Bookstock is back for 2022

Neal Rubin, honorary chairperson and Detroit Free Press columnist, deems it “the ultimate form of recycling.”

Photo credit: Thought Catalog/Unsplash

After a two-year absence, Bookstock has returned to its longtime home in Livonia’s Laurel Park Place Mall. Since its founding, the event has allowed thousands of patrons to expand their personal libraries and has raised more than $2 million for literacy programs in the region.

In addition to being entirely volunteer-driven, the event also donates all remaining books to local nonprofits and charities when the week is done.

“It’s the ultimate form of recycling,” Bookstock honorary chairperson and Detroit Free Press columnist Neal Rubin says. “First, we get books out of people’s basements and back in people’s laps where they belong. And then, the whole point here is to promote literacy and support programs [like] Oakland Literacy Council [and] Brilliant Detroit … who are doing the hard work of helping people read better, or interesting them in reading at the same time.”

Rubin hopes that increased literacy will encourage more people to return to the event year after year so the cycle can continue.

“We’re selling books to support those things that teach people to read, so that at least in theory, they can come to Bookstock next year and get fired up for being surrounded by more books.”

The event is running now through Sunday, with sales beginning at 11 a.m. daily.


Listen: Bookstock ambassador Neal Rubin shares the books that changed his life.

 

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Author

  • Amanda LeClaire
    Amanda LeClaire is an award-winning host and producer of CultureShift on 101.9 WDET-FM Detroit’s NPR station. She’s a founding producer of WDET’s flagship news talk show Detroit Today, and a former host/reporter for Arizona Public Media. Amanda is also an artist, certified intuitive and energy healer, and professional tarot reader.