Book Lover, Earth Hugger

By Ashly Moore Sheldon • April 16, 2026

How will you celebrate Earth Day this year? How about by greening up your reading practices? Here at ThriftBooks, we do our part to help the planet by giving books a second life. Our high sales volume ensures more books reach new readers, not landfills. You can do your part by shopping for used books on ThriftBooks.

For Earth Day this year, we are, once again, offering Earth Day Badges. All you have to do to earn an Earth Day Badge is shop used books (no minimum number). Those who earned an Earth Day Badge last year can earn a streak this year! Badges will be sent via email by the end of the month. You must be subscribed to ThriftBooks marketing emails in order to receive your badge.

Another way to help is to upcycle your old books by selling them back to us via our BuyBack program. Read on to learn more.

Book Love = Planet Love

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Ever noticed the Sell Your Books link at the top of the ThriftBooks site or app? Give your used books new life by selling them to us so that new readers can enjoy them. The process is easier than ever! You can even scan bar codes with your phone using our ThriftBooks App. Here’s what you need to know:

• ThriftBooks does not take back every book. You will see immediately if it’s one we’re willing to buy from you when you scan the barcode or enter the ISBN.
• Books did not have to be purchased from us. You can check any book with an ISBN no matter where you got it.
• We pay for shipping! After you figure out which books we can take, print the free shipping label, box up your books, and send them off to find new readers.

Here are some of the ways our BuyBack program is doing good:

• 6 million books donated worldwide
• 1 billion books saved from landfills
• 10 million books sold to raise library funds
• 16 thousand acres of forest saved via recycling

Our Earth Day reading list

For your Earth Day reading enjoyment, we’ve rounded up a selection of galvanizing reads, including climate-fiction, nonfiction, and kidlit. Hopefully there’s something here that will inspire you to take action to help preserve our amazing planet.

Cli-fi

• Migrations by Charlotte McConaghy—Epic and intimate, heartbreaking and galvanizing, this is the story of a singular woman’s epic journey following the Earth’s last Arctic terns as they migrate to Antarctica.
• The Overstory by Richard Powers—This Pulitzer Prize-winning novel unfolds in concentric rings of interlocking tales from antebellum New York to the late twentieth-century Timber Wars of the Pacific Northwest and beyond.
• Site Fidelity: Stories by Claire Boyles—This collection follows a cast of unforgettable characters as they work to protect the modern American West from the effects of economic inequity and climate catastrophe.
• The Light Pirate by Lily Brooks-Dalton—Set in the near future, this hopeful story of survival and resilience follows Wanda, a luminous child born out of a devastating hurricane, as she navigates a rapidly changing world.
• How Beautiful We Were by Imbolo Mbue—A fearless young woman from a small African village starts a revolution against an American oil company in this sweeping, inspiring novel.

Nonfiction

• We Are the Middle of Forever: Indigenous Voices from Turtle Island on the Changing Earth by Dahr Jamail and Stan Rushworth—A powerful, intimate collection of conversations with Indigenous Americans on the climate crisis and the Earth’s future.
• When the Forest Breathes by Suzanne Simard—The scientist who pioneered the concept of sophisticated communication between trees now offers a powerful vision for saving our forests, based on nature’s deep-rooted cycles of renewal.
• The Ends of the World by Peter Brannen—An award-winning science journalist takes us on a wild ride through the planet’s five mass extinctions and, in the process, offers us a glimpse of our increasingly dangerous future.
• Something in the Woods Loves You by Jarod K. Anderson—When his life took him to a painfully dark place, the poet behind The CryptoNaturalist found comfort and redemption in the natural world. This is his memoir.
• The Serviceberry by Robin Wall Kimmerer—From the bestselling author of Braiding Sweetgrass, a bold and inspiring vision for how to orient our lives around gratitude, reciprocity, and community, based on the lessons of the natural world.

Kids corner

• Big Bear Hug by Nicholas Oldland (Ages 3–7)—A benevolent bear wanders through the forest hugging everything in sight when he comes across a sight that stops him in his tracks.
• Compost Stew: An A to Z Recipe for the Earth by Mary McKenna Siddals (Ages 3–7)—Learn to compost and develop life-long habits to protect the Earth. From apple cores to zinnia heads, discover the best ingredients for a successful compost pile.
• Along the Tapajós by Fernando Vilela; translated by Daniel Hahn (Ages 5–8)—Join brother and sister Cau and Ina as they take a journey along the Tapajós River in Brazil to save their pet tortoise, Titi.
• Pando: A Living Wonder of Trees by Kate Allen Fox; illustrated by Turine Viet-Tu Tran (Ages 5–8)—An inspiring tribute to a grove of quaking Aspen trees connected by their roots to form one of the world’s oldest and largest living things.
• One Well: The Story of Water on Earth by Rochelle Strauss (Ages 8–12)—Seen from space, our planet looks blue. This is because almost 70 percent of Earth’s surface is covered with water. And water has the power to change everything.

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