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How to Be a Book Fairy

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A book fairy is someone who adds magic to someone's day by giving him or her a book. 

You don't have to be magical to be a book fairy. (Though, if you are magical, that's perfectly fine.) You just have to know where to leave books to put a little magic in someone's day. 

Being a book fairy doesn't require much time or money. You just have to be prepared with books on hand to give out in your daily life or be willing to set aside time to donate the books. 

Acquiring Books

Although you can be just as good of a book fairy by leaving books off your own shelf for others to enjoy, you can also up your game by buying books in bulk. Below is a list of places where you can acquire lots of books for relatively cheap. 

  • The thrift store (Especially the books marked with whatever the 75% off color is for that week)
  • Library book sales (Not super often, but on occasion they'll have their books for even cheaper than usual)
  • Newspaper offices (Surprise! Lots of newspapers get tons of books to review and if they choose not to review them and the people who work at the publication don't want them, you might as well get them for your book fairy-ing purposes)
  • Bookstores (Hey, even Books-A-Million has a dollar rack every now and then, plus they get review copies of books too)

Distributing Books

Now that you've got your stash of books with which you can be a book fairy, you'll want to consider places where your books can make a difference. Here are a list of places where you can take books to put a little magic in people's lives. 

  • Homeless shelters 
  • Children's hospitals
  • Orphanages
  • Public school libraries
  • Nonprofit agencies that work with impoverished people
  • Public parks
  • Random strangers on the street

Book Fairy-ing

Now that you've got the books you want to give out and decided to place you want to give them, you just have to decide some minor details. Do you want to wear a fairy costume, complete with wings and a wand when you go out? Do you want to enlist friends as fellow book fairies? Or do you just want to casually hand out books as you go about your daily life, whether by approaching strangers or leaving books in public places? 

However you choose to carry out your book fairy-ing, you're sure to make someone's day. 

Have you ever been a book fairy before? Do you have ideas about ways to be a book fairy or places to donate books? Tell me in the comments below! 

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