Kingsport Book Fair debuts at MeadowView Convention Center
The region’s largest book fair will be held later this week with plenty of books, audiobooks, music CDs, movies and vinyl records to choose from.
The Kingsport Book Fair will take place February 23-26 at the MeadowView Conference Resort and Convention Center. The event is coordinated and sponsored by Friends of the Library, the Literacy Council of Kingsport and First Book – Greater Kingsport.
As with year’s past, the event will have a special preview sale on February 23 from 5 to 9 p.m. with an admission of $10. Returning this year is the special academic preview sale, also on February 23 from 7 to 9 p.m. Admission is $5, and a valid faculty/staff/student ID is required for entry.
Regular Book Fair hours are 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. on February 24-25 and 12:45 to 5 p.m. on February 26. No admission fee is charged throughout the entire weekend.
The Book Fair will offer thousands of books for sale, along with a good selection of audiobooks, music CDs, DVDs and vinyl record albums. All of the items in the book fair have been donated for the sale over the past year and were individually priced and sorted by volunteers into one of more than 30 categories.
Major credit cards will be accepted on purchases of at least $25. Sales under $25 are cash only. The half-price sale begins at 4 p.m. on Saturday, while the $10 bag sale begins at opening on Sunday. Most donated items are priced from 25 cents to $5, based on age, condition, and popularity.
Inventory for this year’s fair includes fiction, non-fiction, history, biography, children’s, religion, music, cookbooks, DIY, gardening, textbooks, vinyl, and art/coffee table books. The Regional Interest category will have books from the FoxFire series, Jefferson Bass, Adriana Trigiani, to cookbooks from local churches and civic groups.
Classic and contemporary books on WWII will be in the History/Biography category. Readers of romance will be especially happy with the depth of the paperback fiction donations, both classic and ‘almost new’ tales of happily-ever-after. A category for Sports and Transportation will contain books on professional athletes, sports, fitness, automobiles, trains, and airplanes, while birders and other nature lovers will find gems in the Nature and Outdoors category.
Profits from the book fair are split 50/50 by Friends of the Kingsport Public Library and First Book – Greater Kingsport. Each organization uses these funds to support local literacy programs. Last year, the book fair had sales of roughly $30,000.
For more information or to volunteer your time call 423-967-7135 or email kingsportbookfair@gmail.com.
