{"id":239049,"date":"2026-07-09T05:06:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T05:06:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/239049\/"},"modified":"2026-07-09T05:06:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T05:06:09","slug":"reading-enthusiasts-flock-to-book-bonanza-in-mohnton-berks-regional-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/239049\/","title":{"rendered":"Reading enthusiasts flock to \u2018Book Bonanza\u2019 in Mohnton | Berks Regional News"},"content":{"rendered":"

MOHNTON, Pa. \u2013 Despite studies showing a steep decline in American adults reading for fun, eager readers paid $20 to get early access to thousands of books on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

“It’s a wonderful, fun thing to do,\u201d said Judy Ellsworth, who has worked the Berks Book Bonanza for 10 years.<\/p>\n

“You wake up in the morning, say, \u2018Oh, it’s a book day,\u2019\u201d Ellsworth said.<\/p>\n

Wednesday marked the 52nd year for the annual sale. As always, it features thousands of used books, CDs, DVDs and puzzles \u2014 all donated and selling for $2 or less.<\/p>\n

“We sell these books for the benefit of Berks County Public Libraries and Aid Association of University Women,” Ellsworth said.<\/p>\n

A study by the University of Florida and University College London<\/a> found the number of Americans who read for pleasure fell by 40% between 2003 and 2023.<\/p>\n

Still, Ellsworth said she doesn’t think reading’s going anywhere.<\/p>\n

“I think the world is different than it has been, and people are doing some other things, but it does not appear to us that they’ve stopped reading,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Others weren’t shocked at the gloomy statistic.<\/p>\n

“I think it’s definitely declining, but I hope we’re not reaching the end of it,” said Bridget Brandt, an avid reader.<\/p>\n

Patricia Keenan was a teacher for 39 years, she said she saw fewer kids reading,<\/p>\n

“They only read a portion of the book, and you lose so much that way,\u201d Keenan said. \u201cI think it’s really important to be able to read and get the whole story.”<\/p>\n

Some readers, like April Oberholtzer, remain optimistic.<\/p>\n

“There are more ways you can stay away from reading, but I think like people read on Libby app and things like that now, too,\u201d Oberholtzer said. \u201cSo I don’t doubt it, but I also think that there’s a comeback happening.”<\/p>\n

The Berks Book Bonanza<\/a> is free to enter starting Thursday at the county’s South Campus at 400 E. Wyomissing Ave. in Mohnton. It goes from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. On Sunday, the \u201c$5 Fill a Bag\u201d sale runs from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MOHNTON, Pa. \u2013 Despite studies showing a steep decline in American adults reading for fun, eager readers paid…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":239050,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[102566,65304,27032,736,128,130,129,76835],"class_list":["post-239049","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-berks-book-bonanza","tag-book-sale","tag-libraries","tag-reading","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news","tag-used-books"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239049","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=239049"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239049\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/239050"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=239049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=239049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}