Round Table Founders Spread Words About Reading

Since Margaret Burk and Marylin Hudson launched Round Table West at the now-shuttered Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles in 1977, the monthly literary luncheon has become the largest program of its kind in the nation.

Authors from Maya Angelou and Erica Jong to Walter Cronkite and Arianna Huffington have stopped by to discuss their books at the Round Table West literary gatherings in L.A. (at the Regent Beverly Wilshire Hotel since 1990) and at the Balboa Bay Club in Newport Beach (since 1989) and the La Quinta Club and Resort near Palm Springs (since 1993).

That’s more than 375 luncheons, 1,500 authors and 106,000 audience members over the last 21 years.

But those aren’t the only statistics Burk and Hudson, former partners in a Los Angeles public relations firm, have accumulated since forming their nonprofit organization at the suggestion of their late friend and co-founder, journalist Adela Rogers St. Johns.

The organization has collected more than 170,000 books for the less-publicized part of its literary mission: to encourage more people to read.

Round Table West’s Books for the Bookless program, begun informally in 1977 and grown more active during the last five years, provides books to people who can’t afford them or don’t have access to them.

That means giving new and used books to hospitals, prisons, shelters, senior centers and Meals on Wheels programs.

Not just any books are welcome. Hudson makes a point of distinguishing between the books she and Burk collect from donors and those they actually donate to organizations.

They have had to discard textbooks, old dictionaries, encyclopedias with missing volumes, damaged books and books on out-of-date subjects, Hudson said.

“People think any darn book they have is valuable,” she said. “I’d figure about 40% really are not very usable. And some of them, actually, I have to pay to haul off to the dump.”

Sorting through mountains of books is time-consuming. With help from a high school student, Hudson spent two weeks last summer going through 9,000 books--leftovers from a Coldwell Banker-sponsored book sale held to raise money for high school scholarships in Pasadena.

Books for the program come from all over. Hudson said one Round Table West member in Orange County has brought a shopping bag full of mystery novels “in pristine condition” to the last four meetings.

Books come to Hudson--she’s a book reviewer for Orange Coast magazine--and another source of books is publishers interested in having their authors speak at Round Table West.

“We get probably 800 or 900 a year from those two sources--brand new, prime condition, of course,” she said.

Hudson said she’s not sure what to do with some of the books donated to the program.

“I once got a book on sewer systems published in 1906,” she recalled. “I thought, ‘Who in the world would want a book on sewer systems?’ But I happen to know a guy who was a sanitation engineer, and he was thrilled about it. You can’t just really dump them. Sometimes . . . [we] will give them to the [public] library and let them worry about it.”

Whenever possible, Hudson said, she and Burk try to match books with recipients.

Biographer Donald Spoto donated hundreds of volumes on the British Empire that he had accumulated while doing research for his books on the Royal Family and Princess Diana. The books, some printed in England in the 1930s, were placed at the British Home, a retirement facility in Sierra Madre.

Bestselling author Sidney Sheldon has donated at least 1,000 books, many in foreign languages; those went to foreign-language students at Glendale Community College, the University of Southern California and other schools.

And big band singer Martha Tilton (a Los Angeles chapter member) has donated books on music and biographies of singers and performers; those were sent to the Motion Picture and Television Fund home in Woodland Hills.

Hudson said prison libraries are a primary recipient of books. She and Burk recently donated 5,600 books to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, which has a library at each of its eight custodial facilities. Before it was closed due to earthquake damage, the Sybil Brand Institute in East Los Angeles got more than 5,000 books. (Hudson has learned that hardcover books are not welcome in some prisons because they can be used as weapons--”even Bibles,” she said.)

“I feel [the Books for the Bookless program] is something we should be doing,” Hudson said. “When we started, people discouraged me. They said, ‘You need trucks and warehouses.’ Frankly, we could use trucks and warehouses, but we don’t have the money to get them. But we do the best we can with what you’ve got.”

Richard Paul Evans, who has appeared on Round Table West programs several times in Orange County, recently donated 7,000 paperback copies of his bestseller, “The Christmas Box,” to the program.

Just before Christmas, Royal Radtke, Orange County chairman of Books for the Bookless, dressed up as Santa Claus to deliver copies of Evans’ book.

Four hundred went to the Orange County Rescue Mission, 300 to patients at Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian in Newport Beach. The Oasis Senior Center, Friends in Service to Humanity and DeAnza Senior Bayside Village Mobile Home Park, all in Newport Beach, got 100 copies each.

Such books are in demand “because there are so many seniors and physically disadvantaged people who are unable to get to a library, and there is no source for them to get books,” said Radtke, executive director of the Corona del Mar Chamber of Commerce. “I don’t know how many thousands of books I’ve distributed to people in Newport over the last two years, and we continue to collect them.”

Anyone interested in donating books can call Radtke at (949) 673-4050 or drop them off at the Chamber of Commerce, 2843 E. Coast Highway, Corona del Mar.

Or take them to the next Round Table West luncheon near you.

On Tap

* Rafer Johnson (“The Best I Can Be”), A. Scott Berg (“Lindbergh”) and Linda McCoy Murray, widow of Los Angeles Times sports columnist Jim Murray (“Jim Murray: The Last of the Best,” a compilation of the best of Murray’s columns in the 1990s) will discuss their books at noon Tuesday at the Balboa Bay Club, 1221 W. Coast Highway, Newport Beach. Cost: $40. For reservations, call (213) 256-7977.

* Relationship experts Lew and Francine Epstein will speak and sign “Trusting You Are Loved: Practices for Partnership” at 6 p.m. today at Borders Books and Music, 1890 Newport Blvd., Costa Mesa.

* Riley St. James, author of “Shadows of the Moonglade,” will sign at 7 p.m. Thursday at Barnes & Noble in the Irvine Spectrum, 31 Fortune Drive.

* Barbara Berg will speak and sign copies of “What to Do When Life Is Driving You Crazy: Help for Handling Everyday Crises for the Rest of Your Life” at 7 p.m. Friday at Borders Books and Music, 429 Associated Road, Brea.

* Financial expert Lorraine Spurge will give a free personal finance seminar and sign copies of her new book, “Money Clips: 365 Tips That Will Pay One Day at a Time,” at 7 p.m. Saturday at Borders Books and Music, 429 S. Associated Road, Brea.

* A used-book sale will be held from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Saturday at the Newport Beach Central Library, 1000 Avocado Ave.

* Poets Gerry Locklin and Patricia Cherin will read at 8 p.m. Tuesday at the Factory Readings at the Gypsy Den Cafe and Reading Room in the Lab, 2930 Bristol St., Costa Mesa. Free.

* Magda Gerber and Allison Johnson, authors of “Your Self-Confident Baby,” will speak and sign at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Borders Books and Music, 1890 Newport Blvd., Costa Mesa.

Send information about book-related events at least 10 days before event to: Dennis McLellan, O.C. Books & Authors, Life & Style, The Times, 1375 Sunflower Ave., Costa Mesa, CA 92626.