Largo couple opens business focused on re-purposing old books

Offering affordable books to the community is the mission of a Largo husband-and-wife and their new business.

LARGO, Fla. - Offering affordable books to the community is the mission of a Largo husband-and-wife and their new business.

The 'Book Rescuers' is the perfect name to describe their goal of rescuing books and sending them back into the community for a reasonable price.

"Our mission is to rescue and re-home books affordably to the community," George Brooks explained. "We truly want to make a dent in the amount that end up in the landfill."

‘Book Rescuers’ store in Largo offers affordable books to the community.

Four years ago, a chance meeting with an Amazon seller inspired George's original idea. The seller was getting rid of tons of books a week. He convinced the seller to let him have them.

His wife, Sarah Brooks, supported the idea, and they fit as many books as they could into their box truck. They held three book sales in their driveway featuring 800 books. The rest is history.

"We've been so busy that even though we're putting up to 2,000 items out per day, half of that is finding new homes," George Brooks said.

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Because of demand from the community, business shifted from the driveway, to markets, to a warehouse to a full-retail store that opened its doors on Black Friday.

George Brooks estimates that the store has 100,000 items on display, with another 130,000 in the back. The store receives over 10 tons of books a week.

"Everything you see in this store is donated. We get a lot from Amazon sellers. We get a lot from thrift stores, estate sale companies. We work with 42 different libraries, dozens of different schools," George Brooks explained.

‘Book Rescuers’ store in Largo offers affordable books to the community.

Affordable is most important. George Brooks says the average book sales price is $2.14. For kids’ items, it’s even lower.

"Kids' books are all a buck. We are all about keeping children engaged in reading and furthering knowledge," Sarah Brooks said. "It's very important to us. We have four kids. It's near and dear to our heart. So yup, all kids’ books are a buck. Teachers get 50% off anything that they buy for their classroom."

The new space is still a work in progress. Sarah Brooks wants to enhance the children’s section. New shelves are still being built and stocked. The co-owners hope to add a small café and music stage.

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"We want to support the community that has supported us since our driveway," George Brooks said.

In addition to old books, the shop highlights local authors and artists. CDs, vinyl records, DVDs and even VHS tapes are also for sale. They even sell individual book pages from books that have some damage.

Both George and Sarah Brooks say that this is the hardest, most labor-filled job they have ever had, but it’s also the most rewarding.

"One thing I've definitely learned here is I always knew that books are magical, but one thing that I found that is more magical than books are the readers of those books," George Brooks said. "Our people blow us away every day."

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