If you don’t already know this, Montgomery County Friends of the Library runs two great used book stores, where you can get books of all types CHEAP!!! Super Cheap! Amazingly cheap! We are frequent visitors to the store that is located in the basement of the Wheaton Regional Library on Georgia Avenue. We have gotten like new copies of dozens of kids books, including Charlotte’s Web and Madeleine, as well as many others, for as little at 50 cents a book. I have purchase $100 coffee table books, with National Geographic photography for $3.00. I’ve picked up travel guides to places we have visited for a buck. My husband buys spy novels and history books for a quarter.  We LOVE the Friends of the Library Bookstore.

Well, we were super psyched (as we said in the 80s) when we read that the Friends of the Library would be opening a third location in Gaithersburg.  Woohoo!  The grand opening is scheduled for tomorrow, Saturday, May 2nd from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm.  The store will be located in the Quince Orchard Plaza (near the Magruders) at the intersection of Quince Orchard and Clopper Road in Gaithersburg.  To celebrate the opening, the store is having live entertainment, free giveaways, and arts and crafts for children.  And thats on top of the cheap books! 

The Friends of the Library now has three locations –  Rockville, Wheaton, and Gaithersburg.  You can get hours of operation, addresses and maps that will lead you there at the Friends of the Library Website!

One final note – if you visit the Wheaton location, which is the largest store and has the greatest selection – this is a tough place to bring young kids.  The aisles are long and narrow and crammed full with books from floor to ceiling – obscuring your line of site.  So if your kids wander away, they can get lost very easily.  And its a pretty big place.  With that said, I have seen parents there with two and three little kids in tow.  Its so cheap, that it is worth any hassle that you might encounter.