Books Among Friends offers Durhamites a unique deal: Get used books for cheap and simultaneously support the local library.
The online bookstore is run entirely by the volunteers at Friends of the Durham Library, a nonprofit that has worked with the library since at least the 1980s, Shayne Goodrum, FODL's former president, said.
"People donate books here, and we find them good homes," she said. "We sell what we can, and the proceeds go back to the Durham Public Library."
Longtime Durhamites might remember their in-person bookstore in the Northgate Mall, which closed down during the pandemic. They opened this online and pickup-based store in April of 2022.
They do still occasionally have in-person sales, which they announce on their website.
On donation days, volunteers, many of them retirees, haul boxes of books dropped off at the store's doorstep to a sorting table in the back. Of their collection of more than 20,000 books, Goodrum said, they'll sell the "vast majority" for just $3 to $5.
The exception is their catalog of books worth $25 or more — they price those higher and double-list them on both their website and Amazon. Amazon is also one of the only ways to get their books delivered to you; the store is pickup-only otherwise.
They also sell CDs, DVDs, games and puzzles.
"Many of the people come here and buy a puzzle and put it together and bring it back to us, so we'll look in the system when we're putting it online and realize, 'Oh, we've sold this same puzzle five or six times!'" Goodrum said. "That's really cool."
The revenue from all their sales goes to support initiatives like the county's summer reading program and scholarships to help library staff get advanced degrees.
"I'm a former English teacher, and books have been my life ever since I was a little bitty girl," Goodrum said. "This is a great way to stay involved with it and try to get it in the hands of people who may not be able to afford the kind of prices that full-price bookstores charge."
Bruce Mitchell, FODL's current president, feels similarly.
"I've been going to the library since I was a wee lad," he said. "I got my education at the library. So this is my alumni dues, doing this work. It's challenging and interesting."
He says FODL also supplies some books to prisons, daycares, nursing homes, and the county's older adult and shut-in services.
To maximize the money they make for the county, they sell older books through an antiquarian and some stock through the online reseller Better World Books. They're also member-supported.
"What membership does for an individual — it's its own reward, because it helps support the library," Mitchell said. "But membership also gets you 25% off when we have an in-person sale."
And they're "always" looking for volunteers, Goodrum said, especially younger generations.
"We'd like to see this go on another 20, 30, 50 years, and still be supporting our library, you know, after I can't," she said.
The store is located in the Shoppes of Hope Valley at 3825 South Roxboro Street, Durham, N.C. Their hours for pickup or donation dropoffs can be found on their website, www.shopfodlnc.org.
