Musty Books + Musty People = A Charleston Tradition!
October 12, 2009
I have two images of Charleston County Library’s annual “THAT Big Book Sale” held downtown each October: fun literary finds and pissing rain. I have been to the event held at the Gaillard Auditorium four times, and it has rained each time—a miserable, all-day soaker. Since smell is the sense most closely linked to memory, I guess musty books + wet people = THAT Big Book Sale.
But the annual downtown Charleston event is still a helluva thing. Up to 10,000 book freaks shuffle through the hall over the course of the weekend, rifling through more than 60,000 used books, CDs, DVDs, cassettes, videotapes and rare collectibles. The event is sponsored by the Friends of the Charleston County Public Library, a non-profit volunteer organization that raises money through book sales to help fund Library services, equipment, training, materials and public programming.
I have seen, and bought, a little bit of everything there. Antique hardbound books, pulp novels, textbooks, foreign language stuff, sheet music, old movies on VHS, and on and on. And, this being Charleston, there is also a wide selection of books about Charleston, the Low Country, the Civil War and South Carolina in general.
If you’re looking for a true smarty-party experience that you can only find in downtown Charleston SC, this is it. So, make it a point to check out THAT Big Book Sale next year at Gaillard Auditorium, on Calhoun Street in downtown Charleston. The Auditorium has a parking garage nearby but, despite the pissing rain, I have always had good luck finding street parking in the Ansonborough area.
Again, THAT Big Book Sale is the labor of love of the Friends of the Charleston County Public Library. Visit them at www.CharlestonLibraryFriends.org.
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