Count Down to Christmas! Book a Month for kids and adults! New Gift Baskets and Blind Date Books! Also Christmas Puzzles for adults and children!
MEMBERSHIP SALE! Now you can become a member for just $10. This gets you ten percent off of all purchases over $5, good until December 31, 2026. PLUS entrance to the members only sale on September 19th! You get to shop not only the store but also the sorting room which holds all the books that are ready to go out on the shelves in the store. There will be special sale prices and lots of free things. Puzzles will be half price, that day only! Memberships will be available at the door, but if you buy now you will start saving money now!
2026 Annual FOL Membership Application 2026 FOL Membership Form Membership forms with payment may be mailed to "Friends of the Library, 130 N. Franklin St., Decatur, IL 62523" or brought into our Books & Beyond bookstore during business hours as listed in the letter.
FOL Phone Number - Call the Friends at 217-421-9733.
Please join us Wednesday,December 2nd, 2026, at 12:15 in the Decatur Public Library's Madden Auditorium for Books Between Bites. Teena Zindel-McWilliams will discuss the book The Man who Invented Christmas: How Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol Rescued His Career and Revived Our Holiday Spirit by Les Standiford
About the Book and Teena's Talk: So many Christmas traditions are built into the fabric of December. The Christmas tree, special music, and holiday dishes are just some of the connections many of us consider important. We also build our enjoyment around stories, and none is more significant than the story A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. Les Standiford explores the background, the story, and the impact of this “defense of the family unit” in The Man who Invented Christmas: How Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol Rescued His Career and Revived Our Holiday Spirit. Standiford, a winner of the Frank O’Connor Award for Short Fiction, is the founding director of the creative writing program at Florida International University. We will also stray from A Christmas Carol to look at other stories and traditions and how they became a part of our celebration. (If you are inclined, wear a holiday sweater to brighten our time together.) Teena Zindel-McWilliams, Director of Institutional and Academic Planning at Richland Community College, has boxes full of Christmas books and loves to talk about the Grinch, Scrooge, Santa, and reindeer!
About the Author: Les Standiford "I was born in the Appalachian outpost of Cambridge, Ohio. I stumbled into a creative writing program at the University of Utah where life finally began to make sense That eventually lead to the publication of SPILL, my first novel, followed by nine more, then a leap out of mystery and into history with LAST TRAIN TO PARADISE, now nearing its 40th printing. I've been writing historical narratives ever since." - Amazon
About the Presenter: Teena Zindel-McWilliams is the Director of Institutional and Academic Planning at Richland Community College
Books Between Bites is a free program at the Decatur Public Library, sponsored by Friends of the Decatur Public Library
2025 Books On Sale - Half Price! These 2025 books were priced at $7, but are now on sale for only $3.50! More 2025 books are also on sale.
Book sales are on the main floor of the Decatur Public Library. Go in the main entrance, then go left to our bookstore. Hardback books are only $1,and paperbacks are 50 cents. 2025 and 2026 hardbacks are $7, and 2025 -2026 paperbacks are $4 Special books and other items are priced as marked
Sale Days and Times - Monday from 10:30am - 2:30pm
Tuesdays from 10:30am - 2:30pm
Thursdays from 3pm - 6:30pm
Saturdays sales are on the 2nd and 4th Saturdays every month from 9:30am - 12:30pm