Some of what shows up on the weekend of the Times Colonist book drive is pretty ghastly: Dog-eared, coffee-stained, unglued, bits missing, jacket torn.
But enough about Les Leyne.
Rather, this is about you, the reader, and our annual request for donations to the book sale.
By now, you know how it works: Every year at this time, we ask readers to donate good-quality used books, which volunteers then spend two weeks sorting for resale to the public. All the proceeds — more than $5 million since the first sale in 1998 — go to literacy-related programs on Vancouver Island.
The collection and sale both happen at the Victoria Curling Club at 1952 Quadra St.
It begins with this weekend’s drive-through book drop-off in the curling club parking lot, from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. both Saturday, April 27, and Sunday, April 28.
Drivers are asked to enter off Pembroke Street between Quadra and Blanshard, then follow the volunteers’ directions. (Please don’t come in off Caledonia; the Victoria police need to use that lane.) The process will go more smoothly if you stay in your car while the volunteers unload your books. (There’ll be a spot beside the Quadra Street sidewalk where pedestrians and cyclists can drop off books, safe from moving cars.) A hint: the line of cars can be long, so you might want to give yourself a bit of extra time when heading for the curling club.
Packing your books in boxes or bags that you don’t want back would be a big help (or, in the case of the Fifty Shades trilogy, you might prefer to tie them together). It would also be appreciated if the boxes were small enough to be lifted by the volunteers, many of whom have good hearts but bad backs (and if you feel like unloading cars for a couple of hours, they would be thrilled to share the job).
Before boxing your donations, check inside the covers to make sure they don’t hold precious family photos, old love letters, banknotes, passports or marijuana, all of which have turned up at previous collections (FYI: weed is legal now — you no longer need to stash it in a hollowed-out copy of War and Peace).
Please, only donate books that are in the kind of condition you would want to see as a buyer. (I say this as a full-contact reader, one whose favourite books look like they have gone through a wringer washing machine. Honestly, if a novel grips me, I grip it back. I’ve broken more spines than a rodeo bull, ripped off more covers than a drill sergeant at reveille. Librarians weep at the sight of me. Book stores take out restraining orders.)
Thanks, but no encyclopedias, textbooks, magazines, medical books, outdated reference works, Reader’s Digest condensed books or National Geographics.
After the weekend, hundreds of volunteers will spend two weeks sorting the donations — a reminder that while the Times Colonist name might be on the sale, it takes the broader community to make the event succeed. This year, Hillside and Mayfair malls joined the Saanich school district, Camosun College, CFB Esquimalt and the municipalities of Victoria and Esquimalt in lending the hundreds of trestle tables on which the hundreds of thousands of books are displayed.
Thrifty Foods, Serious Coffee, Canadian Springs and Boston Pizza feed the volunteers, while Fairway Markets provides the shopping carts they use to move books around the cavernous curling club. Telus runs in phone lines for the point-of-sale machines, Monk Office provides shipping pallets and Alpine drops off bins. They’re just some of those who help.
The sale itself will be Saturday, May 11 and Sunday, May 12, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. both days. The prices are unchanged from past years: hardcovers $3; softcovers $2; paperbacks and children’s books $1.
On the Monday after the sale, schools and non-profit groups can take away as many unsold books as they like, for free.
