Getting rid of books - how, where and tips

[Opti]

I'm still in the long process of trying to downsize my stuff so it fits where I am. I've
had to use 2 bookcases(5 shelves) for pantry and food containers so I still have a couple
boxes yet to unpack because there is nowhere to put them. And I still need more non book space.

How do you get rid of your books? My biggest issue is hardcovers which still seem useful
but not for me. Any tips or suggestions? While I'm struggling culling my paperback collection
at least I have a good place to bring them. I missed the library book sale gathering part. I'm really tempted to accidently put books in the stacks this week when no one is looking.

[Deleted]

box by the side of the road.

[happyhoix]

Talk to the library, ours has a closet where they stack their donated books until it's time for the sale.

In our area, we have a company called McCays that buys back books, DVD's, CD's, computer games, etc. You don't get money, but you get store script so you can buy something you want. You might want to google search your home town and see if you have a similar place there. You don't get much return, unless you're selling popular novels (college textbooks are nearly worthless) but it's better than sending them to the recycling center.

[swamp]

I donate them to the library

[michelyn8]

When I was packing to move last month, I finally went through my books and sorted out what I really wanted to keep from what I knew I'd never read again.  I gave the box of never read again's to my daughter to take to Goodwill since its just a block or two from where she lives.  They sell hardbacks for $3 and paperbacks for $1 so at least there is a chance they'd make some money off what I had and I figured it was better than tossing them in the trash. 

Of course, my bookworm daughter said she was going to look through the box first to see if she wanted any of them so I don't think Goodwill has received the box just yet. 

[Deleted]

You can definitely donate them . . . to the library or the thrift store.

[Opti]

The library only takes books on rare occasions. They actually rented a Pod for the book sale which starts tomorrow. I am tempted to leave a paperbag of books by the Pod tonight after the library closes. I'm thinking they'll probably use them instead of throwing them out. I hope so anyway.



There's is one of those McCays type places butyou are right it is a credit arrangement. Its not close by so its not my top choice but I have been thinking about it.

[swamp]

May 14, 2013 7:58:18 GMT -5 Opti said:

The library only takes books on rare occasions. They actually rented a Pod for the book sale which starts tomorrow. I am tempted to leave a paperbag of books by the Pod tonight after the library closes. I'm thinking they'll probably use them instead of throwing them out. I hope so anyway.



There's is one of those McCays type places butyou are right it is a credit arrangement. Its not close by so its not my top choice but I have been thinking about it.

call a different library.

[Deleted]

Oh, my libraries take anything but text books all the time. 

My process is 
paperback swap ( if its in high demand)
Free Box at Group events
Donate to liblibrary you could try thrift store. 

Or list titles here. Maybe we could have our own swap thread!

[vonna]

Our Senior Center has a library and is happy to receive donations, especially hard back books. Maybe you could try yours?

[doxieluvr]

I stopped buying books about five years ago. I borrow them from the library, friends or download them to my e-reader. This saves a lot of hassle.

[Opti]

Doxie, I think I've bought perhaps 3 books in 5 years and not much more than that in the 5 years prior. My issue is the books I have need to occupy much less space than they did in 2007. So ... I need to get rid of enough until what I have left fits.



It is possible however I have left too much empty bookshelve space for where I put my library books. The library is the place I get 95% of my books. The rest are ones I request from friends after they are done with them.



If folks have suggestions on how to drop emotional attachments to novels or other books you really don't need to keep that would be helpful as well. I think some I keep because they are gifts. Some because they might be a good reference, i.e. Bordeaux by Robert M. Parker Jr.,
because the wine region maps won't change.  And a few because I think they remind me of certain times of my life.

[swamp]

If folks have suggestions on how to drop emotional attachments to novels or other books you really don't need to keep that would be helpful as well.

<br><br>It's just stuff. 

[Wisconsin Beth]

I've weeded my book collection every time I've moved.  What I'm left with is pretty much the core collection that I'm keeping.  I love my Kindle but still prefer paper books.  Maybe I'm just old...

Anyway, my Mom's purging paperbacks.  Her water aerobics group has a small shelf in the locker room where they can leave or take a book.  Our church does something similar.  Maybe reach out to shelters, retirement communities or try to find one of those small library things? 

I'm not sure if this is the organization I read about in the paper sometimes last year or not.  www.littlefreelibrary.org/little-free-libraries-for-small-towns.html but it's along those lines. 

[NomoreDramaQ1015]

I've donated to local hospital chains before.  They have little libraries for patients and their families, I've sent a ton of books to them over the years thru their book drive.

Then I donated a very large collection of YA/Star Wars paperbacks to the pediatrician's office here on campus.  They were doing a youth book drive so I asked if they wanted them.  Not the books they were looking for but the adolescent pediatrican said she'd love to have them, she gives them out to her patients.

Our library will take books as well. Friends of the Library sells them to raise funds.

Or you could just take them to Goodwill.

[kittensaver]

Like others I also, 1) don't save paperbacks, and 2) have a "core" collection of hardback/bound books that are sentimental and collectable. Have you thought about ways to keep them and love them by incorporating them into your decor? Run a row of them across your mantel (stack a bunch on their sides on the ends as bookends); stack a few (or several) on a coffee table or other surface as a base for something you want to display; stack a bunch on the floor next to your couch and put a small tabletop on it; mix them in with your china or knick-knacks or whatnots in display cases or an entertainment unit; stack them in baskets; look for bookcases that can be made to look "built-in" to your living space, rather than just shoved against a wall somewhere. I agree that some books are meant to be kept.  

[Gardening Grandma]

1. I list them on half.com and Amazon
2. If they dont sell in a reasonable time, I donate them to the  library

[The Walk of the Penguin Mich]

I'm going to be taking a huge load of paperbacks to the library next month when I start clearing out my apartment.  I told my boss to tell his wife to help herself to anything on the shelves that she wants to read because they're going to be donated.

The local Goodwill apparently accepts paperback books as well.  I went there and bought a bunch to read on the beach in Mexico.  Those books, I left on the book exchange at the bar in the resort.  The resort was very deficient in English books, skewed to mostly German.

[quince]

I donated mine to the local library- they do a semi-annual book sale.  

[tcu2003]

Do you have a Half Price Books near you? They'll buy books from you and give you cash.

[Deleted]

If I buy a new hardcover, I usually will turn around and sell it on Amazon right away. You can usually get back about 75% of the cost if you sell it quickly.  And if you want the book again, you can probably buy it back again (off Amazon) for like $1.00 after 6 months.

[happyscooter]

If there are pictures in them, donate them to the schools for art projects.  Lonewolf, we had to throw some encyclopedias in the landfill since they were old and no one wanted them.  We had already taken 2 big stacks to the high school, middle school and elementary school to use for art classes.  What bothered me the most was I knew how much my parents/my in-laws had paid for them.  And how hard they worked back in the 50s and 60s to make payments on the sets. 

[michelyn8]

May 14, 2013 9:07:11 GMT -5 kittensaver said:

Like others I also, 1) don't save paperbacks, and 2) have a "core" collection of hardback/bound books that are sentimental and collectable. Have you thought about ways to keep them and love them by incorporating them into your decor? Run a row of them across your mantel (stack a bunch on their sides on the ends as bookends); stack a few (or several) on a coffee table or other surface as a base for something you want to display; stack a bunch on the floor next to your couch and put a small tabletop on it; mix them in with your china or knick-knacks or whatnots in display cases or an entertainment unit; stack them in baskets; look for bookcases that can be made to look "built-in" to your living space, rather than just shoved against a wall somewhere. I agree that some books are meant to be kept.  

In my living room is the bookcase/cabinet my great-uncle built long before I was born.  The bottom has doors for storage.  The top is basically 3 shelves split into sections.  I use one for the bowl/pitcher that was on my grandparents coffee table for as far back as I can remember until Papa passed away in 1999.  The section next to that is for some books that belonged to my Dad and one or two that are from his "era" that I want to keep.  I have a picture frame with photos of my parents as children on that same shelf.  The two sections below it house my Nancy Drew's.  The rest of the shelves are a mixture of paperback and hardback books, photos, and knick knacks but all of the books have some sentimental value to me be it that they were gifts, remind me of the time in my life I read them or just have meaning to me. 

When I got this bookcase it was one the best things that could have happened to me because it forced me to really think about what books were important enough to me to display on it and what books I could care less about.  And then when I moved this last time, I gave DD1 my old bookcase that the leftovers had been stored on and I had to do the same exercise again knowing that the remainder would be packed away and probably not displayed anywhere in my home for several years to come if ever again.