Birdland Books began with a personal library and a promise.

Courtney’s father Ed was an English professor, medieval linguist, and lifelong lover of books. Rarely was Ed seen without a book in hand. A lifelong learner, Ed’s interests ranged from Medieval manuscripts to Southern lit, old Florida to Australia, poetry to pulp fiction. Over the years, Ed amassed a personal library of more than 3,000 books—from rare, first-edition texts to well-worn paperbacks. Ed likely “misplaced” more books than most folks have ever read.

Ed was diagnosed with cancer in 2018 and his time on Earth was cut short. He made a simple request about his books: Do something good with them. Donate them to a good cause. He made it clear that he didn’t want them sold off to someone only wanting to turn a profit. And he wanted them in the hands of readers who would value and appreciate them.

It turned out that finding a way to do good with them was trickier than expected. There was no clear path that gave significantly to a good cause without also contributing to a certain billionaire’s yacht fund. Public library donation programs made a lot of sense, but we found that donated books rarely make it to their shelves. Libraries generally sell donated books for a couple of bucks at public book sales, which absolutely benefit these libraries. But we found that many of these books are bought by “book buyers” that buy cheap, valuable books from library sales and re-sell them on large online marketplaces. A significant chunk of the sale goes straight to fund yachts, rockets, and the like. The libraries see none of this profit. At charity thrift stores, the books would be donated for a tax deduction and this wonderful personal library would be sold for a couple dollars each or simply discarded. University libraries generally don’t accept donated books. Selling them to independent used bookstores would certainly qualify as “good”, but bookstores purchase selectively. And hauling 3,000 books to the bookstore is no small task.

The dilemma was that there was no clear option that checked both boxes: 1) get Ed’s books into the hands of someone to appreciate them, and 2) do so while contributing to something meaningful.

We couldn’t find a way to do this, so we built it.

What began as a desire to fulfill Ed’s wishes grew into something larger. We created Birdland Books to help people do a little bit of good with the books they no longer want. Through our giving program, Birdland Books supports charitable organizations dedicated to strengthening literacy and community in Appalachia. Every book bought from Birdland does a little bit of good in this world and carries this promise forward.