'Biggest Ever' Summer Book Sale Still Going

The tents are pitched, 100,000 books, CDs and DVDs are neatly on display, and people are already lining up for the Friends of the ’s annual summer Book Sale starting at 9 a.m. tomorrow, Saturday, July 16, under tents on Jesup Green and inside the Library.

Not that people are physically there, camping out in the darkness as if waiting for the next Harry Potter movie, mind you. Rather, die-hard fans of the library’s biggest book sale of the year are using cardboard “book” boxes to mark their spots in line, “virtually.”

At 9 a.m. tomorrow, people waiting in line outside the Main Tent or, alternatively, outside the side entrance to the library’s McManus Room, will rush in and start scooping up fantastic deals on books, CDs, DVDs, and other merchandise, including collectible items. Proceeds from the event are used to fund library programs.

Mimi Greenlee, chairman of the library’s book sale committee, said this year’s summer Book Sale, which runs through Tuesday, July 19, features a children’s section “double the size of last year’s” as well as an expanded fiction/mystery section. As a result, the main tent, she said, “is 50 feet longer than last year.”

“This is definitely our biggest book sale yet,” she said, adding that more than 300 volunteers pitched in to make this year’s summer book sale possible.

Organizations donating labor and resources to make the event possible include Westport Sunrise Rotary, Staples High School sports teams, The National Charity League, the Westport Y's Men, and , among others, she said.

“We also use some hired help,” Greenlee said, adding that the committee has a small budget and hires people from the nearby to help out with moving boxes and other physical activities. In addition the large tents that now cover Jesup Green and house the tens of thousands of books must be leased, she said.

But the event is mostly volunteer-driven, she said, and would not be possible without the time, effort and generosity of Westport residents and businesses.

“We look at the library as a community center,” she said. “Therefore there is a lot of community help when it comes to putting together this book fair.”

Volunteers from the Westport Fire Department help with crowd containment (more than 450 people lined up for the event on the first day last year, Greenlee said) — and local businesses make major contributions to the event as well:

“Stew Leonard’s donates the milk crates that we use for holding the shelves… and let me tell you, that’s no small thing,” Greenlee said. “And Cheryl Scott-Daniels [Real Estate] let’s us use their truck for moving the books from the storage building in Baron’s South.”

Book Sale hours are Saturday, Sunday and Monday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. (Monday everything half-price) and Tuesday, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. (everything free with donations welcome).

This year’s summer Book Sale will also feature, for the first time, on Saturday only, refreshments and food, Greenlee said. In addition the library’s café will be open for sandwiches.

As Greenlee explained, the summer Book Sale is essentially divided into two separate sales – the one under the tents, which features the bulk of the merchandise — and the “high end” sale, in the McManus Room, which features rare and collectible books, including classics and collections that can’t be found easily.

Manning the McManus Room this year is longtime Library Book Sale organizer and volunteer Dick Lowenstein, who proudly showed off this year’s flagship offering: A complete set of bound National Geographic magazines dating from 1888 to 1907 that is being offered for $950.

“That’s a substantial discount compared to prices you’ll find online for the same or similar sets,” Lowenstein said, adding that he loves helping to organize the Book Sale every year, as he has for more than a decade, “because I just plain love books.”

Other great finds include the complete works of William Shakespeare (Harper 1907), 20 volumes for $50; and the complete works of Mark Twain, again in hard cover, 25 volumes, for $60.

Greenlee said one of the reasons the Book Sale continues to be so popular in this age of multimedia is because so many books are now going out of print.

“People continue to want to collect the classics, and other books that they have enjoyed in the past, just to have them,” she said.

In addition to children's books, records, DVDs, and audiobooks, this year's sale will feature manga books and magazines, contemporary graphic novels, sci-fi and fantasy paperbacks from first editions to popular titles.

Greenlee said as soon as this year’s summer Book Sale is over, “we start collecting again right away for the next one.” She said the library collects used books year round, “at a rate of about 375 cartons a month,” and also sells them during its two — much smaller — winter book sales in December and March. Volunteers help sort the books by category and topic as they come in, she said.

Greenlee said for the past two years the summer Book Sale has pulled in more than $100,000 for the Friends of the Westport Library.

Books can be dropped off during library hours at the circulation desk. If you have a large donation and need help, a volunteer can pick up your donation. Call (203) 291 4840 to make arrangements.