Over here, if you know where to look, you might find a well-worn, leather-bound Bible “translated out of the original tongues” and published in 1831. Over there is a first-edition copy of “Yes Is Better Than No,” written by the late Tucsonan Byrd Baylor in 1972.
Current bestsellers? Check.
Children’s books, audiobooks and vintage vinyls? Check. Check. Check.
Every trip to a used-book bookstore is an adventure, but few offer as many possibilities as the Friends Book Barn at 2230 N. Country Club Road.
Libby Stone, executive director of Friends of the Pima County Public Library.
“It is definitely fun to see what comes in every day,” Executive Director Libby Stone said this week, laughing. “You just never know. Two or three years ago, we sold a set of Japanese prints on eBay for $11,000. Now they’re in a gallery in Paris!”
People are also reading…
Managed by the Friends of the Pima County Public Library and staffed by some 300 local volunteers, the Book Barn is hardly the best-known bookstore in town — thousands of Tucsonans drive past it every day without even knowing it’s there — but regulars have come to appreciate the treasures they so often find on its shelves.
The Friends Book Barn at 2230 N. Country Club Road.
One of them is Sharon Alexander, a retired Sunnyside schoolteacher who has been frequenting the Book Barn for more than 20 years.
“This is the best place to find books I know,” she said. “They always have a great selection, and the volunteers know exactly where everything is. It can be a little overwhelming when you first walk in, but when you tell a volunteer what kind of books you read, they always know right where to find them. The real fun, though, is finding a book you didn’t even know you were looking for.”
Like most Book Barn customers, Alexander’s relationship with the store is one of take and give.
An old book find at the Friends Book Barn.
“When we’re done reading their books, we’ll eventually bring them back,” she said. “We just sort of borrow them for a while.”
Friends of the Pima County Public Library have been gathering and selling used books since 1969, when Charles and Alice Washburn invited a group of friends to help with a book drive to raise money for the library.
Those early sales were held on the Washburns’ patio.
As more and more friends began collecting more and more books, sales moved to our local malls.
“When I moved to Tucson in the late-1980s, I remember seeing rows and rows of tables in the El Con Mall, all of them loaded with books,” Stone said. “They would do book sales at Park Place and Foothills, too. Volunteers would work out of storage units or donated office space, then bring boxes of books to the mall on Saturday mornings. Somehow, they made it all work.”
The group did not have a central location until it purchased this one, formerly Bob’s Bargain Barn, in 1999. Bob sold outdoor equipment to hunters and fishermen. The only hunters who stop by today are the ones hunting for just the right book.
The thing that sets the Book Barn apart from many used-book bookstores is the sheer number of items that come through the door. In addition to the main Donation Center on Country Club Road, there are donation stations at most of the county’s 27 branch libraries.
On one recent morning, a trunk-load of books were delivered by a family preparing to move. On another, volunteers said thank you for a collection from a family estate sale.
With such a steady infusion of books and other items, the Book Barn can completely turn over its inventory every 6-8 weeks.
“We stay busy,” Stone confessed. “We sell about 80 books a day online, so it’s a pretty steady stream of books coming in and going out.”
Book Barn “stores” can be found on eBay, Amazon, AbeBooks, Alibris and Valore. Local customers can purchase books for pickup at FriendsBookBarn.com.
Then there is the Book Barn itself, a full-on bookshop across Bray Road from the Donation Center. Despite the fact it is open only two weekends a month, 10 months a year, it accounts for half of all total sales.
“Usually, we’re open the two middle weekends of the month,” Stone said. “The first is for members only and the second for everyone who would like to come.”
Her advice: “Become a member, and you get the first look at what we have every month.”
There will be two more weekend sales before volunteers take their annual summer break. A 50%-off sale for members will be next weekend, June 14-15. A 50-% off community sale will be June 20-23.
Some shoppers may be lucky enough to find a surprise within a surprise — that copy of “Yes Is Better Than No” came with a card pocket and a 1970s checkout card from the Dalton Regional Library in Dalton, Georgia — but all of us will be making a difference in Tucson.
Stone said the Friends of the Pima County Public Library will be donating $260,000 to the library this year to underwrite programs such as the Summer Reading Program for kids that began last week.
Don’t you just love stories with a happy ending?
Footnotes
— After 34 years at the Pima County Public Library, the last eight as the director, Amber Mathewson retired Saturday, June 7. Mathewson has written a farewell column that will be in the Star in next Sunday’s Home + Life section. The library hopes to name a successor this summer.
— “The Refugees” by Viet Thanh Nguyen will be the focus of the next Solutions Focused Book Club this coming Wednesday, June 11, at the Community Foundation of Southern Arizona. To learn more, visit cfsaz.com.
— The UA Poetry Center’s first Summer Social will “Summon the Monsoon” Sunday afternoon, July 13, in the Hotel Congress Century Room. Attendees will be invited to read their favorite poems about the rain. For additional information, visit poetry.arizona.edu/calendar.
— Stacks Book Club in Oro Valley will welcome bestselling author Megan Miranda with a meet-and-greet and book-signing on Wednesday evening, Aug. 6. Miranda will bring her latest mystery, “You Belong Here,” which is scheduled for release July 29. To learn more and purchase tickets, visit stacksbookclub.com/events.
The top stories from Sunday's Home+Life section in the Arizona Daily Star.
