CUBBERLEY
USED BOOK SALES
Saturday January 12
Ephemera 8am - 3:30pm
Bargain Room 9:30am - 4pm
Children's Room 10am - 4pm
Main Room Sale 11am - 4pm
Tent & Art Sales 9am - 4pm
*WEATHER PERMITTING*
Sunday January 13
All Rooms 11am - 4pm
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FEATURED IN JANUARY
Nature
Large Format
Audiobooks
Politics
Health
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4000 Middlefield Road
Palo Alto
NE corner of the Cubberley Community Center
(650) 213-8755
www.fopal.org
Maps and Directions
More information on the sales
Donate your used books, CDs, DVDs, &c
ALL PROCEEDS GO TO HELP PALO ALTO LIBRARIES
Marty's (Main) Room
In our Main Room, prices are way below what used book stores charge.
Hardcover books start at $2.00 and softcover books start at only $1.00.
Due to the popularity of our sale and the fact that we can only have
160 customers in the room at any time a numbered ticket system (Main
Room only) is in place and numbers are given out beginning at 8am on
Saturday. Be sure to be in line in order of your number before the
11am opening. If you miss the time when your number is allowed to
enter the Main Room you will forfeit your place in line. NOTE: If
you plan on arriving to the sale after 11am you do NOT need to get a
number.
Please note that due to crowding during the first two hours of the
Book Sale, no strollers, rolling carts, etc. can be brought into the
Main Room. This is for the safety of shoppers and volunteers alike.
By 12:30 or so, the crowd thins out and shoppers are welcome to bring
these items into the sale.
Children's Book Sale
The Children's Room is located in the portable formerly occupied by
the Jewish Community Center next to the soccer field. It is entirely
filled with children's books and toys. You'll find picture books,
school age fiction and non-fiction, award winners, non-English titles,
CDs and DVDs, and books for parents and teachers, most for 50 cents
or $1. Strollers are welcome in the Children's Room at any time.
Bargain Books in H-2
The Bargain Room is located in Rooms H-2 and H-3 of the Cubberley
main campus, between Marty's Room and Middlefield Road. On Saturday,
paperbacks are 50 cents, hardcovers are $1, and children's books are
50 cents each. The room also contains many LP records and 78s at
$1 each. On Sunday, the room opens at 11 am and all prices are half
off. Or, save even more on Sunday by buying green FOPAL reusable bags
from us for $2/ea (or bring your own grocery-size reusable bag) and
stuffing them with any items in the room for $5/bag. Fill four bags
at $5/bag and fill a fifth bag FREE! (We no longer receive sufficient
used paper grocery bags along with donations for this purpose.)
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Library Closings in January and February
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All library locations will be closed on Monday, 21 January for
Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Regular hours will resume on Tuesday,
22 January 2019.
All library locations will be closed on Monday, 18 February for
President's Day. Regular hours will resume on Tuesday, 19
February 2019.
You can find out about closings and other Palo Alto Library events
on the Library's event calendar.
Check it out, it has filters that let you select a date range, library
branches, types of events, and other things. Wide desktop browsers
will show these filters on the left of the window; narrow browsers
will show a "REFINE" that can be clicked to reveal filtering options. |
True in 2004 and Still True in 2019
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"It's truly surprising how many valuable books are donated to FOPAL"
-Marty Paddock, 2004.
This is still true in 2019! It's because of this truth that FOPAL
continues encouraging checking the value of uncommon books on the
internet so that they can be given a price which is fair to our
customers and high enough to ensure the Friends are maximizing
their sales revenue.
This is why our Main Room book sale customers are likely to see some
books priced higher than the Bargain Room prices of $1 for a hardback
and 50 cents for a paperback. A suggested pricing guideline for
pricing book using internet research is one-third to one-half of the
on-line asking prices given the criteria of publisher, date, edition,
signed copy, condition, and availability. So, if you see a book
priced for $10 at a monthly sale, chances are this book would sell
on-line for at least $30. That being said some books warrant higher
prices, but are still a great deal to our "collecting and reader"
customers.
One of FOPAL's challenges is to recognize those books that might be
even more out-of-ordinary and of unusually high value say...where
the Internet price is over $40.00. Now once these books have been
identified, FOPAL then looks for other markets for them where they
can be sold at prices well above what we might price and sell them
for our monthly sale. FOPAL not only sells books at the monthly
sale but also at the Friends Kiosks at Downtown and Rinconada
libraries, in an in-library store at Mitchell Park library, at
auction, and on-line.
If you can't attend the monthly sale, please drop by the Friends
Store located in the Mitchell Park Library, or the Friends Gondola
located in the Downtown and Rinconada libraries during library
hours. Books are priced $2 for hardbacks and $1 for paperbacks.
The Friends Store and Gondolas are restocked regularly with books for
all interests.
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Friends Bookstores in Mitchell Park, Downtown, and Rinconada |
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If you cannot attend the book sale, please drop by the Friends
Bookstore located inside the Mitchell Park Library, Downtown
Library, and Rinconada Library, and open during library hours.
They are restocked regularly with a unique selection of books
for all ages and interests.
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Non-Profit Book Giveaway
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Non-profit organizations and schools are able to select books
from among the thousands of books available in the Bargain Room
on the Sunday evening following the sale from 4pm to 6pm.
If you are associated with a non-profit organization or school
that would like to receive books from us for free or for
information on eligibility, hours, and the types of materials
available, please contact Norma Burchard in advance by e-mail
at normalcy@earthlink.net or at 916-936-4580.
Each organization that selects books needs to provide their
address and email address, cell phone number, the name of one person
who will represent them at the giveaway and their address and
telephone or email address. That way we will be able to contact you
if we change hours, days of operation or limit numbers of volunteers
from each organization selecting books. Please include this
information in your request to Norma Burchard.
Each organization is allowed one person to select books in the
children's bargain room and two people to select in the main bargain
room. Each children's bargain room person may fill two paper
supermarket bags for the first 45 minutes. In the main bargain room,
the books must be selected individually for the first hour and if
the large Ikea bags are used, they need to be taken outside as they
are filled. If boxes are used, they need to be of a size that does
not require the use of a hand truck to remove them. You may have
further questions so feel free to call or email me. See you at the
sale! -Norma Burchard
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Monday "Free Night" Book Giveaway
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From 6-8 pm on the Monday night after each monthly sale, everyone --
you don't have to be a non-profit or a FOPAL volunteer -- may come and
take away from the Bargain Room/H2 any amount of books and
media. Be sure to pass along to all and as a reminder, bring your own
bags and boxes.
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Suggestions?
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We're always eager to hear your suggestions for ways to improve our
book sale. Please email us at
suggestions@friendspaloaltolib.org or mention them to a volunteer at the sale.
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A New Year Brings Some Changes in Book Sale
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The success of the Book Sale continues. Our outdoor Ephemera and
Tent Sale have been popular with regulars and introduced us to
some of our neighbors who didn't even know who we were! The outdoor
sales are a permanent Book Sale fixture unless bad weather prevents it,
this looks to be the case with rain on the forecast for Sunday.
Look for the Tent Sale red carts inside the Main Room, 1/13/19.
Hoping to donate paper bags? We're now asking you to reuse these
instead of donating them. FOPAL receives plenty of bags with book
donations and strains to find space to store bags of bags.
For a list of what FOPAL gladly accepts and what we can't take please
refer to https://www.fopal.org/donate.
General guideline: if you wouldn’t give it to a friend please don't
give it to the "Friends".
A reminder, please bring all donations to: FOPAL Main Book Sale Room,
Cubberley Community Center, 4000 Middlefield Road, Palo Alto (rear of
campus, north entrance, next to the tennis courts) Monday - Saturday,
2-4pm, EXCEPT during our monthly sales on the second Saturday of the
month and Friday, the day before the sale.
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Nature
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"January is a great time to explore the Bay Area, but perhaps an even
better time to explore a cup of hot chocolate and a great (bargain)
book or two. For outdoor fun, we have shelves of like-new Audubon
Field guides, trail guides, and books to help you identify any local
plant, animal or insect you may find. Mushroom hunters will find great
resources as well.
"Just-in for the couch crowd: Where the Wild Things Are, The
Lost Art of Reading Nature's Signs, Requiem for a Species,
Why Dogs Hump and Bees Get Depressed, Grandma Gatewood's Walk,
City Chicks, and hundreds more." -Karen D.
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Large Format
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"No coffee table is really complete without a coffee-table book or
two. Designed for display, these typically oversize tomes are the
perfect showcases for gorgeous photography. You'll find a new
selection of large format books in the two specials bays to your
right as you enter just outside the sorting room. These are priced
50% or less than the lowest online asking price ranging from $4 to
$40. Examples include titles like The Love of Baby Animals, to the
25th Anniversary Edition Markets in Motion, The People of Burning
Man and Shape of Things to Come - New Sculpture.
"The small special bay by DVDs near the check-out line features
large-format Military History. Whether you're looking for
an intriguing coffee-table book to occupy your guests or searching
for inspiration for your next conversation, these offerings are sure
to fit the bill - and look terrific on your table while doing so."
-Janette
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Audiobooks
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"Books on CD are next to the movie DVDs. It's a small section but
packed with wonderful books, on a variety of subjects from self
help, comedy, classic novels, and current novels. If you would rather
listen than read, check out this section. We have three novels by
Jhumpa Lahiri, a CD by Anthony Bourdain, old radio broadcasts, Ken
Follett, Michael Crichton, Tom Clancy, and Ann Cleeves, too many
novels to mention. Don't forget to check it out. Just three shelves
going fast!" -Mary DeMasters
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Historical Fiction
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"We have lots of historical thrillers and sea stories. Alan Furst,
Bernard Cornwell, Fredrick Forsythe are among the authors. Also
plenty of books on the World Wars and Civil Wars." -Marian Urman
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Movies/Entertainment
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"The Movies/Entertainment section is in the north/west corner
of the book room. It is always easy to find: the African Queen is
hanging overhead.
"Our shelves are really full this month. We have the all time largest
set of film analysis and criticism books. The foreign film, directors'
corner (actually this month a shelf), Hollywood and film history, and
large format sections have many books we don't often see. Finally
there are several interesting bios/memoirs including multiple Bogie
and Penny Marshall.
"It's a good month -- come by and read a movie." -Dick Grote
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Children's Room
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"Our World Languages section has something for almost everyone. We
have books in all the following languages this month: Chinese
(Mandarin and Cantonese), Korean, Japanese, Farsi, Arabic, Spanish,
French, Hebrew, Dutch, Russian, German, Italian, Portuguese,
Swedish, and Danish. Often we can add Vietnamese, Czech, and other
languages to the list, depending on donations. If you want to
introduce a child to books in a language other than English, check
us out.
"Our shelves are full of books for beginning readers through high
school age. This month there's a fine selection of the series Ivy
and Bean, and our Harry Potter shelves have been replenished,
including copies of the earlier books in the series that have been
harder to find." -Carolyn Davidson
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Teen Reviews by Jeff Wang
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Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer
Artemis Fowl, despite being only 12 years old, is the leader of his
family's criminal empire, which he inherited from the death of his
father, an event that weakened the syndicate and also left Artemis's
mother insane. To restore his family's former glory, Artemis, with
extensive research, discovered a powerful secret -- the existence of
Fairies and Magic, hidden deep within the surface of the Earth. To
further his goals, he captures a elf, Captain Holly Shorts, incurring
the wrath of the Lower Elements Police, which is now sending attacks
against Fowl Manor. Will Artemis be able to restore his family's past,
all while surviving the Magic of the Fairies?
The Warrior's Apprentice by Lois McMaster Bujold
Miles Vorkosigan is a member of the Vor aristocracy on Barrayar, a
backwater planet in the Galactic Nexus. He would have had a bright
future on Barrayar, being son of the Prime Minister Aral Vorkosigan,
former Regent of Barrayar, had it not been for a assassination
attempt on his Father with solotoxin gas, which affected his then
pregnant mother that resulted in the crippling of Miles' skeletal
structure, which lead to his legs and overall skeleton being brittle
and deformed, a major disadvantage in mutation-fearing Barrayar.
Despite failing his physical tests for the Imperial Service Academy,
Miles leaves Barrayar to pursue his military career, albeit in a very
different direction than what he could have ever expected....
Freakonomics by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner
Ever wondered why teachers and sumo wrestlers cheat? Ever wondered if
there are similarities between real estate agents and the Ku Klux
Klan? In Freakonomics, Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner
explains these correlations by exploring the world of Microeconomics,
or put simply, the study of incentives. With these entertaining
explanations and many others throughout the book, the authors show an
interesting -- and rarely discussed, view of the world.
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Science Fiction and Fantasy
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"Science Fiction and Fantasy this month has a huge selection of
paperback science fiction, mostly from the '60s through '80s. Bring
your want lists, many of these are rarely seen -- more Mack Reynolds
than I knew existed. Also we have a nicely illustrated volume of
Arthur C. Clarke's 1986 predictions of the world of 'July 20, 2019.'
Only six months left -- get 'em before they go out of date!"
-Rich McAllister
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Gardening
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"It may be cold, wet, and dreary in early January, but it's not too
soon to start dreaming of that edible garden you could soon create on
a sunny plot in your yard or in a pot on the patio. This month the
Gardening section has a bumper crop of guides on successfully
growing vegetables and fruit. Full of step-by-step instructions and
inspiring photos are such volumes as Eat Your Yard!, Grow Your
Own Food, The Heirloom Life Garden, Kitchen Gardens of France,
plus Carrots Love Tomatoes (all about companion planting.
But if you'd rather just grow somethng easy, attractive, and
non-edible in pots, don't miss Succulent Container Gardens
and The Art of Gardening in Pots." -Ann Justice
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Judaica
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"Browse the Judaica section for books on the Jewish religion,
Kabbalah, Jewish history, the Holocaust, memoirs, Israel, Jewish
Women, the Jewish American Experience and other related subjects.
"New this month - Under the Vine and the Fig Tree: The Jews of the
Napa Valley; American Synagogues: A Century of Architecture and
Jewish Community; Rashi's Torah Commentary; ReVisions:
Seeing Torah through a Feminist Lens; Wrestling with Angels;
Pray Ball! The Spiritual Insights of a Jewish Sports Fan; The
Adventures of Rabbi Harvey: A Graphic Novel; The Story of the
Jews Volume Two: Belonging: 1492-1900.
"Most fiction with Jewish themes will be found in Modern Literature,
Classics, or Current Fiction. Books entirely in Hebrew are
shelved in the European Languages section." -Charlotte
Epstein
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Music
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"Visit the Music section for books on a wide variety of
musical topics in the genres of classical, rock, jazz, opera,
American music, and dance.
"New this month - The Registration of Baroque Organ Music; It's
Not Only Rock & Roll: Popular Music in the Lives of Adolescents;
Sing for Your Life; Pitch Perfect: The Quest for Collegiate A
Cappella Glory; Weather Bird: Jazz at the Dawn of Its Second
Century; Here She Comes Now; The First Four Notes: Beethoven's
Fifth and the Human Imagination; The Joffrey Ballet School's
Ballet-Fit.
"Also browse our wide selection of sheet music neatly sorted by
instruments including violin, piano, trumpet and guitar."
-Charlotte Epstein
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Self-Help
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"I've received a larger-than-usual selection of books from 2018 and
2017, many very popular on Amazon; they’re placed (spine out) on the
top shelves. Other Featured Books are: Change Your Questions Change
Your Life; Spy the Lie; In an Unspoken Voice; Verbal Judo;
Paths Along the Incest Trail; The Primal Wound; Thanks;
Outsmarting Yourself; Wired for Love; Falling into Grace;
and Ego is the Enemy. For Valentine's day see the 'Love'
subsection and potential gifts from 'Little Books' section. The
'Mind-Brain' and 'Addiction' sections are larger than usual. The
'Family/Parenting Teens' section is large now but I probably won't
continue to have one if the books don't sell. Enjoy browsing and may
2019 bring more Peace and Joy to All Beings!" -Marnie
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