If there’s one thing I envy about Christianity, it’s that churches know how to party. After seeing a thrift store underneath one, a pop-up restaurant inside another one and an NYU dorm disguised as one, and I’m officially jealous. And starting Thursday night, the Park Slope Methodist Church’s annual book sale is all set to be another must-attend event for socialites, Brooklynites, and neophytes alike—not to mention people who still read hard-copy books.
The book sale is four days long this year, covering Thursday and Friday evening, all day Saturday and all afternoon Sunday. This ain’t your momma’s thrift shop, either: with a book stock of “tens of thousands” priced at $1 or $2 each and tons of CDs (what?) DVDs (huh?) and records (awww, yeah!), there’s sure to be something you’re looking for even if you didn’t know you were looking for it. Like that one sale where I picked up a French version of a Dostoyevsky novel because, duh, it was French and Dostoyevsky.
If you want to make sure you’re not picking through scraps this weekend, you can get early entry to the book sale on either Thursday or Friday. Thursday’s early bird entrance will run you $20, for what PSUMC is calling their “Premium Preview Sale” on Thursday. If that’s too steep, you can grab a $5 ticket to Friday night’s sale. And if even that’s too much, Saturday and Sunday will be totally FREE.
The church is accepting tax-deductible donations of unwanted goods—and will actually pick them up from you—but only at certain times on each day, so do be sure to check before boxing up your library.
The sale’s a great opportunity to put away your Kindle and pick up a nice, worn copy of something for the subway. You’re less likely to get robbed for a book than a Kindle, and more likely to invite the attention of someone who will later post a missed connection to Craigslist about how “enchanting” you looked with that French Dostoyevsky novel. It’s fine, they don’t know you don’t know French.