Three miles of shelving holding 200,000 items stretch across The Book Rescuers’ warehouse in Largo.
Several decades of fiction and nonfiction titles, foreign language books, children’s books, audio books, comic books, DVDs, VHS tapes, vinyl records, board games, and puzzles fill aisle after aisle of shelves. Mystery, history, thrillers, chillers, science fiction, classics, cookbooks, romance, crime stories, and coffee table books are all part of an ever-changing inventory that’s constantly restocked, sold, and replaced. All of it’s been donated to this bookstore that rescues and rehomes books that would otherwise end up at the dump.
It’s only right for a bookstore filled with all these titles and tales to have a story of its own. For The Book Rescuers, it’s the story of a husband and wife who took a risk on a business idea and ended up bringing together a community. It begins 4 ½ years ago in store owners George and Sarah Brooks’ driveway. George Brooks says that first yard sale consisted of 800 books that an Amazon bookseller gave away instead of throwing away after they didn’t sell. The next yard sale had 1,200 books and more customers. Then it was 2,200 books and a larger crowd.
At that point, they decided to go mobile. George Brooks designed and built 20 double-sided bookshelves on wheels that could hold a combined 10,000 books. They loaded the stocked bookshelves and five 10 by 20- foot tents into a box truck with a lift gate and struck a deal with local businesses to set up shop in their parking lots. The mobile bookstore’s two-day events consistently attracted crowds of more than 1,000, which meant more customers for its host.
“Every time we went to a local business, they had record-breaking sales days,” George Brooks says.
They’d connected with the community. The book donations and customers kept coming. Eventually, The Book Rescuers moved to a brick-and-mortar location, a Pinellas Park warehouse. The community of bibliophiles coalescing around the store loved it. Within two months, the Brooks’ knew they needed a larger location.
“The community is what has pushed, pulled, and dragged us to where we’re at,” George Brooks says. “When we were moving out of our old location, we wanted to find a large enough space that we could support the community that supported us.”
A new home
The Book Rescuers opened in its new home, a 14,400 square-foot warehouse at 8325 Ulmerton Rd. in Largo, on Black Friday 2024. Dozens of volunteers stayed to stock shelves until midnight on Thanksgiving.
“The power of books, man,” George Brooks observes
They plan for this location to be the store’s permanent home. The decor includes a book tree built of 1,000 books that towers over a lounge area in the front of the store. In the stacks, there’s a square opening for a book nook at the same point along each aisle of bookshelves. The openings form a row running across the aisles to create a view that’s like a framed tunnel running through the center of the shelving.
Except for the bookshelves that Brooks built, everything in the store is donated. That includes the furniture and the 100-year-old piano in the lounge area near the front of the store. The piano’s been put to use in some impromptu musical performances. When one couple comes in, the husband heads to play the piano while his wife shops, Brooks says.
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George Brooks inspects a bookThen, there are the books, records, and other merchandise. They work with junk haulers, movers, estate sale companies, 42 libraries, and dozens of schools to get a steady stream of donations and keep books out of landfills.
“We get some really awesome random donations as well,” Brooks says.
A Panasonic CD/cassette boombox with a six-disc auto changer and detachable speakers is one recent example. Brooks sold that on the store’s Instagram through a “treasure drop,” where he puts something unique up for sale and gives prospective buyers 24 hours to make an offer, with the highest offer winning. The boombox sold for $92.
Community gathering place
The Brooks want The Book Rescuers to be more than a really cool used bookstore. They see it as a gathering place for the community that drove the business’s growth and rallied behind its mission to rescue and rehome books.
Each month is filled with free events put on in partnership with other businesses and community groups. There are book clubs, the popular Painting with Passion community art event, a sensory play hour, book release events, a game night, and a Reiki and sound bowl healing hour.
Teachers always get a 50 percent discount on classroom books can pick up free school supplies stocked at the back of the store. There’s also a section featuring books by local authors, with The Book Rescuers collecting only $2 from each book sale.
What’s next
In less than five years, The Book Rescuers has gone from a two-person husband-and-wife business operating in a driveway to a 14,400 square-foot space with 10 employees.
“Sarah and I have always said it’s the most physical job we’ve ever had, and I used to move furniture, but it’s also hands down the most rewarding thing we’ve ever done,” Brooks says. “It’s nice to be part of something that has the love of the community. And it’s the community who built this.”
The business continues to grow. They’re getting ready to put in a coffee, tea, beer, and wine bar in partnership with St. Petersburg’s Overflow Brewing. They’re also adding a stage for musical, comedy, spoken word, and open mic performances. It’s all happening because of a community that came together through a mutual love of books.
“Books are amazing,” Brooks says. “Books are powerful. Books are epic. But one thing that’s more epic than the books is the readers of those books. It’s hands-down what we’ve realized. When we were starting this, our friends were telling us we were crazy, no one reads. We were crazy for sure, still are, but it just turned out we didn’t have the right friends. A lot of people still read; I don’t care what people say. Our children’s section, you should see the kids run in here. We had a field trip come in yesterday, kind of last-minute. We had kids asking us for foreign books, novels in Russian. The love for books and reading is definitely thriving.”
For more information, go to The Book Rescuers