Sailing a sea of books: Avid reader volunteers at annual sale
Kregg Pierson insists that he should not be considered an intellectual because he reads.
From childhood, the now-retired English teacher has enjoyed books.
Still does, which is why he is one of dozens of volunteers this weekend at the annual Friends of the Abilene Public Library book sale. Give him any task, from sorting books to helping someone to their car with their haul of treasures, he's ready.
The big challenge, he said, is just saying no.
To himself.
Surrounded by thousands of books, it's hard not to peruse and buy more. But he has 700 books at home, give or take, and there's not room for 1,000.
Maybe not room for what he has now.
Pierson said collecting books is not hoarding. There's a T-shirt, he said, that attests to that. It reads:
"It's not hoarding if it's books."
So, maybe just five more ....
A 'widely read' lifelong reader
Pierson taught English "for many years" in the Abilene ISD, at Lincoln Middle School and then AHS. He retired in 2010. At the high school level, study included short stories, literature, writing and composition.
Because he taught and reads, Pierson said he might be stereotyped.
"I am not some sort of genius scholar, I certainly am not," Pierson said.
His reading experience began early, he said. He grew up in Seminole, frequently the small city library and the ones at school.
"I always enjoyed walking into the library. The smell of it, and seeing all those books on the shelves," he said. "All the potential those books provided."
That may be why he's right at home at the book sale, where table after table is filled with books of all sizes and genres.
"I tried to read widely," he said. "I feel that is the most beneficial way to enjoy the wealth of material that is out there in terms of the written word.
"It may be something published a century ago. It may something published in 2023."
He had to read required works at school but he was otherwise free to choose what he wanted to read.
One of his favorite books was "The Outsiders," by S.E. Hinton. Did you know, Pierson pondered, that the author was a teenager when she wrote the coming-of-age novel that now is a classic?
"I remember that book having an impact on me. That book has withstood the test of time," he said. And being from Seminole, he was impressed that Hinton was from Tulsa, Okla.
He later would read "To Kill a Mockingbird" and "Of Mice and Men," two more classics.
Saving Dickens
Pierson doesn't have a go-to genre. He considers mysteries wide open enough to include a favorite author, Charles Dickens.
"He probably would fall into the genre of mysteries. He was a master," he said.
Here's a mystery. Pierson's collection of books includes works by Dickens ... that he hasn't yet read.
Why not?
"I am saving those," he said. "For me, they're like money in the bank. I don't want to read them yet because I know that they are there. They are waiting for me, and they're going to be good. You know that Charles Dickens will not disappoint you."
Other authors may be hit or miss, "but Charles Dickens will never disappoint you."
Pierson is one book at a time.
But once that book is finished, he most likely will venture off in another direction.
He gave an example. If he's reading a novel by Margaret Atwood, he'll seek something by a male author that is not so contemporary, such as William Faulkner or Ernest Hemingway.
"She writes a lot of words, so her books are rather thick," Pierson said. "I bounce around. I try to keep it balanced."
The sale is a lot of work
Pierson said the three-day book sale that is the year's biggest fundraising effort by Friends is a lot of work to put on. However, a lot of work goes into it months in advance.
"It is a terrifically labor intensive activity," he of the sale. "It's mostly manual labor."
Bringing in the books.
Arranging them on tables.
Doing something with the boxes that books and other items for sale came in.
Pricing the books.
Selling the books.
Helping people carry out their books.
"There is nothing about it that is intellectually stimulating," he said, laughing.
He gets a few moments to talk books with shoppers, but not much.
"For volunteers, it's about expediting and encouraging the process as best we can," he said. "The goal is to help people find books they want."
One for the road?
The book sale is a bit like insider trading.
"I have access to thousands and thousands of books," Pierson said. And he probably knows exactly where the really good stuff is located.
It takes willpower, he said, not to be tempted to haul his own stash home.
"I have to tell myself that I have to pass on it," he said. "I can't buy that. I can't purchase that. I can't acquire that.
"I have to let it go."
But, since this is a fundraiser, let it go to someone else.
This article originally appeared on Abilene Reporter-News: Sailing a sea of books: Avid reader volunteers at annual sale
