Photo by Chelsea Zukowski
Yes, Pinellas Park's Book Rescuers has a packed shelf just for banned books.
It’s called The Book Rescuers, and owners George and Sarah Brooks have a simple, but multifaceted mission: keep books and other media out of landfills and give back to the community through the power of reading.
“I always say some people rehome pets, we rehome books,” Sarah said. “We’re book rehoming specialists.”
The Brooks created The Book Rescuers in 2021 when George said he met an Amazon seller who was throwing away 10,000 pounds of books every week and “gave him an offer he couldn’t refuse” to take them off the seller’s hands. The result was upwards of 2,200 books in their yard and then spending months building custom shelves on wheels so they could take all those books to different locations every other week.
“Everyone told us we were crazy and no one reads, and we were like that’s radio edit,” George said.
From the beginning, the Brooks' Tampa Bay indie bookstore was—and still is—community collaboration and support that keeps The Book Rescuers going. The Brooks said it was their followers who pushed them to open a warehouse to shop in.
“It’s wicked hard work. It’s the most physical thing either of us have ever done,” George said. “But it’s hands down the most rewarding thing we’ve ever done.”
At first, the shop at 10410 66th St. N was in a smaller warehouse and only open a few days a week. Now, in the much larger suite no. 6 is over a mile of shelving and plenty of space for browsing and for the Book Rescuers crew to shoot fun social media videos.
These shelves are filled with every genre and subgenre you can think of, and they’re organized alphabetically by author’s last name. There are sections for Florida books and authors as well as crates of vinyl records, CDs, DVDs, VHS tapes and displays of local art.
Almost every book is priced $1-$3 with more expensive items still set under $10. There are a few items, like the ephemera packs and sets behind the counter, that cost a little more.
The children's section takes up about a quarter of the space and features shelves of heavily discounted and free books and resources for teachers. And, yes, Book Rescuers has a packed shelf just for banned books.
“We rescue all books and all media of any type or genre in any condition,” George said. “And we don’t need anything presorted; we’ll do it all because we bring in about 2,000 books a week.”
By “any condition,” the Brooks really mean it. With heavily damaged books or those that have become irrelevant or unreadable, they repurpose pages, covers and any illustrations in ephemera and wallpaper packs and art work.
With ephemera packs and new wallpaper packs, crafters, artists or people just wanting more bookish vibes in their home can buy 100 square feet of book pages to turn into recycled wallpaper.
“We’re trying to find ways to keep that kind of stuff out of the landfill,” Sarah said. “Any book in any condition can be made into something else.”“Any book in any condition can be made into something else.”
tweet this
The Book Rescuers’ inventory comes from libraries, local indie bookstores and donated personal collections. They also work with local junk removal companies to take discarded books off their hands.
Through these donations and “rescues,” the Brooks have found rare and collectible books, dusty leatherbound books over 100 years old and even have two whole shelves dedicated to books signed by their authors.
Besides the shelves of paperback pulps, bodice-ripper historical romances, hardcover thrillers and epic fantasy novels, The Book Rescuers have acquired several shelves of brand new books and marked them way below regular retail price because Sarah believes keeping reading affordable is very important. “Knowledge is power and it should be accessible to everybody,” she added.
The Brooks have been building upon their success as a community-focused book rehoming business by opening an Ebay store for their most rare and niche finds and making plans to open a retail location next summer.
“The donations are never ending,” Sarah said. “That’s awesome. It’s a beautiful community.”
With the continued support from the community, the Brooks are working toward opening in a building with air conditioning and space for a small tea and coffee cafe as well as a small stage so they can host open mic nights.
“They’ve driven us to where we’re at, and they have driven us to grow faster than we really could afford to,” George said. “But they’ve supported us.”
To keep up with the Best of the Bay-winning shop The Book Rescuers and see what new books they get in each week, follow them via @thebookrescuers on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. Visit the shop at 10410 66th St. N no. 6 in Pinellas Park. Subscribe to Creative Loafing newsletters.
Follow us: Apple News | Google News | NewsBreak | Reddit | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | Or sign up for our RSS Feed
