The special inaugural celebration, set for 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at 690 Pohukaina (near Coral and Pohukaina streets), is open to the public and will include music by the Royal Hawaiian band, a lion dance, a Hawaiian blessing, a book reading by Wally Amos, coffee from Starbucks and cookies and milk for the kids.

The bookstore's regular hours of operation will be will be 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Mondays through Fridays, except state holidays.

The store will be staffed by volunteers, just like the Friends' annual book sale. Friends executive director Byrde Cestare is quick to assure fans of the popular annual sale that there will be plenty of items left for that event.

"We have so many donations that our storage area for our annual sale in July is just about full and it's only January. We want to keep books moving so we are opening the bookstore as a first step to a much bigger, permanent location," she said.

The temporary truck bookstore is named "Bill's Bookmobile" for the late Bill Harper, whose wife, Sally, is a Friends board member. The family asked for donations to the bookmobile project at the time of his death last spring and more than $6,000 was raised in his name. Although dubbed as a bookmobile, the bookstore will remain stationary at the Friends' headquarters.

Cestare said the Friends are seeking about 3,500 square feet somewhere downtown to house the office, book-sorting operations and a permanent, year-round bookstore. The organization receives about 300,000 books a year, of which 100,000 are sold at the annual sale.

"We give away or donate elsewhere at least twice that number," she said. The organization not only receives donations from individuals but handles withdrawn books from the state's 51 libraries. In addition, it gets donations from businesses, such as the 2,000 magazines a month donated by Hawaii Prince hotels.