Bookworms should be flocking to Marketplace this weekend.
Fiction, non-fiction, children’s books, vintage books, magazines – they’re all available for sale in front of the IGA Saturday and Sunday.
"We’ve got more sellable books than ever before," says Jane Reid, one of the organizers of this weekend’s used book sale.
"We appreciate the response, it’s been fantastic. The amount of books we’ve collected is incredible."
And the beneficiaries will be students at Whistler secondary school and the future Spring Creek elementary school. Proceeds from the sale will go toward stocking the shelves of the school libraries.
Over the last month or so Whistler and Lower Mainland residents have donated "hundreds and hundreds" of books to the sale, including one Vancouver resident who dropped off 30 boxes of books.
Approximately 200 books have been deemed suitable for the Whistler secondary library and have been set aside for the school. Another 200-300 have been set aside for the Spring Creek school library.
But there’s still a large selection of titles in virtually all genres, Reid says.
"We’ve got lots of fiction, the fantasy type, but we’ve also got lots of book club-type fiction, the best sellers.
"We’ve also got lots of non-fiction – geography, biography, self-help – you name it, we’ve got it."
Children’s board books, books for youths and some fairly old books which may be of interest to book collectors will be for sale.
There are also lots of magazines. Back issues of the popular fashion, fitness, gourmet and lifestyle titles are available, but there are also collections of astronomy-related magazines that a subscriber has donated, as well as some National Geographics from the 1970s.
"We’ve really got lots of interesting stuff," says Reid.
The sale takes place between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. on Saturday, May 18 and Sunday, May 19. Sales are by donation.
Reid says organizers hope to get all the books on display Saturday, but due to the volume of books there may be some that aren’t out on the tables until Sunday. The smart move for those who don’t want to miss out would be to check out the sale both days.
Marketplace will be busy Sunday, as the Whistler secondary grads and Whistler firefighters will be washing cars between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. Half the funds raised from the car wash will go toward this year’s graduation events, while the other half will go to the Rowland Children’s Trust on behalf of Whistler firefighters.
