South Pasadena’s Bookstore Holiday Sale (Photo – Christian Brewster)
This year, the annual Bookstore Holiday Sale took place in the South Pasadena Library Community Room on the evenings of Friday, Dec. 6 to Sunday, Dec. 8, 2024.
By Christian Brewster
Inside the Community Room, rows of tables were set up with different genres of books, CDs, and DVDs while pleasant instrumentals and classic holiday songs played in the background. The event opened half an hour early, where South Pasadena residents quickly gathered inside the room, browsing, chatting about work, friends, family, and buying books that ranged from fantasy to Japanese art history. It was a night dedicated to the shared love and importance of literature, and the appreciation for community efforts.
During the event’s busiest hour, people of all ages came in. A long line formed at the check out area, and surrounding the line were small crowds of people looking for their next read, or a gift for someone else. Event workers were busy running around, restocking, and helping customers with their purchases.
Around 7:00 pm, an influx of younger people arrived, like Earl James, a South Pasadena local and university student. “If a good story happens to be in a book, I’ll read it,” James said while explaining his recent foray into different genres. “I used to only read fantasy, but ‘Klara and the Sun’ is the book that got me to explore what genres I should read.”
Former South Pasadena High School student and future University of California Santa Cruz student, Christian Villasenor, offered some insight into the current state of reading, specifically in people’s declining desire to read long form text nationwide. “When I was a kid, I read the first ‘Percy Jackson’ book… it was super developmental for me,” Villasenor said. “South Pas is in the minority with a lot of things, including reading. The town almost isolates us from the outside world. Some of the issues affecting other people, you just don’t really see here. We’re unique in our community.”
Book Holiday Sale at the South Pasadena Library Community Room (Photo – Christian Brewster)
Friends of the South Pasadena Public Library Restoration Concerts also attended the event, having their own table next to the entrance of the community room. Offering gift cards and spreading the word on future local concerts, Betty Emirhanian and Gail Blesi MacCarthy, two members of the Restoration Concerts board, shared their thoughts on why events like the holiday sale are so important.
“It’s a real concern that people tend to only read headlines,” Emirhanian said. “It doesn’t give you the depth of information.” Emirhanian prefaced, however, by saying that “there’s still a love of books” and that community events like the book sale are a “work of love.” MacCarthy echoed her thoughts, adding that “curiosity is a skill set.”
To read, to explore new genres, to dedicate time to finish an entire article, these are things that require the curiosity MacCarthy mentioned. During the event, that curiosity was present and nurtured by the library and the local residents who helped set up the book sale, which also occurred on Saturday, Dec. 7, 11:00 am to 3:00 pm and Sunday, Dec. 8, 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm.
To keep an eye on the latest South Pasadena Public Library events, click the link here.
At the South Pasadena Library Community Room (Photo – Christian Brewster)
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