Tips on Tuesday: Book Donation Challenge

I was catching up on another blog I follow when I read a post about how she decided to host a book drive for local shelters for women and children. When I read her post, I was inspired to see if I could also host my own book drive.

For those who don't know it, I review books for a website. I have a passion and love for books and Sean often jokes that I could open a small town library with the sheer volume of books that we own. Each of my children have 2-3 bookshelves in their rooms. Each bookshelf is overflowing onto the floor. I have the books that I have reviewed that I usually donate. But I was inspired to look at donating both books for adults as well as books for children.

I don't know about you, but reading is a ritual in our home. We read books to our children from the first day they came home from the hospital. It's our routine at night. There are specific books that my kids want to read when they are happy or when they are sad. If they have had a rough day, I know which books we will read before bed. Then I got to thinking about the men, women and children living in shelters. They might be homeless, they might be fleeing abuse. When you have nothing, do you even have a story to read to your child at night? Are there books for the adults to read? I know how relaxing it is for me to read in order to de-stress and relax--why shouldn't I share that with others?

I want to make sure that every shelter has books available. So I urge you to join me in donating your gently used (or new) books to your local shelters. There are two in my area that I donate to regularly with money, clothes, food, etc. Now I am going to bless them with some books. Many of my kids books have been outgrown by my children so they could bless another child. I have many books that would bless men and women who want to read for a while.

Please come back and comment below the number of books you donate. I'll be counting and hoping that this idea catches on and sweeps across the nation. If you don't have a shelter in your area, please email me if you'd like to mail books to me to donate. Or I'll try to help find another worthy agency in your area.

Let's give children and adults everywhere the opportunity to read!