Free Books! Free Books! Free Books!

 

For avid readers like myself, nothing is more exciting than the prospect of free books. This past weekend, I had the opportunity to visit The Book Thing of Baltimore—a local non-profit dedicated to putting "unwanted books into the hands of those who want them." The Book Thing is open to the public once a month from 9:00am to 5:00pm. During this window, patrons are allowed in groups of 100 at a time to grab as many books as they would like in one hour, completely free of charge!

I planned on arriving Sunday morning at 8:30am, assuming that would leave me with plenty of leeway to find parking and enjoy my breakfast to-go. But when I turned onto the street, I was surprised to find a line of eager bookworms already wrapping around the building. People were sat in foldable chairs, wrapped up in blankets—just imagine the line outside of a mall on Black Friday.

I quickly parked in the surrounding neighborhood and booked it (no pun intended) to my spot in line. As I was waiting, I overheard a few folks ahead of me chatting. One woman mentioned that she lived just down the street and had been coming to The Book Thing for years. Another had come from nearly two hours away, an empty suitcase in one hand and an eager child in the other. A man ambled along the sidewalk towards the back of the line. "Are we in the first hundred?" his partner, presumably, asked. His affirmative was much to my relief; we would be let inside in just a few moments.

Although it appears small from the outside, the interior building walls are lined with hundreds and hundreds of books. When I got inside, people were armed with all modes of transport: the aforementioned suitcase, various types of bags, even shopping carts. Each of the sections are loosely labeled according to genre, but other than that, it is a free-for-all. Think thrifting—you have to dig for the good stuff—but with books!

The next hour flew by, and before I knew it my time was up. I hardly scratched the surface of what seemed like an endless collection of books old and new. Just a few of my favorite finds include a first edition hardcover of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, a stack of vintage The New Yorker magazines, and a miniature binding of James Joyce's The Dead. After exiting the building, the staff of volunteers asks for a book count for records purposes—I walked away with 21 books and 17 magazines. I cannot wait to return next month!