Like the hand-lettered sign says, all books are free at a basement book exchange in Charles Village that is open every weekend. And if you take away fewer than 10, the proprietor says, you're not caught up in the give-and-take spirit of The Book Thing of Baltimore Inc.
Browsers wandering into the chock-full basement are told up front that there is no limit to the number of free books - all they have to do when they leave is sign their names, write down how many they've taken, and get their books stamped: "This is a free book. Not for resale."
"I got something and I don't need it. If you need it, hey, it ain't no skin off my back," Russell Wattenberg said yesterday, explaining the essence of the free trade. "People give me books they don't want, I give them away to people. The value added is the collection in a public place, sorted and shelved, however loosely. I love what I do, give away books for a living."
Six weeks shy of his 30th birthday, Brooklyn-born Wattenberg has mastered the art of hawking thousands of free books - sometimes on street corners, often driving his big blue van to do drop-offs at schools and prisons - and a folk philosophy to go with it. "I heard there was a need," he said, speaking of his bartender days when he listened to teachers who spoke of having not enough books for their classes. "I filled the need."
It's easy to get lost in the worlds of this subterranean reading paradise, on the southeast corner of North Charles and 27th streets.
Laura Locker, 27, a graduate student in political science at the Johns Hopkins University, found a tract about democracy and an old recipe booklet titled "44 Wonderful Ways to use Philadelphia Brand Cream Cheese." She said it was appropriate: "I have a kitchen from 1942."
Benjamin and Gloria Garrett, a musician and a storyteller, live nearby and never miss a weekend walk to The Book Thing. She chooses from the romance section, which is well-stocked. "I know more than any male should know about romance novels," Wattenberg quipped as he sipped a soda.
As he exchanged hellos and goodbyes from an outdoor perch, he paused to recommend a Metropolitan Museum of Art book published years ago as "incredibly good quality."
If art history books aren't your cup of tea, there are Webster's dictionaries such as those taken by travelers from Brazil and Spain yesterday, and a weighty collection of Alexander Dumas classics in hardback.
"I'm looking for James Joyce, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. I know it must be here," said Damian Kennedy, 23, a Catonsville graphics designer, as he pored over the paperbacks.
The Book Thing has operated on a shoestring for several years, yet manages to give away about 20,000 hardback and paperback books a week, Wattenberg said. The nonprofit enterprise circulates books donated by community members, city and county residents, universities, authors, publishers and the Smithsonian Institution, among others.
At any one time, more than 200,000 volumes are in the basement, which he rents for $220 a month in the bookish university neighborhood.
Although Wattenberg has made ends meet - "I have a bed, a desk, three chairs and 27 bookcases" - his labor of love, which has garnered national media attention, is facing a financial crunch in the softened economy.
"I need to get some funding," he said. A fellowship from the Open Society Institute that paid him a salary for 18 months recently ended, he said, as did other foundation grants.
Devotees showed up yesterday for business as usual. "I don't particularly understand the economics of it," said Marcia Kargon, a grandmother leafing through "vintage [Dr. Spock]: books on baby and child care."
Mark Miazga, 24, an English teacher at City College, picked up journalist Russell Baker's Baltimore-laced memoir, Growing Up, and said, "He went to the high school where I teach."
Of The Book Thing, Miazga said, "I moved from Michigan a year ago and this is my favorite thing in Baltimore."
Newcomers included the Tart family from Laurel, who described the trip as worthwhile. Lauren, 11, found drama and musical books, including the script for Fiddler on the Roof.
Asked which books he would consider good company on a desert island, Wattenberg, a graduate of Ithaca College, said E.B. White, John Steinbeck, Dr. Seuss and Isaac Asimov are among his favorite authors.
There is only one kind of book he will not gladly welcome into his space: "The one thing that gets on my nerves is books with mold," The Book Thing founder said.