With 15,000 books, it’s one of the region’s biggest used book sales.
The Friends of the Greater Victoria Public Library volunteer group are holding their annual Fall Used Book Sale in the fieldhouse of Pearkes Arena on Saturday and Sunday.
It’s even more books than usual with more than 700 boxes of books, said Irwin Henderson of the Friends group.
“We have more kids and teen books than normal, but really, we have lots of everything,” Henderson said. “They’ve been piling up, our Nellie McClung storeroom is full with another 100 boxes outside of the storeroom.”
Those books for kids and teens range from pre-school picture and board books to graphic novels.
With a growing amount of large print books, the Friends group has made a concerted effort to reach out to assisted living and retirement homes in the community ahead of the book sale.
The sale starts this Saturday from 1 to 5 p.m. with an early bird special $5 entry. The sale then resumes at 9 a.m. on Sunday with free admission. The sale stops briefly at 1 p.m. and then restarts at 1:15 p.m. on Sunday with a $10 entry, for an all-you-can-carry-out until 3:15 p.m.
“We have our eager beavers, regulars who line up for the early bird but we also have regulars who come at the back end of the sale who want volume, books by the box, and some will fill the trunk of their car,” Henderson said.
Most regulars are genre-focused. Some book buyers are keen to find early editions but don’t expect to find any classic first editions, said Henderson.
Proceeds from the sales will go towards funding next year’s wish list of projects, including the very popular GVPL Summer Reading Club. This year’s Summer Reading Club had a record of more than 9,000 kids enrolled. Funds raised also added to the e-book collection (the fastest growing in the system) and purchased material for GVPL’s new Indigenous collection.