March 2024
Book drive no. 5 — our biggest book drive yet with a total of 645 books donated took place at Filipino-owned Prospect Bookstore in South Pasadena.
I was so excited to co-host this book drive at Prospect, as I have been going to the coffee shop next door (also Filipino-owned!) for years now, and often pop into their bookstore. The founder and owner of Prospect is so kind, warm and welcoming and it was so cool being able to learn about his background and hear his story over the weekend. I had been mustering up the courage to ask him to do something together for months prior to this weekend and I’m so happy I finally did. It felt special to do something with someone who, too, has a full-time job but decided to create a passion project on the side, one born out of a love of books, especially in a smaller part of LA with a more local, tight-knit community.
We collected any new or previously loved books with high school-level books donated to my old public high school as they are building a new library and the rest was donated to The Claremont Forum, whose mission is to provide free reading materials and support literacy and personal growth amongst incarcerated folks.
60% of teens in the US do not read at grade level and 70% of inmates in American prisons cannot read above a 4th-grade level. At the most basic level, literacy leads to better futures, and everyone deserves that opportunity.
Anyone who kindly donated books received 10% off any in-store purchase and the first 10 people who donated each day received a wrapped book curated by Seen Library.
A few of the books shared:
