It’s a useful relationship. Readers who want to make room on their bookshelves for new titles can drop their books off here. Readers in search of new titles can shop the collection of 50-cent and dollar books. All the money from the sales isn’t pocketed by the owners of this on-the-fly bookstore. It’s given away. For the cost of a little space in a downtown store, local charities are supported one month at a time by the Charity Book Store.

“We have a lot of people from different charities come in and ask us to donate,” said Jayne Meisell, co-owner of Little Shoppes of Washington. “As a small business, we can’t afford to donate to everyone all the time, but now, when they come in, we can say,  ‘We can’t donate right now, but here’s what we do.’”

What Meisell and the store’s other owner, Rebecca Clark, along with South Market Antiques owner Pat Lewis, do is put those charities on a list and, once a month, write a check to the next recipient in line.

“We’ve had a different charity every month and we alternate between animal charities and people charities,” Meisell explaned. “These are smaller charities, charities maybe people haven’t heard of, but they’re worthy nonetheless.”

An example is the Saturday Jamboree, a social gathering for developmentally disabled adults. A recent $300 donation from the Charity Book Store covered the entire cost of pizza for the event.

It started small enough: the three compiled a sellable inventory from their own collections. Over the past year, the bookstore has grown.

“It’s pretty tight — we’re actually in desperate need of some bookshelves,” Meisell laughed.

Lewis estimates that they’ve sold over 1,500 books since April and have amassed a group of readers who regularly check their stacks for new finds. The stacks’ neatness can be directly attributed to the work of retired librarian Pam Warren who donates her organizational services twice a week.

“Without her, I don’t know what we would do,” Meisell said. “People come in with boxes (of books to donate) and we don’t really have time to deal with them.”

Clark’s idea has paid off for local charities — every month a $250-$300 check is written for the charity of the month.

“I think people feel good that they’re able to give to this, as much as we are happy to give to the recipients,” Meisell said. “It’s such a nice way of doing it and is doesn’t cost us a thing.”