St. Armands Key Lutheran Church clears bookshelves

St. Armands Key Lutheran Church gave members and book-lovers first dibs on a wealth of discarded tomes at a book sale April 16. 

The church's librarian, Jackie Whalen, said this was the first book sale the church has held, aside from a very small, informal one about a decade ago. She started paring down the books to sell in the first couple months of the year. 

"I started this project a couple months ago and all the shelves were full," Whalen said. "I counted around a thousand books taken off the shelves."

That's not counting the books that members donated, and Whalen said a lot came in that way too. Old produce boxes were filled with books on geography, history, religion, philosophy, health and more. In front of a row of empty shelves stood a table filled with fiction, from old classics to new bestsellers. 

The paring down of books is necessary as the church prepares to consolidate the library space and reorganize some of its inner rooms. There are still plenty of books for members to peruse, but the library space will be around half what it once was.

The next day, April 17, brought a food drive and more book-hunters to the church.