Collegiate Times

This weekend, the YMCA on North Main Street will hold its seventh annual book fair.

After taking book donations all year, the fair this weekend is where they finally get to be put on display. A few large rooms in the back of the YMCA that regularly host a variety of community activities have been cleared out and replaced with long tables and hundreds of books and musical
records.

While the entire fair is impressive, for Executive Director of the YMCA Aliana Havrilla watching everything come together is still her favorite
part.

“Seeing the books that have been collected all year finally get set up for the sale is exciting,” she
said. “We’re very fortunate to have support from the New River
Valley.”

All of the books at the fair will be available for $1 to $4. For such a low price, expectations might not be high, but customers are often surprised by the titles they find.

“A lot of people assume that the books are going to be old and falling apart, and they aren’t. There’s stuff here that came out just a year ago,” said Alexander Stone, an associate at the YMCA.

The fair has a large variety of books, containing everything from old-fashioned collectible
classics to the latest textbooks on subjects like biology or programming. Whether your interests are in history, fantasy, self-help or novels, this fair will have it.

Much like the books at the fair, the types of people who come to the fair are equally varied. There’s no one demographic that
attends.

“There are families, older people, younger people and some people come just for the records. It’s all over the place,” Stone  said.

While the attendees are already varied, Virginia Tech is making an effort to interest even more students in the event. English department advisor and instructor Vanessa Ruccolo came up with the idea of  hosting a book swap yesterday in Shanks Hall.

The department already had a large collection of books they’re eager to donate, and the book swap was an opportunity for students to pitch in by bringing any unused books they might have.

“Anything they were done with, they left here. Anything they wanted, they got to take,” said Ruccolo.

The books that weren’t taken by the students were donated to the YMCA. By hosting an event so closely tied to the book fair, Ruccolo hopes students will start thinking about activities off-campus.

“I think it gets them invested in the community outside Virginia Tech,” she said. “It’s a good way for them to give
back.”

“Honestly, my favorite part is just seeing people get pumped about buying books,” Stone said.

A version of this article appeared in the Oct 5 issue of the Collegiate Times.