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June 2026 Books Through Bars’ Pride Month book drive

2026 marks the 30th anniversary of Books Through Bars NYC, and while we will celebrate that milestone throughout the rest of the year, we return with our book bundle program to help support their mission. For $30 (aptly for 30 years!) we will purchase a variety of LGBTBQ+ titles.

Please help us stock up on LGBTQ+ titles in their anniversary year.

$30 purchases an assortment of three titles*
Order at https://www.freebirdbooks.com/shop.html

After a few months off from promoting book bundles (the last almanac campaign yielded 500 copies!), we are back to mark our 30th anniversary and efforts to provide the incarcerated with reading material–against a backdrop ever more stringent restrictions.

For June 2026 we reprise our Pride promotion with a variety pack of LGBTQ+ related titles. Your $30 will allow us to purchase three copies from a list narrowed down by Books Through Bars, including works of fiction (genre and literary), memoirs, humor, history, and even adult coloring books.

While donations of used books in this category continue to be dropped off at the store (and please keep them coming), prisons are establishing higher thresholds for the condition and wear-and-tear of the copies. These unstained, undog-eared editions will help guarantee their delivery to incarcerated readers.

Over 25,000 books to date purchased on behalf of NYC Books Through Bars

Since Freebird Books began this drive in June of 2020 in reaction to the COVID-19 quarantine (which shut down volunteer sessions and in-person drop offs at the store), NYC Books Through Bars has been able to keep up with the steady demand from incarcerated readers across the country. Between 200 and 300 packages per week are typically sent out.

This monthly program helps fulfill requests in categories we might be understocked in at a given time. Your generosity has helped us collect books for incarcerated, including 5,000 works on social and criminal justice, history, and ethnic studies, 3,500 novels, 2,000 graphic fiction and manga books, 2,500 dictionaries, 1,500 art appreciation and instruction guides, and now 2,000 almanacs