Louise Marra had been sitting in the same chair in the same parking lot for about 24 hours as the line wrapped around North Main Street and Northwest Sixth Avenue in downtown Gainesville.
Marra, 75, was waiting with hundreds of others Saturday morning to buy used books, art, games and more at the Friends of the Library book sale.
The sale, staffed entirely by volunteers, began with the ceremonious playing of bagpipes and will end Wednesday. The money raised from the sale, which Friends of the Library President Susan Park estimated will be about $150,000, will go to the Alachua County Library District.
The sale is an important tradition for Gainesville and out-of-town book enthusiasts.
Marra said she has made the drive from the Ocala National Forest to Gainesville twice a year since 2001 to attend the sale.
She usually gets in line two nights before the sale begins, she said, but this year she arrived at 8 a.m. the day before. Friends of the Library did not allow people to hold spots in line, so attendees had to stay there the whole time to secure a spot.
It’s worth getting there early because, “If you’re not up front, everything’s gone before you get in,” Marra said.
Gainesville native Robbie Davis, 44, said he has not missed a sale since fourth grade. He started volunteering there while he was in college.
The first book he priced turned out to be one of his old books, he said. His name was inside in his handwriting.
Davis said the sale is special because of the cheap prices.
“It puts books in the hands of a lot of people who may not usually get them,” he said.
For the past five years, UF English senior Ashlyn Rothenberg said she has arrived at 6 a.m. the first day with a cup of Dunkin’ Donuts coffee.
Rothenberg, 22, called the book sale “the Black Friday for bibliophiles.”
“You get to see people excited about buying used books, which is nice,” she said.
[A version of this story ran on page 8 on 4/14/2014 under the headline "Readers flock to book sale days, hours early"]
