Give Books

Supporting us is easy. We need good books. You want to give good books. We’ll gladly take as many as we can.

However, POP doesn’t have the capacity to accept books that don’t serve our partner organizations. These include books that are:

In poor shape, with heavy writing or missing pages.
Wildly out of date or featuring out-of-date information.
Bigoted or otherwise harmful.

The POP Project strives to distribute valuable materials back into our community. Donating unusable books to POP creates a strain on our ability to serve the community efficiently. Please take a minute to review the books you have to give.

If you are planning on donating to us, first ask yourself, “Would this item be found on my public library shelf?”

Book Donation Requirements

Books We Need:

POP is ALWAYS in need of:

Spanish-language books of all levels and subjects.
Children’s, early readers, and YA.
Black History and books representing African Americans and other minorities.
Religion/spirituality.
Paperback genre fiction (especially sci-fi and fantasy).
Comic books and graphic novels rated All Ages–T+.

Other books we gratefully accept include:

Hardcover fiction, especially genre fiction
Biographies and memoirs
Poetry and literature
General history
Women’s studies
Reference books (current only)
Dictionaries and thesauruses (paperback preferred)
Cookbooks
Home and garden
Crafts
New age and Eastern religion
Self help
Health and wellness
Family planning, parenting, and relationships
Science (current only)
Sports
Large-print books

Books/Items We CANNOT Accept:

Books damaged by animals, fire, water, or mildew
Books missing covers or pages
Encyclopedias (individual or sets)
Legal and law books
Textbooks
Magazines and periodicals
Date-specific materials, including devotionals
Materials whose content is clearly out of date (e.g. The Nostradamus Guide to Y2K, Surviving the 90s Stock Market)
Books about outdated technology (e.g. Internet Explorer 6 for Dummies)
Materials with an address panel (i.e. booklets you received through the mail)
Reader’s Digest magazines or books
Porn or pornagraphic materials
Address books, journals, puzzle books, and other non-narrative “books”
Yearbooks
Workbooks
Pamphlets
Manuals
Loose maps
Music CDs and vinyl records
Computer CD-ROMS
Notebooks, binders, and office supplies
Other materials that are NOT BOOKS

If you wish to donate books that do not fall under either of these categories, please contact us at aPOPproject@gmail.com.

About Donation Sizes

Small Donations (<20 books)

TAKE SMALL DONATIONS TO OUR DROP BOXES (SEE SIDEBAR).

For your convenience, POP has several drop locations located inside businesses around Asheville. Drop boxes are designed to collect SMALL donations (less than 20 books) over the course of several weeks between pickups. These boxes are available during the regular operating hours of the locations in which they are housed. The list of current drop box locations is available in the sidebar of this page.

PLEASE HELP US RESPECT OUR DROP BOX HOSTS BY NOT OVERLOADING THEM WITH LARGE DONATIONS!

Moderate Donations (20-150 books)

For moderate-sized donations, POP prefers that you drop off books at our storage location. Address and directions will be provided and a POP rep will wait no more than 20 minutes at your scheduled drop time. Some home pickups within Asheville city limits may be arranged depending on circumstances.

Large Donations (150+ books)

Due to storage and budgetary constraints, the POP Project has a limit on the number of books we accept from each donating household or organization.

POP cannot accept single-day book donations of 150+ books or more than 300 books/year from individual households or organizations.

Exceptions to this rule are ONLY being made for our biggest need books:

Spanish-language books of all levels and subjects.
Children’s, early readers, and YA.
Black History and books representing African Americans and other minorities.
Comic books and graphic novels (All Ages–T+).

Please contact us with any questions.