The History & Anthropology Club and Sigma Tau Delta, Monmouth’s English Honor Society, held its annual book sale on Sept. 30 and Oct. 1, giving students a chance to pick up a couple books for a cheap price and find something new and interesting to read. Books cost $1 each, or students could purchase five books for $6.
The sale had tables full of donated books, allowing students to walk through between classes to find something. The atmosphere was quiet and calming, allowing anyone to look through the selection. The tables had a wide variety of books. Topics included history, medicine, fiction, cars, and music, with various other niche topics scattered in between. Other tables had a few smaller topics like criminal law, psychology, politics, and religion. The books were also quite nicely organized, with each having their own section. Maryanne Rhett, Ph.D., chair of the Department of History and Anthropology, estimated that there were around 100-500 books total, in approximately 40 bankers boxes.
The sale was located in room 101 in the Guggenheim Memorial Library. Students stopped by and shopped around. Julian Nicholas, a double major in history and political science, said, “I was here at the book sale yesterday, and I wanted to see what else the bookstore had for sale. And to give myself something to read.” Julian also encouraged people to read more, especially in their free time. He said, “I really encourage you to read. Reading is a very powerful tool, and not only that, it allows you to immerse yourself into different types of worlds or get a better understanding of something.”
Among the books available for purchase was a twelve-volume complete set of history books from the 1980s. Multiple copies of Shakespeare’s complete works were also for sale and a one thousand page, “The Oxford Companion to the Mind,” edited by Richard L. Gregory. Multiple books in history and psychology genres were published in the 1950s or 1960s. Items for sale also included music and film guides from the 1990s and early 2000s.
A six-volume set of the history of the Soviet Union, published in Russian published by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, and sat next to a guide on American opera.
The sale was an opportunity for the History and Anthropology club, and Sigma Tau Delta to raise money. Some of the books were donated from the library, and others from other sources, including donations from professors. With the myriad of books, the book sale was quite successful with many books already sold out by Thursday. According to Dr. Rhett, the record high for the sale, was a single student buying 36 books. The sale is expected to return next year.
