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The book thing: Maybe Baltimore really is the city that reads
Okay, so it’s not as comfy as visiting a corporate bookstore—there’s no Starbucks tucked into the corner, no easy-chair, no carpeting, there are no windows, but the books, many, many books in every category imaginable, are all 100% free. Every single week, The Book Thing founder Russell Wattenberg and 30 lit-loving volunteers unpack roughly thirty thousand donated volumes. Wooden bookshelves line the walls of many large rooms divided into fiction, biography, law, business, parenting, cooking, philosophy, diet, and many, many more—You name it.
Killer items abound in the classics section where Russell stocks more important literature. Billy Bathgate by E.L. Doctorow, The Second Coming by Walker Percy, The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder, Women in Love by D.H. Lawrence—each one, in case we didn’t make it totally clear, is FREE. The several shelves titled “Recommended by Russell” promised great finds, too: I’ll Take You There by Joyce Carol Oates, Texas by James A. Michener and The Burden of Proof by Scott Turow.
On the way out, visitors sign a sheet and list the number of volumes they’ve decided to adopt. No one person may walk away with more than 150,000 books in a day; otherwise, the trunk of your car’s probably the limit. The enormous offering of books and books and books is yours to have and to hold.
“We always need more books,” Russell says. “Especially children’s books, dictionaries, and African-American section books—those three are in the greatest demand.”
The nonprofit book-house is open on Saturday and Sunday only from 9 to 6. Donors can drop books in the open stock area outside the front of the shop on Wednesdays after 3 p.m. or from 9 to 6 Saturday and Sunday. 3001 Vineyard Lane, 410.662.5631.