PAXTON – The town common was encircled by tables filled with books last Saturday, Sept. 17. Lots and lots of books. Oh, and a couple tables of baked goods were there as well, although they were not as full by 10 a.m. as they had been at the start of the book and bake sale an hour earlier.
Sale organizer Ruth Hiller, longtime Paxton resident, said the books all came from one place: the estate of her late neighbor, Mary Ann Dennis.
Dennis died in July 2020, while the state was shut down because of the COVID pandemic. Her children, a son in Wisconsin and a daughter in Pennsylvania, were tasked with handling her estate from afar.
Hiller said the daughter talked with her, and wondered what she was going to do with her mother’s books.
“I’ll take them,” Hiller said.
Standing on the common on Saturday, she laughed as she looked around at all the books.
“I had no idea there were so many.” Hiller said she had intended to donate the collection to the Richards Library, but that was not possible. The library was not accepting donations because of COVID. She could not figure out what to do with them.
So the books sat in her basement for two years.
She said her husband was less than thrilled about the stacks of boxes.
How many books were there, you ask? “We counted 90 boxes,” she said. “We estimate there were at least 1,500 books. That may be low.”
“I didn’t want them going in the trash,” said Hiller, herself an avid lifelong reader. “That seemed like a shame.”
So when COVID restrictions were lifted, she got an idea. She decided to ask her church, First Congregational, which is on the common, if she could hold a fundraiser book and bake sale for them. The board agreed, and the plan was set in motion.
“(First Congregational) is great for coming together,” Hiller said. “These people will volunteer.”
And volunteer they did. She had a group out at 7 a.m. on Saturday, unboxing all the books and arranging them alphabetically by author’s last name on the tables.
A steady stream of book lovers came by, browsing the wide and varied selection. Fantasy, mystery, crime and more. A grocery bag of books was just $10; half a bag, $5.
The church gets the proceeds from the sale, and Mary Ann Dennis’ books get new homes. A fitting end to a novel collection.
