Dolly Parton's Imagination Library Gifts More Than 2 Million Children's Books Each Month

For a woman who has made a career out of being over-the-top, Dolly Parton certainly isn't flashy when it comes to her philanthropic endeavors—just one more thing to add to our never-ending list of reasons we love her.

Founded in 1995 as a tribute to her father who couldn't read, Parton's Imagination Library has been mailing free books to children for almost a quarter of a century. And we're not talking about a handful of books either. The Imagination Library gave out its one hundred millionth book in 2019. One hundred million books!

"I never thought about being 'the book lady,'" she said of her nickname during a Library of Congress event in 2018. "The painted lady, yes, the over-exaggerated lady. That goes to show you can't judge a book by its cover."

But Dolly didn't slow down there. In fact, she's been quietly ramping things up, mailing more than two million books per month across the U.S., Australia, Britain, Canada, and Ireland. And a quick check of the numbers shows that the number of books gifted increases every single month. In December alone, the Imagination Library shipped 2,226,765 books, bringing the current total up to an eye-popping 197,460,315!

And of all she's accomplished throughout her decades-long career, getting books into the hands of the world's children is what she's proudest of.

"If I'm remembered 100 years from now, I hope it will be not for looks but for books," she once famously said.

Keep up the good work, Dolly!