By Krystal Smalley
ksmalley@wbcowqel.com
As it turns out, it doesn’t take that long for over 1,000 cookbooks to be snapped up by chefs and readers alike.
The Friends of the Galion Public Library recently received a donation of over 1,000 cookbooks from Lois Michaux, formerly of Crescent Way in Galion.
“We were called to pick up books at a lady’s home,” Friends of the Library member Pam Jourdan explained. “This woman was elderly and she was going into an assisted living home, so she (had) to get rid of her collection of cookbooks.”
At one time Michaux had cooked for groups but as she got older and was unable to do it anymore, she instead took her passion for cooking and turned it into a passion for collecting cookbooks.
Jourdan said the First Methodist Church in Galion was originally supposed to get the cookbooks but the church decided it would be better to donate them to the library.
“They asked us to come take a look at them to see what we thought about it and we were overwhelmed,” Jourdan said. “One bedroom was completely full of racks of books. By the time we took the cookbooks out, there were 47 boxes full.”
The Friends of the Library also took out several boxes of VHS tapes.
But with over 1,000 cookbooks, how were the Friends of the Library going to handle them all in the small room they usually reserve for their book sales?
“We couldn’t have them in our regular sale; we wouldn’t have room for them. So we had to have a special sale for them,” Jourdan said.
The special cookbook sale just happened to coincide with the Lincoln Highway Buyway sale that ran from Aug. 7 – 9. The Friends of the Library started unpacking and setting up the cookbook sale Thursday night and they were ready to go by 9 a.m. Friday. The sale was to be held from 9 to 4 that day only.
The tables had been so covered with cookbooks that morning that you couldn’t even see the top of the table, Jourdan said. They were stacked, laid over top of each other, and going every which way imaginable. Racks filled with cookbooks lined one side of the wall and seven crates filled with leaflet cookbooks sat around the room. The topics covered everything from cooking light and diabetic cookbooks to specialty cookbooks on garlic, onions, or potatoes.
“There were no cupcake cookbooks this year. We really wanted that,” Jourdan said with a grin. “There were pies and tarts.”
Jourdan had been working the cookbook sale for the day. She sat just off to the side where the tables had formed a rectangle to display the books. A few cookbook enthusiasts were still browsing the depleted selection that afternoon.
“By 9:45 we probably had half of the books go out of here. That fast,” Jourdan said smiling. “Everybody seemed to like it. I think it was a novel idea and everybody accepted it.”
A lot of people left the library with three or four bags full of Michaux’s cookbook collection—or sometimes three boxes—while others were able to snag one or two books. All the sales were on a donation basis.
Any money the Friends of the Library earned through book sales gets put back into the library. Oftentimes the group helps the library purchase needed equipment, such as a new computer purchased every year. They also provided money for the plants planted in front of the library.
The Friends of the Galion Public Library will be holding their next semi-annual sale Sept. 24 – 27.