Home Delivery

It's Groundhog Day, or as I like to call him, whistle pig. Yes, there will be six more weeks of winter, but we always knew there would be, at least in North Central Pennsylvania. Still, we've been pretty lucky with the snow. We're here at the store today, but it's pretty quiet with people still digging themselves out and all.

You may not know it, but one of the many benefits of membership is home delivery within a five mile radius of the bookstore. Sometimes we deliver even farther. Jenn who volunteers here a couple days a week lives in Galeton, and she'll often drop off if it is on her way, or drop off to the Galeton library for easy pick up.

It doesn't have to be snowy for us to deliver. We often deliver to the area group homes or senior citizen apartment complexes. Our current building isn't handicap accessible, but we are always happy to deliver if you can't make it in. Our new location on East Ave. will be handicap accessible, but of course we will still be happy to deliver, but sometimes it is fun to browse.

We also deliver to the Tioga County Prison. The United States prison population is the largest on earth. Currently, 1 in every 31 adults is either in jail, prison, probation, or on parole: that’s a lot of people. There’s a good chance that you know one of them. It might be your friend who got that DUI. Yeah, he knew he should have waited before driving, but he didn’t and now he’s going to have to do the time. You’d like to help.

One thing you can do to make that time pass a little easier is to send a good book. Many inmates spend a lot of time reading. Even inmates in work release programs have long weekends where they can’t leave the premises, and one of the best ways to deal with boredom in the blocks is to read a book. Most prisons have a library available, but the choices might be limited.

Books have to come from a bookstore or online source. In some prisons, these books become the property of the prison after the prisoner gets the book, but some let the prisoner take them home. We create an invoice with the books we deliver, and the Tioga County Prison usually lets the inmate take the book home. This does vary from prison to prison.

From My Shelf Books also ships books all over the United States, and we can also deliver to prisons around the country, but restrictions do vary. Many prisons won't let inmates have hardcovers, but sometimes let them have the book if the hardcover is stripped. Prisons also limit the number of books an inmate can have in their cell at any one time, and if there is a search for drugs or illegal contraband, they may take any books above the number allowed. When in doubt, call the prison the inmate will be staying at, and get as much information as possible.

Home delivery, just one more service your hometown bookstore offers...