We want your books

It’s the event of the year for book-lovers on the Island — and it’s back for its 21st year. The Times Colonist Book Sale is almost here. Today and Sunday is the weekend that makes it all possible: the book drive.

The hundreds of thousands of books that will go on sale on May 5 and 6 at the Victoria Curling Club will be collected this weekend as people from all over the region pull cars and trucks into the curling-club parking lot with boxes and bags of reading pleasure.

If you have books that need a new owner, bring them down. An efficient troop of volunteers will unload your vehicle so you don’t have to lift a finger.

The drop-off is from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. both days at 1952 Quadra St. Please pack books in boxes or bags that you don’t want back.

Over the next two weeks, still more volunteers will sort the mountains of books onto 350 trestle tables to get them ready for sale day. That’s the day when eager shoppers line up around the block to hunt for that certain book or an unexpected treasure or enough tomes to last for months.

While the sale has readers salivating, the real purpose of the event is to raise money for literacy. In 20 years, it has brought in just over $5 million. Last year’s sale enabled the Times Colonist Literacy Society to give $308,000 to 152 recipients.

Your donated books will give joy to other readers and help spread literacy throughout the community.