The Rural We: Wayne Greene

Spencertown Academy’s Festival of Books is an annual Labor Day weekend event, and includes discussions with and readings by esteemed authors, and a children’s program. One of the highlights every year is the giant used book sale, presided over by Wayne Greene. He and his volunteers sort through and vet every book that gets donated. It truly is an exceptionally impressive selection. “We take great pains in displaying only ‘gently used’ books,” he says. “That’s why we’re such a popular book sale.” After two years of a more limited sale online, the book sale is back in person with around 15,000 books. The Festival runs September 2-5. For the full lineup and schedule of events, check the Spencertown Academy website.

I’m retired now, but I was an attorney for the City of New York. I’ve always had a love of books and collecting books and decided to give up my law job and pursue what had always been a dream of mine, to go into the antiquarian and out-of-print book business. I had that business for about 10 years, but the economy and landscape changed. Internet buying became more prevalent, and people didn’t seek out books through people like me. So I turned back to law, and was an administrative law judge for the department of health.

I brought my skillset to the Spencertown Academy when I started volunteering with the Festival about 10 years ago. I’m able to use my knowledge and skills to maximize the revenue we obtained from selling books.

One hundred percent of the books come from the community, which stretches into Massachusetts and New York City. The people who donate have really good taste. The interests are very broad — we have donations in every category you can think of.

One of the rooms is set up like a used book shop for the antiquarian, first editions, and coffee table books. I curate that room. There are several hundred of those in the sale. I’m treasure hunting for those kinds of books when we sort the donations. We call it the “special book room,” and for many of the attendees, that’s the first stop they make.

We always get 10 to 12,000 books. But this year, we had more books because the past two-and-a-half years I’ve been accepting donations and storing books in every nook and cranny in the Academy.

The sale is only three-and-a-half days. That’s not a lot of time to sell 15,000 books. Every year about half of the books are left. We give them to Discover Books. It’s a combination for-profit and not-for-profit business out of Rhode Island that sells some, or redistributes the books to hospitals, libraries, and other community organizations.

This is a huge fundraising event for the Academy, but it’s also a community event. The Festival is free, with lots of author talks, conversations, and children’s programming. The prices for the books are great — $5 for hardcover, $4 for softcover — and each day of the Festival the prices drop. It’s a whole weekend of free activities and book buying.