TOWN OF POUGHKEEPSIE—Whatever their reading tastes, from science fiction to self-help, residents should expect to find something they can’t live without at this coming weekend’s annual giant book sale sponsored by the Friends of Poughkeepsie Public Library District.

The sale will be held Friday, June 19 through Tuesday, June 23 at the former Linens ‘N Things store in the Post Road Plaza on Route 9 in Poughkeepsie. Sale hours are 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. every day except Sunday, when the sale will open at 10 a.m. and close at 6 p.m. From 8 to 10 a.m. Friday, there will be an early bird sale, which will be free for members of the Friends. Non-members can also enter for a $10 charge that will give them a year’s membership in the Friends organization.

With more than 135,000 books, the sale will offer “a little bit of everything,” according to Friends treasurer Chris Cuttler, who is spearheading the sale this year with president Jackie Klein and secretary Mark Nelson. Books, which largely comprise donations from the community, will be shelved in about 70 categories that include travel, mystery, romance, cooking, fiction, gardening, children’s, sports, history, business, self-help, transportation, medical, military, and a host of others. There will also be videocassettes, books on cassette, and a good number of phonograph records. Hardcover fiction and biographies will be shelved alphabetically for customers’ convenience.

And if anything can possibly beat the selection, it’s the recession-sensitive prices. On the first two days of the sale, the cost will be $2 for hardcover books, $1 for oversized paperbacks, phonograph records, CDs, and children’s hardcovers, and 50 cents for regular paperbacks and audio and videocassettes. Prices will be cut in half on Sunday, Monday will be bag day with books sold for $5 per bag, and everything will be free for the taking on Tuesday. As usual, there will also be an area featuring rare, collectible and other specially priced books that include leather-bound volumes, mid-century novels that are valuable because of their cover art, and author-inscribed books.

Regulars at the sale will find the layout somewhat different this year as organizers have made use of the pre-existing shelves in the former Linens ‘N Things space instead of bringing in the usual folding tables.

Cuttler said she and volunteer Gail Brittain spent an entire day walking the store, counting and measuring shelves, and planning how the space would be used. Luckily for the volunteers, some of the shelves were on wheels and most were adjustable. In addition, some of the more unique shelving units that once held pillowcases and other bed linens have turned out to be ideal for books, too. With books lining the walls on either side of the center aisle that curves its way through the store, the sale will have the feel of a library or bookstore and will offer plenty of space for patrons to browse. There will be a special area at the front of the store where volunteers can count dealers’ large orders and all visitors to the sale are invited to stop at the “box mountain” and help themselves to a sturdy box in which to carry their purchases.

Cuttler called the space among the best the Friends have ever had for a sale. It has ample parking, it’s clean and it has “nice bathrooms” and, a major plus, air-conditioning.

Cuttler said the location is also ideal because it’s located near eateries and other stores. And though the sale might cut into their business somewhat, nearby Barnes & Noble has been “very gracious” to the Friends by offering to donate a percentage of their sales to the Friends when customers present a voucher at the store throughout all five days of the PPLD sale.

“They’re really being very nice,” Cuttler said of the bookstore.

The space for the book sale is being provided to the Friends gratis by David Kaminsky of TCD management, whom Cuttler said has been “wonderful.”

In addition to the “tons” of Friends volunteers who sort books five mornings a week in Poughkeepsie and assisted with setup over the course of the last two weeks, the Friends got help from men at the Bolger House substance abuse recovery facility in Poughkeepsie. Cuttler said a “terrific bunch of guys” from Bolger House were hired to haul the thousands of cartons of books to the site.

The Friends have been running the sale for more than two decades. It’s the group’s largest fundraiser and attracts customers and dealers from far and wide. Last year, the sale grossed more than $65,000, some of which went into the third installment of the Friends’ pledge of $250,000 for the capital campaign to renovate Adriance Library. Past projects sponsored by the Friends include the refurbishment of the Arlington branch children’s room.

Additional information about book sale can be obtained by visiting the Friends link on the PPLD website, www.poklib.org.