It’s an annual rite of spring in the Camellia City, an irresistible lure to the community’s bibliophiles–and it arrives next weekend.

The Greenville-Butler County Public Library is holding its popular used book sale Friday and Saturday, April 7 and 8. Friday’s preview sale is from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. allowing first dibs to browsers for a $5 admission charge. The sale runs from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday.

The Friends of the Library group are actually coordinating and running the sale this year, and there’s an extra added incentive for book lovers to join, says GBCPL director Kevin Pearcey.

“If you join our group and pay the $15 membership fee, we will waive the $5 on Friday and you can get in free,” Pearcey explains.

“And we are considering having two sales this year—one in the spring and another in the fall—so you would save another $5 at that fall preview sale. Members also get our quarterly newsletter and a $5 credit toward any fines you may owe us for late books and so forth. It’s really a great deal.”

While the funds raised are not earmarked for any particular project or need, Pearcey says the monies usually go toward their summer program to cover the costs of special visitors and needed materials.

“The book sale funds are an important supplement to our state aid, with the state funds primarily going to buy new books for our shelves,” he explains. “Of course, anything that we make from any sales or fundraisers all goes back to the library.”

Books will be priced at 50 cents for paperbacks and $1 for hardbacks, with a selection of CDs, DVDs and VHS tapes also on offer.

And it’s not too late to donate.

“We will continue to take donations up until Wednesday, April 5, so bring those cast-off books in good condition to us and we will add them to the sale,” Pearcey says.

Books of all kinds—fiction, non-fiction, romance, mystery, comic, children’s and young adult, cookbooks, how-to guides and more—will be featured and are welcome as donations. Please, no encyclopedia sets.

“Come on out and support a really good cause and get some bargain book buys for the family while you are at it,” says Pearcey.

For additional information, contact the library at 382-3216.