By Sandra Conchie
Eager bookworms Shae and Taylor Reti-Maketoni were two of thousands of bargain hunters at the 19th annual Tauranga Rotary Easter Book Sale.
With close to 100,000 books and paperbacks on sale, the Oropi youngsters were spoiled for choice as they trawled through the sales tables at the Satara Coolstore in Mount Maunganui on Saturday.
"I bought four cool books and I'm off to find some more," said six-year-old Shae, delighted with his finds, especially a pop-up book titled Dracula Steps Out.
"I have never seen so many books in one place. It's awesome," said his 10-year-old brother Taylor also rapt with his bargains, including several word puzzle journals and a book titled Outrageous Animal Jokes.
Following close behind carrying a huge box jam-packed with holistic women's health and fitness books was their 31-year-old mother Karina Maketoni.
Ms Maketoni, who is studying for diplomas in homeopathy and fitness and plans to launch her own homeopathy business in the next two years, said her purchases will be invaluable for both.
"This sale is a book lover's heaven and I'm in it. Our whole family just adore books and we especially love going to second-hand book sales.
"Ultimately I want to build a floor to ceiling library at home so we can display all our great finds."
If the first day's sales were anything to go by, thousands books found their way to thousands of bookshelves across the Bay, as it was literally shoulder to shoulder at every sales table and people were queuing out the door.
Tauranga Rotary Club Book Sale committee member Ross Prestidge said the goal was to exceed last year's sales figure of $90,000.
"If we can do that it would be fantastic and going by the huge queue forming at 8am on our first day and seeing how jam-packed we are inside with bargain hunters, we expect to do very well."
Along with the standard sales tables, there were speciality books for sale by tender to the highest bidder, including a rare late 1800s edition on the History of Southern and Central Africa, with ballots opened on Monday night.
The book sale at Satara Coolstore on the corner of Totara St and Hewletts Rd has its last day tomorrow from 9am to 5pm.
