Three miles of shelving holding 200,000 items stretch across The Book Rescuers’ warehouse in Largo.
Several decades of fiction and nonfiction titles, foreign language books, children’s books, audio books, comic books, DVDs, VHS tapes, vinyl records, board games, and puzzles fill aisle after aisle of shelves. Mystery, history, thrillers, chillers, science fiction, classics, cookbooks, romance, crime stories, and coffee table books are all part of an ever-changing inventory that’s constantly restocked, sold, and replaced. All of it’s been donated to this bookstore that rescues and rehomes books that would otherwise end up at the dump.
It’s only right for a bookstore filled with all these titles and tales to have a story of its own. For The Book Rescuers, it’s the story of a husband and wife who took a risk on a business idea and ended up bringing together a community. It begins 4 ½ years ago in store owners George and Sarah Brooks’ driveway. George Brooks says that first yard sale consisted of 800 books that an Amazon bookseller gave away instead of throwing away after they didn’t sell. The next yard sale had 1,200 books and more customers. Then it was 2,200 books and a larger crowd…