Westport Friends (Quaker) Used Book Fair
Grounds of the Society of Friends Meeting House
918 Main Road
Westport, MA
July 13, 2013
The opening moments under the tents in the annual Friends Used Book Fair feel like a combination of religious observance and tag sale. The pilgrims drawn to this event revere books and have acquisitive tendencies.
Like pilgrims of yore, they want to return to their homes with relics, in this case pulpy ones, to enrich their lives. They may even proselytize, encouraging friends to establish faith with their favorite authors when they arrive back home. As with pilgrims the world over, they bond quickly with others on the same quest. Even in the first hour, when seekers are especially focused on finding prized books amongst the tables lined with row upon row of paperback titles, you might hear, “That’s one of my favorite books,” uttered quietly by a shopper who sees a seeker pluck a title from a tightly packed row.
After initial whoops of excitement when the opening whistle pierces the air, the areas under the yellow and white striped tents have the aura of an outdoor chapel, hushed voices, the sound of feet shuffling over the gravel underfoot, and the soft plunking sound as shoppers drop a paperback into a sack or carton.
The area is wall-to-wall people. Moving along the narrow rows between tables is not accomplished by volition but by flowing with the languid current of engrossed shoppers. This is not the place for claustrophobics. This is one place where little kids never have to be told twice to stay right next to mommy or daddy. After thirty seconds, they realize that with one lackadaisical moment they’d lose contact with the parental unit.
On this hot, humid, July morning, the atmosphere under the tents feels like a greenhouse. Scents of sunscreen, shampoo, and perspiration hang like musk in the breeze-less shade of the tents and blend incongruously with the smell of paperback books having been packed and stored for months, now liberated chock a block on the tables.
If you were to bottle the competing aromas, I’ll bet that anyone who’s previously attended one of these book fairs could identify it in a heartbeat as “Eau de Book Fair.”
10:58 AM... two minutes before the whistle blows. 20,000 gently used books have been organized under two massive tents and inside the Macomber Community Building and the Society of Friends Meeting House. The books are priced to sell...several thousand will be sold within the first two hectic hours.
10:55 AM... The Belliveaus are ready. So are Dr. Stuart Kirkaldy, retired, who was one of the first organizers of the Westport Friends (Quaker) Used Book Fair 52 years ago, and volunteer Deena Chase. The proceeds from the first book fair went into the Westport Friends coffers and paid for to repair the leaky roof of Meeting House built in 1816. Dr. Kirkaldy has had a role in every single book fair, 52 years and counting!
Dan Belliveau of Winchester, MA, has been spending time here with his in-laws since 1995. “We can’t keep enough books in the house, they read pretty fast,” he says of his twin ten year-old sons Nicholas and Colby and 8 year-old son Tyler.
Nicholas polished off a 500 page book recently. “I want to read 13 books this summer,” he says. His brother Colby has a goal of 10.“What time is it,Dad?” Nicholas asks at about 10:55 AM. The Belliveaus will make a bee line to the tents in five minutes.
So many books, so many choices, the process can wear a guy out!
Readers and shoppers span generations.
When in doubt, grab it. Proceeds of the event, always on the second Saturday of July, underwrite annual operating expenses of the Westport Society of Friends grounds and buildings, including the Meeting House, built in 1816.
Sometimes the pebbles on the ground are as captivating as the book in your hand as Levi Sardinha, 3, discovers as his brother Colin Sardinha, 6, focuses on print and pictures.
Nancy and Jeffrey Sardinha got the book fair bug last year. ”We had just moved here from Fall River,” Nancy says. “My husband read about the fair in the paper. We can never have enough books in the house.”
Relaxing with the haul.
Checking their bounty. Althea Brady (R), reader, librarian, bookseller from Freetown MA
“I enjoy reading books by Joseph Mitchell who wrote vividly about New York City, nameless people who lived around the waterfront. He wrote for the New Yorker with writers like James Thurber in the 1930s. Their books are by my bedside.”
She has her own bookstall, The Book Nook, in The Armory of the Artillery Company of Newport, 23 Clark Street, Newport, a collection of shops selling fine art, furniture, books and more. A third generation book seller, she has been in business for 15 years, her grandfather began in the trade in 1909 in Newport. She also sells online.
You can expand your reading horizons by listening to fellow bargain hunters. A fellow from Tiverton gives a consultation to a woman from Somerset. They peruse a list several pages long of books he’s read “I bring it so I won't buy books I’ve already read,”he says with a wry grin.
The guy has a card catalogue memory. I stop to listen to him talking to the woman browsing next to him at one of the tables loaded with mystery novels.
He plucks books by Dennis Lehane and Michael Connolly to tell her which have been made into movies then a book by Elmore Leonard to say how well he writes dialogue. They compare experiences of reading "Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" by Steig Larsson. He picks up Daniel Silva’s "Moscow Rules"...”You’ll love this, Silva throws a little philosophy into this one.”
Hannah from Providence with reading pal Zach.
Hannah hauled home a suitcase the size of a steamer trunk last year, spent over 100 bucks on her haul. She saves all year for this annual book feast to slake her voracious appetite for the printed word. Hannah throttled back this year, rang up a $64 bill. That’s a pile of books if you consider most paperbacks range from 1 – 2 dollars. "My favorite categories are fiction, novels, young adult, and foreign authors," she says as she surveys her pile.
She opens her iPhone to show me a floor to ceiling wall of books at her apartment in Providence. I foresee shelves in every room in her apartment if she keeps up this pace.
“I read really fast,” she says, which explains how she could possibly hope to finish reading the amount of books she rakes in with the grasp of a seine trawler every year. I'd have to be reincarnated several times to finish that wall of books she shows me.
“Ive been known to stay up all night reading a book cover to cover,” Hannah says with the pride of a bona fide bookworm."I keep most of the books but there are some, like The Night Circus, that I give away to friends every time I buy a new copy."
This is the fourth year in a row Hannah has made the pilgrimage here. If she comes another year or two, she’ll either have to open a book store of her own or move to a larger quarters.
Photos by Paul A. Tamburello,Jr.
Paul, a masterful job once again of catching the heart and spirit of this annual event! Thank you! - Kevin
Posted by: Kevin Lee | July 21, 2013 at 01:52 PM
Kevin, thanks for keeping me informed about the details of the fair.
Book Fair Steering Committee Clerk Greg Marcello and his crew perform a miracle every year when they haul at least 20,000 books from storage and organize them for sale in the hours just before the opening whistle at 11:00 AM. I added a few books to my mystery novel collection myself!
Posted by: Paul A. Tamburello, Jr. aka pt at large | July 22, 2013 at 11:44 PM
Fabulous! Such a wonderful example of Yankee ingenuity and community. New England Americana in action. Your videos and photos make me feel like I've been there. Thanks!
Posted by: Susaan Straus | July 23, 2013 at 11:07 AM
A great compliment to the Westport Friends and to this blogger. Thank you!
Posted by: Paul A. Tamburello, Jr. aka pt at large | July 23, 2013 at 11:12 AM
Utterly wonderful. Would love to go next year. Thanks for this one.
Posted by: Mishy Lesser | July 23, 2013 at 11:14 AM