How to Donate Used Books

​​

Donating books? If you have 1-2 boxes of books, you can ship them or drop them off at:

​

• Left Bank Books, 92 Pike St., Box A, Seattle WA 98101.

 

If you have a larger donation, or if you'd prefer to drop them off at our volunteer location during open hours, please email bookstoprisoners@live.com for more information.

 

• Additionally, consider including a $45 monetary donation with each box of books that you donate. Our postage cost for mailing a box full of wrapped book packages is approximately $90/box, so your matching donation goes a long way!

 

Here are guidelines to consider when making book donations:

 

• Please reference the Most Requested Books list below for our current needs.

• Paperbacks preferred. A growing number of prisons and jails around the US don't allow the people in their custody to own hardback books.

• No mold or water damage: out of respect and care for the health of the incarcerated people we serve as well as our staff and volunteers, please don’t send us moldy books. Also, books that are even slightly water damaged (or stained by coffee or other fluids) are likely to get rejected by the prisons.

• Limit your donation to 2 boxes of books at a time. If you wish to donate more than two boxes, please stagger your donation so that we are not overloaded.

• Make sure each box weighs no more than 25 pounds, so that our volunteers can safely lift them.

• Remove any CDs, as well as metal or plastic spiral or comb binding. Prison staff treat these as weapons. No pop-up books; prison staff see these as ways to hide contraband.

• No nudity: no photos or drawings including women’s nipples or men’s, women’s or children’s genitalia or gluteal cleft. This applies to comics, graphic novels, manga, magazines, books about art, books about how to draw, paint, etc, and medical textbooks.

• No graphic violence or gore: eg, decapitation or spurting blood, in comics, graphic novels, or manga. Fight scenes in mainstream (DC, Marvel…) titles are ok.

• No instructions about obtaining or creating alcohol or drugs, tying knots or picking locks, self-defense, martial arts (including tai chi), making or repairing weapons, or hypnosis.

• No stickers, remainder marks, highlighting or underlining, or anything else that modifies the book: doing so severely limits the number of facilities we can send books to.

• Before sending multiple copies of any book: please email bookstoprisoners@live.com to double-check that it’s material we can use.  

​​