I went over to donate more books to Housing Works the other day, and of course got distracted shopping for books while I was there. It happens every time! I basically see Housing Works as my library – I borrow books, and through buying them and donating them back I help support people living with HIV/AIDS along the way. If I’ve got to have a book addiction, I may as well try to benefit others through it.

Whenever I see used books for sale, whether at Housing Works or stoop sales or anywhere else, I find myself tempted to pick out my favorites into a curated stack to nudge strangers towards them. When I mentioned this to a few friends later, it turned out that I’m not the only one!

So, why not? I threw together these book recommendation bookmarks to stick into used books I see for sale, but already own and love myself. My hope is that if I use these bookmarks, I will encourage strangers to read some of my favorite books, help support used bookstores generally, and have some interesting conversations along the way.

The bookmarks seem like a better way to satisfy that urge to help people find amazing books they might not notice otherwise, and to open the door to conversations with strangers about books we’ve both read! A little clearer and perhaps more useful than just reorganizing the stacks until entropy reasserts itself. Something that speaks to the next person who comes along.

No need to keep the fun for myself, though. You can download the full-sized, free PDF of my book-recommendation bookmarks to print out and use yourself here!

Have fun, read more, enjoy! Maybe I’ll bump into you at the Strand or Powell’s sometime.