By Leslie Rounds

Once again, it’s time for the much-anticipated Giant annual Book Sale at the Dyer Library in Saco.  I hope you are one of our many satisfied customers and the book sale represents the absolute peak of your summer.  I trust that you marked the dates on your calendar and that you have been eagerly counting down the days until we open the doors on this humungous collection of previously loved (but now, sadly, rejected) books.

Beginning this week, we’ll be carrying down box after box from the library attic, where they had been collected, sorted (courtesy mostly of lots of teens doing community service) and stored for the past year.  This year we have a wide-ranging collection of volunteers, who have generously responded by placing their names in a jar on the circulation desk. When we lay the books out, we’ll sort them a second time to make it really easy for you to find exactly what you’re looking for from the thousands of choices.

 What will you find? As always, we have a significant collection of antique books. Nearly all of the antique books are just $2 each, but some of the very best are around $5. How about a gilt decorated copy of “Modern Leaders: A Series of Biographical Sketches” by Justin McCarthy, 1872 – very showy!   

Antiques aren’t your favorite? Would you consider “Coastlines of America,” a very attractive, color coffee table book by J. A. Kraus and Ron Watts, short essays combined with gorgeous, large-scale photographs of beaches, lighthouses and other coastal scenes? Maybe you are looking for something a bit more practical?  Perhaps, then, you might enjoy “The Mammoth Book of Climbing Adventures” edited by Jon E. Lewis.  This huge (mammoth?) paper-bound book provides “25 first-hand accounts of outstanding courageous climbs from…” a lot of various authors (and climbers, including Sir Edmund Hillary). I’m a bit disappointed because I thought it was going to be a guidebook.

Cookbooks are always a popular feature at the book sale.  “Victoria At Table with Family and Friends” looks like a nice one, large sized and filled with lots of color pictures of the goodies you will be whipping up from these lavish recipes.  Yum!

One last suggestion: “Perennials,” one of the many volumes of the “Time-Life Gardeners Guide” - full color, lots of information, and a plant list that will leave you anxious to go out and dig around in the yard.

The sale begins when the library opens at 9:30 a.m. on Tuesday (not Wednesday, this year) in the Deering Room, the hallway, etc. Bring your own bags, if you remember, as we never seem to have enough.  The sale will run during library hours through Monday, Aug. 3.  

Leslie Rounds is executive director of the Dyer Library/Saco Museum.