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Book Giving Day: Why You Should Donate Books To Children

The Curious Reader

February 08, 2018

International Book Giving Day

We often overlook the importance of books and how much of a difference they can make, especially in the lives of children. Thankfully,  Amy Broadmoore didn’t.

In 2012, she and her son conceived the International Book Giving Day which is celebrated every year on February 14, with the intention of getting books into the hands of as many children as possible. Today, it is celebrated across the world from the U.S. to Malawi and Poland to Puerto Rico.

In Calais, books were sent to child refugees.

6 new libraries have been established over the past 6 years, each one on Book Giving Day, in Cape Town.

The National Book Development Board  in the Philippines  organised the ‘Books are Love Giveaway’ giving individuals the chance to win books for themselves and their chosen library.

In 2017, Pakistan celebrated Book Giving Day for the first time. Over 200 books were distributed in Transworld School Rawalpindi and storytelling sessions were held at 2 different venues.

This is a great idea and a humanital work for helping poor students toward their education level and let them pass to their future in a well way

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Donate books to charity: help someone by doing a good thing.

There is a reason for giving away things you may no longer need. It will make you happy. It will also make someone else happy, too. While it’s great to sell used things and get extra cash, you do way more than that when you donate books to charity . In this article, we’ll cover the reasons why you may consider the idea and how to do it in the best way possible.

Other People Can Get Access to Books

You declutter, you free up space for new books.

• You’re Being Eco-Friendly
• You’re Doing Something Small but Really Good

Things to Consider before You Donate Books to Charity

Book condition recommendations, what books to donate, where do your donated books go, reasons why to donate books to charity.

When you donate books to charity, you give them a new life and audience: other people can read them, too. You’re basically passing on a story; it’ll be opened by someone else, maybe by many people. For instance, it’s not just your kids who will remember the story but other kids, too. Probably those who either can’t afford or is unable to get the books in any other way.

That’s more about doing some good for yourself rather than for other people, but it doesn’t mean the reason isn’t good. When you make time to sort your books, sell some of them, and donate or recycle/throw away the rest, you’ll immediately feel how the atmosphere of your space changes.

Sounds contradicting, right? Yet, if you’re a book lover and can’t stop bringing new books home, donating some of your collection helps you maintain the balance. You give away the books you’ve read and are now free to buy new ones. An ideal scenario.

You’re Being Eco-Friendly

Second-hand book reselling , donating, and recycling books are definitely the very things that you can do to stay green and follow sustainability principles.

You’re Doing Something Small but Really Good

By donating your books to charity, you’re not only finding them a new home but are also providing a charitable organization with the material for their money-raising activities. All charities don’t just do what they do for fun; they help people with things other than books, and these things can only be purchased for money. One of the ways charities can find funding is by selling the books you donate to them. Surely, yours will be a tiny contribution, but if it helps anyone, it’s definitely worth it.

So, here’re your books that have been collecting dust in the attic for years. Before you take them anywhere, there’re a few things you should do:

Do some research regarding the charities you can donate your books to. Whichever you choose, contact them about their dotation policy. While such organizations as Goodwill accept almost everything, check if there are any specific requirements and particular times when donations are accepted. Some places used to accept donations in the past, but for many reasons, and especially after the pandemic, they may no longer do so. If you don’t check such things in advance, you’ll only waste your time. Don’t bring your boxes to the places where you’ve specifically been told they won’t be accepted. You’ll only inconvenience other people, who’ll have to think about what to do with your books and may simply throw them away.

In this article, we’re not going to make a detailed overview of the book charities in the US. However, we’ll give you a list and a link to one of our earlier blog posts— Top Book Charities in the US: Transform Lives Through Reading —where you can read all about the charity options in the US and choose the one you like the most.

• Room To Read
• World Literacy Foundation
• National Center For Families Learning
• United Through Reading
• Project Night Night
• Worldreader
• Proliteracy
• The Pajama Program
• 826 National
• Literacy For Incarcerated Teens
• Reading Is Fundamental
• Books For Africa
• Reading Partners
• Children’s Literacy Initiative
• Everybody Wins!
• Ferst Readers
• Reach Out And Read
• Little Free Library
• Waterbridge Outreach

When we think about donating books to charity, the first thing that comes to mind may be getting all your books in one box and leaving them happily someplace locally. And so many people do: they simply bring bags and dusty boxes full of old books in bad condition. Yet, they don’t do it because they mean badly. Many can’t throw books away, even very old ones, because it’s wrong to treat them like that—disrespectfully.

Yet, we urge you to be rational. While books are books, they have their expiration date, so to speak. Not all books are sacred vessels of knowledge, so before you make a donation to your local charity, make sure you’re giving away something of value , or at the very least, something that other people will be able to read, something relevant.

Besides, do pay attention to the condition of your books. If most of your pile is better off being placed in the recycle bin, do so without a heavy heart. Very old, discolored, worn, and torn books won’t be of use to anyone , and you’ll save other people’s time (e.g., volunteers who’ll be sorting and eventually tossing them).

Here’re the books that you should never donate :

• Old, out-of-date textbooks, encyclopedias, and periodicals
• Old guides, out-of-date how-tos, and abridged editions
• Old magazines
• Dirty, worn, torn, or otherwise disfigured or damaged books
• Books with racist or problematic content
• Books with adult content
• Bad-condition picture books for small kids

Now that you’ve ruled out the books that’ll go to the “toss” pile, let’s check the rest:

• Ideally, your books should be in pristine condition . However, that’s an unlikely story with old books, so just make sure they have no tears, no writing or highlighting, and no other signs of damage, yellowing, etc. Check whether it’s an ex-library copy or else. Don’t donate anything you wouldn’t like to take into your own hands. Feel free to read our articles about Determining Book Condition and How to Clean Old Books .
• Try to donate something recent . This specifically refers to non-fiction, as it should have been published within the last five years, at the very least. Otherwise, go back to the previous paragraph and re-read it. No one will benefit from your very old textbooks and guides; they get out-of-date really fast and may contain irrelevant information.
• Again, leave out textbooks, encyclopedias, and periodicals aside. There’re other places that may be interested in them. Relevant textbooks can be sold to online booksellers; there’re small local thrift stores that specialize in encyclopedias and periodicals; you just need to find them. If you are unsure of how to sell books online, we have created a comprehensive guide that will teach you how to sell used books profitably .

Please remember that donating books to charity doesn’t mean they all find a new home. As we’ve already mentioned, some organizations will sell them for cash; others may recycle or toss them after their selection process. So, if you’re not ready to part with your books with a light heart, don’t do it. Once you give something away, it’s not yours anymore . The reality is that some of your books will be recycled , and some will go to landfill. However, some of them will make another person a little happier.

If you want to be more confident about the path your books take after your part with them, there are other ways to donate textbooks and used books other than giving them away to charitable organizations:

• Donate your books to your local library.
• Send them to your kid’s school.
• Trade them for other things.
• Start a street library.
• Sell your books and get cash for them.

We hope you now know more about the process of donating books to charities. If you have been thinking about decluttering and came up with our article, now is the time to act. We’ve provided you with a short guide and a list of charities you can donate your used books to. It’s your turn now: share your books with other people and do some good. Your donation will always be appreciated.

Natalie Meyers

Natalie Meyers is a freelance writer and editor with more than 15 years of experience. As an English major and a psychology graduate, she worked as a teacher and a counselor. As a writer, she's covered a diverse range of topics from technology to publishing. She is an avid reader who believes that books help us become more authentic versions of ourselves. At BookScouter, she's a smart writer and an expert in all things books.

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The Benefits of Book Sharing with Others: Why It’s Great to Give Books Away

• Post author: Admin
• Post published: October 24, 2021
• Post category: Books
• Post comments: 0 Comments

There are immense benefits of book sharing with others. It not only involves and engages others in the book reading but also lasts a healthy impact on society. It is a virtue and act of kindness when we give away our stuff to others. On the other hand, this is the best practice to share knowledge and wisdom. Book sharing is very common in developed societies. People generally put their extra books on shelves in specified places and knowledge seekers collect them.

Why it’s great to give books away

It is really an amazing idea to give away books to others because:

• Books, it turns out, are the perfect way to build community
• Books facilitate empathy
• Reading books develops empathy
• Books teach children how to problem solve and take responsibility
• Children who are given books are less likely to abuse them
• Helping children to see themselves in books is key to development.

It’s important that when giving books away you ask what the child would like them to do. They don’t always know what they want their books to do, and that’s okay. You just want them to have something to do.

When you give books away you have to make sure they are in good condition for your child to use. Ask for their opinions, if you have children. You want to give them the perfect present they will appreciate, and you want them to look after their books properly.

The benefits of book sharing with others

It is a very good idea to Engage your child with another child’s book choices. Mutual interactions tend them to learn from their experiences.

It helps your child discover a whole new group of characters and develop their own special bond with those characters.

• It helps your child develop a sense of belonging.
• Learning to share with another child.
• It gives them a feeling of understanding and responsibility.
• It helps them to develop their sense of belonging.
• They have fun finding books they want to share with a friend.
• These are more inclined to want to share those books.
• They learn how to be part of a community by sharing with others.

What you need to know before you start

While you may be tempted to start sharing books with your little one when they are around three years old, the research has shown that babies and toddlers who are still in the beginning stages of language development (before they even say their first words!) need the support of their parents to truly learn from a book. This means that you’ll have to start sharing before they’re really ready. And I’ll be honest, it can be a lot to do. I actually began sharing books with my daughter a year ago now.

To do this well and with genuine intention, you have to plan ahead. You have to put in a little bit of work to make sure you have the right books for your child. You have to read with them and support their reading by talking about the words and what they mean.

How to set up a book share

Everyone brings a book to share. Make sure it’s a book they’ve read before, like the classic Henry Huggins or Goodnight Moon, and one they are really looking forward to reading. At my house, we always try to have one book with a higher level of difficulty. That way, if one child struggles with a certain word, they will have the ability to ask for help, or the other child will be able to help them with sounding out new words and sounding out sounds.

Another option is to ask each family to bring a book that is completely new to the group and one that they think the whole family can enjoy. When you are ready, let your child choose one book from the pile, and share it with the group. If there are any children who are not interested, simply get another book to share.

The best time to do a book share

There is not a specific time to proceed for virtue and kindness. One can share books anytime with others. The important is how and where to start at first. There are various ways to share books with kids. Some people share books on school occasions. While some can do it in their social circle. As an added bonus, many book shares include after-school playdates and snacks, a very win-win situation if you ask me.

The advent of the internet has made life very easy. A lot of websites are there where you can post free ads to share free books. You can share books in both print form and pdf form as well. So it would not be wrong to say that the internet has facilitated the book sharing procedure very easily and fast. There are a lot of people who share printed books. On the other hand, a lot of research institutes and libraries put their resources online. Everybody can download the material according to their interest and free of cost of course. There are some paid options as well, but one can find free sources on the internet as well. Public libraries usually offer free online content to people.

Here we can conclude that there are multiple benefits of book sharing with others. One of the reasons I really like sharing books is because I love books, and I know a lot of my friends are like me. Sharing books means we are connecting through books together. We are joining forces with one another and lending our voice to the selection process.

I enjoy sharing books with my friends because the act of having them in my life makes me feel happy. I don’t have to wonder if my favorite books will be given to my child or my friend because I know they are both such good people that they won’t be offended by my selections. Yes, I have an awesome friend from kindergarten that I absolutely adore and she is the queen of sharing books.

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Many a bibliophile can identify with a book-hoarder. Shelves at home stuffed with books that have stayed unopened for years, with no plans to revisit in the near future. Passing on books can be hard – your shelves say a lot about you, after all. But ask yourselves, don’t those poor forgotten books deserve a new lease of life?

Passing on books can be a painful experience for a bibliophile, so here are five great reasons to donate books you’ve finished:

1. You’re passing on your favourite stories for others to read

Donating your old books is more than just passing on an unused item – you’re passing on a story. Whether it’s books your children enjoyed reading, or a novel that you read on a special holiday, giving away books feels good because you hope others will get the same enjoyment out of them.

2. Decluttering will make you happier

Most of our bookshelves don’t look like the carefully curated collection we see in magazines. It’s a known fact that decluttering makes you feel calmer and more in control, and this definitely applies to your bookshelves.

3. It’s more environmentally friendly

By encouraging second-hand selling of books, you’re saving paper and the environment, can’t argue with that.

4. You’ll have more space for new books

Okay so I know this one kind of contradicts number 2… Buuut, by clearing out unused books, you can kiss goodbye to that guilty “I’ve already got too many at home” next time you’re at the bookshop.

5. You’re helping a good cause

By donating your books, you’re not only passing on stories to a new home, but you’re also supporting a good cause. By selling your unused books on Buengo, you can decide which charity or cause you’d like to help, and receive updates about how the money raised is making a difference.

Ready to donate your old books? Download Buengo from the App Store or Google Play Store and post your books for sale within minutes!

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The Joy Of Reading And Donating Books

How Books Can Help

Some books can help us to heal from trauma. They speak to us in unique ways, and sharing the adventures found within the pages is a great way to unite people.

Books can make us laugh out loud, cry with empathy, or feel a surge of joy. They help us to learn new things and help people to connect with their children through the act of reading together.  

Children love to sit close and have a book read to them. That closeness is more precious than books themselves. This is particularly true between adults and children.  

Reading offers opportunities to imagine worlds, unlike television and movies where the worlds are created for you. When you donate books, you are sharing knowledge, stories, and adventures, as well as encouraging thought and imagination.  

Donating books can lead to people developing their communication skills by increasing their vocabularies and developing grammar and verbal skills.

Reading books is also an effective way to improve focus and concentration, which might be particularly useful for anyone that has suffered traumatic experiences. In today’s world, information can be exchanged very quickly via the television and over the Internet, but much of that writing can be shallow, forcing the viewer to click here and there to fill in the gaps.

Books, on the other hand, often offer more comprehensive examinations of subjects. They are great at inviting people to take some time to think more deeply about things.

Another great benefit of reading is that it has been proven to reduce stress by slowing down our heart rate and easing tension in our muscles.

Losing yourself in a book may well be the ultimate in relaxation. It can also be great fun and actively engages us as it invites us into the author’s world. Since they offer countless opportunities to leave our worries behind, think how much a veteran might benefit from books that you can donate.

Donating Your Books

If you’re thinking about getting rid of some used books, Pickup Please will come and take them off your hands, free of charge. Click the button below to schedule a donation pickup .

Know that your books, clothing, toys, and household donations will help support the Vietnam Veterans of America and their families.

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Vietnam Veterans of America pledges, “Never again will one generation of veterans abandon another”, and so VVA supports the physical, mental, and emotional well being of all veterans.  

Please help us to help those who serve our country.

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Help make a difference in the lives of America’s Veterans and their families today.

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Gathering Books

Singapore | United Arab Emirates | United States of America | Philippines

5 Reasons to Donate Your Books

Being a bibliophile, I know for a fact that letting go of ones books can be difficult. After all, we do live for our books. However, as I was clearing out my shelf and determining which books to give away for our 1-4-1000 book drive I found myself listing reasons to pass my older books to someone else’s hand.

#5 It will make space for new books. 

I know most book lovers have overflowing shelves and a room pouring out with books. At some point these books are getting deformed, attacked by book mites and being silently thrown away by your mother (ok, not everybody’s mother is like mine), which is a sad way to be if you’re a book. Rather than making your books face some painful end, give them away and make way for those new books you’re planning to read.

#4 It’s a guilt-free way of editing your shelf.

I know some bibliophiles find themselves with boxes of books they wish to erase from their memory. Some of these are bad books, some bleh books, and some books that just didn’t jive with you.  Often, these books take away shelf space (as in #5 reason) because they have no where else to go and book lovers hate seeing books thrown into the bin.  Donating to book drives are a guilt-free way of editing your book collection, because….

#3 It de-clutters your space.

This is probably an appeal to the OC-bibliophiles (like me….i know I’m sounding like a nut!) who can’t stand clutter.  I won’t expound on this, this is almost similar to #5 and #4, the only difference is this doesn’t necessarily mean a bookshelf/book space. Some readers are casual readers, when they are done reading they don’t feel the need to hang on to the books and come spring cleaning the question of where to send out the books creeps its way in. I suggest, donate your books to book drives being hosted by various organizations all over town! De-cluttering has never been this giving!

#2 You get to spread the spirit of reading.

Let’s face it, for most readers, reading has changed our lives. It has opened up our world to all sort of places, people, and ideas.  And maybe, even some of us, weren’t readers at the beginning and only converted to avid fans of the written word when we found that one perfect book that swept our feet away. For most people that opportunity may never come. As is the case in less fortunate communities where books are scarce and libraries barely existent. By donating books you give other people the opportunity to discover for themselves that ONE book that could change their life .  Passing on your books to someone else is the simplest way to spread the spirit of reading.

#1 It will make you happy.

Studies have shown that giving wholeheartedly translates to personal happiness. In donating books you make other people happy as you make yourself happy. Who doesn’t want to be happy? You can put your books at cardboard boxes and crate rental whether you’re shipping overseas, shipping nationally, or has large or oddly shaped.

Gathering Books invite you to join us spread the spirit of reading through our 1-4-1000 book drive. In celebration of our 1 year anniversary, we are giving 4-schools books and we hope to be able to collect at least 1000 books by July 2011.

If you wish to donate books and aren’t sure how to go about it, feel free to contact us at gatheringbooks2009(at)gmail(dot)com.  For more details on this endeavor please check out this launching post and this donations page .

image: original work by author

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5 comments on “ 5 Reasons to Donate Your Books ”

Nice, Mary! I love the image too.

I’m hoping my next post would be a review for our bimonthly theme. I am unfortunately flooded with writing deadlines…sigh.

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The Definitive Guide to Where to Donate Books

Whether you’re a believer in the minimal, joy-sparking book collection Marie Kondo stresses or you’re a book connoisseur who regularly cleans their shelf to make way for new reading material, the next big step after deciding what books to donate is getting them from your trunk to a donation center.

At this point, you might be asking yourself:

• Are there time-saving services that will pick up my donation pile after notifying them online, or are there quick and easy drop off bins near me?
• What if I want my donation to help those in my local community (can I donate to my library, maybe?) or benefit a great cause (like sending the books to third world countries)?
• Can I get something in return for my generous donation?
• What if my books are so worn and torn that no one else will want them?

Since we’re believers that, as Walt Disney once said, “There is more treasure in books than in all the pirate's loot on Treasure Island,” we’ve compiled the ultimate list—the definitive guide to donating books—to help you easily find the perfect donation spot for you, whether you have children’s books, academic textbooks, or novels, and whether you live in Brooklyn (NYC), Los Angeles (CA), or somewhere in between.

The Most Convenient Donation Spots

Check your local area to see if these organizations can pick up your pile of book donations (many have easy drop-off location spots, if you’d rather swing by!).

• The Salvation Army resells donated items to fund their Adult Rehabilitation Centers.
• Goodwill resells donated items to create jobs for those in need and helps recycle items through your community. Online you can find the nearest Goodwill, and you can call and ask if they offer pick-up services.
• AMVETS supports the veteran community. Check their site to see if there’s a location near you to schedule a pickup.
• Donation Town allows you to search for local charities near you that are willing to pick up your donation.
• Search online for “pick up book donation near me,” as there may be some local options available to you. For example, if you live on the East Coast, GreenDrop is a charitable organization that can either pick up your books or receive your donation at a drop-off center. If you happen to live in Northern Utah, Tabitha’s Way has multiple drop-off bins around the area.
• Ask your friends and family if they’re interested in the books you no longer want to keep. There’s no shame in asking them to stop by and pick them up, or simply take them to your next get together.

Donate Locally

It’s best to call ahead and double check whether these nearby sites are accepting donations.

• Your local library (some list online whether they’re accepting donations, too)
• Local thrift stores
• Local schools
• Retirement Homes and Assisted Living Centers (may also welcome children’s books for Alzheimer and Dementia patients)
• Daycare centers
• Dentists (might accept newer children’s books)
• Your pediatric doctor’s office (might accept new children’s books)
• Search Google for “donate books in [city, state]”
• Your local church (might welcome donations for the young children who attend)
• Refugee centers
• Animal shelters (there are reading programs with dogs to get them ready for adoption)
• Homeless shelters
• Freecyle (think craigslist, but for free!)
• Local theatres (they sometimes use old books as props)

Benefit A Cause

While many of the convenient donation spots listed previously also go to great use, here are a few options for larger causes your books can contribute to.

• Books for Africa allows you to ship up to 50 lbs of books to send to students in Africa. You have to pay around $0.50 per book you want to donate as well as for the shipping. They accept hardcover and softcover fiction and non-fiction books and college textbooks, though books should be 15 years old or newer.
• Operation Paperback provides the opportunity to send your gently-used books to American troops overseas. You’ll need to become a “Volunteer Shipper” and input genres you’re willing to donate. They’ll provide you with address information, and you’ll pack up the books and pay to ship them.
• Habitat for Humanity ReStore uses proceeds from reselling donation items to fund Habitat’s home-building projects throughout the world.
• Reach Out and Read is a nonprofit that encourages families to read aloud together and incorporates books into pediatric care. To donate books for kids up to 15 years old, you’ll fill out a form on their site about your donation and they’ll get back to you with your local Reach Out and Read site within two weeks for you to drop your donation off at or ship your donation to.
• Reader to Reader is a nonprofit that places donated books in deserverving, " under-resourced school libraries and public libraries across the United States ."
• Better World Books resells donated books, using the proceeds to fund literacy initiatives across the world.
• Prisons often accept donations of approved paperback books. Make sure your donations align with approved books, and check with your local prison beforehand to make sure they’re accepting donations. Here’s a list with some locations throughout the US you can donate to.

Get Something in Return

• BookMooch allows you to donate your books to receive points, which you can use to ask for others’ books.
• Half Price Books might buy your used books, and they’ll either recycle or donate books they don’t resell.

More Creative Ways to Share Your Loved Books

• Host a book swap party, but leave empty handed. Have everyone place their books in the center, choose new (to them) books to take home, and then let others choose from your pile (and what others bring). Donate any remainders to one of the options in this article.
• Create a little free library (a neighborhood library spot where you can leave or take a book).
• Put on a book sale to sell your used books, or raise money to donate to a good cause (many of the organizations listed above allow monetary donations, too!).

Are your books so well used that they’re basically torn apart, but you don’t want to throw them away? Ask your local recycling center if you can bring your books by. If any of these services have worked well for you, let us know! If you have favorite or trusted options for donating your books that we haven’t covered here, please share them with us.

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Spread the joy of reading: Donate books to the less privileged

Do your bit for the city’s underprivileged children by donating books. here are some ngos which you can coordinate with, for donating books..

A true bibliophile knows the value of a book and most would go to any extent to share the joy of reading. If you have a stock of abandoned old books, which once regaled you, helped you through a rough patch, or brought a smile to your face, then it is time to pass on the feeling.

Many NGOs Delhi urge people to donate old books and reading material for the underprivileged. And if one wishes to do something beyond donations of books, one can even volunteer for reading sessions. Professor Surinder Singh Jodhka, Social Sciences Centre for the Study of Social Systems at Jawaharlal Nehru University, says, “Literacy is very important, and education need not be imparted in just schools. We must develop a culture of reading as it takes a child a long way. Books need to be made a part of the environment a child grows up in. What these NGOs are doing must be encouraged and recognised.”

Read: Book banks | A step to preserve, spread knowledge

Developing Thought through Stories

Katha works with underserved children by bringing quality education and reading within their reach. They also publish books and have over 300 titles in fiction, non-fiction, poetry and storybooks. What sets them apart is the fact that they are bringing back the art of storytelling.

“Stories get students to ask questions. The mind grows when there is empathy, compassion and an understanding of the world around us. Stories help children and young adults achieve this,” says Geeta Dharmarajan, founder.

‘I Love Reading’, a campaign started by the NGO in 2004 urges people to donate books. Renuka Malaker, development director, says, “I believe that children should have access to quality books, and the books should be in good condition when donated.” The NGO welcomes participation of volunteers to take part in their programmes. “Everyone is a storyteller, and we have volunteers who work with us in different capacities,” says Dharmarajan.

Companion through Curfew

Uday Foundation not only works with an aim to provide shelter, food and basic amenities to the homeless and disaster-stricken, but also works towards imparting education to children. Through its book donation drives, the NGO manages to collect around 50,000 books annually.

“We have deployed two vans under our ‘Story on Wheels’ programme that visit hospitals everyday, where our volunteers read out from the books to sick children. We also have Bollywood actors like Ranbir Kapoor and Manoj Bajpayee on board. They have visited hospitals where reading sessions are held,” says Rahul Verma, founder. In addition to sending dry ration and clothes for relief work, the NGO makes sure to send books for children in affected areas. “What’s a child to do during a curfew? With no access to the outside world, books become their companions,” he adds.

Read: For the love of books: The joy of reading, brought to you by publishers

The NGO has 138 schools in the city on board that collect books and drop them at their centre in Adhchini. You too can be a part of this initiative by donating books and study material, or as a volunteer.

A library for all

Deepalaya NGO runs a community library and a reading project, under which they operate two libraries that stock novels and storybooks. “Our volunteers hold read-aloud sessions with the kids. The way a story is told is very important as it invokes curiosity and makes them ask questions. The children also take books home for further reading,” says Jaswant Kaur, communications director.

People can donate books at the libraries or if there are books in bulk, then the NGO collects them from a centralised location. “It is not possible for us to hold door-to-door pickup drives. So if you have a bulk collection of books from your neighbourhood, then we can arrange for a pickup,” she adds.

Starting a dialogue

Hope Foundation started the Slum Children Education Programme in 2010, under which it runs schools for underprivileged children. They also have book collection centres spread over the city, where people can donate books.

“We have a library of books which include storybooks and motivational books. We urge people to donate books, preferably in Hindi,” says P Chandrasekaran, head, North India operations. Volunteers at the foundation engage the children in crafts, music, tailoring and other vocations.

Read: Book donor club in Noida, a hit among students

“There are times when children don’t understand things by reading alone. People can also join us as storytellers and read out the books to the children, engage them in conversation about various subjects,” says Lalita Francis, senior programme manager.

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How to Donate Used Books to Charity

Last Updated: June 1, 2021 References

wikiHow is a “wiki,” similar to Wikipedia, which means that many of our articles are co-written by multiple authors. To create this article, 18 people, some anonymous, worked to edit and improve it over time. There are 9 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been viewed 22,556 times.

Books can take up a lot of living space from your home, especially if you are an avid reader. An excellent option to deal with this problem is to give the books away, as this releases the burden in your home in addition to helping people in need. You will not only be able to reduce the logistics problem, but also share the joy of reading and helps to improve others' lives.

Preparing to Donate Books

• How-to books may not be a good option to send, such as a sewing book or model airplane book. Books that require other items are not good options.

• Organizations like DonationTown will come to your door for book pickup, and lets you choose which charity the money supports.

Donating Books In Your Local Community

• Check out your local Salvation Army for drop-off locations. [4] X Research source
• Goodwill also offers book drop-off. [5] X Research source

Donating To Organizations Through Mail

• Consider donating to Books To Prisoners. [7] X Research source
• Books Through Bars also donates to prisons. [8] X Research source

• Books for Soldiers takes requests from soldiers and individuals are able to send those books to soldiers. [10] X Research source

• The Libri Foundation Books for Children Program works through libraries to donate books to under privileged schools across the nation. [12] X Research source

• Donate Textbooks is one organization that works with donated textbooks.

Community Q&A

• Look for agencies that can provide logistics arrangements to pick up the books for you. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0
• Before donating your books, check out the charity’s policies. Some charities accept only certain types of books, such as hardcover or softcover. You may need to donate to more than one organization to get rid of your entire collection. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0
• Make sure that the books are in acceptable conditions and not too worn out. Torn covers are most likely not appealing to buyers or to children. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0
• Make sure that you donate to reputable and trustworthy parties. Do some online research on what they aim for, and their reputation and track record. Thanks Helpful 2 Not Helpful 0

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• ↑ https://www.irs.gov/uac/Eight-Tips-for-Deducting-Charitable-Contributions
• ↑ http://www.ala.org/tools/libfactsheets/alalibraryfactsheet12
• ↑ http://www.moneycrashers.com/where-donate-used-books/
• ↑ http://www.salvationarmyusa.org
• ↑ http://www.goodwill.org
• ↑ http://www.bookstoprisoners.net
• ↑ http://booksthroughbars.org/donate/books
• ↑ http://booksforsoldiers.com/donate/
• ↑ http://www.librifoundation.org

About this article

Reader success stories.

Jan 11, 2017

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Jun 28, 2018

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Donating Books and Other Materials

More than three hundred years ago, Yale University was founded with a gift of 417 books. Out of this donation grew an unsurpassed institution of higher learning and a library that attracts academic luminaries from around the world.  

Today, Yale Library welcomes offers of rare or unique materials that extend and complement existing collections. Due to the high cost of processing and storage, we accept donated materials very selectively.

We must turn down all but the most extraordinary offers of rare materials. If you do not hear from a curator or librarian within two weeks of contacting the library, you may assume the library cannot add the materials you offer to its collections.

Please note that self-published books and audio and visual material (including phonograph records, CDs, VHS tapes, and DVDs) are generally not considered to be rare or unique.

Conditions of Acceptance

Donors wishing to give rare or unique material to the library are encouraged to contact the appropriate Yale special collection  directly.

Any accepted gifts become the property of Yale University upon receipt. The library may make all necessary decisions as to their retention, location, cataloging, and other considerations relating to their use and disposition.  Materials accepted but not added to the library collections may be exchanged with other libraries throughout the world, sold, or disposed of through charitable organizations, or other means.  We do not accept unsolicited drop-offs of any material.

In-kind gifts to Yale Library may provide you with federal and state income tax benefits.  In accordance with IRS regulations, the library cannot appraise any donations.

Contacting the Library

If you are considering a donation of materials to Yale Library or have a question, please contact Julie Linden, Director of Collection Development: julie.linden@yale.edu .

For additional information about giving to Yale Library, please visit the Library Development homepage .

Other Places to Donate Books and Other Materials

• Association of Research Libraries – List of Members
• Membership and Subscription Libraries
• Your Old Books , Rare Books and Manuscripts Section, Association of College and Research Libraries, American Library Association. This guide addresses some frequently asked questions about rare and older books and their values.
• Book Donation Programs , American Library Association

18 Literacy Charities To Donate To This Year

Leah Rachel von Essen

By day, Leah Rachel von Essen is the editor-in-chief of Chicago Booth Magazine at the University of Chicago. By night, she reviews genre-bending fiction for Booklist , and writes regularly as a senior contributor at Book Riot. Her blog While Reading and Walking has over 10,000 dedicated followers over several social media outlets, including Instagram . She writes passionately about books in translation, chronic illness and bias in healthcare, queer books, twisty SFF, and magical realism and folklore. She was one of a select few bookstagrammers named to NewCity’s Chicago Lit50 in 2022. She is an avid traveler, a passionate fan of women’s basketball and soccer, and a lifelong learner. Twitter: @reading_while

View All posts by Leah Rachel von Essen

As the year comes to a close, many of us start thinking of ways to give back to our communities, whether as holiday donations or as gifts for others. As holiday cheer suffuses our everyday lives, it’s a good time to remember those who need our help this holiday season.

This year, Congress has also included a provision to the CARES (Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security) Act that allows individuals who don’t itemize deductions on their taxes to still deduct $300 of qualified charitable contributions as an “above-the-line” deduction, starting in the 2020 tax year . This allows you to more easily get a deduction by donating to charity during the 2020 holiday season.

One option for your holiday donations, as bookworms? Literacy charities. These groups are working hard to develop and promote literacy and reading ability. I’ve gathered together literacy charities doing fantastic work both locally and on larger scales, to give you some options for who to donate to this holiday season.

1. Book Aid International

This is one of the biggest literacy charities out there, making books available to almost 19.5 million people around the world in 2019, in libraries, schools, hospitals, refugee camps, and prisons. Book Aid International is the UK’s leading international book donation and library development charity.

Book Aid International also partners with World Book Day. A current option for donations is the Reverse Book Club —you give monthly, and the people who need the books most get them each month.

2. World Literacy Foundation

The World Literacy Foundation provides educational resources and books, tutoring, and literacy support to disadvantaged children struggling to read; they’re also able to use innovative tech to advance learning of kids in remote communities in their mother tongue. In 2019, the foundation reached more than 315,000 children and young people across the USA, Australia, UK, Africa, and Latin America through research, advocacy, and donations.

3. Literacy for Incarcerated Teens

LIT is focused on ending illiteracy in incarcerated teens by establishing and supporting school library collections at juvenile justice detention centers in New York.

The goal is to encourage the enthusiasm for reading in young people and get them needed resources. It works to provide young people with books and programming that helps develop and facilitate their literacy skills and love of reading, from author visits and discussions to establishing school libraries, and providing books, shelves, and other needed resources.

4. The Chicago Literacy Alliance

Thirty-nine percent of Chicago’s public school students don’t meet or exceed reading standards; and 61% of low-income households do not own children’s books. The CLA is a collective of more than 100 organizations working hard to meet these literacy needs, providing tutoring, enrichment, and book distribution. The organization runs the Literacenter, North America’s first shared workspace dedicated to literacy, and holds fundraisers, programs, and opportunities to serve more than 18 million people each year.

5. Reading is Fundamental

This children’s literacy nonprofit is working to fight the national literacy crisis in the U.S., working closely with publishers, schools, community centers, health clinics, migrant camps, homeless shelters, and more to get books and reading resources to kids in need. It serves as the leader in generating awareness and advocating for the issue of children’s literacy in the United States.

6. Books for Africa

This organization was founded in 1988, and it collects, sorts, ships, and distributes books to children in Africa—shipping more than 41 million books, and distributing across every African country, since their founding. The volunteers choose books that are age- and subject-appropriate, accepting donations and sending good-condition books that go to children who need them most. They accept new or gently used books from a wide variety of genres and age levels, and also accept donation of funds.

7. Reading Partners

The mission of Reading Partners is to transform struggling young readers into confident readers who are excited about learning. To do so, they focus on children in low-income communities and provide one-on-one instruction, recruit and train community volunteers to work with kids, and partner with high-need elementary schools to offer free services. It’s specific and targeted: they identify students six months or more behind reading grade level, and then trained volunteer reading partners deliver individualized tutoring twice a week.

8. First Book

This nonprofit was founded in 1992, and has provided more than 160 million books and resources to low-income families all around the U.S. since then. You can donate, fundraise, or get books for First Book. The organization works in classrooms, after-school and summer or early childhood programs, shelters and health clinics, libraries, community programs, military support programs, and more. It is currently partnering with Intel, CDW-G, and the LEGO Foundation to close the digital divide with virtual learning.

9. ProLiteracy

About 36 million adults in the U.S. struggle with basic reading, writing, and math skills, and ProLiteracy’s goal is to change that, championing adult education and literacy worldwide. By supporting programs that provide adult literacy instruction, advocating for awareness and funding, and providing professional development and instructional tools, ProLiteracy is working to improve adult literacy.

10. Room to Read

This organization works at the intersection of literacy, low-income communities, and gender equality in education, working to develop literacy skills and reading habits among primary school children and particularly supporting girls to complete secondary school. Room to Read has been recognized for its efficiency, and it’s personally invested in the nations where it operates—87% of workers are from the countries where they work to make change.

16. Ferst Readers

Ferst Readers focuses on the earliest stages of development: working with children in low-income communities entering kindergarten without school readiness or basic literacy. The goal is to have these students start school with strong language and literacy skills, and Ferst Readers helps to make sure that children have age-appropriate books in their home, providing parents with literacy resources, and mailing a new book every month to enrolled children.

17. Reach Out and Read

This is another of those literacy charities that focuses on the span of brain development between birth and age five, particularly in economically disadvantaged families; but Reach Out and Read works by partnering with pediatric medical providers, who incorporate their model into well-child visits, encourage parents to foster daily shared reading, and get developmentally-appropriate new books to children. More than 32,000 medical providers at 6,000 clinical locations participate in Reach Out and Read.

18. Worldreader

Worldreader’s quest was to use technology to reach people in places where books are scarce and make it easier for them to read, using ereading programs and technologies and allowing anyone with a data-connected phone to access thousands of digital books. They recently launched Keep Children Reading , an effort to get support to parents and children in under-resourced communities during the COVID-19 education crisis, making it one of the best literacy charities to donate to this year.

See more bookish charities and consider where to donate your money this holiday season.

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Advancing social justice, promoting decent work

Ilo is a specialized agency of the united nations, organise a book donation in your community.

Organise a book donation!

• Have you ever stopped to think what it means when you reach to your bookshelf for a book? Have you ever wondered what it would be like to not be able to go into a local library and find the books you would like to read?
• Books play a very important role in our lives: we need them for school, to learn new things and for entertainment. However, for so many other young people around the world, the story is very different indeed. In many places books are not readily available and have become a rare commodity.
• Why not get active in your own community to help someone your own age to be able to read and discover through books?
• If you want to organise a book donation, here are some suggestions:
• Find out more about the problem of child labour and how we are all affected by globalisation. You can search the web and/or go to your local library.
• Involve others. Talk to your friends and peers about these issues. Brainstorm ideas for book donations and raise funds for sending the books to their final destinations.
• Decide where you want your books to go. Identify a country and destination for the books. Contact the ILO Office or organization you would like to send the books to and start communicating with them.
• Send information and photos about your activities to [email protected] so that we can share this on our website!

See what has been done for World Day Against Child Labour in Geneva, with children donating favourite books of theirs with personal messages inside to share with children less fortunate than them:

• Book collection for children in Uganda and South Africa
• Book collection for children in Senegal: Book and Event

Register today for the CLiF Community Literacy Conference on April 12!  

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Thank you for sharing the gift of literacy!

By Erika Nichols-Frazer

We know Thanksgiving was last week, but this week at the Children’s Literacy Foundation (CLiF) we’re feeling pretty darn thankful.

We’re thankful for the many generous donors who gave 359 children’s books and dynamic literacy programming to the kids we serve for #GivingTuesday , and all our supporters who have donated so far this year. Your gifts have helped nurture a love of reading and writing in thousands of low-income, at-risk, and rural children in New Hampshire and Vermont, and allow us to look forward to serving even more kids and families in 2018!

Every week, CLiF’s inspiring presenters share stories with kids and families; new books arrive at public libraries, schools, and programs serving low-income, at-risk and rural kids; and children get to choose their very own books to take home because of your support.

Today alone, the elementary schools sponsored by CLiF’s Year of the Book program are celebrating:

• Family Literacy Celebrations:  One of the goals of our Year of the Book program for elementary schools is to engage parents and families in their child’s literacy development. The program includes family literacy celebrations, which include a free meal for families, CLiF presenters talking to parents and families about the importance of reading with young kids and strategies to make it fun and easy, storytelling, and parents choosing two new books for each of their kids (this time of year, many schools have volunteers wrap the new books as holiday gifts). Today, we have two family literacy celebrations at CLiF Year of the Book schools: Author Marv Klaassen-Landis  will visit Peterborough Elementary School in Peterborough, NH, and  Author Doug Wilhelm  visits Alburgh Community Education Center in Alburgh, VT.

We’re also thankful for the the independent bookstores in VT and NH hosting book drives for CLiF this holiday season, and to all the book-loving customers who have purchased children’s books for kids in need. We’re especially thankful to everyone who came out for Bridgeside Books ‘ “Books for a Cause” event on Giving Tuesday to kick off the giving season by collecting children’s books for the kids CLiF serves (with refreshments and live music!).

And we’re always thankful for the volunteers who make sure these books go out to the many elementary schools, libraries, childcare centers, after school programs, affordable housing units, and children of prison inmates we serve – with beautiful CLiF stickers for kids to write their names in!

This week, we’re also thankful for our friends at Common GoodVT/CCTV Chanel 17 in Burlington, VT for hosting us and other nonprofit leaders talking about our fundraising efforts on GivingTuesday. You can watch the full video of that conversation here .

Thank you to all who have helped CLiF give these inspiring educational experiences and new books to kids in need. We appreciate all of your support, advocacy, time, and efforts to share the joy of literacy with children in our region!

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We give new books to people in Schools, Jails, Homeless Shelters and other Organizations.  Our current books are Purpose Driven Life , Alcoholics Anonymous , Mentor: The Kid & The CEO and Think and Grow Rich . To Build Great Lives.

YOU can help make a positive change by donating your used cell phones and iPads which will help fund the purchase and distribution of these life-changing books.

If you donate a ...

We will be able to give:.

We accept all cell phones & iPads. Every cell phone or iPad helps us to give more books. Any phone or iPad that cannot be used is recycled.

 we will be able to give:.

First, box up the donated phones or iPads, then click the DONATE PHONES & IPADS button below. You'll be able to print a Free Pre-Paid shipping label and schedule a FedEx pick up, OR you can print the label and take the box and label to your nearest Fed Ex location.

Once the donated devices have arrived at our facility, the value will be determined and converted into donated books.

Nate’s testimony below explains why we do what we do.

The right book, read at the right time, can literally change a life.

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World Book Bank Provides New Books to Jails, Prisons, and Non-Profit Organizations.

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World Book Bank Provides "Mentor: The Kid and The CEO" to Job Corps Students.

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Every year we will hold three contests for the best written letter to the author of, “Mentor: The Kid & The CEO” Tom Pace

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World Book Bank Provides “Mentor: The Kid and The CEO” to High Schools.

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World Book Bank is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to helping people build better lives through its reading program. The majority of our readers are among the 2.2 million people imprisoned in the United States at any given time. We have by far the highest incarceration rate in the world, and historically, over half of those released from prison are re-arrested again within three years.  It’s been shown in repeated studies that those participating in reading programs while incarcerated are significantly less likely to be re-arrested when released . The books donated by World Book Bank provide people with hope that success in life is available to everyone, regardless of the past. Readers are empowered with tools that can change their lives forever. Please check out some of our  Letters From Readers  and see for yourself!

Our Mission

Our mission is to provide incarcerated people with the knowledge base necessary to take the actions required to make lasting positive changes in their lives. We do this by offering specific books ( Click here  for a summary) that provide healing, hope, restoration, and empowerment. For those ready and willing to change, these books shed light on the path.

We believe that everyone has the God-given right to live a fruitful and fulfilled life, regardless of the past. We believe that everyone also has the God-given ability to make that a reality. Many of those involved in the justice system simply do not know this to be true. The books that we offer uncover this truth.

Help Carry The Message

To request books for your organization,  Click here .  When the books arrive, we need your help to get them into the hands of our readers. Please encourage people to read, and help set up group discussions on the material. Be sure to let us know how our books are being used in your organization, and encourage readers to write us. We appreciate your support!

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Oklahoma city, ok 73127, call us:      (405) 225-0011   - option 1, email:   [email protected], get in touch. get involved..

We welcome your feedback, ideas, comments, questions, or concerns. If you would like to request books for your organization, please visit the  Request Books  page and fill out the form. We look forward to hearing from you!

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The Friends of the Erie County Library want your books. Here's how to easily donate them.

The Friends of the Erie County Library has just the solution for those books that no longer have a place or a space in your home.

The Friends will conduct the first of two drive-up book donations this year on April 27 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Blasco Library, 160 E. Front St.

The second collection is scheduled to take place Sept. 28 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Blasco Library.

The Friends put on a number of book sales annually to raise funds that support the Erie County Public Library system. The book drives help supply stock for the sales.

Related: Erie's 2023 Great American Book Sale raised record revenue. When will it happen in 2024?

What donations are accepted?

Preferred items include

• new fiction , and especially suspense and mystery;
• children’s books ;
• local history ;
• books on CD ;
• Jigsaw puzzles . Puzzle donations must be taped shut and include a label indicating puzzle is complete or if piece whether the puzzle is complete or missing pieces. Puzzles with more than three missing pieces will not be accepted.

What items are not accepted?

Please do not donate

• encyclopedias;
• "Reader’s Digest condensed books;
• magazines and pamphlets;
• technical books, such as law, medicine, computers and health, that were published five or more years ago;
• multiple copies of the same title;
• yellowed paperbacks;
• books that are damaged, whether ripped, mildewed, underlined or emitting an odor, for instance; and
• VHS or cassette tapes.

'This all speaks to me:' Erie comic book collectors, fans show love for fantastic medium

Other ways to donate

The book drives aren't the only way to donate.

One bag or box or books may be taken to the  Bayfront Bookshelf , the bookstore in the Blasco Library lobby. If the store is closed, donations can be taken to the Blasco Library circulation desk.

Erie County Library branches are usually able to accept a bag or small box of donations when open. Please call ahead to confirm the branch’s ability to accept donations.

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• Donating to Charity Essay

Donating Money to Charity Essay

In this donating money to charity essay for IELTS you have two sides of an argument to discuss.  

This is the question:

Some people prefer to provide help and support directly to those in need. Others however prefer to give money to national and international charitable organisations.

Discuss both these views and give your own opinion.

Understanding & Organising the Essay

You can identify the two different arguments from the words " Some people prefer... " and " Others however prefer... ".

So you need to make sure you discuss both of these views, and of course say what you personally think: "... and give your own opinion."

In this donating money to charity essay, the writer presents the first argument in the first body paragraph, the next argument in the second, then their personal opinion in the conclusion. 

This is a logical and simple way to do it but of course it can be approached in slightly different ways (check out some of the other " discuss two opinion " model essays to see other ways).

Now take a look at the model answer. 

You should spend about 40 minutes on this task.

Write about the following topic:

Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own experience or knowledge.

Write at least 250 words.

Model Answer

Giving money to those in need can be a personally satisfying experience, but there is a choice between donating nationally and internationally through charities or giving directly to those around you. This essay will consider the merits of both approaches. 

The first advantage of providing direct support is that you can know exactly how your money is being spent. For example, if you give money directly to people in your local village or town, you can see where it has gone. When you donate to larger charitable organisations, on the other hand, you are not sure how much will actually be given to those in need as opposed going on other costs such as administration and expensive marketing campaigns. Another benefit is that you can see the impacts on those you are helping, which can lead not only to great personal satisfaction but also to respect from others in the local community who appreciate the work you do.

There are advantages, however, in giving to charities that are national and international. First and foremost there is the choice of good causes. Locally the kinds of places to help may be limited, but in larger organisations you can get involved in such activities as sponsoring a child or conserving wildlife. Not only this, donating to larger charities with an international reach means having the knowledge that you are involved in issues of fundamental global importance, such as curing diseases and human rights, or helping those caught up in tragic environmental events, such as flooding, earthquakes and famines. 

In conclusion, given the benefits of both, I would argue that an individual should make their own choice based on their personal preferences and whichever provides them with the most personal satisfaction. What is crucial is that we continue to give to those who are more in need than ourselves. 

(306 Words)

This donating money to charity essay should achieve a high IELTS score in the test for a number of reasons.

Firstly the introduction opens by letting the reader know what the topic is and the two sides of the argument under consideration.

This is then followed by a clear thesis statement to clarify what the essay is going to do. 

• This essay will consider the merits of both approaches. 

Coherence and cohesion are good because it's very easy to read and follow the arguments in each paragraph and to see clearly that each body paragraph has one controlling idea i.e.

• Body 1 : Benefits of  providing help and support directly to those in need
• Body 2: Benefits of donating to national and international charities

Transitional phrases and words are also used well to guide the user through the ideas:

• The first advantage of providing direct support is...
• For example...
• ...on the other hand...
• Another benefit is that...
• ...not only..but also...
• There are advantages, however,...
• First and foremost...
• Not only this,...
• In conclusion,...

The conclusion gives the writer's opinion very clearly.

The essay also has a wide range of grammatical structures and a high level of grammatical accuracy. 

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Animal Rights Essay for IELTS: Learn how to write an essay where you have to discuss two opinions. People who believe in animal rights think that they should not be treated cruelly, for example in experiments or for sport.

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This is a recent zoo essay question from the IELTS test (June 2018). Essay about zoos have come up a few times in the IELTS test so it's worth studying same sample questions and sample essays about the topic.

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• The Case for Marrying an Older Man

A woman’s life is all work and little rest. An age gap relationship can help.

In the summer, in the south of France, my husband and I like to play, rather badly, the lottery. We take long, scorching walks to the village — gratuitous beauty, gratuitous heat — kicking up dust and languid debates over how we’d spend such an influx. I purchase scratch-offs, jackpot tickets, scraping the former with euro coins in restaurants too fine for that. I never cash them in, nor do I check the winning numbers. For I already won something like the lotto, with its gifts and its curses, when he married me.

He is ten years older than I am. I chose him on purpose, not by chance. As far as life decisions go, on balance, I recommend it.

When I was 20 and a junior at Harvard College, a series of great ironies began to mock me. I could study all I wanted, prove myself as exceptional as I liked, and still my fiercest advantage remained so universal it deflated my other plans. My youth. The newness of my face and body. Compellingly effortless; cruelly fleeting. I shared it with the average, idle young woman shrugging down the street. The thought, when it descended on me, jolted my perspective, the way a falling leaf can make you look up: I could diligently craft an ideal existence, over years and years of sleepless nights and industry. Or I could just marry it early.

So naturally I began to lug a heavy suitcase of books each Saturday to the Harvard Business School to work on my Nabokov paper. In one cavernous, well-appointed room sat approximately 50 of the planet’s most suitable bachelors. I had high breasts, most of my eggs, plausible deniability when it came to purity, a flush ponytail, a pep in my step that had yet to run out. Apologies to Progress, but older men still desired those things.

I could not understand why my female classmates did not join me, given their intelligence. Each time I reconsidered the project, it struck me as more reasonable. Why ignore our youth when it amounted to a superpower? Why assume the burdens of womanhood, its too-quick-to-vanish upper hand, but not its brief benefits at least? Perhaps it came easier to avoid the topic wholesale than to accept that women really do have a tragically short window of power, and reason enough to take advantage of that fact while they can. As for me, I liked history, Victorian novels, knew of imminent female pitfalls from all the books I’d read: vampiric boyfriends; labor, at the office and in the hospital, expected simultaneously; a decline in status as we aged, like a looming eclipse. I’d have disliked being called calculating, but I had, like all women, a calculator in my head. I thought it silly to ignore its answers when they pointed to an unfairness for which we really ought to have been preparing.

I was competitive by nature, an English-literature student with all the corresponding major ambitions and minor prospects (Great American novel; email job). A little Bovarist , frantic for new places and ideas; to travel here, to travel there, to be in the room where things happened. I resented the callow boys in my class, who lusted after a particular, socially sanctioned type on campus: thin and sexless, emotionally detached and socially connected, the opposite of me. Restless one Saturday night, I slipped on a red dress and snuck into a graduate-school event, coiling an HDMI cord around my wrist as proof of some technical duty. I danced. I drank for free, until one of the organizers asked me to leave. I called and climbed into an Uber. Then I promptly climbed out of it. For there he was, emerging from the revolving doors. Brown eyes, curved lips, immaculate jacket. I went to him, asked him for a cigarette. A date, days later. A second one, where I discovered he was a person, potentially my favorite kind: funny, clear-eyed, brilliant, on intimate terms with the universe.

I used to love men like men love women — that is, not very well, and with a hunger driven only by my own inadequacies. Not him. In those early days, I spoke fondly of my family, stocked the fridge with his favorite pasta, folded his clothes more neatly than I ever have since. I wrote his mother a thank-you note for hosting me in his native France, something befitting a daughter-in-law. It worked; I meant it. After graduation and my fellowship at Oxford, I stayed in Europe for his career and married him at 23.

Of course I just fell in love. Romances have a setting; I had only intervened to place myself well. Mainly, I spotted the precise trouble of being a woman ahead of time, tried to surf it instead of letting it drown me on principle. I had grown bored of discussions of fair and unfair, equal or unequal , and preferred instead to consider a thing called ease.

The reception of a particular age-gap relationship depends on its obviousness. The greater and more visible the difference in years and status between a man and a woman, the more it strikes others as transactional. Transactional thinking in relationships is both as American as it gets and the least kosher subject in the American romantic lexicon. When a 50-year-old man and a 25-year-old woman walk down the street, the questions form themselves inside of you; they make you feel cynical and obscene: How good of a deal is that? Which party is getting the better one? Would I take it? He is older. Income rises with age, so we assume he has money, at least relative to her; at minimum, more connections and experience. She has supple skin. Energy. Sex. Maybe she gets a Birkin. Maybe he gets a baby long after his prime. The sight of their entwined hands throws a lucid light on the calculations each of us makes, in love, to varying degrees of denial. You could get married in the most romantic place in the world, like I did, and you would still have to sign a contract.

Twenty and 30 is not like 30 and 40; some freshness to my features back then, some clumsiness in my bearing, warped our decade, in the eyes of others, to an uncrossable gulf. Perhaps this explains the anger we felt directed at us at the start of our relationship. People seemed to take us very, very personally. I recall a hellish car ride with a friend of his who began to castigate me in the backseat, in tones so low that only I could hear him. He told me, You wanted a rich boyfriend. You chased and snuck into parties . He spared me the insult of gold digger, but he drew, with other words, the outline for it. Most offended were the single older women, my husband’s classmates. They discussed me in the bathroom at parties when I was in the stall. What does he see in her? What do they talk about? They were concerned about me. They wielded their concern like a bludgeon. They paraphrased without meaning to my favorite line from Nabokov’s Lolita : “You took advantage of my disadvantage,” suspecting me of some weakness he in turn mined. It did not disturb them, so much, to consider that all relationships were trades. The trouble was the trade I’d made struck them as a bad one.

The truth is you can fall in love with someone for all sorts of reasons, tiny transactions, pluses and minuses, whose sum is your affection for each other, your loyalty, your commitment. The way someone picks up your favorite croissant. Their habit of listening hard. What they do for you on your anniversary and your reciprocal gesture, wrapped thoughtfully. The serenity they inspire; your happiness, enlivening it. When someone says they feel unappreciated, what they really mean is you’re in debt to them.

When I think of same-age, same-stage relationships, what I tend to picture is a woman who is doing too much for too little.

I’m 27 now, and most women my age have “partners.” These days, girls become partners quite young. A partner is supposed to be a modern answer to the oppression of marriage, the terrible feeling of someone looming over you, head of a household to which you can only ever be the neck. Necks are vulnerable. The problem with a partner, however, is if you’re equal in all things, you compromise in all things. And men are too skilled at taking .

There is a boy out there who knows how to floss because my friend taught him. Now he kisses college girls with fresh breath. A boy married to my friend who doesn’t know how to pack his own suitcase. She “likes to do it for him.” A million boys who know how to touch a woman, who go to therapy because they were pushed, who learned fidelity, boundaries, decency, manners, to use a top sheet and act humanely beneath it, to call their mothers, match colors, bring flowers to a funeral and inhale, exhale in the face of rage, because some girl, some girl we know, some girl they probably don’t speak to and will never, ever credit, took the time to teach him. All while she was working, raising herself, clawing up the cliff-face of adulthood. Hauling him at her own expense.

I find a post on Reddit where five thousand men try to define “ a woman’s touch .” They describe raised flower beds, blankets, photographs of their loved ones, not hers, sprouting on the mantel overnight. Candles, coasters, side tables. Someone remembering to take lint out of the dryer. To give compliments. I wonder what these women are getting back. I imagine them like Cinderella’s mice, scurrying around, their sole proof of life their contributions to a more central character. On occasion I meet a nice couple, who grew up together. They know each other with a fraternalism tender and alien to me.  But I think of all my friends who failed at this, were failed at this, and I think, No, absolutely not, too risky . Riskier, sometimes, than an age gap.

My younger brother is in his early 20s, handsome, successful, but in many ways: an endearing disaster. By his age, I had long since wisened up. He leaves his clothes in the dryer, takes out a single shirt, steams it for three minutes. His towel on the floor, for someone else to retrieve. His lovely, same-age girlfriend is aching to fix these tendencies, among others. She is capable beyond words. Statistically, they will not end up together. He moved into his first place recently, and she, the girlfriend, supplied him with a long, detailed list of things he needed for his apartment: sheets, towels, hangers, a colander, which made me laugh. She picked out his couch. I will bet you anything she will fix his laundry habits, and if so, they will impress the next girl. If they break up, she will never see that couch again, and he will forget its story. I tell her when I visit because I like her, though I get in trouble for it: You shouldn’t do so much for him, not for someone who is not stuck with you, not for any boy, not even for my wonderful brother.

Too much work had left my husband, by 30, jaded and uninspired. He’d burned out — but I could reenchant things. I danced at restaurants when they played a song I liked. I turned grocery shopping into an adventure, pleased by what I provided. Ambitious, hungry, he needed someone smart enough to sustain his interest, but flexible enough in her habits to build them around his hours. I could. I do: read myself occupied, make myself free, materialize beside him when he calls for me. In exchange, I left a lucrative but deadening spreadsheet job to write full-time, without having to live like a writer. I learned to cook, a little, and decorate, somewhat poorly. Mostly I get to read, to walk central London and Miami and think in delicious circles, to work hard, when necessary, for free, and write stories for far less than minimum wage when I tally all the hours I take to write them.

At 20, I had felt daunted by the project of becoming my ideal self, couldn’t imagine doing it in tandem with someone, two raw lumps of clay trying to mold one another and only sullying things worse. I’d go on dates with boys my age and leave with the impression they were telling me not about themselves but some person who didn’t exist yet and on whom I was meant to bet regardless. My husband struck me instead as so finished, formed. Analyzable for compatibility. He bore the traces of other women who’d improved him, small but crucial basics like use a coaster ; listen, don’t give advice. Young egos mellow into patience and generosity.

My husband isn’t my partner. He’s my mentor, my lover, and, only in certain contexts, my friend. I’ll never forget it, how he showed me around our first place like he was introducing me to myself: This is the wine you’ll drink, where you’ll keep your clothes, we vacation here, this is the other language we’ll speak, you’ll learn it, and I did. Adulthood seemed a series of exhausting obligations. But his logistics ran so smoothly that he simply tacked mine on. I moved into his flat, onto his level, drag and drop, cleaner thrice a week, bills automatic. By opting out of partnership in my 20s, I granted myself a kind of compartmentalized, liberating selfishness none of my friends have managed. I am the work in progress, the party we worry about, a surprising dominance. When I searched for my first job, at 21, we combined our efforts, for my sake. He had wisdom to impart, contacts with whom he arranged coffees; we spent an afternoon, laughing, drawing up earnest lists of my pros and cons (highly sociable; sloppy math). Meanwhile, I took calls from a dear friend who had a boyfriend her age. Both savagely ambitious, hyperclose and entwined in each other’s projects. If each was a start-up , the other was the first hire, an intense dedication I found riveting. Yet every time she called me, I hung up with the distinct feeling that too much was happening at the same time: both learning to please a boss; to forge more adult relationships with their families; to pay bills and taxes and hang prints on the wall. Neither had any advice to give and certainly no stability. I pictured a three-legged race, two people tied together and hobbling toward every milestone.

I don’t fool myself. My marriage has its cons. There are only so many times one can say “thank you” — for splendid scenes, fine dinners — before the phrase starts to grate. I live in an apartment whose rent he pays and that shapes the freedom with which I can ever be angry with him. He doesn’t have to hold it over my head. It just floats there, complicating usual shorthands to explain dissatisfaction like, You aren’t being supportive lately . It’s a Frenchism to say, “Take a decision,” and from time to time I joke: from whom? Occasionally I find myself in some fabulous country at some fabulous party and I think what a long way I have traveled, like a lucky cloud, and it is frightening to think of oneself as vapor.

Mostly I worry that if he ever betrayed me and I had to move on, I would survive, but would find in my humor, preferences, the way I make coffee or the bed nothing that he did not teach, change, mold, recompose, stamp with his initials, the way Renaissance painters hid in their paintings their faces among a crowd. I wonder if when they looked at their paintings, they saw their own faces first. But this is the wrong question, if our aim is happiness. Like the other question on which I’m expected to dwell: Who is in charge, the man who drives or the woman who put him there so she could enjoy herself? I sit in the car, in the painting it would have taken me a corporate job and 20 years to paint alone, and my concern over who has the upper hand becomes as distant as the horizon, the one he and I made so wide for me.

To be a woman is to race against the clock, in several ways, until there is nothing left to be but run ragged.

We try to put it off, but it will hit us at some point: that we live in a world in which our power has a different shape from that of men, a different distribution of advantage, ours a funnel and theirs an expanding cone. A woman at 20 rarely has to earn her welcome; a boy at 20 will be turned away at the door. A woman at 30 may find a younger woman has taken her seat; a man at 30 will have invited her. I think back to the women in the bathroom, my husband’s classmates. What was my relationship if not an inconvertible sign of this unfairness? What was I doing, in marrying older, if not endorsing it? I had taken advantage of their disadvantage. I had preempted my own. After all, principled women are meant to defy unfairness, to show some integrity or denial, not plan around it, like I had. These were driven women, successful, beautiful, capable. I merely possessed the one thing they had already lost. In getting ahead of the problem, had I pushed them down? If I hadn’t, would it really have made any difference?

When we decided we wanted to be equal to men, we got on men’s time. We worked when they worked, retired when they retired, had to squeeze pregnancy, children, menopause somewhere impossibly in the margins. I have a friend, in her late 20s, who wears a mood ring; these days it is often red, flickering in the air like a siren when she explains her predicament to me. She has raised her fair share of same-age boyfriends. She has put her head down, worked laboriously alongside them, too. At last she is beginning to reap the dividends, earning the income to finally enjoy herself. But it is now, exactly at this precipice of freedom and pleasure, that a time problem comes closing in. If she would like to have children before 35, she must begin her next profession, motherhood, rather soon, compromising inevitably her original one. The same-age partner, equally unsettled in his career, will take only the minimum time off, she guesses, or else pay some cost which will come back to bite her. Everything unfailingly does. If she freezes her eggs to buy time, the decision and its logistics will burden her singly — and perhaps it will not work. Overlay the years a woman is supposed to establish herself in her career and her fertility window and it’s a perfect, miserable circle. By midlife women report feeling invisible, undervalued; it is a telling cliché, that after all this, some husbands leave for a younger girl. So when is her time, exactly? For leisure, ease, liberty? There is no brand of feminism which achieved female rest. If women’s problem in the ’50s was a paralyzing malaise, now it is that they are too active, too capable, never permitted a vacation they didn’t plan. It’s not that our efforts to have it all were fated for failure. They simply weren’t imaginative enough.

For me, my relationship, with its age gap, has alleviated this rush , permitted me to massage the clock, shift its hands to my benefit. Very soon, we will decide to have children, and I don’t panic over last gasps of fun, because I took so many big breaths of it early: on the holidays of someone who had worked a decade longer than I had, in beautiful places when I was young and beautiful, a symmetry I recommend. If such a thing as maternal energy exists, mine was never depleted. I spent the last nearly seven years supported more than I support and I am still not as old as my husband was when he met me. When I have a child, I will expect more help from him than I would if he were younger, for what does professional tenure earn you if not the right to set more limits on work demands — or, if not, to secure some child care, at the very least? When I return to work after maternal upheaval, he will aid me, as he’s always had, with his ability to put himself aside, as younger men are rarely able.

Above all, the great gift of my marriage is flexibility. A chance to live my life before I become responsible for someone else’s — a lover’s, or a child’s. A chance to write. A chance at a destiny that doesn’t adhere rigidly to the routines and timelines of men, but lends itself instead to roomy accommodation, to the very fluidity Betty Friedan dreamed of in 1963 in The Feminine Mystique , but we’ve largely forgotten: some career or style of life that “permits year-to-year variation — a full-time paid job in one community, part-time in another, exercise of the professional skill in serious volunteer work or a period of study during pregnancy or early motherhood when a full-time job is not feasible.” Some things are just not feasible in our current structures. Somewhere along the way we stopped admitting that, and all we did was make women feel like personal failures. I dream of new structures, a world in which women have entry-level jobs in their 30s; alternate avenues for promotion; corporate ladders with balconies on which they can stand still, have a smoke, take a break, make a baby, enjoy themselves, before they keep climbing. Perhaps men long for this in their own way. Actually I am sure of that.

Once, when we first fell in love, I put my head in his lap on a long car ride; I remember his hands on my face, the sun, the twisting turns of a mountain road, surprising and not surprising us like our romance, and his voice, telling me that it was his biggest regret that I was so young, he feared he would lose me. Last week, we looked back at old photos and agreed we’d given each other our respective best years. Sometimes real equality is not so obvious, sometimes it takes turns, sometimes it takes almost a decade to reveal itself.

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Book of Donald: Trump hawks special ‘God Bless the USA’ Bibles for $60

Former president sells Trump-endorsed Bible in concert with Lee Greenwood, country singer whose music is played at his rallies

Patriotic, prayerful and rightwing Americans are being offered the chance to purchase – for a mere $59.99 – a Bible endorsed by Donald Trump , in the latest example of the former US president touting wares to the American public.

In a post to his Truth Social platform on Tuesday, the current presumptive Republican nominee and 88-times charged criminal defendant said : “Happy Holy Week! Let’s Make America Pray Again. As we lead into Good Friday and Easter, I encourage you to get a copy of the God Bless the USA Bible.”

In an accompanying video message, Trump said : “I’m proud to be partnering with my very good friend Lee Greenwood – who doesn’t love his song God Bless the USA? – in connection with promoting the God Bless the USA Bible.”

Greenwood, a country singer whose signature tune is played at Trump rallies, is offering the Bibles for sale through a website, GodBlessTheUSABible.com.

The site features a picture of Trump smiling broadly and holding a Bible in front of his red-and-white-striped club tie. The cover of the Bible is embossed with the words “Holy Bible” and “God Bless the USA” and a design based on the US flag.

Greenwood’s website says the Bible is the only one endorsed by Trump, counsels buyers on what to do if their Bible has “sticky pages”, and answers the important question on many peoples’ minds: “Is any of the money from this Bible going to the Donald J Trump campaign for president?”

“No,” the site says. “GodBlessTheUSABible.com is not political and has nothing to do with any political campaign. GodBlessTheUSABible.com is not owned, managed or controlled by Donald J Trump, the Trump Organization, CIC Ventures LLC or any of their respective principals or affiliates.

“GodBlessTheUSABible.com uses Donald J Trump’s name, likeness and image under paid license from CIC Ventures LLC, which license may be terminated or revoked according to its terms.”

CIC Ventures was established in 2021 by a former Trump aide and a Trump-linked lawyer in Palm Beach, Florida, where Trump has lived since leaving power. Its principal address is that of Trump International Golf Club. The company has also been involved in Trump-themed money making schemes including digital training cards and gold sneakers.

Given Trump’s status as a thrice-married legally adjudicated rapist and billionaire New York property magnate nonetheless dependent on evangelical Christian support , his true relationship with and knowledge of the Bible has long been a subject of speculation.

In June 2020, towards the end of his presidency, he memorably marched out of the White House, across a square violently cleared of protesters for racial justice, and posed outside the historic St John’s church while holding a Bible in the air.

A reporter asked: “Is that your Bible?”

Trump said: “It’s a Bible.”

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In his video on Tuesday, Trump said: “Religion and Christianity are the biggest things missing from this country and I truly believe that we need to bring them back and we have to bring them back fast. I think it’s one of the biggest problems we have. That’s why our country is going haywire. We’ve lost religion in our country. All Americans need a Bible in their home, and I have many.”

In response, Gregory Minchak, of the anti-Trump Lincoln Project, commented : “There’s not a cross nor a picture of Jesus on the page, but plenty of photos of Trump. Who do you think this $60 Bible is for? It sure isn’t for Jesus.”

Sarafina Chitika, a senior Biden campaign spokesperson, issued a stinging statement.

“The last time the American people saw Donald Trump hold up a Bible,” she said, “it was for a photo op after he teargassed American citizens demonstrating against white supremacy.

“He can’t be bothered to leave Mar-a-Lago to meet with actual voters, but found the time to hawk bootleg sneakers, sell cheap perfume and promote his ‘new’ product to line his own pockets.

“It’s classic Donald Trump – a fraud who has spent his life scamming people and his presidency screwing over the middle class and cutting taxes for his rich friends.”

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8 New Books We Recommend This Week

Suggested reading from critics and editors at The New York Times.

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Our fiction recommendations this week include a “gleeful romp” of a series mystery, along with three novels by some heavy-hitting young writers: Téa Obreht, Helen Oyeyemi and Tommy Orange. (How heavy-hitting, and how young? Consider that Obreht was included in The New Yorker’s “20 Under 40” issue in 2010 — and she’s still under 40 today. So is Oyeyemi, who was one of Granta’s “Best Young British Novelists” in 2013, while Orange, at 42, has won the PEN/Hemingway Award, the John Leonard Prize and the American Book Award. The future is in good hands.)

In nonfiction, we recommend a painter’s memoir, a group biography of three jazz giants, a posthumous essay collection by the great critic Joan Acocella and a journalist’s look at American citizens trying to come to terms with a divided country. Happy reading. — Gregory Cowles

THE MORNINGSIDE Téa Obreht

After being displaced from their homeland, Silvia and her mother move into the Morningside, a weather-beaten luxury apartment building in “Island City,” a sinking version of New York in the middle of all-out climate collapse. Silvia learns about her heritage through the folk tales her aunt Ena tells her, and becomes fascinated with the mysterious woman who lives in the penthouse apartment.

“I marveled at the subtle beauty and precision of Obreht’s prose. … Even in the face of catastrophe, there’s solace to be found in art.”

From Jessamine Chan’s review

Random House | $29

A GRAVE ROBBERY Deanna Raybourn

In their ninth crime-solving tale, the Victorian-era adventuress and butterfly hunter Veronica Speedwell and her partner discover that a wax mannequin is actually a dead young woman, expertly preserved.

“Throw in an assortment of delightful side characters and an engaging tamarin monkey, and what you have is the very definition of a gleeful romp.”

From Sarah Weinman’s crime column

Berkley | $28

THE BLOODIED NIGHTGOWN: And Other Essays Joan Acocella

Acocella, who died in January, may have been best known as one of our finest dance critics. But as this posthumous collection shows, she brought the same rigor, passion and insight to all the art she consumed. Whether her subject is genre fiction, “Beowulf” or Marilynne Robinson, Acocella’s knowledge and enthusiasm are hard to match. We will not see her like again.

"Some critics are haters, but Acocella began writing criticism because she loved — first dance, and then much of the best of Western culture. She let life bring her closer to art."

From Joanna Biggs’s review

Farrar, Straus & Giroux | $35

WANDERING STARS Tommy Orange

This follow-up to Orange’s debut, “There There,” is part prequel and part sequel; it trails the young survivor of a 19th-century massacre of Native Americans, chronicling not just his harsh fate but those of his descendants. In its second half, the novel enters 21st-century Oakland, following the family in the aftermath of a shooting.

“Orange’s ability to highlight the contradictory forces that coexist within friendships, familial relationships and the characters themselves ... makes ‘Wandering Stars’ a towering achievement.”

From Jonathan Escoffery’s review

Knopf | $29

PARASOL AGAINST THE AXE Helen Oyeyemi

In Oyeyemi’s latest magical realist adventure, our hero is a woman named Hero, and she is hurtling through the city of Prague, with a shape-shifting book about Prague, during a bachelorette weekend. But Hero doesn’t seem to be directing the novel’s action; the story itself seems to be calling the shots.

“Her stock-in-trade has always been tales at their least domesticated. … In this novel, they have all the autonomy, charisma and messiness of living beings — and demand the same respect.”

From Chelsea Leu’s review

Riverhead | $28

3 SHADES OF BLUE: Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Bill Evans, and the Lost Empire of Cool James Kaplan

On one memorable occasion in 1959, three outstanding musicians came together for what may be the greatest jazz record ever, Davis’s “Kind of Blue.” Kaplan, the author of a Frank Sinatra biography, traces the lives of his protagonists in compelling fashion; he may not be a jazz expert but he knows how to tell a good story.

“Kaplan has framed '3 Shades of Blue' as both a chronicle of a golden age and a lament for its decline and fall. One doesn’t have to accept the decline-and-fall part to acknowledge that he has done a lovely job of evoking the golden age.”

From Peter Keepnews’s review

Penguin Press | $35

WITH DARKNESS CAME STARS: A Memoir Audrey Flack

From her early days as an Abstract Expressionist who hung out with Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning at the Cedar Bar to her later success as a pioneering photorealist, Flack worked and lived at the center of New York’s art world over her long career; here she chronicles the triumphs, the slights, the sexism and the gossip, all with equal relish.

“Flack is a natural, unfiltered storyteller. … The person who emerges from her pages is someone who never doubts she has somewhere to go.”

From Prudence Peiffer’s review

Penn State University Press | $37.50

AN AMERICAN DREAMER: Life in a Divided Country David Finkel

Agile and bracing, Finkel’s book trails a small network of people struggling in the tumultuous period between the 2016 and 2020 U.S. presidential elections. At the center is Brent Cummings, a white Iraq war veteran who is trying to cope with a country he no longer recognizes.

“Adroitly assembles these stories into a poignant account of the social and political mood in the United States. … A timely and compelling argument for tolerance and moral character in times of extreme antagonism.”

From John Knight’s review

Random House | $32

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