MURRIETA: Friends of Murrieta bookstore spreading its pages

Marking its 10th year in existence, the Friends of Murrieta Library will host an open house Saturday to unveil the expanded bookstore. The ceremony will begin at 11 a.m. and will include addresses from elected officials, members of the Murrieta Library Foundation, which is a major fundraising and grant-writing arm of the library, and some of the more than 60 volunteers who make up the Friends of Murrieta Library.

In June, the bookstore added an adjoining suite to its 1,500 square feet in the Murrieta Gateway shopping center and now occupies 3,100 square feet.

"We have a whole bunch more books that we've been waiting to put out," said Dixon, who serves as manager of the Los Alamos bookstore, the second shop owned and operated by the Friends of the Murrieta Library.

The first bookstore sits caddy-corner to the library on Adams Avenue.

Strolling through the new site's shelves purchased at discounts from local hardware stores, Dixon raved of the volunteers who helped move books from boxes in back offices to the racks. She pointed to a temporary front counter that soon will be replaced by a counter with display cases where she plans to sell book bags, charity pins and higher-quality books.

Moving past the front counter as a handful of summer-vacationing teenagers slip inside the bookstore, Dixon showed the new children's section complete with miniature wooden tables and chairs for small readers, short shelves and a mural depicting a girl reading under a tree and a boy chasing his book, which, with its wings, has flown out of his hands.

The mural was painted by Winchester muralist Eddie Lopez, who also painted a mural for the library depicting Murrieta's history, the present and future.

Representatives of the Friends group estimate that in 2008, their two stores sold more than 50,000 books to raise money or library services. About 37,000 of those came from the Los Alamos Road location.

"The more books you get, the more customers you get," Dixon said. "And the more customers you get, the more books you get. Most of our customers are regular and if they aren't, they will be."

As Dixon continued directing a pack of volunteers to boxes of donated books that should be unloaded, the teenagers who had slipped in were now streaming into different sections in the bookstore. One girl gravitated toward the romance section where Danielle Steel novels monopolize the shelves. Two others moved toward another shelf marked Young Adult.

"My sister comes here a lot," said Eriana Torretti, a 14-year-old. "It's a lot cheaper (than corporate bookstores) and it's closer too. We get lunch and then come over here and read a book."

by NELSY RODRIGUEZ - nrodriguez@californian.com   Posted in Murrieta on Tuesday, July 7, 2009 12:00 am Updated: 10:44 am.