The Friends of the St. Joseph Public Library will hosts a book sale letter this month to benefit library programs.

The sale begins with a Friends Only Preview Sale on Thursday, October 19 from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. at the East Hills Shopping Center by the carousel. The sale opens to the general public Thursday afternoon, October 19 at 3 p.m. Hardcover books are $2 each, paperbacks $1. DVDs and CDs are $2. The sale continues on Friday and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. On Sunday, October 22, the sale is open from noon to 5 p.m. and everything is half-price. Monday, October 23, is “bag and box day” from 9 a.m. until 8 p.m. Buy all you can fit in a bag for $3 or a box for $6. Shoppers also have the option to choose a reusable Friends of the Library bag and fill it for $5.

The library said items are sorted into categories to make shopping easy. There are many fiction books, as usual, for people to collect their favorite authors or to browse for reading ideas, and there are separate sections for romance, mystery, westerns, science fiction and fantasy. In addition, there are some children’s books from which to choose. There are also several categories of non-fiction, including history, biography, art, religion, cooking and more. There will be about 15,000 items at the sale.

The Friends of the St. Joseph Public Library is a non-profit organization formed to support literacy and the public library system. Proceeds from the sale help fund Summer Reading Programs for all ages at the four library branches, as well as books for book clubs. The Friends also give free books to children at St. Joseph Juneteenth and Pumpkinfest celebrations.