Westport Friends 55th Annual Used Book Fair
938 Main Road
Westport, MA
July 7, 2016
The 55th Annual Westport Friends Used Book Fair will be held on Saturday, July 9, 2016 at 11 AM sharp. The sale operates from dawn to dusk until July 17 but Saturday's the day you want to show up. It's a lalapalooza of a sale, the largest in New England, perhaps the country. Book lovers have been known to plan their vacations around this event.
When up to 30,000 books are donated from the day after this year's book fair ends until the week before the next book fair begins, always on the second Saturday of July, you've got to have a righteously organized system to sort, price and store the books.
Volunteers meet all year long to get the job done. Several days before the book fair opens, two yellow and white tents are hoisted, tables are arranged with signs over them designating categories of books that are stacked under them. Saturday morning at 7 AM, volunteers haul thousands of books to the tents, stack and organize them, a herculean effort.
The Friends Meeting House gets loaded wall to wall with paperbacks the day before. "Higher Value Books" and other non-book items (toys, games, DVDs, even ancient VCR cassettes) for sale are set up in the Community House on Friday. Nothing is sold until Saturday.
A small tent filled with children's books opens for kids at 10:45 AM. Prices average 25 cents, sometimes 6 for a dollar...obviously a fabulous place to replenish a kid's collection.
Volunteer Tristan Peirce explains the annual intake/sorting/pricing process. (Note: the address of the fair is incorrectly stated in the video - it's 938 Main Road, Westport, MA).
The pt at large story recounting the 50th Annual Westport Friends Used Book Fair is here
http://ptatlarge.typepad.com/ptatlarge/2011/07/westport-quakers-awesome-50th-annual-used-book-fair-.html
and another one here
http://ptatlarge.typepad.com/ptatlarge/2013/07/westport-friends-quaker-2013-52nd-annual-used-book-fair.html
You won't want to miss this! (Photos from 2015 Used Book Fair)
Waiting for the 11AM opening whistle to blow; collecting books by the armload.
Huge selection of children's books and paperbacks in the Meeting House, many at 6 for $1.00...such a deal!
Cashing out; examining the haul.
Photos and videos by Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.
Paul, this is fabulous! Thank you so much for doing this with such care to detail.
Posted by: Gretchen Baker-Smith | July 07, 2016 at 04:36 PM