The Alpine Sun - San Diego Neighborhood Newspapers

By Chris Mac Kenzie
For The Alpine Sun
     ALPINE — Do you love to read “best sellers” but find that buying new ones every week or two does get expensive? Here’s the answer to your problem.
     Discover the “poor relation” of Barnes and Noble in the Alpine Creek Shopping Center. It’s called the Alpine Friends of the Library Book Store and it has almost everything that the big downtown store has — except the high prices. It has best sellers looking brand new that have only been read once, and then turned in.
     As one buyer put it while she paid for an armload of books, “I just love this place. I can pick up all new ones I want, read them, donate them back the next week, then get a whole new batch, and all for almost nothing.”

Gayle Lubin, supervisor at the Alpine Friends of the Library Bookstore, shelves new books the hard way. She gets down on her knees to place the books in the proper banana box on the floor. Thousands more volumes stretch the length of the store and line the walls.

     The store has just about every possible kind of book, and all are nicely arranged with easy-to-read signs designating what they are. It even has some easy chairs, like Barnes and Noble, where you can relax and scan your choices.
     The shop, developed and operated entirely by volunteers, has no budget of its own, so everything in it has been donated, even the space it occupies.
     Gary Weinstein, president of the club, has managed to beg, borrow, or steal a few tables and a bookshelf or two. He did save one big table for an attractive arrangement of children’s books, but much of the stock is neatly arranged in rows on the floor.
     Along one wall, book store supervisor Gayle Lubin, created two level shelves from banana boxes scrounged from local grocery stores, all carefully camouflaged with a fabric skirt. “It’s easier for our older customers, who often aren’t comfortable bending over quite so far,” she said. Some colorful potted plants add color and hominess.
     She pointed out that they have tried to collect a lot in the way of bookcases and tables because the present location is a temporary loan. “We are so grateful to have it. It’s an ideal location and a much larger space than we will probably be able to afford when it’s time to move.”
     Some 17 volunteers are on duty in the store Wednesday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
     There is a box out in front where donations of gently used books can be dropped off when the bookstore isn’t open.