In this file photo patrons search for books during a previous book sale under a tent. Saturday’s event will be open air, and customers are asked to wear masks and maintain social distance.
Times Leader file photo
This time around, patrons may select titles
Click here to subscribe today or Login.
Barbara Ambrose of Wilkes-Barre Township is one of the Friends of the Osterhout Free Library getting ready for Saturday’s sale. Here, she is carrying an armload of books for the biography table.
Mary Therese Biebel | Times Leader
A cartload of history books awaits its turn at the Friends of the Osterhout Free Library sidewalk sale, set for 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday.
Mary Therese Biebel | Times Leader
Friends of the Osterhout Free Library Karen French of Forty Fort and Joan Kwarcinski of Mountain Top work on getting books ready for the sidewalk sale. The books have been stored in the basement of the Osterhout Library.
Mary Therese Biebel | Times Leader
Irene Martin of Plains Township, president of the Friends of the Osterhout Library, said patrons will be able to choose books from among eight categories at Saturday’s sidewalk sale.
Mary Therese Biebel | Times Leader
Library fans and readers of all ages, rejoice!
The Friends of the Osterhout Free Library will hold a sidewalk sale 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, and yes, you may choose your own books.
They’ll be set up on tables in front of the library’s main building, 71 South Franklin St., Wilkes-Barre, and divided into eight categories: fiction, mystery, science fiction, history, biography, trade, paperback and children’s books.
“We feel the ‘bundles’ have run their course,” Friends president Irene Martin said, referring to the bags of books that patrons purchased at earlier, drive-up sales this year.
Buying books by the bundle, without knowing exactly what was in the bag, undoubtedly introduced many readers to authors they hadn’t experienced up to that point, and you can imagine that for everyone who said “Hey, this Nora Roberts is pretty good,” there may have been someone who said, “This is my first Stephen King novel and I really didn’t enjoy it, but at least the book was heavy enough to squash that bug.” (Something similar happened to these reporter this summer.)
At Saturday’s sidewalk sale, patrons will know what they’re getting.
“They’ll be about 200 books in each category,” Martin said on Wednesday morning as she and several other members of the Friends group sorted books.
“These are all biographies,” Barbara Ambrose of Wilkes-Barre Township said as she carried an armload of books about dancer Fred Astaire, musician Louis Armstrong, singer Gene Autry and actors Marlon Brando and Betty Davis.
“Fiction and mystery are our biggest categories,” Joan Kwarcinski of Mountain Top said as she loaded history books onto a cart that already held volumes about the Civil War, the Civil Rights Movement and pre-Revolutionary War days as well as stories about monarchs.
“There must be 30,000 to 50,000 books here, no less,” Ambrose said, glancing around the Friends’ storage area in the library basement.
“It’s making me sneeze,” Karen French of Forty Fort said as she moved books to a cart.
“But we love it, or we wouldn’t be here,” Kwarcinski said.
The prices for books at the sidewalk sale include $3 for fiction, mystery, science fiction, history and biography; $2 for trade books; $1 for paperbacks and 50 cents for children’s picture books, chapter books and young adult books.
The sale will be cash only, and visitors are reminded to wear masks and practice social distance.
Over the past 43 years the Friends of the Osterhout Free Library have donated more than $535,000 to the library from funds raised at their annual book sale. This past June, the group postponed its sale due to coronavirus concerns.