A Book Thing

A Book Thing

I’ve been away for Thanksgiving. I hope everyone enjoyed time spent with family and friends. Here is nice holiday story that is book-related, from the Washington Post. “While bartending at Dougherty’s Pub seven years ago,” writes reporter Emily Messner, “Russell Wattenberg overheard teachers at Friday happy hour lamenting their need for books. He began taking 10 percent of his tips each week to buy books for them at flea markets and used-book stores, he says. He would give the teachers the keys to the van and tell them to take whatever they wanted.

“And so the Book Thing was born. It eventually incorporated and moved into a 950-square-foot basement at 27th and Charles streets near Johns Hopkins University about four years ago. Wattenberg, 32, says he now works full time at the operation, paying himself an annual salary of about $18,000.”

It’s a good story. Tens of thousands of free books line the walls. The only condition is that each book must be marked with a stamp: This is a Free Book. “This way, we don’t have people who are book dealers come in, haul away a bunch of books and sell them,” Wattenberg explains.