Euclid Book Sale Back to Old Time and Place
With library renovations finished, the semiannual Friends of the Euclid Public Library book sale is back on track, at its regular time--the last full weekend of April–and its regular place–all of the meeting rooms off the gallery at Euclid Public Library, 631 E. 222nd St. If you don't know where it is, look for the tank--it's a war memorial--in front of it.
Plans call for Friday, April 25, to be Members' Night, when members of the Friends can come and shop from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. The library itself is closed Friday nights; only the sale rooms will be open. Non-members may sign up at the door.
On April 26, the doors open at 9:00 a.m. and close at 4:00 p.m. This is usually the best time to shop; there's room to breathe (Friday night tends to be crowded) and a good selection.
Sunday, April 27, is Bag Day. For $2.00, you buy a grocery bag to fill. Amazingly, there is usually more than enough left to make the bag a huge bargain.
The Friends will be working hard on Thursday to set up the sale. In the Lake Shore room books will be divided as usual into categories roughly corresponding to the categories the library uses. Most sections are easy to understand, but three of them are a bit confusing.
1. Most of the stuff about how people deal with one another is in the 300's--law, economics, and politics; also etiquette, folk tales, and true crime.
2. If you want to learn useful things, you want the 600's, which cover cooking, medicine, business, engineering, carpentry, car repair, makeup, roofing, and a myriad other handy topics.
3. For recreation, turn to the 700's–-art, music, games, sports. Opera, football, beadwork, and poker are here–everything that's for fun or beauty rather than purely for practical use.
Audio-visual materials will be in the Erie-Babbitt room. They won't be sorted by subject, but will be sorted by type, so you can find your DVDs, CDs, videotapes, audiotapes, and records. (Does anyone remember records?)
The sale is composed both of library cancels (the items the library has to get rid of to make room for new stuff) and donations, so it's always an adventure. Which library shelves are being weeded out this time? Who decided to donate their special interest books? Every sale is different.
Prices: Except for a very few special, higher-priced items, hardbound books are 50¢ and paper-bound books are 25¢. DVDs are $2.00; most other AV stuff is priced at $1.00. On Bag Day, you pay is $2.00 per paper grocery bag. (At the next sale, the bags will be $3.00, so it may be worth a special effort to get to this one.)
Disclaimer: I'm one of the workers on this sale. But do I think it's great because I work on it, or do I work on it because I think it's great?
Bonita Kale
Bonita Kale has lived in Euclid for an awfully long time.