TORRINGTON – The Goshen County Library’s Used Book Sale is going on now, where bookworms, chefs, kids, polyglots and anyone else looking for a book to suit their interests can fill up a bag to take home.

Saturday morning saw dozens of visitors to the Library Foundation Center for the first day of the sale. They poured over the books, carrying paper bags overflowing with books. Several visitors took more than one bag home. The normally open front area of the building is full of tables covered in books, and the shelves behind them are stuffed with donated books.

Community members donate their old books all year to the used book sales.

The January book sale is different from the April and October book sales. While the other two begin their books at full price and discount them from there, shoppers at the January book sale have the chance to fill up a bag full of books to take home for $10. 

The funds raised from the book sale go to keep the Library Foundation Center running. The Foundation Center hosts various meetings for library officials, book clubs and children’s activities. 

Aside from the funds raised through the sales, the book sales give community members an opportunity to volunteer and to recycle old books, knowing the new owners will love them just as much as they did. When a loved one passes away and leaves behind a library’s worth of books, the volunteers at the used book sales are always happy to take them. When the kids have grown up and no longer read their picture books, the volunteers are always happy to take those as well.

The current sale is the second one to continuously put books on the shelves as they are received. Even if readers visited the sale on the first day, there are new books on the shelves to replenish them.

Book Sale Coordinator Nan Hornbeck pointed out the shelves full of Western novels in the front area of the building.

“After Saturday, that corner was pretty wiped out,” she said.

Monday morning, the donations came flooding in and the entire section was full again.

“Nan is really the reason it happens,” Library Board President Ellen Creagar said. “Honestly, she is the energy behind it…Without her, I don’t think it would function the way it functions.”

The book sales feature hundreds of books in every genre, meaning there is something there for everyone. The book sales also have volunteer opportunities for anyone and everyone who wants to get involved.

“It’s just fun to see people come in and get piles of books,” Creagar said. “I also love the donation aspect of it.”

Hornbeck agrees that seeing booklovers get excited about new reads is a highlight of the job. With so many specialty books like the 1950’s textbooks featured at the book sale, she also looks forward to having just the right person for every book come in.

“It has to be just the right person,” she said, “and it happens, even in a small community.”

The system of colored dots on each book helps volunteers keep track of how many book sales each book has been in. If a book still has not been bought after three sales, volunteers call up local nonprofits such as Saint Joseph’s Children’s Home, Veterans of Foreign Wars and the American Legion. The nonprofits then have the chance to come sort through the books left over and take any they would like to add to their libraries for their beneficiaries.

To donate used books any time of the year, stop by the Foundation Center. If no one is there, stop by the library next door during business hours and an employee will be available to help.