Annual Vanier College Book Sale starts this week

The seventh annual Vanier College Book Sale is coming up, with a huge selection of new and used books to choose from, donated by the York community as well as from private collections.

The book sale will start Friday Nov. 12, and run to Nov. 19, from 9:30am to 7pm Monday to Friday, and 11am to 4pm on Saturday. The first two days are for undergraduate students with student cards only. It will be open to everyone from Monday, Nov. 15.

Academic books and cookbooks will be available at 152 Founders Assembly Hall, Founders College, while literature, non-fiction, self-help, biographies and art and theatre books will be available in the Renaissance Room, 001 Vanier College, both on York’s Keele campus.

The Master’s Office and its team of volunteers have collected books all year for this sale to offer a wide selection, with most books costing only $1 to $2. The stock is constantly being refreshed over the course of the sale.

“Each year it gets bigger and bigger. I have three rooms full of books,” says Diana Sargla, administrative assistant, Office of the Master, Vanier College. “It’s amazing what we get.” That includes new, rare, special-edition and sometimes antiquarian books.

Last year, the book sale raised about $12,500, which went toward renovating a former photo lab into a student athletic club space complete with a kitchen. It was old and decrepit before, but now it’s a clean and usable, 20-by-20-foot space for students. Part of the money raised this year will also be put into the space.

The idea of the sale is to raise money to benefit students, but also to give them a chance to pick up books they may need or want at really good prices.

“We want to put books in student’s hands,” says Sargla. “Sometimes a student can’t find a book in the library they need for a mid-term assignment and they find it at the sale.” 

Volunteers are being sought for the book sale preparation and the sale itself. If you can help, contact Vanier College at 416-736-5192 or e-mail vanier@yorku.ca.

For more information, visit the Vanier College website.