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<p>PITTSTON &#8212; Maria Capolarella-Montante, president of the Friends of the Pittston Memorial Library, says the library is overstocked with books.</p><p>The solution? A two-day book sale.</p><p>The book sale will be held from 1 to 6 p.m. on Thursday and from 1 to 5 p.m. on Friday in the lower level of the Pittston Memorial Library. The sale will include children&#8217;s books, non-fiction, fiction, hard cover and paperback.</p><p>All books on sale are published no earlier than the year 2000.</p><p>The Friends of the Pittston Memorial Library is a group of volunteers whose purpose is to raise funds to help supplement children and adult programs at the library. The group also helped with funding for the library&#8217;s expansion project.</p><p>The Friends group usually holds four book sales a year, but was unable to hold the first two it originally would have held in March and June due to the Greater Pittston Historical Society utilizing space in the library, forcing the library&#8217;s bookstore to move to another room in the lower level of the library.</p><p>After the historical society finished its moving process, the Friends began work immediately to set up the bookstore for the October sale.</p><p>Capolarella-Montante said books are now organized to make the process of finding them much easier.</p><p>&#8220;We kind of have a system downstairs that the books are shelved and they&#8217;re put in alphabetical order according to the author&#8217;s last name,&#8221; said Capolarella-Montante. &#8220;Everything is categorized, so when you go down there it looks like a regular library. So, there was a lot of work to be done to get the library back in shape. The ladies put in their time and effort to look at the books and categorize them.&#8221;</p><p>Fellow Friends member Mary Virginia Augello said the group has received excellent turnouts for its book sales in the past, but looks forward to how the upcoming sale will go with the new categorization that has been put in place.</p><p>&#8220;There had to have been at least 1,000 donated books (this year),&#8221; Augello said. &#8220;They were all in separate bags and they were sorted out and I came in afterwards and we put them in different spots. You really get a book store experience now because it&#8217;s neat and it&#8217;s in order.&#8221;</p><p>Capolarella-Montante said the Friends group is still accepting donated books, but ask that they are published after 2000.</p><p>The only exception are children&#8217;s books.</p><p>&#8220;Children&#8217;s books are timeless,&#8221; said Friends member Rosemary Butera. &#8220;I have books from when my kids were young that are 30 or 40 years old, but are still in good condition.&#8221;</p><p>Despite there having been no book sales yet this year to help the Friends raise money, library director Patricia Joyce said there are no programs in danger of being cancelled due to lack of funding.</p><p>&#8220;We were in transition with getting the new wing in place, so we were kind of, after summer reading, on hold for a little bit but this is going to be perfect timing,&#8221; Joyce said. &#8220;When people come to the book sale they can see all of the progress we&#8217;ve made.&#8221;</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Maria Capolarella-Montante, left, president of the Friends of the Pittston Memorial Library, and fellow member Ellen Mondlak hang signs on bookshelves in the library bookstore where a book sale will be held on Thursday and Friday. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/web1_Booksale-1.jpg</photo0><caption0>Maria Capolarella-Montante, left, president of the Friends of the Pittston Memorial Library, and fellow member Ellen Mondlak hang signs on bookshelves in the library bookstore where a book sale will be held on Thursday and Friday. </caption0><photoCredit0>Jimmy Fisher | Times Leader </photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Jimmy Fisher</p><p>jfisher@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Jimmy Fisher at 570-704-3972 or on Twitter @SD_JimmyFisher</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Friends of the Pittston Memorial Library holding sale to reduce its overstock of books