Baltimore Watchdog Staff Writer
The smell of old paper and worn books drifts through the open door of The Book Thing of Baltimore, Inc. while volunteers move among crowded aisles to restock shelves that have been purged of their collections by book lovers looking to undertake new literary adventures.
The Book Thing can be found around the corner of Vineyard Lane in Baltimore with its unmistakable mural of painted hands signing Book Thing in American Sign Language. In 1999, Russell Wattenberg founded the store as a place for people to get free books. Visitors can grab as many books as they like to take home.
Wattenberg said the idea behind The Book Thing came while he worked as a bar manager. Whenever he passed yard sales, he said he would stop and grab books.
“On the weekends, I would go to thrift stores, yard sales and anywhere else and just sort of poke around,” he said, “and if at the end of the day I was at a yard sale and there was a bunch of books, they’d just give them to me.”
On occasion, Wattenberg said he would give the books to people he met at the bar if he thought they would like them. But, for the most part, the books stayed in the back of his van.
Then one day, he said he heard some teachers talking about how they didn’t have enough books for their students. He said he offered the teachers the opportunity to look through the books he had and take what they needed.
When people heard what Wattenberg was doing, they started donating books to him. Other people also started to look through his collection, taking books that they found interesting. He was then faced with the need to expand, he said.
“So the space went from the back of the van, to this and this is a 7,000 square foot building,” Wattenberg said. “And, I have a 3,200 square foot warehouse across the street.”
The second building, Wattenberg said, is mostly for storing books.
One volunteer, 31-year-old Leo, said that the books get dropped in varying amounts. Some people drop off a few books at a time, and others drop off full boxes.
The boxes, which are saved for later use and are piled in the middle of the storeroom floor, make a quaint home for Wattenberg’s cat, who will occasionally peak her head out from behind piles before going back to napping.
After being dropped off, the books are stamped with a “not for resale logo” before being sorted into categories by volunteers. Books are piled into shopping carts to be put on shelves in different sections like fiction, religion, and art.
“If you look at these piles you’ll see math, ecology, poetry, music,” Leo said. “Because a lot of the shelves are full, we’re putting a lot of these categories into boxes so that during the weekend, when they start to empty out when people take them, we can take the boxes and fill them up.”
Bryna Ashley, 31, said she found The Book Thing right after she moved to Baltimore. Her sister told her about it, and Ashley couldn’t believe that there was a place she could get free books.
“The fact that you can get so much stuff and it’s not just piles of books you have to root through,” Ashley said. “It’s actually organized, you can find a lot of really good stuff. I find something good every time I come here.”
Leo said, “I’ve been coming here a long time, years. It’s one of the most amazing institutions there is, and it allows people to get rid of things they don’t need and get them to the people who want them most.”
Wattenberg said The Book Thing stays free by making income in three ways. Sometimes the books are rented out to be part of production on movies. Unique books, like some first editions, get sold from the storage warehouse. But most of the revenue comes from donations, he said.
“Once there was this old woman who passed away, and she had like, $300 dollars of store credit at another used book shop,” Wattenberg said, “and the owner wrote a donation check to us for $300 in her name. It was really cool because used book stores, they already don’t make a ton of money.”
Those who seek to make a monetary donation can do so online, or by sending in a check, Wattenberg said. Cash donations are not accepted at The Book Thing because Wattenberg said it is not “kosher” to accept cash somewhere where books are being given away.
“It makes it something else completely,” Wattenberg said.
For Leo, The Book Thing is a record of human life, and it keeps track of the books that have lasted through time.
“You just wouldn’t realize how many… books that are in existence that got published year after year,” Leo said. “People read them and looked at them and they were part of their lives. It’s just staggering. I mean, you’ve been in the biggest library and even than its more than that.”
The Book Thing is open to browsers on Saturdays and Sundays from 9 a.m.- 5 p.m. Volunteers can stop by at any time during the week to lend a hand. Book donations are accepted 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
“Sometimes, it’s nice to be surrounded by books instead of people,” Wattenberg said.