Friends of the Osterhout Free Library Irene Martin and Diane Krokos are two of the volunteers helping prepare for the 44th annual book sale, which will be held indoors in the reading room Monday through Saturday. (Enter through the back of the library.)
                                 Mary Therese Biebel | Times Leader

Friends of the Osterhout Free Library Irene Martin and Diane Krokos are two of the volunteers helping prepare for the 44th annual book sale, which will be held indoors in the reading room Monday through Saturday. (Enter through the back of the library.)

Mary Therese Biebel | Times Leader

Patrons will choose own books this year

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As Friends of the Osterhout Free Library got ready for this week’s book sale, they predicted patrons will be quite happy with the event this year.

“We won’t have to contend with rain or wind or intense heat,” Irene Martin said Friday afternoon, explaining the sale, set for Monday through Saturday, will be held in the air-conditioned comfort of the library’s reading room (enter from the rear of the building, please) instead of outdoors under a tent.

Even better, Diane Krokos said, patrons are welcome to peruse the selections and choose the books they’d like to buy. That’s different from three small, drive-by sales held last year, during the pandemic, when volunteers handed out bags of books to customers who were able to choose a broad category, but not individual titles.

The library’s reading room has 30 stations in it, each filled with a different sort of book — from science fiction and fantasy to self-improvement and health along with sections devoted to crafts, travel, poetry, short stories and reference books.

“Some authors, like Stephen King, Mary Higgins Clark and Danielle Steele have their own sections,” Krokos said.

There also are shelves devoted to recent titles, where authors range from Ann Patchett to Dean Koontz to Madeleine Albright.

Cookbooks contain recipes for everything from soups to muffins, and a glance at the biography table shows volumes on Tony Bennett, Aretha Franklin, Lauren Bacall, Eleanor Roosevelt and Edward R. Murrow.

Whether you want a vintage copy of Daniel DeFoe’s “Adventures of Robinson Crusoe” or a child’s paperback with a cute rhyming name like “Llama, Llama, Red Pajama,” the Osterhout could be the place you find it.

“Our prices range from 25 cents to $5,” Krokos said.

“And we have so many other books in the basement,” Martin said, “we’ll be able to replenish the stock throughout the sale.”

“People are really ready for this,” Martin said. “We’ve had so many ‘likes’ on our Facebook page.”

The sale, the 44th annual for the Osterhout, will open on Monday at the main library, 71 S. Franklin St., Wilkes-Barre.

Hours will be 9:30 a.m. through 6:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday; 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Friday and 10 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on Saturday.

Saturday, the final day, is “bag day,” and patrons will be able to fill a bag of books for $5.

For more information, call 570-823-0156 or see osterhout.info.