Calgary Reads hosting the Big Book Sale for readers of all ages

The Big Book Sale kicked off Friday morning at the Calgary Curling Club, with volunteers having organized close to 300,000 donated books for new homes.

The 21st annual Calgary Reads Big Book Sale is a book lover’s dream come true aimed at those who still like to flip pages rather than using a tablet to read.

The massive sale boasts close to 300,000 publications up for grabs of every genre imaginable from May 9 to the 18 at the Calgary Curling Club.

The Rotary Club of Calgary stewards the book sale and the event funds various child literacy programs.

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Steacy Pinney, early childhood literacy committee chair for the club, says it all started with Calgary Reads.

“We are now a larger group of partners called the Kids Literacy Collective,” she said.

“That collective comes together, sits with the rotary early childhood literacy committee and makes decisions based on what does our community need most so it goes for all programs for kids from birth to age eight.”

The curling club has been transformed with the ice taken out and replaced by tables topped with thousands of books.

Dozens of volunteers work at different stations sorting the reading material to make it easier for customers to find the books they like.

Tami Tranquada, volunteer coordinator, says close to 1,400 volunteers started setting up the event and sorting books on April 24.

“And in that time we sort - it’s hard to estimate exactly what we sort through but about 300,000 books,” she said.

“We set up over 300 tables and of course we divide them into probably 60 or 70 different subcategories, it’s a pretty amazing group of people.”

Organizers say the books are affordable with many priced between two and four dollars and the funds generated from the sale go towards child literacy programs to have more kids experience the joy of reading.

“We’re kind of nervous this year with the limited parking and we’ve had to reduce the number of appointments so we’re not sure (how much money we’ll raise this year),” said Pinney.

“But for the last two years, we’ve raised over $500,000 each year, that’s a lot of books and it’s a lot of good going back into the community to support childhood literacy.”

By comparison in 2003 at the inaugural sale, buyers of donated, gently used books helped raise $5,000 for Calgary Reads.

Twenty years later the sale has grown through initiatives led by YWCA Calgary, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Calgary and Area, Canadian Children’s Literacy Foundation, Little Red Reading House along with Frontier College, Mount Royal University and the University of Calgary.

“This is the generosity of Calgary right,” said Pinney.

“I think they’ve learned - I’ve come to the sale, I buy my books, I read them over the year, I put them in a box, I donate them back and then I come and buy new ones so nobody gets an overflowing bookshelf and they can feel good about their own reading habits.”

In addition to books, the sale also has sections of audiobooks, DVDs and collectibles and shoppers pay a small fee to enter the sale but can find gently-used bestsellers and new releases.

Organizers say the ultimate goal of the sale is to grow a thriving reading community.

Learn more about it here: https://www.bigbooksale.ca/