Thousands of reading enthusiasts descended upon the 17th annual Book Bonanza at the Fingerlakes Mall Sunday, searching the rows of titles, CD's and albums for a new intellectual escape.
Diane La Rue, the event's organizer, said the bonanza saw a higher than normal turnout of visitors for their Sunday fill-a-bag special, despite lower than expected sales on Saturday. The proceeds will provide funding for St. Joseph's School in Auburn.
"(The shoppers) are pretty much cleaning us out, which is what we want," La Rue said. "We had nearly 70,000 books to start, and all of which were donated by the community."
Several shoppers struggled to carry their purchases, as books brimmed out the top of their bags while others clung to their overloaded packages in an effort to prevent the seams from ripping more than they already had.
Roopa Gupta, of Toronto, who was visiting family in the area, said if she ever had a chance to come to the sale again, she would plan to arrive earlier.
"I was hoping to buy some old knitting books but they were already gone by the time I got here," said Gupta, who is a third grade teacher. "I often teach my kids about colonial America and the old British craft books about that period are more hands on. Back then people used stuff they could find, so the kids would learn how to improvise and use what's available. It also uses a lot of recycling from stuff in the environment, and that's important to me."
Other people found books which offered hope and inspiration, such as Shari Waldron, of Port Byron, by tapping into their own personal experiences.
"I am just coming out of it, but this August it will be a full year since I had cancer," Waldron said. "In the health and medical section I found some books about cancer and surviving cancer. It was a really rough trip for me and I feel sorry for anyone else that has to do it."
The well-organized categories such as health and medicine, children's non-fiction and romance, made it easy for shoppers to find books that interested them, La Rue said.
"Our books are organized into 75 different categories," La Rue said. "That's why people like us, we are very well organized. Other sales people go to may just have a couple categories."
For more, read Monday's Citizen
"(The shoppers) are pretty much cleaning us out, which is what we want," La Rue said. "We had nearly 70,000 books to start, and all of which were donated by the community."
Several shoppers struggled to carry their purchases, as books brimmed out the top of their bags while others clung to their overloaded packages in an effort to prevent the seams from ripping more than they already had.
Roopa Gupta, of Toronto, who was visiting family in the area, said if she ever had a chance to come to the sale again, she would plan to arrive earlier.
"I was hoping to buy some old knitting books but they were already gone by the time I got here," said Gupta, who is a third grade teacher. "I often teach my kids about colonial America and the old British craft books about that period are more hands on. Back then people used stuff they could find, so the kids would learn how to improvise and use what's available. It also uses a lot of recycling from stuff in the environment, and that's important to me."
Other people found books which offered hope and inspiration, such as Shari Waldron, of Port Byron, by tapping into their own personal experiences.
"I am just coming out of it, but this August it will be a full year since I had cancer," Waldron said. "In the health and medical section I found some books about cancer and surviving cancer. It was a really rough trip for me and I feel sorry for anyone else that has to do it."
The well-organized categories such as health and medicine, children's non-fiction and romance, made it easy for shoppers to find books that interested them, La Rue said.
"Our books are organized into 75 different categories," La Rue said. "That's why people like us, we are very well organized. Other sales people go to may just have a couple categories."
For more, read Monday's Citizen
The Citizens' Say
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rcowwan wrote on Jul 14, 2008 7:23 AM: