Book seller

Friends of Washoe County Library (FWCL) is a volunteer-run organization that raises money for the Washoe County Libraries. Their semi-regular book sales, which cumulate with bargain days in which books are sold in bulk for $6 a bag, have moved to a new location called Read Again Bookstore in Reno Town Mall, 4001 S. Virginia St. To volunteer, call FWCL steering committee chairperson Susan Bruno at 972-4328. For more information, visit www.washoelibraryfriends.org.

What is Friends of Washoe County Library?

We are a nonprofit 501c3 organization that raises funds for the Washoe County Library. Wednesday evening [Jan. 16], we’re giving the library $100,000 that we raised in 2012.

What does that money go toward?

Anything the library needs. We provide all the money for all the programming that takes place in the libraries. They have magicians sometimes in coordination with Pioneer Center. The programs are usually listed on your [RN&R] calendar.

Tell me about the book sale. Where do all those books come from?

Eighty percent of them are donated from the community. We have some that are library discards, because they are culling out books at the present time. So we have some library discards, but the majority of them are donated from the local population.

If people want to donate books, how do they go about that?

They can bring them to Read Again Bookstore. … We have a big red door at the back of Reno Town Mall, and that’s where you donate.

What drew you to volunteer to help the library?

I believe in reading. I love reading. I believe in education. I believe the libraries are a very important part of Washoe County.

Tell me more about the Read Again Bookstore.

We had a small place on Gentry [Way] we called the Book Warehouse, but we could never have larger book sales there. When we moved to Mill [Street], we always called it Booksale Bonanza. Our book sales have been called “booksale bonanzas” for quite a few years—I think about nine years. But then, when we rented the place on Gentry, we couldn’t call them bonanzas because we had them every month, and it was only 2,000 square feet. This one has approximately 100,000 books that we will have for sale this weekend.

How often is the bookstore going to be open?

We’re going to have it open every other month. This weekend is the first weekend we’ll be open, and then we’ll be open the second weekend of March. And then every other month from then on. We thought we’d have it this weekend because we have Martin Luther King Day.

Anything else?

After the sale, the teachers come in—Washoe County teachers—and they have their choice of books for their classrooms. Then, the Kiwanis Club comes in and takes books to donate to the Fourth Street hotels. And, finally, Reno Gospel Mission comes in and takes the rest to give to the shelters. So, all the books stay in the community in one way or another, which is really important to us.