In 1990, Earl Kaplan launched Books Are Fun with a singular goal: Teachers deserved great books at prices they could actually afford. It was kind of a wild idea. Discounting books wasn’t the norm. But he did it anyway, and Books Are Fun was born. Nearly a decade later, we had helped over 65,000 schools and 18,000 workplaces.

More than $750 million was given back to education and healthcare from our book fairs.

Books Are Fun joined Readers’ Digest for a few years before making its way home in 2008, when Earl’s sons, Ben and Steve, bought it back. Then came our next big chapter: Book Blast. Launched in 2021, it rallies communities around common reading challenges like helping kids grow their home libraries. Putting millions of books into kids’ homes, Earl’s original vision has only gotten bigger with time.

So, what happens next? You’ll have to keep reading to find out. After all, some of our best chapters are still ahead.