Used-book sale opens minds

By Jeanne Starmack

The big used-book sale starts this week.

SHARON, Pa. — Sherlock Holmes is there, and so is Jon Stewart with “America.”

George Burns with “All My Best Friends” and Ernest Hemingway’s life story are there too, along with many other notable personalities in thousands of other books and magazines.

There are contemporaries and classics, hardbacks and paperbacks, and even books on tape.

You can get them at the community library in Sharon, but this time, you won’t have to remember to bring them back.

For 25 cents to three, maybe four bucks, you can check them out permanently after you check out Friends of the Library’s four-day-long giant, used-book sale. It starts at 9 a.m. Wednesday.

So whom do you want to know about? Bill Gates? Bill Clinton? Jerry Springer?

So what do you want to know? Need a cook book? Advice on gardening? Home-schooling?

Interested in finance? Economics? Needlework, history, health or politics?

Got a project that’s stumping you? Maybe you’ll find help in the how-to section.

Go grab up some books for the kids in the children’s section, but don’t neglect yourself. With summer coming up and gas prices going up, maybe you’ll be on a “staycation” with plenty of time to read. A lot of big names in fiction are on those shelves at the sale, too.

It’s good to have friends, and the community library has a dedicated group of them. They work all year to arrange donated books for the sales, which they’ve been putting on for 30 years.

Kay Joho, who’s been with Friends of the Library through all those sales, was in the library basement again last week getting ready for this one. With her were fellow group members James Epstein and Stella Perrine, who are also on the library’s board of directors.

By coming every Monday for four hours with other die-hard library Friends to prepare for the sales, Joho embodies the community support the library needs, Epstein said.

That support, also through the thousands of donated books and magazines and the money from those who buy them, is especially critical now, he said.

The library, he pointed out, is no longer a department of the city of Sharon. It became a stand-alone nonprofit organization in 2007 during Sharon’s fiscal crisis, he said.

Sharon does still donate some money, as does Hermitage. State money is available too, but community donations bring in even more state dollars, said Perrine — that’s because the state matches that support.

The library deserves support, they said, because a good one is a draw for people looking to settle in a community.

“The library will always be the soul of the community,” said Perrine, who noted it helps everyone from youngsters to elderly people who don’t have computers at home.

Yes, you can stay at home and do research on the Internet. “But children can learn to do research here that’s reliable,” said Epstein.

Epstein said the library wants to revitalize its surrounding communities with outreach programs. As a retired district attorney for Mercer County, he also believes it’s a crime-fighting tool. “Literacy gives people a better perspective,” he said.

Perrine and Epstein both said they have great memories of the library from when they were growing up.

“My world consisted of six blocks and my home until I was old enough to cross the threshold here,” Epstein said. “Then my world expanded.”

Friends is expecting more than 1,000 people to visit the sale during its run. There’s always a line waiting to get in the first day, said Perrine.

But even if you’re a latecomer, chances are you’ll find something you like. With so much to choose from in those stacks, the odds are stacked in your favor.