Library book sale to feature wider selection of comics

Shelves and tables at the McKinley High School cafeteria will be stacked with more than 150,000 books when Hawaii’s oldest and largest book sale gets underway today.

The Friends of the Library of Hawaii will open the doors to the 69th annual book sale at 9 a.m. The sale wraps up, with deeply discounted bargains, on June 26.

A steady stream of fresh merchandise will be added to the sale daily. In addition to books, there will be CDs, DVDs, comics and manga. This year’s sale is expected to have a larger than usual inventory of comics and cookbooks.

Also, amid piles of paperbacks, shoppers can browse an eclectic assortment of donated artwork, including a 100-piece art collection, as well as a selection of Hawaiiana featuring rare and out-of-print literature.

Shoppers can peruse a catalog of rare and collectible books on display, too.

For bargain hunters willing to hold out for the possibility of even better deals, every item will be 50 percent off on June 25. On the final day of the event, June 26, all merchandise will be priced at 50 cents.

More than 400 volunteers staff the event every year, and some 75 volunteers work year-round collecting and processing donations for the sale.

Ellen Schneider, 75, is a member of a year-round group of volunteers who amass hundreds of bags and boxes of merchandise in preparation for the nine-day event.

Books — especially children’s literature — are ever present in Schneider’s life. The retired librarian from Solomon Elementary School in Wahiawa said, “I worked there since the school started in 1968 until I retired in 2004. My whole life it’s always been books, books!”

Schneider has been sorting children’s books as a Friends of the Library volunteer for the last 10 years. “A Story, a Story” and “Where the Wild Things Are” were her favorites to read to students and remain her favorites today.

“When I was in college they sent out a survey asking, ‘What book are you reading now?’ and I didn’t answer it because I’d only read children’s books,” Schneider quipped.

Cindy Miller, 67, a retired nurse and lover of mystery novels, has volunteered alongside Schneider for four years.

“When Hawaii Medical Center closed, I retired and came here,” Miller said. “I figured a good way to spend my retirement is playing with books.”

As part of the sale prep, the pair and other volunteers separate hardcover and paperbacks into over 50 categories. Books are then priced, boxed and ready to move to McKinley High. Football players from Farrington and McKinley high schools help unpack more than 4,000 boxes of merchandise.

Any books unfit for resale are sent to various children’s organizations, retirement homes, Tripler Army Medical Center and the state prisons. Those leftover after the sale’s final day are given to Reach Out Pacific, an organization that donates books to public libraries on the Micronesian islands of Palau and Pohnpei.

Nainoa Mau, Friends of the Library’s executive director, said about 75 percent of the inventory is sold during the sale, and “afterward we re-donate as much as possible.” He added, “In the past we’ve donated books to Samoa and given to Palama Settlement — we try to change it up every couple of years.”

The annual book sale is one of two major library fundraisers supporting the 50 libraries across the state and their unfunded programs, such as the annual summer reading program.

“It’s truly a community effort,” said Brigitte Yoshino, Friends of the Library’s program director. “We couldn’t do it without our hundreds of volunteers.”