ExLibris's 6th Charity Booksale in Gedling sold more books and raised more money than ever before.

We had our most successful Gedling booksale to date this year, and raised £858.  This will be split between two local charities: Hayward House Cancer Care and Nottingham & Notts Refugee Forum's anti-destitution project.  Also importantly, we saved a lot of books from landfill or worse, and pleased a lot of people by bringing them cheap and interesting books.  And our joists are sighing with relief as the weight on them is a little reduced.

Saturday was by far the best day, with crowds arriving before our official opening time.  We had to put our masks on pronto!  (But they weren't the first customers - we'd already had some on Friday, as we were still setting up.)  Books flowed off the shelves, and we were amazed when queues formed, with people waiting to pay. 

In the garage were books on subjects such as history, politics, art, science, education, travel, biography, poetry, etc.  Along the front of the house people could browse leisure and practical subjects such as gardening, cookery, crafts, sport, transport and so on.  Children had their own tiny bookshop by the front door.  The back porch housed the fiction, sorted into hardbacks and paperbacks, popular fiction, literary fiction, classics, detective fiction and science fiction - all ably held up with baked bean tins.  Shelves were replenished as books were bought.  ExLibris merchandise, the raffle, and CDs and DVDs were under the gazebo in front of the main shop.  This was also where there was a small display of work by People's Histreh, which several people found interesting.

Margaret's fantastic cakes were again popular, and some people made themselves a drink to go with their cake.

Sunday was less busy, and Monday was even quieter.  (Last year was the first time we'd stayed open on the Monday, as an experiment which seemed to work.  But now we're wondering whether Fri, Sat, Sun might be a better three days to be open.)  But books were still sold.  The raffle was drawn at 4pm on Monday, and winners have been notified.  We were gratified to find that the first prize winner chose a boxed set of books as her prize.

Our helpers started arriving soon after 5pm on Monday, to help us pack up and carry the boxes back upstairs.  This seemingly huge job was done remarkably quickly, thanks to the unflagging energy and general wonderfulness of these excellent people.  We then sat down with an Indian takeaway, trying to remember what "relaxed" feels like.

In Gedling, last weekend, the book was certainly not dying!  A lot of people still care.  Thank you to everyone!

ExLibris is a member of the Federation of Masked Booksellers.