The Friends of Harrison Memorial Library's 44th annual book sale is happening…oh…right now. An estimated 800 cases of books, each case holding 20-30 books, have been collected since last September and now sit arranged by genre on the shiny floor of the gym at Carmel Mission's Junipero Serra School.
"In the last six years we've donated $125,000 from the book sale profits to the two Carmel libraries," says Anne Rurke, sales coordinator of the Friends' book sale.
They've been collecting the books (and DVDs, graphic novels and audio books) for two hours every Tuesday from September to July.
Paula Cohen, the Friends' publicity chairwoman, says that one woman alone, who passed away, bequeathed 3,500 paperback books and about 550 hardcover books.
The books are inspected for cleanliness, odor and relevance, then priced (25 cents for paperbacks, $1 for CDs and DVDs, $2-$3 for fiction, $4-$5 for cookbooks, more for art books and collectibles, etc.) and stored at a staging facility. Starting last week, the Friends started to migrate them over to the gym where they are tabled by category and alphabetized for the big sale.
The Friends reserve the dates in the sweet spot between the Carmel Bach Festival and Car Week. About 30 volunteers help set it up, and 30 volunteers run it. Book dealers and Friends members get a jump on the sale on Thursday, Aug. 11 (one can become a member by paying $10 at the door), and last year accounted for a bulk of the sales, $14,000.
The categories range from psychology to how-to, theater to mysteries, poetry to biography, local books to history books, children's to young adult, women's studies to musicology.
Here is a photo tour of some of the riveting reading to be had over the next three days.
44th Annual Book Sale runs 11am-4pm Thursday (members's pre-sale for $10), 10am-4pm Friday and Saturday, Aug. 11-13, at Carmel Mission's Junipero Serra School Gym, 3080 Rio Road, Carmel. $10/Thu preview; free to attend Fri-Sat. 224-4663.