A Second Chance for Books

When Sarah got back from Dresden week before last, she said she really wanted some ethnic food.  Tom had planned to make egg rolls for her the evening she got home, but with the delays in her flight out of Philadelphia, she didn't make it home til late; so Tom got some frozen ones and once they were cooked in the deep fat fryer they were apparently passable.  Then I think it was the next evening we went to The Cottage for dinner.  The Cottage is an Ethiopian restaurant in a former Burger King at East Rock Springs and Piedmont, and is one of Sarah's favorite restaurants.  I am not sure what Sarah ate in Germany, but apparently not Chinese or Ethiopian food.

While we were at the Cottage, I noticed it - in the corner of the parking lot, behind the taxis, was a green bin from Better World Books.  I'd seen one or two of these bins in other locations around Atlanta but had never figured out exactly what Better World Books was and how my book donation would support literacy and make a Better World.  But that weekend I'd spent a little time on Rhyne family history - my maternal grandmother is a Rhyne - and come across a reference to book about early German settlers in Pennsylvania that apparently included information about my Rhine/Rein/Reinau ancestors.  I found a copy on line, and one of the places that had it for sale was Better World Books.  So I ordered it, and in the process learned about Better World Books and those green bins that are around Atlanta.


It's a business that keeps books out of landfills and sells them to people who want them, and partners with groups supporting literacy efforts worldwide.  As someone whose heart ached when I saw books in the dumpster in front of our house (for the record, the only ones *I* put there were guidebooks that were so out of date as to be useless but not so out of date as to be interesting), I am so glad to be able to feel good about purging the shelves of old college Required Reading and some of the quasi-academic books I've accumulated over the years but I know I will never read again (if I ever read them in the first place).  We've taken many boxes of books to Goodwill but I have no idea if Goodwill actually has a model that can help these books make their way to someone who wants them.

But Better World Books does, and earlier this week I dropped off a few books in the green bin behind the Cottage.  I'm cleaning out my office, anticipating a move to a new, smaller office, and we still have stuff piled up all over the place at home.  At least now I know something I can do with books and feel good about it.