SHAVERTOWN, Pa. — Matthew Koch has quite the book collection inside his home in Shavertown. He has everything from classic works to vintage editions and just about everything in between.
"Variations of books that you really can't find anymore, they're sort of lost to time, so just anything old that you can go and find, it's almost like digging up an old treasure," says Koch.
In recent years, with two young kids, his love for reading expands far beyond the pages and into the next generation.
"My wife usually reads a couple of books to them before bed, I try to read to them, too. My performances are usually a little more theatrical. One of my favorite books to read is Horton Hears a Who," he laughs.
With all that reading in the Koch Home- the novels are really stacking up. He says when it all adds up, it's well over 10,000 books in his collection.
"Some of them I'll sell off, some of them I'll keep, sometimes I'll donate, give to people. I give them as gifts a lot of the time," he said.
As the collection continues to grow larger, it expands, this time out of their home and into the community.
Together with their two kids, the Koch family clears out their own bookshelves to stock the little libraries around the Back Mountain.
This labor of love started after Koch noticed a lack of books on the shelves throughout the community.
"A lot of the extra books I have, especially as the kids grow out of their books, we're taking those books to the little free libraries, especially the ones close to schools," Koch said.
Part of his mission is to help bridge the reading gap kids face throughout the summer. It's estimated kids will lose months of information without reading during break.
"We remember growing up that we had the summer reading lists, that's not as popular as it was back then," he added. "So kids are kind of on their own to figure out what they want to read."
With his donations from his collection now shared throughout Dallas, he knows these stories will stick with them even after the final chapter.
And a lesson for his own two kids- that helping others isn't just for heroes in a story.
"A love of storytelling has really dominated my life, and I hope that's something I can pass on to my kids one day," he said.
Koch hopes to take his passion and eventually open a book store in the Back Mountain.
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