Read It Again Used Bookstore sits at 63 North Street in Monticello, New York, and it operates with a purpose most bookstores do not share: every sale directly funds Literacy Volunteers of Sullivan County, the nonprofit that runs the shop as one of its primary fundraising engines. Rather than existing purely as a retail business, Read It Again is a working extension of a literacy mission, turning donated and secondhand books into the revenue that keeps free adult literacy and English language tutoring available to residents across Sullivan County. Shoppers browsing the shelves are, in effect, underwriting one-on-one tutoring sessions for adults working to improve their reading, writing, and English language skills, which gives the store’s inventory of used paperbacks, hardcovers, and other reading material a purpose beyond simple resale.
The store keeps a distinctive weekly schedule that reflects its community role: it is open Monday, Tuesday, and Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Wednesday and Thursday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., with slightly extended evening hours in the middle of the week, and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. That six-day presence in downtown Monticello makes it a regular stop for area readers looking for affordable titles across genres, and it also gives the organization a steady stream of foot traffic that reinforces its visibility as a literacy resource, not just a place to buy paperbacks. Literacy Volunteers of Sullivan County also welcomes book donations year-round, and the organization maintains a dedicated donations page describing what it accepts, which keeps the shelves regularly refreshed with new secondhand titles from the community itself.
Read It Again is not the only retail arm the organization operates. Literacy Volunteers of Sullivan County also runs a second storefront called Past Perfect, a companion shop reachable by phone for current hours, broadening the range of secondhand goods the nonprofit can offer while keeping the proceeds flowing to the same literacy programs. Together, the two stores function as a kind of quiet economic engine behind the county’s literacy work, allowing a nonprofit with a specific and vital mission, teaching adults to read, write, and speak English more confidently, to fund itself in part through the timeless appeal of a good used bookshop.
For Sullivan County residents, Monticello’s Read It Again offers exactly what a well-stocked used bookstore should: a rotating, affordably priced selection built from community donations, browsable across six days a week in a friendly small-town setting. But the deeper story is what happens with the money once it reaches the register. Every purchase, from a dollar paperback to a stack of hardcovers, helps Literacy Volunteers of Sullivan County keep its tutoring programs free and accessible to adults across the region. In that sense, Read It Again Used Bookstore in Monticello, New York, is best understood as a secondhand bookstore whose entire purpose is funding adult literacy education for the Sullivan County community it serves.
