When I got back to the States after my posting in Macedonia and moved in to my not-quite-gentrified northern Baltimore neighborhood, I spent a lot of time wandering around on weekends, getting reacclimated.  It's a nice neighborhood to wander in; there are lots of trees, long lines of brick rowhomes, some lovely postage-stamp front gardens - and, as I discovered one morning as I turned a corner on my way home, FREE BOOKS.  A handlettered wooden sign has never said anything sweeter. 

I followed its arrow, and in the concrete gap behind one corner house there were crates and crates of books stacked on the ground, and people clambering up and down a narrow concrete stairwell into a basement from which the odor of slightly damp print and paper wafted.  I didn't often venture into the basement after that first expedition. It was an entrancing mess, with books on shelves and in piles in every available nook, but too closed in for me.  I was generally content to have a quick browse among the crates outside on my way home from the farmers' market.  Even a quick browse often sent me home with more books than I could comfortably manage.  And I could visit all weekend, every weekend, whenever the urge to hunt up a new book struck. 

I soon learned that my little oasis was The Book Thing of Baltimore, a non-profit dedicated to "put[ting] unwanted books into the hands of those who want them."  Launched out of the back of a van in the late 1990s, by the time I discovered it, the Book Thing was already an institution, and soon became the home, or at least the transit point, for a large part of my book collection.  It was one of the first things I went looking for when I came back to Baltimore last year.  But the house was shut up tight, and the donation bin was gone.  I hurried home in a panic to hit Google, learned that the Book Thing was alive and kicking in a more spacious location and made it a part of my weekend routine again.

Now, the Book Thing needs help paying its mortgage.  They're trying to make a $120,000 balloon payment by 1 April.  Cash donations can be made through Network for Good.  Information about donating other items can be found here.  (Oh, and here's a good article about the Book Thing I found when I was looking for their website.)  The Book Thing is one of the best things about Baltimore - people from every walk of life come through its doors, and leave with as many books as they can carry.  It's unpretentious, improbably successful, and constantly struggling.  Please help keep it going!