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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

20,000 free books quickly scooped up in Page 42’s annual Free Book Fair: ‘People are hungry’

Spokane residents are famished for a good read; they’re willing to brave crowds, maneuver limited parking, and wait in a line hundreds deep to get their hands on a free one. Or 20.

That was Page 42 bookseller Sarah Rose’s takeaway after working the store’s annual Free Book Fair on Friday and Saturday.

“I kept thinking throughout the day, over and over again, people are hungry,” Rose laughed. “They were just ravaging through those boxes and those books like they were hungry to eat knowledge.”

Over 1,600 people flocked to an otherwise empty warehouse at soap store Mayhem Supply to scour the nearly 20,000 books available for free. Books were neatly arranged spine up on rows of tables for perusal, with patrons helping themselves to titles of all genres, DVDs and magazines.

“People showed up and took whatever they wanted,” Rose said. “They’re generally books that either didn’t sell here or for whatever reason just ended up in our discounted pile.”

It’s the store’s fourth annual free book sale, growing in number from 10,000 to 15,000 to 17,000 to now 20,000 titles offered. But that’s still not enough to get them through a full weekend as planned.

It was originally scheduled to run Friday through Sunday, but Page 42 ran out of titles on Saturday and had to shutter early, unlike previous years when they had titles left over. Readers were elbow-to-elbow hunting through books.

“I walked in, and there were easily close to 100 people in the room at that time. People were just kind of walking down the tables, shoulder to shoulder picking out books as they went,” Rose said.

“It was very crowded, but fantastic to have that many people show up.”

Rose couldn’t miss the opportunity to scan through the stacks. Favoring nonfiction, the bookseller filled a box with informative reads like “Life Without Oil” and others about interior design and architecture. “I’m very into nonfiction, architecture, urban design and ecology type stuff,” Rose said.

Those lamenting missing out on securing literature for a bargain, worry not. Page 42 often hosts a quarter book sale in a lot behind their building where they sell titles for 25 cents a piece. That event, Rose said, sees similar chaos as this weekend’s free affair.

It’s all in line with the book store’s mission to eliminate the monetary barrier in accessing literature, store owner Emily Peterson wrote in an email. She was featured in The Spokesman-Review’s Women of the Year series in 2021 after purchasing the store.

The next quarter book sale will likely be late March or early April, once the weather warms and the Page 42’s store room “explodes” with books to sell for 25 cents each. Quarter sales run every few months; the Free Book Fairs are a yearly affair.

“You don’t realize how much free literature can do for just bringing people in,” Rose said.

Editor’s note: This story has been changed to correct the year in which Emily Peterson purchased Page 42.