Thursday, October 23, 2014
HUBBARD
When you first step into the room, it hits you: You can have it all.
You can have health and humor and poetry; mystery and travel and religion; science, crafts and sports.
You can have it in hardcover — $1. In paperback — 25 cents. In CDs and DVDs — $1. In VHS, most of which are free. In cassettes and in LP records — 25 cents, and in book sets for $5.
Do you maybe need some office furniture and equipment?
Why not check out the Friends of the Hubbard Library Mega Book Sale, which continues today through Saturday at the Library, 436 W. Liberty St.?
The sale began Wednesday with people lined up to get in at 7:45 a.m., said Bonnie Viele, Friends’ book sale chairwoman. The doors did not open until 9 a.m.
The big attraction? Box after box of books on tables lined up in the large room on the library’s first floor. The group has been collecting the donated books and other items all year.
In walking around the room, it’s easy to see how you can spend hours just browsing. In the first row alone, some big names were calling out.
In a box under the “Humor” category, Drew Carey was ready with “Dirty Jokes and Beer: Stories of the Unrefined.”
Next to him in a box labeled “Sports,” Arnold Palmer offered up a talk on “My Game and Yours,” while Cal Ripkin Jr. only wanted to discuss “My Story.” Lance Armstrong, cancer survivor, insisted, “It’s Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life.”
A few tables down, the category called “Health” beckoned with advice on “Foods that Harm, Foods that Heal.” Even learn to eat well in the wilderness with “Roughing it Easy: A Camper’s Bible.”
Need to brush up on your grammar? Simon and Schuster’s Handbook for Writers may still be available if you hurry in before everything gets picked over. It’s under the section called “Writing.”
Hubbard resident Judy Ferrett comes every year to look for crochet books.
“I brought tons of ’em here, then I haul more home,” she said about a system that keeps her with a fresh supply of new ideas.
“It’s nice seeing your neighbors here, too,” she added.
With her this year for the first time were her great-grandson, Aydan Slanina-Bojadich, who will be 2 next week, and his mother, Brittany Slanina.
They were looking for Sesame Street among the sale’s large children’s section.
“He loves Elmo,” Slanina said.
Past the Children’s and the “’Tweens” sections, past the “Religion” and other categories along the back wall, the tables there and in the middle are flush with fact and fiction.
Romantics will like bodice-ripper paperbacks with titles such as “Fire Woman,” “Midnight Dancer” and “Tame the Wildest Heart.”
The more sober-minded who want to consider social issues can find titles such as “It Takes a Village” and “La Vida Real, True Stories of Latino Students Today.”
Marge Lardis, who lives in New Wilmington, Pa., tends to be more serious-minded. She doesn’t read fiction.
“I don’t have time for that,” said Lardis, who as an Ohio State University Master Gardener is used to doing research.
She likes religious books, she said, and crafts. She had a cookbook and a puzzle tucked under her arm.
It was her first time at the sale, she said. She had been on her way to an appointment in the area, saw the sign out front, and came in.
“It’s so very well-organized,” she said. “They really put a lot of work into this.” She said she will be back next year.