AK Bell Library Book Sale Returns This Month; Visitors Warned They May Go In for One Paperback and Come Out Needing a Bigger Car
The library sale is a Perth tradition. Regulars say the trick is to go early and avoid eye contact with anybody near the crime novels.
Books, which in Perth are bought by the bag and read by the radiator. Photo: Roc0ast3r, “International books at Kent Library”, via Wikimedia Commons, CC0
The AK Bell Library in Perth will hold its popular book sale later this month, and Perth’s readers are already clearing space on their shelves, or at least planning to.
The sale is a much-loved event, where second-hand books go for a song and nobody leaves with as few as they meant to.
“I always go in for one,” said a retired teacher from Kinnoull. “I come out with eleven. One of them I already own. One of them I already own twice.”
Regulars warn that the crime section is “very competitive”. “There’s a group of ladies who get to the crime fiction first, every year,” said a Scone man. “You don’t get in their way. You don’t reach across them. If you see a Rebus, you let it go. It’s not worth it.”
Visitors from out of town are advised to bring sturdy bags, park nearby and not to stand still in the middle of the room. “If you stop to read a back cover in the doorway,” said a library volunteer, “you will be gently but firmly moved.”
The Perthetic will be attending and would like to say in advance that we have been looking for the same book on Scottish lighthouses since 2004. If you see it, please leave it. It’s ours.
The real story: Perth & Kinross news (The Courier)
Letters to the Editor
The views expressed are those of the reader, and frankly that's on them.
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Went in for one Rebus. Came out with fourteen, a cookbook and a book about knots. I don’t knit. I don’t tie knots.
— Norma P., Craigie, 2 November 2026 -
Best fiver I spend every year. My wife says the house is ‘structurally books’. That’s a compliment.
— Tony R., Cherrybank, 2 November 2026 -
Get there early. The crime section is genuinely dangerous at 10am. Elbows.
— Moira J., Kinnoull, 2 November 2026
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