Friends of Library event still a best-seller
By Will Hoover
Advertiser Staff Writer
The Friends of the Library of Hawai'i 55th Annual Book Sale began promptly at 10:01 a.m. yesterday with volunteer doorman Bud Schwab rattling a cowbell and yelling, "Let the games begin!"
Jeff Widener • The Honolulu Advertiser
Four hundred eager book buyers plowed past Schwab and started wading through tens of thousands of volumes. Hundreds more bibliophiles waited their turn outside the McKinley High School cafeteria. As one buyer checked out the side door, another was allowed in the front.
Kelly Ueshiro, 8,of Kanoelani School, has romance on her mind as she searches through the wide selection of books offered at The Friends of the Library of Hawai'i 55th Annual Book Sale at the McKinley High School cafeteria. The book sale opened yesterday and continues through Saturday.
"We could get 700 in there legally, but we keep it down to 400 so they can move around a little bit," said Schwab, who's gone through two cowbells in the past half-dozen years.
"We just had an unusual complaint," said Caroline Bond-Dvojacki, executive director of Friends. "The line to get in runs all the way to King Street. The woman who complained said she'd come back later."
If and when the woman returns to the book sale — which runs through Saturday — she'll still find a humongous selection to choose from, said Bond-Dvojacki, who likes to describe the Friends' collection by its weight in African bull elephants.
The total comes to 14 pachyderms, figuring the sale started out with 3,000 boxes of books weighing 70 pounds each (the largest male Jumbo tips the scales at 15,000 pounds).
Ed Nathanson came prepared to buy enough books to at least fill a trunk. To be the very first person through the door, Nathanson, showed up at 3:30 a.m. toting plenty of flattened cardboard boxes. That was two hours ahead of Sean Hammel, the next person to show up.
"We got here a little early," admitted Nathanson, a Maui book dealer, who likened the moment to "one big treasure hunt."
Once inside, Nathanson headed straight for the Philosophy table and picked up a copy of "On Man in the Universe," by Aristotle.
Nathanson also carried a secret weapon: a Palm Pilot loaded with a laser scanner and 100,000 book titles wanted by his list of wholesale buyers.
After scanning the bar code on a copy of the fourth edition of "The Fundamentals of Philosophy," he sat the book back down.
"Nope," he said. "They won't buy it. It's an older edition."
Elsewhere, Alicia Hankins was thumbing through Astrology books with her Jack Russell Terrier, Mr. MacKenzie, cradled papoose-style in a harness slung around Hankins' neck.
The dog appeared to be reading book titles, but Hankins knew he only had eyes for Coco, a 6-year-old long-haired chihuahua in the arms of her owner, Norio Kataoka.
As more and more people showed up, volunteer Ann Schwab, wife of Bud Schwab, scrambled around for empty boxes to pile by the entrance.
"I've been the box lady for years," said Schwab, whose name tag read Go-fer. "If people don't have boxes, they aren't going to buy that many books. So, the box lady is very important."
Meanwhile, veteran helper Chris Lee watched several moms pass by pushing toddlers in strollers. He said some people don't need boxes to load up on books.
"We've seen children take their fledgling steps at this book sale," Lee said with a grin. "They kick the kids out so they can fill up the stroller."
