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The book sale will be 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. today through Thursday, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Friday and 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday. All books will be half-price on Thursday and Friday and the "dollar a bag" day is Saturday.

PARKERSBURG - The annual Trinity Episcopal Used Book Sale kicked off its 60th year Monday with a ribbon-cutting ceremony.

At 8:45 a.m., mayors Bob Newell of Parkersburg, Mike Lorentz of Belpre, David Nohe of Vienna, Jean Ford of Williamstown and Don Snider of North Hills cut a ribbon to open the six-day sale, which serves as a fundraiser by Trinity for its programs and for donations to other community programs.

"They said it was the first time they had all been together like that," said Carma Guertin, co-chair of the book sale. "They were really pleased and they thought this was a wonderful ministry and they all bought books."

Guertin said the sale got off to a "great start," with people lined up waiting for the door to open Monday morning. The number of buyers remained steady throughout the day.

Parkersburg resident Vince Pendleton visits the Trinity book sale every year, picking up a variety of books although his main interest is horror fiction.

"I've got a pretty large book collection and I'm always looking to make it an even larger book collection," he said.

"It's terrific," Pendleton said of the book sale. "It's a great opportunity to not only find some good reading material but put some money back into the church and what they do."

Nancy Gum of Parkersburg was making her first visit to the Trinity sale after hearing positive comments from her niece about the event in past years. She thought Monday was a nice day and a good opportunity to visit the sale and pick up books to read now that she recently retired.

Gum was impressed by the sale and said she plans to return later this week and for future sales after seeing the many books available.

The sale will be offering lunch through Thursday. There will be a bake sale and Christmas gift sale in the church's library during the first couple of days of the sale.

As another way to mark the 60th anniversary, the book sale committee sent letters to former U.S. presidents and their wives who have written books seeking donations and received two autographed books, Guertin said. One is a children's book "Read All About It" written by Laura Bush and Jenna Bush and signed by the former first lady and the other is "An Outdoor Journal" by former president Jimmy Carter.

During the sale, $1 raffle tickets are being sold for the two books with the drawing scheduled for Friday at 2 p.m., she said.

Beginning in June, volunteers at the church started collecting used books in preparation for the sale. About 30,000 to 40,000 books are usually sold each year, in 25 categories, including classic literature, fiction, westerns, romance, science fiction, reference and text books. Sheet music, movies on cassette and DVD, music CDs and records and puzzles are available.

Unsold books at the end of the sale are given to local charities, so each year's sale is stocked with recent donations.

The church uses the proceeds to contribute to 17 organizations, including West Virginia Youth Foundation, Parkersburg Day Nursery, Salvation Army, Horizons, Old Man River, Good Samaritan Clinic and American Red Cross. It contributes half the money made in the sale to the organizations and the other half goes to the church for its programs, Guertin said.