Library bookstore short on reading material

Noaki Schwartz

NEWPORT BEACH -- The Friends of the Newport Beach Library bookstore has

become a victim of its own success.

The store has become so popular that workers can’t keep their shelves

stocked. The store is in desperate need of donations, said Larry Spitz,

past president of the Friends of the Library.

“The prices of the books remain constant, but we’re selling more books

and need more books to fill the shelves,” Spitz said.

While the store’s shelves overflow with mysteries, biographies, cookbooks

and children’s books, the storeroom is gradually becoming empty, he said.

The shop relies on donated books to raise money to pad the library’s

budget. This funding is particularly important when the city can’t

provide all of the money requested for a particular project.

“There is never enough for institutions of this nature,” Spitz said. “We

serve as the major source of growth for the library.”

During their first four to five years of operation, the store made about

$60,000 for the library. This year, it made a whopping $125,000.

“This is probably the most successful library bookstore in the country,”

Spitz said. “In a city of 70,000 [people], we handed over a check for

$125,000.”

But this annual increase in fund-raising can’t continue, he said, unless

community members dig out those four or five books collecting dust on

their shelves and drop them into the closet marked “donations” at the

front of the library.

“If people want tax [deduction] slips we have them,” Spitz added. “We

[just] need books.”