Saturday, we had a truly wonderful experience. We took two large boxes of books that we had weeded from our collection and dropped them off at the The Bookthing. The Bookthing is a Baltimore non-profit. It gives books away -- free, gratis, no charge. No strings attached. After we dropped off our books, we went inside and browsed the shelves. We were very well-behaved, only picking up 6 books between us. But the experience was amazing. It is set up like a used bookstore, with virtually no staff, and no cash registers. People come in and are encouraged to take as many books as they want. The only thing they ask is that you sign the log, telling how many you take. The day we went, the high total on the sheet was 73 books to one person. The "store" used to have a 10 book minimum (i.e. you had to take at least 10), but they have relaxed the requirement because they didn't want to scare off potential readers.
They are getting all my cast-off books from now on. And I will send them checks when I can, so maybe they can fix the leaky roof. A terrific idea like this should be supported.
1 comment:
Wow! What an awesome idea. Wish there was something like that near me. Unfortunately, even traditional used book stores are somewhat scarce (or woefully low quality) in my adopted state.
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