Books come cheap at annual sale
Books lovers on a budget can fill a shelf for a few dollars in Perry this week.
The Houston County Friends of the Library is having its annual Old Book Sale on Thursday through Saturday at the Georgia National Fairgrounds & Agricenter.
Unlike Bibb County’s Old Book Sale, Houston’s does not start with a preview sale in which Friends of the Library patrons get first shot at the books. However, there is a $5 admission on Thursday, and then it will be free entry Friday and Saturday. All books are half price on Saturday.
The sale will be held in the Georgia Grown building next to the clock tower. About 90,000 books in 60 categories will be up for sale, said Georgette Lipford, president of the Friends of the Library. Most of the books range in price from 50 cents to $2.
Last year’s sale raised $46,000, which was distributed equally to the three libraries in the county. Most of the proceeds are used to buy new books. Lipford said the number of books sold and the revenue has about doubled since the sale began in 2004.
“We bring more books now,” she said. “We have greater attendance than in the early years so we can raise more money for the library system.”
The sale includes a section of collectible books that can be pricier but are still a lot cheaper than it would be to buy them online, said Pam Yates, vice president of Friends of the Library. She was going through the collectibles on Tuesday and trying to figure out prices. She said she typically will set the price at half or even a third of what it would cost to buy the same used book online.
One book she thought would be the priciest in the sale is a large, like-new volume of “Audubon’s Birds of America.” She was thinking the price of that one would be about $75. The same used book online was listed at about $125 or more. Another notable item was a 39-volume set of writings of George Washington. She hadn’t set a price on that yet.
About 30 volunteers were at the sale site Tuesday as the first truckloads of books arrived. The set-up will continue Wednesday.
Jan Maxwell was among those helping. She was organizing books in the hobbies section. She said she has been involved with the book sale since the early years.
“I enjoy helping people find the book that they want,” she said.
The sale times will be 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday, 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Friday and 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday.
This story was originally published April 25, 2017 at 5:25 PM with the headline "Books come cheap at annual sale."