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Lions Club gears up for book sale, Oct. 24-27

  • The annual Lions Club Book Sale will be Oct. 24-27. (Press photo James Grob.)

  • Volunteers bring in some donated books for the annual Lions Club Book Sale, which is Oct. 24-27. (Press photo James Grob.

  • Esther Horvath and Russell Schwarz sort through books in preparation for the annual Lions Club Book Sale, which is Oct. 24-27. (Press photo James Grob.)

By James Grob, jgrob@charlescitypress.com

Since Esther Horvath has been involved, the Charles City Lions Club’s annual book sale has been a well-oiled machine.

“I love doing it; I look forward to it every year,” said Horvath, who sells books online and has been helping the Lions sort, organize and sell the donated books for about 10 years. “I sit at my computer all the time, so this is pretty much my exercise.”

Readers and fans of books can chat with Horvath at the Charles City Lions Club book sale, which will be Wednesday through Saturday, Oct. 24-27, at the east entrance of the Schueth Ace Hardware Building at 300 Gilbert St. in Charles City.

Hours will be 4-7 p.m. on Wednesday, 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Thursday and Friday, and 9 a.m. to noon on Saturday.

Horvath has been hard at work all this week in an attempt to keep the sale orderly.

“It’s going to be a little bit more organized this time because we have more tables,” she said. “I’m trying to sort mystery and novels and fiction, so it will be more organized, instead of having groups of books all together on one table.”

Russell Schwarz, Lions Club president, said the sale usually raises about $4,000-$5,000 each year.

“The money all goes to local charities right here in Charles City,” he said.

Proceeds go back to the community through Lions projects. Among many other things, the club subsidizes hearing aids and eyeglasses for residents and children in the community, conducts free vision tests on preschoolers, and recycles about 800 eyeglasses a year which are sent abroad through Lions Club International.

“The Lions Club are just a great bunch of guys — look what they accomplish for the community,” Horvath said.

Books, music albums, compact discs, DVDs and videotapes can be donated for the sale. They can be dropped off at Otto’s Oasis, First Citizens National Bank, First Security Bank, CUSB Bank, Fareway, Hy-Vee, Theisens and Ace Hardware. No magazines, National Geographics, textbooks or encyclopedia sets are permitted.

“The first year I moved here I went to the book sale. I thought I might be able to help and sort for them,” Horvath said. “Every year we have different amounts of things that come in. We may have 20 more boxes of cookbooks come in this year. So then we incorporate, close tables and move things.”

Horvath used to live in Charles City, and now lives in Riceville. Before that, she lived in Florida for 22 years.

After the sale each year, the Lions members box up the remaining “good books” for sale next year, and Horvath buys what’s left. She sells the remaining books online, waits 30 days to make sure the sale is final, then sends the money to the Lions Club.

“Last year, we had an amazing selection of books,” she said. “This year so far looks to be about the same.”

The prices on the donated books range from 50 cents to $4 each.

“That is pretty much as high as we go, except for, we do display some older books, and the ones that we think are worth more money, we look them up on the iPads and compare the prices to Amazon and Bookfinder and price those,” Horvath said. “If they’re very valuable I just take them home and sell them for them.”

Horvath said that there is a good selection of books for children and teens this year so far, and that over the years she’s seen all different kinds of books, including ones published in the 1800s. She said that she’s also seen books with titles that are quite funny.

“I’ve got one up there that I’m going to buy to put on the bookshelf in my kitchen,” she said. “I’m a really good cook, and the title of the book is ‘Any Bitch Can Cook.’  I looked at the title and started laughing, and decided it needed to be on my kitchen shelf.”

Schwarz said the book sale has been going on as long as he can remember. He joined the Lions Club in 1977, and “it was going on then already.”

He said the sale has been held at various locations, but the current spot at the east entrance of Ace Hardware is ideal. Denise Holzer owns the building and allows the Lions to use the building for the sale.

“This unused part of the store works very good. It’s lighted, it’s heated,” he said. “We sure appreciate all the donations that have been coming in. We encourage people to donate more, and come out and buy books.”

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