Annual book sale begins

Thousands of books fill tables at the Eubanks Room this week as Willows Friends of the Library host its annual book sale.

It begins today and runs through Saturday at the Willows Library on North Lassen Street.

Friends President Brian Ramos said the selection in this sale is the "highest quality" it has had in the last three years.

Highlights include a large selection of golfing books, he said, along with cooking books — the best it has seen in 10 years.

In addition, there are several hundred collectible books priced at $1 each, Ramos said.

"Many are first editions," he said, "dating back before World War II."

These books are on poetry, literature, history and more by authors like Charles Dickens and Jack London to name a few.

The selection of children's books also is big this year, so buyers will have a lot of options, group members said.

Most of the books come from the Chico Friends of the Library or were purged from the Willows Library collection, Ramos added.

"We have a lot of dictionaries," he said, and reference books for students.

Hardbacks are priced at 50 cents each and paperbacks sell for 25 cents.

During the last two months, the group also received a big selection of VHS videos for children with Disney titles and more.

Ramos said these will sell 10 for a $1 or 25 cents each as they need to move them out.

There are a lot of fiction hardbacks that are of "extremely good condition" in the sale, he said.

The library has first call on such donations, so it took some for its collection and the Bayliss and Elk Creek branches also took some, Ramos said.

However, there are plenty left for the sale.

Today is "Members Day," in which Friends of the Library members get first crack at the new books entered in the sale.

Ramos said people may join for a $5 annual fee and then purchase a canvass book bag with the library logo for $10.

They can then fill the bag with as many books as they want, he said.

On Saturday the sale ends with a $1, bag sale that includes every book left in the sale.

The group hopes to raise around $800 from the sale, Ramos said, which will go to purchase new books for the library.

State funding for new book purchases has been cut for libraries across California, he said. Willows lost $5,000 this year.

So the Friends are trying to make that up, Ramos said, through their fundraising efforts.

They have given $5,000 to the Willows Library already this year — while Library Director Jody Meza allocated some of the money to regular books and some to buy audio books, he said.

In addition, the group will be selling raffle tickets for its Christmas fundraiser at the sale.

Those tickets are $5 each and provide a chance to win a new 20-inch Stiehl chainsaw and case donated by a local farmer as the grand prize, Ramos said.

Other items include gift certificates to restaurants, gift baskets and plenty of almond, walnut and pistachio packs.