These are all great suggestions – thanks, everyone! As a reader, I hate to just “throw out” books in ways where they won’t find people to read them – I may end up combining a couple of these strategies.
(And Khadaji – :eek: – that’s so sad!)
Word. My brother works at the Salvation Army and they definitely go to people who want them (my brother, particularly! :)).
When we try to thin the shelves some, we take the box(es) down to the used bookstores, and sell them what we can. Whatever’s left (usually considerable, as we can’t usually sell mass market or trade paperbacks) we take to the local hospital. The rule we have is that we need to end the day with 90% fewer books in the car than we started with (book stores are dangerous places, used ones doubly so, especially when they’ll give quite a bit more in trade than they will in cash), and with the hospital at the end of it, we’ve never had any issues meeting that goal.
My county library no longer take donated books, and also no longer sell them at the branches. When books are removed from circulation, they send them out to a third party vendor, who then sells them.
I used to buy a lot of books off the Sale shelf at the library. No longer. 
I’d second the nursing home idea.
Or Goodwill. As Cyn said, drop them and leave. Otherwise, you’ll end up buying more to replace what you just got rid of. Hard to beat a $1 book!
Heh. Last time I hit the local thrift shop, I found several books for a dime or quarter. True, they were only reading copy quality (the lowest sellable quality), but I was happy with them. They were good enough to read once, and then I donated them back to the thrift shop.
I’d advise making some categories. The books that might actually bring in decent cash would be one pile. Put in recent textbooks, very good copies of classic books, this season’s bestsellers, and any art books. Try to sell these books individually, either at the used book store or online. Then there’s the general pile. This pile gets last year’s bestsellers (bestsellers have a VERY short lifespan), the classic books, especially the ones used in literature classes (a decent copy of The Red Pony would go in here), decent copies of kids’ books. Most used book stores will buy these. Then there’s the give away pile. This pile gets all the battered copies, all of the bestsellers that are older than last year, and the Reader’s Digest Condensed Books. It’s almost impossible to sell these books, so you might as well give them away.
If you have the time and are willing to pack up the books, then try to sell the ones in the first pile online, using eBay or Amazon or Craigslist. Selling them this way will not only require time to list them and pack them up, but they won’t sell immediately. If you don’t have the time and don’t want to bother, then put them in with the second pile.
Second pile: take to the used book store. Get a nice sturdy box, or even a laundry basket, and bring them in that way. Don’t overload it, books are incredibly heavy. Even if you get credit instead of cash, you’ll reduce your number of books if you restrict your buying to only the amount of credit. If the book store rejects some books because they don’t need it, take to next book shop. If the shop rejects the books because of condition, then put them in the third pile.
Third pile. Nobody is going to pay more than a dime or quarter for these, and may not pay anything. Sometimes books land in this pile because of condition, sometimes because they are old but not really classic. However, the books might still be quite enjoyable, if they find the right person. Put these books out at your next garage sale, for a dime each or 15 for a dollar. Give people the choice, they’ll go ahead and pick out up to 15, and you’ll be rid of the books. These books can also go to charity. As I said, I pick up very cheap books at thrift shops, books that I wouldn’t pay three or four bucks for, but that I will buy for a buck or a quarter.
Fourth pile. Not really a pile, but your recycling bin. Books go in here if they have mildew or have been soaked and dried with all the pages stuck together or something similar. Not only can you not sell these books, you can’t even give them away. Most places won’t take mildewed books because they are literally contagious. One mildewed book can spread the mildew to other books.
Something to consider is the reading lists at your local schools. I know that one local high school let a local used book shop know which books would be assigned for lit classes, so that the book shop would buy up used copies. That shop would usually only stock 2-5 copies of a particular book, unless the manager knew that she could sell many more copies.
I don’t have any suggestion for large amounts, but if you have a short handful to get rid of, leave them in the lobby of a hotel with a note inside to read it and leave for someone else when finished…
I often leave them in the lobby of a hospital. My thinking is: someone is bound to be there for an emergency, didn’t bring a book and needs a way to take his/her mind off of the the loved one whose emergency brought them there. I’ve often wondered though if the cleaning staff throws them out or if they get the use I wanted.
You could also try the gift shop of local hospitals. Most of the ones around here have a used bookcart out front, and happily accept donations.
In addition to nursing homes, try a local VA hospital as well.
Many military personnel are looking for books in decent condition that are NOT harlequin romances! Military fiction/nonfction, science fiction, thrillers/mysteries are always popular.
Some services that can connect you with people who would like your books include:
Operation Paperback.org
Booksforsoldiers.com
Anysoldier.com - use search to identify individuals specifically requesting “books.”
You will have to pay shipping yourself but a box containing only books can go media mail, which is much cheaper than first class.
:eek: Recycling a book? That seems wrong to me. Like, lighting a bonfire with them wrong.
Also, one time, many years ago so this may have changed, when running things to a recycling center for the school (good way to get out of class for an hour!:D) they wouldn’t take any books , because of the glue used for the binding. Now, not all books are the same, these were mostly phone books, with a few really outdated text books, but I would still make sure that if you’re dead set on recycling the poor little unwanted books, that they actually are accepted – don’t just assume and throw them in a bin.
I shared a whole bunch of books between Oxfam/Age Concern/Help the Aged.
So long as the stuff you take is in reasonable condition, they’re more than happy to take them off you.
Even if they don’t sell them I guess they offer them up for recycling
Yep. What do you think happens to all those dogeared Danielle Steele novels that end up in the Goodwill donation bin? Or the effectively unsaleable stuff that a used bookstore gets when buying in large lots? Many books are worth less than the trouble it would take to maintain them as part of an inventory. There are tons of books out there that people won’t even pay a dime for and certainly aren’t worth shipping anywhere because nobody wants to read them. Places that accept books would soon be overwhelmed by the sheer volume of worthless books if they didn’t get rid of a lot of them.
You can’t believe how much utter crap people try to unload on thrift shops and used book stores. Fortunately, the thrift shop around the corner from me keeps a little bookshelf on the porch with free books on it. I’ve made some decent finds there. A couple of weeks ago, I was there nosing around, and there was a huge pile of stuff that someone had left there for donation. You know what they “donated?” Last year’s phone book. I couldn’t believe it.
This is why I read a book, then my wife and daughter read it—then off to a friend to give joy to someone else. There are relatively few books I have re-read and thus no reason to keep them. I ‘used’ to keep them but about 5 years ago did a big purge when I realized I hadn’t touched a single one in years once I had completed reading it.
There are a few I have kept, ones that held some sentimental history or something, but there are so many books I want to read out there, that I knew I would never go back and re-read a book I have already read. On another message board I posted a similar tale and I knew I would be in the minority, and I was. Seems most people keep their old books but I honestly don’t get it anymore. I can honestly say there are less then a couple dozen books I have re-read in my life, and usually those were books I read when I was younger and re-read them as an adult since I enjoyed them the first time so much. But that is a rare book to me.
I would much rather the book went out to a good home and someone else could enjoy the story within, then to have it sit on my shelf collecting dust. But to each their own I suppose. But it gives me no comfort to have a house full of books that I have already read, they are just clutter at that point. But by nature I am not a packrat, so that likely explains it.
I used to volunteer at a small charity shop, and they had twenty times the number of books in the basement, waiting to be sorted or brought upstairs, as they had on the floor. Many of them were recycled in the end; so don’t be under the illusion that all books sent to Goodwill will find a good home.
The most useless thing ever is old textbooks. No one will ever buy your old economics textbook from 1988, so if you have one, just recycle it now.
I would do a quick sorting and see if there are any really good books - recent bestsellers or noteworthy books - and try to sell those to a used bookstore. Depending on what else you have, I’d donate a select few to a nursing home or similar, and send the rest on to Goodwill. Interestingly, the store I worked at went through Harlequins faster than anything else, by far. I worked on Fridays and a big part of my job was stuffing the shelves full of “Harlies” for the women who came in every Saturday morning, loaded up a bag, and donated them back a few weeks later.
You can’t worry about them “finding a good home”. If that’s a concern, you’d best just keep them. You have to be unsentimental if you really want to unload these things. Trying to sell them on Craigslist, Ebay or anyplace else is just a hopeless exercise that will end up frustrating you. I tried all of these avenues, including the local library (and I had some great old first edition Alaskana) and had nearly zero success (at least not enough to make it worth the hassle).
The Sallies will give them to inner city libraries or sell them in the thrift store or dontate them elsewhere. Do you REALLY care who they go to once they’re out of your house?
Whatever. Just get them out of the house.
magee rehab takes books…
Oh, and after you get rid of them all, go buy yourself a Kindle. My wife and I both have one and love them to death.
Specifically, no – but between a landfill and a destination where someone might read it, yes, I prefer the latter.
I have one. In fact, I think I’ve had one longer than you – I seem to recall posting in the thread you started when you got one. It will never completely replace actual physical books in my life.
If you simply leave them somewhere to be picked up, or pass them around friends, you could always register them at http://www.bookcrossing.com
We have an OXFAM shop in my town, but they don’t take everything, only books in good condition. (And it’s tempting to go inside and buy new books… sigh)
Lots of churches/charities in my neighborhood have once or twice a year a used/donated book sale. (Though often, the books unsold at the rest of the day are put into the paper recycling container, because packing them all up and storing them is too expensive).
In addition to selling a whole box of 20 or more books on ebay (bookcrossers like to buy these boxes for a few books they want to read, and releasing the rest), you could also ask an enterprising neighbor kid/ housewife/ pensioneer with more spare time to browse through amazon, abebooks, ebay for individual titles and sell those at higher price (that again is the question of “maxmizing profits” vs. “getting rid of them as quickly as possible”.)