The Book Thing in Baltimore--Free Books

One of the more interesting places in Baltimore is this warehouse--The Book Thing--stocked with over 100 thousand donated books in the Abell neighborhood, which can also be considered part of the Charles Village neighborhood, and about a 15-minute walk east of the main Johns Hopkins University campus.

According a Baltimore Sun story, the Book Thing gives away 400,000 to 500,000 books per year. It is open on Saturdays and Sundays, 9 am to 5 pm.

1. The Book Thing website: http://bookthing.org/
2. "Up from the ashes: The Book Thing returns," Baltimore Sun, October 13, 2017: http://www.baltimoresun.com/features/baltimore-insider-blog/bs-fe-the-book-thing-reopens-20171012-story.html
3. "The Book Thing Bounces Back--A Baltimore literary institution gets reborn, thanks to the community," Baltimore Magazine, September 2017: https://www.baltimoremagazine.com/2017/9/19/the-book-thing-bounces-back

Green Room, at front entrance.

The rooms are painted green, red, and blue. The green room in the photo contains sociology, psychology, economics, women's studies, history, etc. (Because I wanted to avoid violating someone's privacy, I rushed before getting this into focus.)



Whenever I go there, I mainly concentrate on getting books that I can use in my teaching or research but can't easily find elsewhere. I suppose that many people would worry that some would abuse this by trying to haul away thousands of books at one time, but I have never seen anyone take more than a reasonable number. As can be seen in this photo, the books are stamped with a Not for Resale, usually on a title page, which I hope that used book stores will see and adhere to. [Varieties of Police Behavior is a classic by the criminologist/political scientist James Q. Wilson. I sometimes teach criminology but have only read parts of it.]

The Book Thing is run by volunteers and donations. I've volunteered a little by stamping, boxing, and sorting books. I think that usually the equivalent of over 100 boxes of books are donated each week.

Map of The Book Thing