Affordable Books

Find quality used books at community-friendly prices.

Community Book Sales

Regular sales events bringing affordable reading to your neighborhood.

Wide Selection

Books, textbooks, CDs, DVDs, and other media available.

Support Local Literacy

Proceeds from sales support literacy programs in your community.

Donate for Future Sales

Schedule a free pickup - your donated books fuel future community sales.

Eco-Friendly

Keep books out of landfills and in the hands of readers.

Quick answer: Give My Books Network is not a used book store — it is the free doorstep pickup that helps keep Riverside's used-book shelves full. Pack your books, set them out by 8 AM on your service day, and a Local Pick-Up Partner collects them between 8 AM and 8 PM at no cost.

Is Give My Books Network a Used Book Store in Riverside?

No. Give My Books Network is a free book donation pickup service and a community book-sharing network, not a storefront you can browse. What it does is supply the used-book shelves that Riverside readers already shop.

A Local Pick-Up Partner — the locally owned family business that does the collecting — gathers books free from doorsteps, sorts them offsite, and moves part of what they find into the resale channels the city already has. Some of those books end up on a shelf in a shop off University Avenue. Some end up on a folding table at a weekend sale.

How Does a Riverside Used Book Store Get Its Shelves Filled?

Used book stores restock from estates, moves, downsizings, and donation networks. A Local Pick-Up Partner is one of those sources — they collect free from Riverside doorsteps and resell part of what they gather.

The independent-shop ecosystem in Downtown Riverside runs on a steady supply of good used titles. Without households passing books forward, those shelves thin out fast. Which means the two boxes in your garage are not a burden on anyone. They are the raw material.

Should You Sell Books to a Shop or Schedule a Free Pickup?

Sell to a shop when you have a small, curated stack of desirable titles and the time to carry it in. Schedule a free pickup when you have volume, mixed condition, or no interest in making three trips across town in July.

• Selling to a shop — cash in hand, but only for what they can sell. Expect most of the pile back in your arms.
• Free doorstep pickup — any quantity, any readable condition, no driving, no counter, no sorting. No cash either.
• Both — carry in the twenty best titles, and schedule a pickup for the rest. Nobody will hold it against you.

Why a Used Book Store Cannot Take Everything

Shelf space is finite, and a shop only buys what it can sell. Textbooks two editions old, encyclopedia sets, book club editions, and sun-faded paperbacks get declined at the counter — kindly, but declined.

Libraries face the same constraint from a different angle. The American Library Association's guide to book donation programs is blunt about how much of what gets offered has to be turned down for reasons of space, condition, and edition. That is the gap a free pickup fills.

How Free Book Donation Pickup Works in Riverside

Give My Books Network sends a Local Pick-Up Partner to collect packed boxes from your Riverside doorstep at no cost. You pack in advance — partners do not bring boxes — set everything out by 8 AM in a shaded spot, and collection happens between 8 AM and 8 PM.

You do not need to be home. Most donors never meet their partner. Enter your ZIP code to see whether a partner already serves your block; if none does yet, submit the request anyway, and it enters the out-of-area pickup system where a nearby partner may claim it.

What Happens to Books After a Riverside Pickup?

Local Pick-Up Partners sort every collection offsite. Many titles are redistributed through the Give ME Books program to schools, literacy programs, senior centers, and Little Free Libraries. Some are resold through shops, community sales, and online listings.

That resale is what keeps the pickup free, and Give My Books Network states it plainly rather than burying it. Not every book is donated. Items that cannot be reused may eventually be recycled as a last resort. And because these are family businesses rather than 501(c)(3) nonprofits, there is no tax-deduction receipt.

Pickup Request Form

Enter your ZIP code to begin your pickup request