WNIJ’s staff created asummer reading challenge for our listeners, but we wanted to get in front of some people in the community to talk about their current reads. We found out, at a recent community book sale.
The DeKalb Public library put on its second book sale of the year this past Friday, Saturday and Sunday with the help of the Friends of the Library. This group helps raise funds for the establishment.
Colin Booth is a friend of the library volunteer. He said the books were donated to the library.
“And some that aren't very good, we just kind of throw away for recycling and so on,” he said. “But otherwise, we sort them, we store them. And then for the book sale, we bring them out of storage, and we put them out on the tables, and we sell them.”
Hardcovers were $2, trade paperback were $1, mass market paperback were 50 cents and children’s books were 25 cents.
Caio Gomez browsed the table of religious books. He said he comes to the book sale whenever it happens, which is usually twice a year. This visit was all about finding something for his daughter and books that feed him spiritually. He grabbed some Max Lucado books. One is called “You Are Never Alone.” He's currently reading a book called “Dug Down Deeper” by Joshua Harris.
“So, it is a book that teaches us how to go deeper in Christianity, which is, you know, what I like, instead of just living by the surface,” Gomez explained.
Kaneland teacher Renee Grisch had Barack Obama’s “A Promised Land” in her hands but her current read is something totally different than that.
“Right now, I'm reading the 2021 greatest essays. And the 2001 great short stories, or 21 great short stories,” she said. “So, they're little snippets of stories, that [I have] time to read. And I can put it down and then I can pick up another story.”
Her mother Sylvia Berger’s, 83, hands were full of books. She said she reads a book a week.
“I read a lot of bestsellers because let you know what's going on in the world,” she said. “Better than the news or anything? I think. And then one of my favorite authors is Nora Roberts.”
Berger passes the books along to her friends once she is done. Because she reads a book a week, she gave a synopsis on the last book she read. She doesn’t recall the title.
“And it was about a girl who came from a very wealthy family. And she was kidnapped when she was five years old,” she added. “It was good because one of the ones that was perpetrating the kidnapping was her own mother who was divorced from her father.”
Berger doesn’t drive anymore and said not watching television gives her more time to read.
Gomez said getting books this way is cost effective.
“I think this is a great thing that the DeKalb public library is doing. And I just hope that they continue doing it as often as they can,” he said. I think it's a great contribution to the community.”
Friends of the Library volunteer Colin Booth said another book sale is scheduled for October. All funds received from the sale will go to programming for the library.
- Yvonne Boose is a current corps member for Report for America, an initiative of the GroundTruth Project. It's a national service program that places talented journalists in local newsrooms like WNIJ. You can learn more about Report for America at wnij.org.
