You'll never be able to say "there's nothing to read" this winter. Not after working your way through the massive amount of volumes available during the Book Sale at Fort Missoula.

The sale returns this morning for the first time since the pandemic, creating a backlog of about 60,000 books.

If you ever wanted an entire collection of Clancy, a 1940s book on planning a house, or a plethora of paperbacks, you'll want to be at Fort Missoula this weekend. It's the return of the Friends of the Historical Museum at Fort Missoula Book Sale, which kept getting COVID cancelations for the past two years. 

And the backlog of donated books kept growing and growing. Museum Development and Communication Director Stacey Carr-Poole says the result is unbelievable.

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The books kept piling up during the pandemic

"We've had amazing donations and volunteers over the last three years. We actually had to stop taking books 'cause we just didn't have room for them anymore. So we're really excited to have them out and have people coming and buying them. And we're really excited that probably come January we'll be able to take more people's donations again," Carr-Poole explains. 

For the entire week, an army of volunteers has been hauling Hemmingways and stacking the Stephen Kings. Even when that means sitting on the floor to get the work done.

"They've been waiting for me to like call and say I need your help," Carr-Poole says with a big smile. "So they've sorted all of the books into the different genres/ They've helped to move them, and the last three days we've done nothing but, like, move books around and put them out. And we couldn't do it without the probably 50 volunteers who've been in the last 3 days."

So whether it's sci-fi or self-help there's TONS to browse.

"There's just amazing books, all different kinds of genres, no matter what you want to do. We have got this building here. We've got a whole other building next door. There's just there are so many books as I walked through and was like, 'wow, how are there so many books here?' I think it's bigger than most libraries I've been in."

The sale at Heritage Hall opens to collectors this morning at 10, with the general public welcome through the weekend. 

The best news in this economy? The bargain prices continue.

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