My intentions for this blog
post were to review a used book store called K’s Book Exchange. But upon
reaching my destination, I found that K’s had closed recently. So, I decided to
visit another public library and check out its Friends Bookstore, as I did last
week with Rochester Hills and Shelby Township. This time, I visited the
Sterling Heights Public Library’s Friends Bookstore.
I have been to the Sterling
Heights library many times. The library itself is huge. The Friends bookstore
is large, as well. In fact, it is much bigger than both the Rochester Hills and
Shelby Township stores.
To start, the store has a cart
out front with sale books. Most of them were Christmas books, on sale for twenty-five
cents. Inside, there were also tables full of sale books. These books were
considered “red dot” items. Anything with a red dot is fifty percent off the
sale price. Shoppers can also fill a plastic grocery bag with as many books as
the bag can hold and only pay three dollars. The same goes for paper grocery
bags, only costing five dollars. This is a great bargain- someone could easily fill
a bag with ten or so books.

A big section of the store was
dedicated to young adult books. Half of them were books withdrawn from the
library’s collection- older books that don’t get checked out anymore. The other
half was donations- newer books with more titles that I recognized. The young
adult section was spread throughout the store, so I had to hunt a little to browse
through everything. But, I was impressed by what I ended up finding.
Merchandise at the store seems
to move in and out quickly. While I was there, there were about ten other
people in the store at the same time. The Friends volunteers run an efficient
store.

In all, the Friends of the
Sterling Heights Library had a good store. I would recommend this store to anyone
looking for new titles as well as looking to help out the local library. I know
that I will return in the future.