Lost & Bound
Used Books

There’s a quiet magic in libraries.

They ask nothing of us except curiosity. They offer everything in return: connection, knowledge, a place to belong. Whether you’re five or ninety-five, libraries have always been there—no receipts, no pressure, no questions asked.

This is a love letter to those stacks of possibility, those corners filled with quiet thunder.

🌍 Libraries Are More Than Just Books

Yes, the books matter. The shelves that stretch like a literary time machine. The scent of paper. The chance to discover a title you didn’t know you needed. But libraries are also:

• Community centers
• Job search hubs
• Cooling stations during heat waves
• After-school sanctuaries
• Internet access points in underserved areas
• Safe havens for curiosity, inclusivity, and free thought

They are one of the last public places where you can exist without the expectation to spend money. And that makes them radical in all the best ways.

🛑 But Libraries Are Under Threat

In recent years, libraries have faced an increasing wave of budget cuts, staff reductions, and even political hostility. Books are being challenged. Librarians are being vilified. Entire branches are at risk—not because they’ve failed, but because they’ve succeeded in offering information and refuge to everyone.

In an executive order last week, the Trump administration mandated the reduction of seven agencies, including one that funds libraries around the country: the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS).

Jennifer Vilcarino, Education Weekly

The executive order gave the agencies seven days to eliminate to the “maximum extent” non-statutory components and functions and to provide a report to the director of the Office of Management and Budget confirming compliance and outlining which aspects of the agency are necessary to keep.

Libraries are becoming battlegrounds in a culture war they never asked to fight. And yet, like always, they remain open to all. Even as they’re forced to fight for their own survival.

🧠 What We Lose When We Lose Libraries

• We lose free access to education and opportunity
• We lose storytime and literacy programs for children
• We lose tech access for those who can’t afford it
• We lose trained experts—librarians—who can help us find the truth in a sea of noise
• We lose safe space for teens, for elders, for marginalized voices

And, maybe most heartbreakingly, we lose our sense of shared ownership in something sacred and civic.

💖 What You Can Do

• Use your local library. Check out books. Show up.
• Thank a librarian. Donate if you can.
• Vote in local elections—library funding is often on the ballot.
• Speak up when book bans and cuts are proposed.
• Read banned books. Recommend them. Celebrate them.

At Lost & Bound, we believe every book deserves a second life. But we also believe in the places that give books their first. Libraries made many of us readers. Writers. Thinkers. Dreamers. They gave us access before we could afford it, and belonging before we knew how to ask for it.

To the libraries still standing: thank you.
To the ones we’ve lost: we remember.
And to the future ones we must fight for: we’re not done yet.

Until next chapter,
Lyndsey, Founder of Lost & Bound