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Friends of the Library Book Sale returns this weekend for Gainesville readers

Sue Morris browses the Friends of the Library shelves for a Carl Hiaasen book. Photo by Seth Johnson
Sue Morris browses the Friends of the Library shelves for a Carl Hiaasen book.
Photo by Seth Johnson
Key Points
  • The Alachua County Friends of the Library Book Sale opens Saturday with half a million items across around 60 categories and 500 subcategories available for browsing.
  • The sale runs five days with special pricing on Tuesday and Wednesday, and features a Collector’s Corner with rare signed first editions.
  • Proceeds from the sale support the Alachua County Library District and local literacy initiatives, including a separate art annex with various collectibles.

The Book House opens Saturday, letting readers flip through half a million items sorted into around 60 categories and more than 500 subcategories, plus art, puzzles, games, vinyls, CDs, audiobooks and more at the Alachua County Friends of the Library Book Sale. 

The first 300 entrants will start the five-day sale at 9 a.m. and the Saturday sale ends at 6 p.m. For Sunday through Wednesday, the hours will be noon to 6 p.m., and as always, Tuesday will be half-price day while Wednesday is 10-cent day. 

Sue Morris, spokesperson for the sale, said volunteers started selling boxes of books at the 2026 spring sale. Each box came with around 20 books within the mystery and children’s literature categories.  

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Morris said the boxes were popular, so sale volunteers expanded options to include children’s picture books, romance, paperback mystery, assorted magazines, DVDs, CDs, new age astrology and chicken soup for the soul (feel-good stories). 

Within the main Book House lies the Collector’s Corner. Shoppers can spy first edition memoirs by Serena Williams—also signed—and the late Dolly Parton.  

The Friends of the Library Book Sale contains around 60 categories and over 500 subcategories to browse. Photo by Seth Johnson
Photo by Seth Johnson The Friends of the Library Book Sale contains around 60 categories and over 500 subcategories to browse.

Other notables include a Louisa May Alcott edition from 1874; a signed, 1970 copy of Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach; a first United States edition of Agatha Christie’s “Evil Under the Sun”; a first edition of “Death in the Afternoon” by Ernest Hemingway; and a signed, 35th anniversary edition of “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee.  

The corner has an online list of notable wares for this sale, including 29 first editions and 10 signed copies. The list is available here. 

Morris said readers should expand their expectations for different categories, like history, which includes 26 subcategories. She said each section is more than the connotation each shopper has and there’s at least one or two items for each person. 

Besides the main Book House with the Collector’s Corner, the sale includes a separate entrance and checkout for the art annex.  

The annex contains framed paintings and prints, image cutouts, statues and collectibles, books on every dimension of art, board games, puzzles and comics.  

Proceeds from the sale support the Alachua County Library District along with other literacy initiatives in the area.  

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