Mogsy’s Book Haul – The Book Thing

If there’s one thing I find truly bizarre about the town I live, it’s the seemingly total lack of bookstores. Sure, we have our local B&N but that’s pretty much about it. Speaking as someone who used to live in downtown Toronto where there’s a used bookstore on every block, it drives me totally bonkers!

That’s why I was so excited when someone told me about The Book Thing. Possibly Baltimore’s best kept secret, I’ve been living in northernish Maryland for about three years and I couldn’t believe this was the first time I’ve heard of it! It’s about an hour drive to the city which is not too bad, and who could resist this: a non-profit charity created for the sole purpose of taking donated books and giving them away, or in their words, putting unwanted books into the hands of those who want them. Hundreds of thousands of books, totally free. FREE! What these people do is totally amazing.

I went to check it out this weekend and it was like, whoa, book heaven! Essentially just a warehouse full of used books, the building ain’t pretty, but the beauty is what’s inside. Hundreds of shelves lined with books. Volunteers do a good job categorizing everything, but it appears whoever takes care of the Science Fiction and Fantasy section must have a pretty narrow view of the genre, as all I could find in there were mostly Stephen R. Donaldson and Wizards of the Coast novels. So, I rolled up my sleeves and went diving through the EXTENSIVE fiction section where everything’s mixed in to see what I could find on my own.

It was hard not to go nuts. There are just so many books! As with most used bookstores, it’s probably not the most ideal for those with finicky tastes, but you can find some really interesting stuff if you’re open to an adventure. I was on the look out for SFF as I sifted through the literally hundreds of shelves and I was there for two hours and still didn’t finish looking through everything. My TBR is already plenty full these days so to make sure I didn’t go home with dozens of boxes of books, I forced to limit myself only to hardcovers in good condition.

With my loot safely procured, I headed up to the desk and all they asked was that I sign in and write down how many books I’m taking away. That’s it, no fees, no questions asked. There was a big bin at the entrance to donate books too, so I was also able to drop off three boxes of old paperbacks from our spring cleaning. Truly a special place!

At the end of the day I was quite happy with my finds. Here are some that I want to highlight:

King Rat by China Miéville – I’ve always said I want to give Miéville another try, and even though King Rat wasn’t on the list of his books I had in mind, I snapped this one up anyway.

A Matter of Days by Amber Kizer – a young adult dystopian that I remember seeing last year, I picked it up when I recognized the cover.

A Shadow in Summer by Daniel Abraham – I really enjoyed Abraham’s The Dragon’s Path and his work as one half of James S.A. Corey so I’m very curious about this, which was his debut novel.

The Half-Made World by Felix Gilman – I’ve never read any Felix Gilman but I’ve heard some great stuff about him and his books. A lot of it has been about The Half-Made World so I felt really lucky to find this.