As staff opened the doors to the Friends of the Library Book Sale, people flooded the warehouse carrying empty cardboard boxes.
Soon, they had to side-step through aisles, and many reached over their neighbors’ shoulders toward shelves packed with books.
About 750 people waited outside the Friends of the Library’s book warehouse at 430 N. Main St. Saturday morning for its biannual book sale. The sale will go through Wednesday.
Sarah Harrison, publicity chair for Alachua County Friends of the Library, said opening day is always the busiest.
“They start lining up from Thursday evening,” Harrison said. “At 10 this morning, you couldn’t walk in here.”
The first Friends of the Library book sale held in 1954 raised $80. Harrison said Friends of the Library now makes between $140,000 and $160,000 through the five-day sale.
Ann Hemme, co-chairwoman of the book sale, said the organization raised about $110,000 during Saturday and Sunday’s sale.
“It’s the largest book sale in the Southeast,” Harrison said. “It’s really sort of a phenomenon.”
Harrison said the sale typically has about 500,000 items, including books, magazines and records.
Hemme said the number of items dropped a bit from last semester’s sale.
Sarah Yost, a 24-year-old book sale volunteer, said her parents have been volunteering with the book sale for 25 years, and they often brought Yost and her two younger brothers to the sale.
“We used to sit cross-legged underneath the table and read Betty and Veronica comics,” Yost said. “Loving books is kinda more in my blood.”
Jamie Fisher, a 20-year-old Chinese and linguistics sophomore at UF, said she enjoys the cheap prices, but the unexpected nature of the book sale is what keeps her coming back year after year.
“You come not knowing what you’re going to get,” Fisher said.
Katie Overson, 3, selects a children's book from a shelf at the Friends of the Library Book Sale on Saturday. Her mother, Marissa, said she brought Katie to the sale because Katie loves books and because she can get so many there for such low prices. The sale runs until Wednesday.
