Okay, since I announced the relaunch of the Books For Troops program two weeks ago, we’ve had a bunch of servicemen and servicewomen sign up. If you are one of them, your first shipment of books will be on its way to you before the end of the month. We hope that you and your fellow service-members enjoy them.
Below are the full details for both service-members interested in signing up and civilians interested in donating books.
WHAT IT IS:
Books For Troops is a program that supplies books free of charge to the men and women serving in the United States military in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere around the world. The program has been honored by many, including the 509th Logistics Fuels Flight Squadron based at Whiteman A.F.B. in Missouri. It went on hiatus while my wife and I had a baby. Now it is back.
HOW IT WORKS:
If you are currently serving in the Armed Forces, and would either like free books to read, or would like free books to distribute to your fellow servicemen and women, send an email to briankeene at live.com. Please put ‘Books For Troops’ in the subject line. In the body of the email, include your rank, first and last name, and a valid military address (APO, FPO, etc.).
Please Note: You must have a valid military address to qualify. No civilian addresses will be accepted without prior approval. We apologize for that, but it is the only way to screen out fraudulent applications from non-service members.
After that, you will receive a shipment of free books approximately every two months. There is absolutely no charge for this. You do not need to return the books. All we ask is that you enjoy them, and pass them on to fellow service-members when you are done, or donate them to your base or ship library.
HOW NON-MILITARY PERSONNEL CAN HELP:
If you are an author or publisher that would like to donate books to the program, please send them to Books For Troops, c/o Brian Keene PO Box 281, Craley, PA 17312. We ask that books be in good condition. Please do not send books with missing or yellowed pages, stripped covers, photocopies, etc. Any subject is acceptable, but we especially encourage genre fiction (horror, fantasy, science-fiction, western, historical, crime, mystery, thriller, romance, and men’s adventure). We will also accept donations of stamps to help out with shipping costs.
Books For Troops is not a charitable organization (it is run by a lone author and his overworked assistant). Because we are not a charitable organization, your donation should not be considered tax deductible. Also because of this, we cannot accept cash donations, checks, or money orders.
Please email briankeene at live.com with any questions.
Expect some stamps from me, sir!
So excited to help with this!
That’s great news! I’m not deployed right now, but when I was in Afghanistan, being able to “escape” for a while with a book went a long way toward keeping me from going completely bugfuck. I’m sure you’ve gotten tons of traffic thanking you for your efforts…add my name to the list.
–CW2 William D. “Dev” Jarrett III
Dev, thanks for your service. And if you’ve still got people over there who you think would benefit, please have them email us (or you can email us their addresses, as well).
Brian,
I have some 25 audio books, (CDs) that I would like to donate, do I send them to you?