VALDOSTA — The South Georgia Regional Library System’s Backdoor Bookstore may just be the best deal in town.
Where else can a person find almost everything by Shakespeare for a dollar?
The name of the sale might suggest to some that it’s carried on outside, in a parking lot, in the heat, with paperbacks scattered on folding tables, etc., but that is far from being the case. Located at the Valdosta-Lowndes County Library at 300 Woodrow Wilson Drive, the sale is inside a fairly large, air-conditioned room, with chairs and shelves of books clearly labeled by section.
The sale goes on every Tuesday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. The books range in price from 10 cents to $3.
All the books are either donated or surplus from the main library, and the money received from their purchase is used to buy new library materials and support library programs, said Kelly Lenz, assistant director of Public Services.
Deborah Antonoff, a cataloguer with SGRL, said, “We’ve been getting more and more donations lately, and nice stuff, not junk.”
Books available for purchase at the Backdoor Bookstore include such categories as the classics, rare and antique books, Cliff’s Notes, fiction, large print books, history, biography, diet, parenting and motherhood, children’s books, psychology, philosophy, politics, reference, self-help, anthropology, art, accounting, computers, religion and Christian fiction. And that’s by no means is an exhaustive list.
Magazines, jigsaw puzzles, audio and video tapes, music cassettes and CDs are also for sale.
The number of copies of certain books, like Edith Wharton’s novel “Ethan Frome,” “Huckleberry Finn” by Mark Twain, and Herman Melville’s “Billy Budd, testifies to the perennial unpopularity of those novels among the young. Five copies of the Bedford Introduction to Literature were on sale Tuesday for a dollar each — books that would cost around $90 if purchased new at the college bookstore, said volunteer and retired Valdosta State University professor Tony Criscuolo.
New books are coming in all the time, so one can never be sure when a great deal or a rare find will show up. Ann Johnston lost all of her books in the recent flood and said she comes to the library sale mostly for reference works she can use in her artwork.
“I just love it,” she said.
Book dealers sometimes come in to buy inexpensive books to resell in their own stores, said volunteer Dave Claggett. The library doesn’t mind. Besides, many of the books end up being donated and resold again later, he said. It’s a good deal for everybody.
Roy Wilson said he has frequented the sale for several years, buying books for his niece who runs a little bookstore in Gray. He also looks for Louis L’Amour novels, which he said are hard to find because they are so popular.
To learn more, call (229) 333-0086.
Local News
Related Photos
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Jonathan Barton, 11, looks high on a shelf for a book at the Backdoor Bookstore.
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The South Georgia Regional Library’s Backdoor Bookstore offers a room full of books, magazines, audio books and more at bargain prices.
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Volunteer Dave Claggett helps Jonathan Barton, 11, find a book.
Discussion
Books at bargain prices
Library bookstore may be the best deal in town
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