boys series.

“It is a reader’s wonderland,” Ms Kaiser said of the wide variety of new and abundant items at the Book Sale. “What do you want? We either have it — or if you came late — we had it. We encourage people to come on the weekend, especially if you have something very particular in mind.”

While maps will be available for those who attend the Friends of the C.H. Booth Library Book Sale, category location information is available by visiting chboothlibrary.org, clicking on “Friends,” and selecting “Summer Book Sale.”