Book Your Weekend in Downtown Norwich

We're not 'back to normal,' and between you and me I'm hazy on what normal once was but slowly, too slowly for some. bits and pieces of who we were before the COVID contagion are returning, and in the case of the Friends of Otis Library Spring Book Sale, it's all the confirmation I need that spring has returned to the Rose of New England and gathering some new-to-you reads instead of (or in addition to) rosebuds might be a great way to spend this weekend.

I blame my parents for my bibliophilia. I, my brothers, and sisters grew up in a houseful of books, and my wife and I did very much the same in the household in which we raised our two children. Literacy is not a lost art, but in the not too distant future when Carmen San Diego finds Waldo, he'll probably be reading a book, about striped shirts but holding it upside down (that does remind me of someone).

In the world today it's not just television, video games, computers, virtual reality, or smartphones that are changing our relationship with the written word, it's our tendency to look upon books as a rationed resource or a luxury we can't afford.

Neither of those is the case, especially this weekend in Norwich. Starting this Friday morning, at 9 with an Early Bird preview hour (ten dollars gets you first crack at some delectables and collectibles, but I don't think they have a velvet rope), the Friends of Otis Library unlock the basement doors for the return of their Annual Spring Sale.

Aside from that Early Bird business, all three days are free and whatever your heart, mind, and eyes desire can be found if you're willing to do some digging in the stacks and racks. All winter long, the Friends have been sorting and organizing for this Bookanalia. Sports, history, biography, gardening (I choose to believe Spring is finally here), mystery, classics of traditional and modern literature, and categories beyond both my description and imagination are all sorted, stacked, and shelved throughout the subterranean recesses with below bargain-basement prices.

And it's not just books. There are CDs, DVDs, and BVDs (I may or may not have made one of these up) and prices are so low you'll buy twice as much as you planned at a fraction of the cost. On any of the days you stop by the library, and free admission is from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on both Friday and Saturday and from noon to 3 on Sunday, you'll learn there is plenty of free parking throughout downtown, despite what all those people who never go there keep saying.

And after your book-buying binge, follow your nose and sate your ravenous hunger (I bought a dictionary at the last sale) and check out one of the restaurants as close to Otis Library as Dewey is to Decimal. You've been reading about all the places that have opened across Down City in recent months, and you're going to the book sale, so why not check the new attractions out? You can work up quite an appetite book shopping (a lot of people don't know that; I think I read it somewhere) why should you be one? Talk about 'the pause that refreshes:' Norwich has terrific places for a quick bite or a full meal. See for yourself.

Put the book sale on your calendar. And if the weather is even close to the spring we feel we are entitled to, it'll be a perfect time to break out one of your purchases and enjoy a sidewalk scene with a coffee and a companion. As C. S. Lewis wrote, “You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me.”
I think he was on to something.
-bill kenny