FOUNTAIN VALLEY : Paging Readers: Book Bargains Available

Good books and good buys are what readers will find inside the Friends Bookstore at the Fountain Valley branch of the Orange County Public Library.

“You can’t beat the price,” said mother of three Kari Koh, 31, of Tustin. She recently bought three children’s books, including “Black Beauty,” for a quarter apiece.

Dolores Gann of Huntington Beach frequents the bookstore and browses through shelves for outdated books about U.S. Presidents.

“I can really find old treasures,” said Gann, 63.

If readers don’t mind yellowed pages and worn covers, discards can be the best deals, agreed Don Walker, 50, of Huntington Beach.

“The bargains are unbelievable,” he said. “You can have untold hours of entertainment for $5.”

Walker recently spent $6.50 and filled two canvas sacks with 14 books, 13 of them for his mother, Catherine Walker, who is a voracious reader, and one for his daughter.

“This was an expensive trip,” Walker said.

Usually Walker spends a few bucks, but he splurged on two large print books at $1 each and 10 Agatha Christie books. His mother likes mysteries.

The bookstore, operated by the Friends of Fountain Valley Library, resells donated books from the community. Books discarded by the library also are sold in the store, nestled inside a small room next to the entrance of the library at 17635 Los Alamos St.

Book prices can’t be beat: 25 cents for paperbacks and children’s books; 50 cents for hardcover books and large-size paperbacks and 10 cents for magazines.

Proceeds from sales help the library put on free community programs and pay for new books, equipment and supplies.

“The Friends help the library buy things the county can’t or doesn’t supply for the library,” said June Brown, co-chair of the bookstore with Dorothy Nail.

The money is sorely needed since the county has cut the library budget, which resulted in libraries reducing hours and cutting services, Brown said.

Brown said the store reaped about $12,000 from sales last year.

“It’d be pretty grim, cut and dry, without the Friends,” added Phyllis Brown, Fountain Valley Library branch manager. “They provide so many wonderful extras that make the public want to come to the library and use it.”

Among the bookstore’s bestsellers are romance novels, mysteries, and science fiction and fantasy books, Nail said.

Cookbooks, craft books and children’s books are also popular, she said. Readers will also find books just for women on such topics as beauty tips or how to get ahead in business. There are college textbooks and books on art and music, nature and ecology, child-rearing--and even books on how to hold a garage sale.

Magazines, while they are old issues, run the gamut from Gourmet to Glamour to National Geographic.

The store is staffed by Friends volunteers, who each work a 2 1/2-hour shift a week to price and shelve books and ring up purchases.

And they are book lovers themselves.

Volunteer Mary Geller, who likes to read classics, said: “We go through the books to see what’s new and what you want to read.”

Nail agreed: “We’re our own best customers.”

Bookstore hours are noon to 7 p.m. Mondays and Tuesdays and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Thursdays and Saturdays.