Michael A. Sawyers
Cumberland Times-News
KEYSER, W.Va. — LAVALE — Sure, a picture can get you a thousand words, but a dollar or two wisely spent at the Times-News used book sale will bring you five or 10 or 100 times more adverbs, adjectives, verbs and nouns than some old snapshot.
The sale continues Sunday from noon to 6 p.m. at Center Court of the Country Club Mall.
Money spent at the sale brings realms of reading to the buyers, but also pays for copies of the Cumberland Times-News that are taken into classrooms throughout the area as part of the Newspapers in Education program.
The thickness of the book establishes the price, ranging from 50 center to $4, and there are literally thousands from which to choose. The books are donated by the newspaper’s readers.
“This is our seventh year of having the book sale,” said George Griffin, the paper’s assistant general manager. “Since 2004, we have been able to put a half million newspapers in classrooms because of it. Often we have had individuals buy 40 or 50 books.”
There will be another similar sale this summer.
Dave Phillips, Cumberland, said Saturday that he and his daughter, Paris, 7, attend the sale on a regular basis. “She is a very avid reader,” Phillips said.
Indeed, Paris, whose eyes were at book level, had already selected several books, including “Encyclopedia Brown” and “Wendy and the Bullies.”
“I like to read all kinds of books,” Paris said.
“She’ll start reading them as we drive home,” her father added.
Bill Miller, a retired Southern Baptist minister from La Plata who now lives in the Rawlings area, purchased several religious books.
“I’ve helped start three church libraries,” Miller said, adding that he picks up books from various organized religions, not just Southern Baptist.
“A person who only reads the books he already likes will never learn anything,” Miller said.
For $1, Imogene Copestick of Wendell, N.C., left the mall with a copy of “Collected Poems of Emily Dickinson.” Wendell was in the area visiting a relative.
“I have some of her books already,” Copestick said.
Ben Lashley manages the NIE program for the Times-News.
Lashley said one of the purposes of the program is to use the paper in classrooms as a learning tool. Exposing the students to the newspaper could have the effect of keeping them as readers throughout their lives, he said.
Contact Michael A. Sawyers at msawyers@times-news.com.
