Our Story

In mid-2007, I suddenly found myself a single father of an almost four-year-old daughter.

In 2008, I was working evenings at Weber's Restaurant to be home more during the day, but I knew I needed a home-based business so I could spend even more time with her.

One of my favorite questions to ask people is "what do you do for fun?" I asked that to a fellow server at Weber's Restaurant and he told me, "I sell books online." I was like, "that's fun?" He said, "absolutely, come on over, I'll show you." So I went to his house probably the next day and was blown away. His house was FULL of books. Every room, every wall, every floor space. He showed me everything: listing, shipping, pricing. I was in.

That led me to the golden question: "How do you get the books?" He told me thrift stores, estate sales, library sales. But I was a single father trying to spend MORE time with my daughter, not less. So I asked myself a question that changed my life: "How do thrift stores get their books?" The answer was simple. People give them to them. So I asked, "How do I get people to give ME their books?"

I figured people just needed to know I wanted them. So I took a piece of paper, put four ads on it, cut it into quarters, and put one each into a Ziplock bag with a couple of white garden stones. I made hundreds of them sitting in my living room. Then I'd drive through neighborhoods at night, tossing one into each driveway. The rocks helped them fly and stay put till they were found.

Guess what? It worked. The next day, I got phone call after phone call after phone call.

As the days and months passed, I kept hearing from the people I picked up books from how grateful they were. That surprised me. I thought I was the one receiving the benefit. What I realized was that the service I was providing was actually helping the community.

Some people were older and couldn't lift the books. Others had just experienced a death in the family and needed to find a home for their loved one's collection. Still others were moving and couldn't take the books with them.

One thing I learned is that people LOVE their books. They want to know their books will be used in a good way. Books are memories. Everyone remembers where they were when they read a particular book, what grade they were in, what vacation they were on. No one really wants to throw away their books.

I was helping everyone free up space in their home AND giving their books another chance to be loved by someone else.

In 2009, I was remarried and acquired a step-son, and our youngest son was on the way. Now more than ever, the book business was supporting my growing family. As more and more people were giving me their books, I decided to name our service Give My Books and start the website GiveMyBooks.com. I called it that because people were giving me their books, and I felt the responsibility to give (now my) books back to the community.

We rented a warehouse in 2010 off Platt Rd and started The Quarter Bookstore, where softcover books were just 25 cents and hardcovers were 50 cents. The community loved it. We became a go-to resource for homeschoolers and teachers.

We also started holding a community book sale at my parents' house on Jay Lee Court. Books were just $1 each. We ran a "Buy 10 Get Up To 10 Free" sale to benefit the community. That sale became JLC Book Sale.

The long and short of our story is: this is a business that has benefited my family so much throughout the years that we just HAVE to give back to the community. I feel obligated to do so.