SALE SPEAKS VOLUMES

Nancy Mieling is reading four or five books these days, but the Lake Forest resident also has more than 100,000 other books on her mind.

That can mean only one thing: The start of the four-day annual Friends of Lake Forest Library Book Sale, which doubles as a fundraiser to launch some of the library’s exciting projects and sustain its established programs, is mere weeks away.

“The last place we want books to go is in the trash,” says Mieling, who has served as co-chair of one of the Midwest’s biggest book sales with Sande Noble since 2000. “Books donated by local residents that aren’t sold will go to other libraries or find a home elsewhere, like at a hospital in Waukegan, or at Bernie’s Book Bank in Lake Bluff, or at the (Environmental) Defenders of McHenry County.”

The 48th edition of the Friends of Lake Forest Book Sale has success written all over it once again, with those 100,000-plus gently used and bargain-priced books sorted in 115 categories—from Adventure/Exploration to Young Adult—and set to be stacked neatly in a spacious setting for thousands of browsers and consumers at the Lake Forest Recreation Center from September 12 to15.

September 12 is Member Preview Day (20 percent mark-up) from 9 a.m.-5 p.m., with memberships available at the door, followed by an 11-hour day (9 a.m.-8 p.m.) on September 13. Teachers, military, and first responders receive 25 percent off on September 14 (9 a.m.-5 p.m.), and the bargain day (50 percent off) on September 15 starts at 9 a.m. and ends at 5 p.m.

“It’s a feel-good thing, a cherished and popular community gathering, as book lovers come together for four days,” says Mieling, who has lived in Lake Forest since 1987. “Friendships have been made at our book sale. Everyone loves a library, right? Reading is positive. So is learning. I’ve seen people interact in our cookbook aisle and exchange recipes. A woman holding a children’s book once told me, ‘Your granddaughter needs to read this,’ and then plopped the book into my book bag.”

Margaret Foster recruits and trains the book sale volunteers. Between 40-50 of the 200-something volunteers started sorting the books nearly 12 months ago.

“The books we sell are individually priced,” Mieling says. “What also separates our book sale from other big ones is how clean our books are; dealers have praised us for the condition of our books. We spend a significant amount of time looking at our donated books, front to back.

“You’re not going to find markings like underlined words or highlighted passages, or damaged pages, in our books,” she adds.

The Friends of Lake Forest Library became a nonprofit in 1976 and emerged as a funding powerhouse for the soul of the City, also known as the Lake Forest Library. The Friends’ mission is to enhance and support the mission, vision, and services of the library, and engage in related educational, charitable, and cultural activities. It has generated more than $3 million through annual back sale profits since its inception.

Most recently, the Friends, a steadfast group of 30 board members that works closely with Lake Forest Library Director Ishwar Laxminarayan, underwrote the $260,000 restoration of the Nikolai Remisoff murals in the circulation lobby of the 126-year-old library. The artwork represents poets and prose writers of the classical era (European history from eighth century BC to fifth century AD) as conceived by Remisoff.

“It’s such a beautiful and welcoming place,” Mieling says. “The people at the library are wonderful. It doesn’t seem large, but it has everything you need from a library. I’m there seven days a week.”

You won’t find a weakness in the sturdy tandem of longtime book sale cochairs/ Friends board members and good friends Mieling and Noble. The organized and detail-oriented Mieling takes care of all things computer-related, along with the paperwork and handouts. Her Friends of Lake Forest Book Sale binder would impress the NASA official in charge of producing a pre-mission checklist.

“Sande is fabulous, always seeing the big picture of the book sale,” Mieling says, adding the aim this year is to amass between $90,000 and $100,000 in book sale profits. “We have a lot of fun putting this together each year. She has more energy than anybody I know.

“When you work with Sande,” she continues, “you get things done yesterday.”

Mieling grew up in Homewood and always made sure she had a book to read when she had to sit in the back seat for a car ride. She attended Homewood-Flossmoor Community High School, where she got involved in several volunteer organizations, refereed field hockey games, kept statistics for the football team, served as a physical education assistant, and organized the school prom.

At the University of Illinois, Mieling changed her major from Occupational Therapy to Psychology and met her future husband, Terry. They sat near each other in the back row of a Russian Lit class.

The married couple raised eventual Eagle Scouts Colin, now living in Seattle, and Jonathan, of Mount Prospect.

“As a parent, I enjoyed volunteering around my sons’ activities—Scouts, sports, and theatre,” Nancy says.

Today, nothing tops spending time with her four grandchildren. She also relishes glassblowing, lampworking, gardening, traveling, walking, exercising.

And something that’s as vital to Nancy Mieling as a heartbeat is—reading.

The Grainger Foundation is the major sponsor of this year’s book sale. For more information about the book sale and Friends of Lake Forest Library, visit lakeforestlibrary.org/friends.