Bibliophiles’ hearts are going pitter-pat this week in anticipation of the annual Book Sale sponsored by the Norfolk Library Associates to benefit the library’s cultural programs.
The event opens tonight (Friday), 5:00 to 7:00 p.m., with a festive fundraising party under the tent outside the library at 9 Greenwoods Road East. Music will be provided by Albert Rivera and his jazz trio while patrons enjoy hors d’oeuvres, a signature cocktail, wine and beer. Black and white is the theme, and revelers are asked to attire themselves in their favorite black and white outfits, formal or casual. Tickets are $50 and are available at the door.
The sale, frequented each year by book lovers and dealers from throughout the Northeast, gets underway Saturday morning. Evidence of Friday’s party will be whisked away, and an army of volunteers will arrive at 7:00 a.m. to transport cases of books up out of the library’s cellar to tables under the tent. Instead of delicious hors d’oeuvres, there will be a smorgasbord of food for thought contained between the covers of some 30,000 books, all temptingly priced and divided into 30 categories.
Seventy-five percent of the books are hardcover, donated from Norfolk’s private libraries. There are hundreds of art and photography books, cookbooks, oversized garden books, travel and children’s books. Other categories include history, biography, literature, religion and philosophy, social science, animals, business and law, music and theater, technology, science, health, politics, foreign languages, and recent and rare fiction.
About 500 “rare and vintage” books will be displayed inside the library and priced to sell in one day.
There is absolutely no early access. Boxes are provided, and credit cards are accepted.
Sale hours are 10:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Saturday; 10:30 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. on Sunday (all books under the tent are free after 3:00 p.m.) and 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. on Monday, when all books under the tent are free to take away.
The Library Associates start fresh every year. Book donations are received year-round and stored in the library’s basement, where volunteers sort and price them for the sale.