History book sale is appetizer for the History Book Festival

The ninth annual History Book Festival is next weekend in Lewes, running Friday, Sept. 26 through Sunday, Sept. 28.

As a warmup to the festivities, the Friends of the Lewes Public Library are selling thousands of history, biography and collectible books this weekend.

I saw the notice about the sale and reached out to the group. I thought it was a good idea, and I wanted to give them credit for doing something new. Apparently, I’m not as observant as I thought because Candace Vessella, Friends of the Lewes Public Library board of directors president, told me they do this sale every year at this time.

It’s the ninth year for the sale, and it's always done deliberately the weekend before the festival, said Vessella.

The Friends’ shop bases the prices of its books off the prices listed on bookfinder.com, and then they cut them in half. There’s over a million books on that website and, Vessella said, she’s been able to find every one on there so far, as long as the title is correct.

“Every little bit counts,” said Vessella, on why they don’t charge the prices found on the website.

The all-volunteer group puts the money raised back into the library in the form of book purchases, library programming and other needs, said Vessella.

The Friends used to hold large sales, with a mix of genres, but it ended up being a lot of work for not much return, said Vessella. Now, they have speciality sales on a specific subject, she said, pointing to the organization’s other sales – holiday sale in mid-December, a mystery book sale in mid-January and a beach reads sale in mid-April.

Well, the sale may not be a new thing, but it’s still a good idea and supports a worthy cause. It takes place 3 to 5 p.m., Friday, Sept. 19, and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 20, at the library, 111 Adams Ave., Lewes.

I’d love to have a pier around here

I was in Oceanside, Calif., for a few days recently volunteering at the U.S. Open Adaptive Surfing Championships. I’m one of roughly a dozen folks who have gone out there a handful of times. It’s always a whirlwind weekend – fly in Thursday; spend seven to eight hours in the water for three straight days; fly out Monday.

One of the things I like to do during the downtime is check out what’s going on at the Oceanside Pier. Coming in at nearly 2,000 feet long, the pier is open 4 a.m. to 10 p.m., daily, and the collection of people on it is always interesting. There are people fishing off the pier as soon as it opens until it closes. There are people getting their daily workouts in, and there are people who aren’t really doing anything. There are people busking, and there are people watching people (I fall into the latter group).

The town immediately north of where I grew up in Maine – Old Orchard Beach – has a pier. It also had an interesting mix of people. There were French Canadian tourists who drove down I-95, and there were tourists from New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Connecticut who drove up I-95. This pier is a quarter of the length of Oceanside’s, but it has small shops running along the pier.

Basically, I would love to have a commercial-style pier around here for locals and tourists to congregate on. It would cost millions to build, take forever to get permitted and I don’t know where it would be located, but it would be fun to have.

Joke of the Week

Rehoboth Beach resident Hoyte Decker recently wrote a letter to the editor about feeling disenfranchised by the city’s elected officials. As part of his letter, he submitted a joke for my column. I always appreciate the participation. As always, send jokes to cflood@capegazette.com.

Q: What did the city mayor say to the citizen who spoke out of turn? 

A: Don't you know you have to wait your turn? This is a city meeting, not a city gabfest!