The books at the book sale in the New Rochelle Public Library were going fast when I stopped by this morning.
People were picking through novels, art books, self-help advice and volumes on baseball and science.
Remember when swarms of Harry Potter fans crowded stores for the midnight releases of the latest installment? Well, this morning, a bunch of Potter books waited in a cardboard box for buyers – the larger hard covers for $2 each, and a set of the first four books in paperback for a buck.
A few books for sale had been signed by the authors, including Samaritan by Richard Price, who also wrote The Wanderers and Clockers.
There were biographies on Patty LuPone and Barbara Streisand, and old cloth-bound volumes of classic like Jude the Obscure and The Red and the Black.
Browsers could look over famous books, including a copy of Devil in the White City that looked brand new, and downright obscure stuff, like the books of short stories Crimes in Southern Indiana (a topic I can say I’ve never thought much about) and Georgia Under Water.
You could find advice on various topics from the Complete Idiot’s guides and the For Dummies volumes, if you weren’t self conscious about picking through books under the sign reading “Dummies/Idiots.”
And the sale, run by the Friends of the Library, offers more than books.
DVDs included hits Alalyze This, The English Patient and others. And there was a separate box of Bollywood films. Compact discs were there for music lovers.
They were even selling videos for anyone who still has one of those devices that lets you watch them. A VCR, I think it was once called. The videos cost a dime each.
I can’t guarantee that any of the books or movies that I’ve mentioned are still there. But if you want to find out, or browse for yourself, the sale continues until 3 p.m. today, and resumes tomorrow –Saturday – from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
