Words to the wise: Book sale offers classics, variety, deals

By Jeanne Starmack

SHARON, Pa. — If you’re looking for inexpensive entertainment in this economy, you’ll find stacks of it this week.

It’s low-tech, user-friendly and, yes, cheap. The Friends of the Library’s four-day spring used-book sale begins Wednesday at the Community Library of the Shenango Valley on East State Street at Sharpsville Avenue. It continues through Saturday.

Stock up on your summer reading material by going on a treasure hunt for books that will cost you anywhere from 25 cents for, say, a dictionary, children’s book or bundle of magazines to $1, $2 or $3 for a novel, cookbook, how-to book, biography or classic read.

A couple of those old classics have value. If you find them, you’ll pay $10 or $12, not the $40 or $50 they list for online. Expect to pay from 25 cents to $4 otherwise, says Friends’ Kay Joho. She and others were in the library basement Friday getting ready for the sale.

It’s really Joho’s thing, said Friends member Jim Epstein, who’s also on the library board of trustees. The 10 to 12 members of Friends work all year in the library, he said — an average of four hours a week to catalog and sort the donated books constantly being dropped off.

The group donated $13,000 to the library last year from its fall and spring sales, he said. Through the years, it’s donated $130,000, he said — the largest nongovernmental donation the library has received.

The library has been on its own as a nonprofit organization since 2007, no longer a part of the city of Sharon after Sharon had to cut back on funds for it, Epstein said.

The city still contributes, giving $100,000 this year. Hermitage also contributed $100,000, said he and Stella Perrine, another trustee and Friends member. The state provides a little more than $100,000 as well, Perrine said.

To keep its level of services, the library started its own drive to raise $75,000 a year in private donations. That drive brought in $65,000 last year — not bad, considering it started in September, Perrine acknowledged. This year, donations are at $25,000.

So far, Epstein said, there’s been no reduction in services.

The library is a good source of help in the tough economy for people who have to cut out newspaper delivery and Internet service, Perrine said.

So before you spend $15 in a bookstore for one book, go down and wander through those stacks — where it’s literally a small price to pay for helping to keep the library going.

What do you like? Music? Art? Gardening? Business? Mysteries? Westerns? Romance? Computers? Do you homeschool, or could you use a little self-help?

Are you interested in “The Prince of Wales”? How about the Kennedys? They have their own section.

If “Takedown: The Fall of the Last Mafia Empire” sounds a little too heavy, head over to the humor section for Bill Cosby’s take on “Fatherhood” or Erma Bombeck’s “Family Ties that Bind and Gag.” You can try looking for George Carlin’s “When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops,” but if you can’t find it, check the religion section. Someone keeps putting it there, Perrine said.

Are your eyes not what they used to be? There’s a section for large print. John Grisham’s “The Client” is there. So it Judith Krantz’s “Till We Meet Again.”

There are even videos and books on tape.

With so many books catering to such a wide range of subjects and interests, that $15 of yours will get you an armload.

starmack@vindy.com