Happy New Year from The Book Thing!

As we prepare to turn the page on 2025 and welcome the new year, we invite you to join us in celebrating our successes from the past twelve months. 

This has been a remarkable year for The Book Thing. Dedicated volunteers worked more than 10,000 hours on-site to count, sort, stamp, box, and shelve books in preparation for this year’s giveaway and donation days! We welcomed over 12,600 patrons through our doors during fourteen giveaways. Throughout the year patrons adopted more than 212,000 books and The Book Thing received over 227,000 book donations!

The Book Thing remains steadfast in its commitment to strengthening the community through access to free books. While TBT overwhelmingly serves Baltimoreans and readers across Maryland, our reach stretches to book lovers farther afield. We welcomed patrons from 44 states this year, and even readers traveling from other countries who happened to be visiting Baltimore on a giveaway day!

TBT set new records in 2025! The year’s books-in, books-out, and patron totals are the highest on record since the pandemic. August is often one of the busiest giveaway days of the year at The Book Thing as teachers and parents restock their classrooms and bookshelves for the start of the school year. This year was no exception: the August giveaway saw an astounding 231 patrons waiting in line before the doors opened at 9:00am, and a record number of books donated in a single day, at 17,659! 

Fall was busy with events in our neighborhood. The September giveaway coincided with the Baltimore Book Festival in Waverly, and it brought record attendance with 1,135 patron entrances throughout the day. Later in the month, TBT set up a tent at the Abell Street fair. In October, TBT hosted its 2nd Annual Fundraiser, Booktoberfest, at Peabody Heights Brewery.  With your help, we raised over $6,000 to support general operations. Thank you. To close out the roster of fall events, TBT held two giveaways in November and a successful Giving Tuesday campaign!

This year’s Book Thing highlights celebrate the contributions of generous friends, supporters, volunteers, and staff, and they affirm the impact TBT can have on the community with your support. As 2025 comes to a close, please consider making a year-end gift to sustain The Book Thing’s operations for future successes. With you as our champion, TBT can continue to fulfill its founding mission: putting unwanted books into the hands of those who want them, for free.

Together, let’s write The Book Thing’s next chapter.