Friends of Library book sale a page turner

Sue Cobb of Hendersonville, right, is thrilled with the fiction recommendations of Friends of the Library volunteer Antionette Molless.

NATHANIEL AXTELL/TIMES-NEWS
Published: Monday, September 17, 2012 at 4:30 a.m.
Last Modified: Sunday, September 16, 2012 at 11:42 p.m.

One trip to the Friends of the Library's fall book sale wasn't enough for Sue Cobb of Hendersonville. Though she stocked up earlier this week, Cobb was back again on Sunday to take advantage of this weekend's half-off sale and to fill another bag with choice finds.

“I love books and they have such a great selection,” said Cobb, who especially enjoyed the religion section of the Friends' sale building on Spartanburg Highway. “The prices are really good, too.”

The hard work an good prices have paid off handsomely so far, said Friends of the Library President Linda Kirchen. Last year, the Friends' spring and fall sales generated about $85,000, with another $30,000 produced by selling obscure or collectable titles through the group's Amazon account.

“We're on track to about equal that this year,” Kirchen said.

Proceeds from the sale go to fund and enhance programs in the Henderson County Public Library system, which includes branches in Hendersonville, Edneyville, Etowah, Fletcher, Green River and Mills River.

For Cobb, it was hard to resist multiple recommendations pulled from the shelves by Friends volunteer Antoinette Molless, now in her fourth year of working the 32nd annual book sale. Molless' knack for recommending good reads based on her customers' reading preferences is uncanny, her colleagues said.

“She's obsessively good at it,” said volunteer Cathy Shields with a smile. “She's the computer chip and I'm only the main frame.”

Molless, who moved here a decade ago after retiring from IBM's Advanced Semiconductor Technology Center in East Fishkill, N.Y., knows her fiction better than most librarians, thanks to an insatiable appetite for reading.

“As long as it's not a chick book or a popular mystery,” she added. “I know those authors, but I haven't read them. The classics I know.”

Popular authors such as Diana Gabaldon, Clive Kessler and Robert Morgan have been flying off the shelves since the sale began Sept. 8, Molless said, along with the works of local writers such as Ron Rash and Sarah Gruen.

“We try to get people to read the local authors,” Molless said.

More than 100 volunteers work the three-weekend sale, selling mostly donated books, CDs and DVDs, although a selection of vinyl records, cassettes and audiobooks are also available. The selection includes about 100,000 items in all, most in great shape.

“If it's musty or faded, we don't sell it,” Kirchen said.

The sale ends on Sept. 22, but not before the most anticipated book-buying binge of the year: for that Saturday only, bargain shoppers can fill an Ingles bag with items for just $5, or a milk crate (provided by the Friends) for just $6. Volunteers said the final day brings a welcomed throng of bibliophiles, book dealers and bargain hunters.

“They get frantic,” Kirchen said. “They're zooming around filling up their bags, and then filling up more bags. There's still going to be a lot of good stuff, too.”

The Friends of the Henderson County Library sale building is located at 1940 Spartanburg Highway, next to Dollar General.

Reach Axtell at 828-694-7860 or than.axtell@blueridgenow.com.

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