We greatly appreciate your donation of books.
Most book donors give us books from their personal collections. If you prefer to purchase books to donate, please check out the wish lists we maintain with these local independent booksellers who support our work: BOL Co-op,People's Book, Solid State Books, Lost City Booksand Little District Books.
Please donate only GOOD-CONDITION PAPERBACK BOOKS in either Spanish or English. (Most prisons reject hardback books, and all reject books that are water-damaged, stained, or moldy.) Books should not contain excessive underlining or margin notes. Our list of Greatest Book Needs includes the books most often requested. Outdated resources, (e.g., computer manuals, textbooks), are not needed. We no longer carry law books, although paperback legal dictionaries are welcome.
Please consider bundling series of books, remove any personal information (including your name and address), and make sure you check books for photos, letters, or other personal items you might not want to share with incarcerated people.
We also receive many book donations as a result of book drives put together by individuals and organizations. Please email us at btopdc@gmail.com if you would like to host a book drive so we can let you know our current needs and storage capabilities.
Greatest Book Needs - Nonfiction
Career & Personal Development
College-level dictionaries — our #1 request
Thesauruses
Adult coloring books
How to draw (especially introductory, portraits, and manga/cartooning/superheros). No nudes please — nude illustrations aren't accepted in most prisons.
Starting a business, marketing, real estate, or personal finance (published within the last 10 years)
GED preparation
Trade or DIY books (especially modern home construction, home repair, welding, HVAC, woodworking, plumbing, truck driving, modern car mechanics, small motor repair)
ESL/ESOL
Farming/agriculture (including beekeeping)
Game and puzzle books: role-playing games (e.g., Dungeons & Dragons, Pathfinder), chess, word search/Sudoku/crossword
Bodyweight exercise for men
Interpersonal communication
World atlases and recent (2015-current) almanacs
Astronomy (introductory level)
History, Culture, Language
Memoirs/biographies of historic leaders, modern celebrities/musicians, or people who have experienced transgender transition
Introductory (Level 1 or 2 or "phrase book") language instruction and dictionaries for Spanish, American Sign Language (ASL), Hebrew, Latin, Japanese, German, Russian, Arabic, Greek, and various other European, Asian, and African languages
History and culture, especially:
African American
Latin American
Ancient history/culture and mythology — especially Mayan, Aztec, Roman, Greek, Egyptian, Nordic and Celtic
Native American
National Geographic magazines (published 2000-present)
Joke books (aimed at adults, but not too risque)
Spanish-language books, including biography, history, self-help, and trade/DIY (e.g., plumbing, woodworking). Especially needed are books written at around an 8th grade level.
Greatest Book Needs - Fiction
Westerns
Comic books (especially Marvel and DC Comics), manga, and graphic novels (please NO comics/graphic novels with nude or explicit illustrations)
Fantasy (including paranormal romance, Forgotten Realm, vampires, werewolves, contemporary/urban, medieval/epic)
Mystery, suspense, thriller
Gay romance novels (most people incarcerated in the U.S. are men)
Horror
Science fiction (including Star Wars and Star Trek)
Novels by David Baldacci, Dean Koontz, James Patterson, Lee Child, Stephen King, Patricia Cornwell, Harlan Corben, Stuart Woods, Vince Flynn, J.A. Jance, C.J. Box, or Michael Connelly
Novels in Spanish, especially science fiction, fantasy, action/adventure, romance, westerns, mysteries, graphic novels, and other genres typically read for fun. (We usually have enough classic literature in Spanish.)
Christian fiction other than the Left Behind series
Books for Prison Book Clubs
We are seeking the following books to be sent to prison book clubs. This list will change frequently. Click here if you would like to purchase and donate books for our book clubs.
All About Love (bell hooks)
Are Prisons Obsolete? (Angela Davis)
Autobiography of Assata Shakur (Assata Shakur)
Behind the Beautiful Forevers (Katherine Boo)
A Clockwork Orange (Anthony Burgess)
Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoevsky)
Don't Call Us Dead (Danez Smith)
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (Jonathan Safran Foer)
Ghost Boys (Jewel Parker Rhodes)
A Good Country (Laleh Khadivi)
The Great Pretender (Susannah Cahalan)
James: A Novel (Percival Everett)
The Light Between Oceans (M.L. Stedman)
On the Road (Jack Kerouac)
Wonder (R.J. Palacio)
Dropping off Books
Books donations of up to 2 boxes may be dropped off Wednesday evenings 6-8pm in our room in the basement of Foundry United Methodist Church. It is best practice to email us before coming in, to make sure we will be able to accommodate your donation. If you have a larger donation we can make arrangements to accommodate the donation, either at the church or at our storage location. Email us at btopdc@gmail.com. The church is at 1500 16th Street NW, Washington DC 20036. If you drive, please be aware Foundry does not have visitor parking, so you will need to find street parking.
Please do NOT leave books on the floor outside our room! Any books left there will be taken to a recycling bin by the church janitor. Always leave books with a volunteer.
We ask that people dropping off books wear masks that cover both their mouths and noses.
Mail: Please do not mail books to us — BtP maintains a PO Box and we lack the resources to receive or transport mailed books.
Please mail books directly to a prison librarian instead.
For a list of prison librarians accepting books, contact us at btopdc@gmail.com with "Prison Library List" in the subject line.
We reserve the right to give away or trade any books that might not be needed by people in prison. If you have books to donate that you are certain we cannot use, please consider donating to Turning the Page or a local library that holds book sales.