Lions book sale bigger than ever this year

By James Grob, jgrob@charlescitypress.com

The annual book sale by the Charles City Lions Club is back, and it’s bigger than ever.

“It’s an amazing assortment of books this year,” said Lions Club member Brad Bailey. “There are three times as many books as what we had last year.”

Bailey said that more than 40,000 books would be on sale, and perhaps as many as 50,000.

Additionally, the duration of the sale has increased from four to 11 days. The sale will take place Oct. 16-26 at 300 Gilbert Street, at the east entrance of Ace Hardware in Charles City.

Times from Wednesday-Friday, Oct.16-18, will be from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Saturday Oct. 19, from 9 a.m. to 5 p,m.; Sunday, Oct. 20, from noon-5 p.m. Then, Monday through Friday, Oct, 21-25, from 2-6 p.m., and Saturday, Oct. 26, from 9 a.m. until noon.

The annual book sale has been going on since 1964, according to Bailey, and Esther Horvath has managed the sale for the Lions for more than 10 years.

“I love doing it. I look forward to it every year,” said Horvath. “This year it’s going to be two weeks, and I think that’s absolutely fabulous.”

The prices on the donated books range from 50 cents to $4 each. Horvath said the books that have been coming in this year are in good condition.

“We usually end up throwing out about 200 books when they come in, because they’re molding or torn, but this year we’ve thrown out less than 50,” she said, and she added that there is a wider range of genres for readers to choose from.

“The variety of the history, military, travel and cook books this year is amazing,” she said. “We usually have a lot of everything, but the quality this year is so much better. It’s really nice.”

Bailey said there are foreign language books, including books in Chinese, Japanese, German, Spanish, French and Italian, among others. There are also travel books, religious books, books in large font for those with vision issues, children’s books, teen and young adult books, romance and inspirational romance, history, mystery and military books.

He added that there are books about sports, science fiction, thrillers, agricultural books, animal husbandry books, westerns, home improvement, arts and crafts, music, sheet music, humor and poetry. There are even books on learning how to play card games,

Proceeds go back to the community through Lions projects. Among many other things, the club subsidizes hearing aids and eyeglasses for residents and children in the community, conducts free vision tests on preschoolers, and recycles about 800 eyeglasses a year which are sent abroad through Lions Club International.

Items can be still donated for the sale. Anyone with books, textbooks, magazines, vinyl records, CDs, DVDs and videos they wish to donate can drop them off at the plastic bins located at Otto’s Oasis, all Charles City banks, Fareway, Hy-Vee, Theisen’s and Ace Hardware.

Shoppers can also purchase 50/50 fundraiser cash raffle tickets at the sale. Tickets cost $1 each, or 6 for $5. A drawing will be held last day of the sale, and 50 percent of jackpot will be awarded to the entry ticket drawn and 50 percent will go to the Charles City Lions Club for ongoing charitable activities.