It is anniversary time at The Star Regent 24-Hour Book Sale, which is celebrating its 35th year.
Long-time live music act Oxo Cubans will also play their 20th sale this year.
The annual sale, held at the Regent Theatre, runs from noon on Friday, May 22 to noon on Saturday, May 23.
The large team of more than 50 volunteer book sorters and sellers have observed some interesting trends in the books donated for the sale through the years.
Organiser Alison Cunningham said there were ''an awful lot'' of copies of Fifty Shades of Grey this year. Previous 24-hour book sales had multiple copies of the Dan Brown bestseller The Da Vinci Code, sports biographies and the Twilight series.
More rare were Westerns, with only about two banana boxes of them coming in a year, and though the sci-fi section had always proved a sell-out, others proved to be less popular purchases.
''I could build myself an extension out of the number of diet books,'' Mrs Cunningham said.
The majority of the about 100,000 books at the sale were sold for $1, though under the stage will be a treasure trove of collectables and antiques, with the new addition of a New Zealand room that could feature ''anything New Zealand'', be it poetry, historical or otherwise. All tills are cash, though an on-site cash-out facility is available.
There will be live music from local performers at the event until 11pm.
Mrs Cunningham said there was no need for people to feel as if they had missed out if they came late, as new books were brought out throughout the sale.
''It's cheap books ... it's a way of supporting the theatre ... and it's a great chance to hear some great live music.''
- by Greta Yeoman
