What to do with old books?

In the UK we have what is called assisted living communities (folds) these are for people with disabilities or for pensioners who whilst they can still live on their own may need the security of being able to call on help at any time should they fall etc. These communities don't have any budget for books and would be extremely grateful.

In addition if any of you have any children's books that your children have outgrown please consider giving them to either the Accident and Emergency department (ER) of your local hospital or the children's wards - again they don't have a specific budget but they're always in need of small toys and books.

extortionist said:

No, no, no, selling books is wrong! Books are to be hoarded eternally, passed on to friends or family only when absolutely necessary!

Click to expand...

You can have my books when you pry them from my cold dead fingers.
And since my hubby won't let me get any more bookcases (he claims we have no place to put them), he just has to live with the stacks I have all over the house.

MM

I had the same problem with bookcases but now have masses of shelving put up in the roofspace - if your roofspace is floored and dry - it's perfect and amazing how many books you can find a home for.

A few years ago, I gave thousands of old books to the local SPCA for its wildly popular book sales. Time to do it again. Also, local libraries often have book sales run by "friends of the library" groups. Salvation Army and Goodwill take books and sell them in their stores. Keep careful records and the donations are tax-deductible (but you have to have a reasonable basis for the amount claimed and must include a figure for what you paid for them).

I have also traded some in at a used book store, for store credit, but that is not entirely helpful, as I have to buy more books to cash in the credit, and then only on a limited basis.

--Ken

Every time I go through my collection (every single time) I find doubles, multiples and various editions of the same book. With anything I have bought more than once, I send them off to the local charity shop - a little independant pet charity.

The last clean-out yielded twelve copies of the Twilight Zone film novelization!

Book Donation Sites

Hi,

Local schools can often use them and libraries will put them up for sale, but you should probably ask first. Some don't want them and just end up throwing them out.

On my website, I have a page that provides names, links, and descriptions of worthy places to donate. Victoria Strauss recommended "Reader to Reader" to me when I was checking out the organizations, and I gave it my highest recommendation. But you can find a lot here and they are all good.

Also, the American Association of University Women has had huge yearly book sales for many years, just as Goodwill used to have, in the middle of malls. I barely see a mention of it on their website, and the last one I was at was about two years ago, but I've seen a donation barrel at Harry's (now Whole Foods) in Alpharetta, GA. I would have thought the website would have more on these book sales and how to donate books.

Places like the Ronald McDonald House are generally starving for books. Even if there's not one in your area, check with the local hospital -- there's usually a small non-profit house for loved ones to stay in.

Prisons are definitely appreciative of books---the bookstore I used to work at donated our strips to the local prison. That's actually against the law since we were supposed to destroy them, but we all loved books and couldn't bear to think of them being pulped. Of course, that meant that when we overbought in certain genres, the inmates got a lot of Danielle Steele and pirate romances!

Homeless shelters take them, too, sometimes. The big homeless outreach group in Sac called Loaves & Fishes has a school for homeless kids, The Mustard Seed School, and if they are age-appropriate they love to get books.

Spinetinglers said:

I had the same problem with bookcases but now have masses of shelving put up in the roofspace - if your roofspace is floored and dry - it's perfect and amazing how many books you can find a home for.

Click to expand...

We tried that, putting books up in a dry, ventilated attic. But we used cardboard boxes and unfortunately forgot about them. A few years later, we either had bookworms or termites that ate at the pages. Little holes everywhere.

Another time we just laid the books on the floor of a very dry second floor closet. Same thing. We threw out hundreds of wonderful books.

Maybe putting the books in plastic bins first would have helped a lot.

Now I have bookcases in the living room, family room, upstairs hallway, bedrooms.... Places where I can see them and dust them every week.