If so, how about donating them to our troops around the world? Operation Paperback will give you the address of a unit that is either deployed or in a remote duty station so that you can mail them your books. The link above explains everything.
I can tell you that your books will be much appreciated. Thanks in advance to all who participate. 
(BTW, this message has been okayed by Tuba Diva and the boys upstairs. Thanks for giving me the opportunity to get the word out!)
…and you want to save yourself some postage, you might want to contact their Public Affairs office. They might have a system already in place to send donated reading material to our deployed troops. If not, I’m sure they’d see the beneficial PR of such a program, and might organize dropoff points for your used reading material.
~~Baloo
I never knew that; what a great idea! I have some books I will probably not read again and I would like to do more than just give them to the DI… thanks for the info, tater!
That is so cool! Thanks, tater! I’ve got approximately one kajillion books that I could send!
Hey, I’ve done this! Through this very organization! It’s a great cause.
And I encourage folks to take the trouble to send the books themselves, instead of looking for another organization to do it. OP (operation Paperback) has a good list and they rotate who gets what shipment so it’s evenly spread. You can send them Book Rate and it’s DIRT CHEAP. If you have books that seem more, how shall we say, chick-oriented? Like Danielle Steele type stuff? They can suggest which units would be the best recipients given their staff.
This organization is also hooked up with some other military-support efforts. I’m getting a box of school supplies ready to ship to Kosovo–some platoons there have “adopted” some schools which are critically short on school supplies.
This is a question for CrankyAsAnOldMan. Where do those school supplies go? Do you have a link for that? I like that even better than the paperback idea, although both are great.
Baker, if it’s the same place I’ve donated to, they send the supplies to refugee camp schools. If Cranky doesn’t have a contact, I’ll see what I can dig up (I gave through the Chapel last time). It’s a great cause, the kids really benefit from having the stability of school when everything else in their life is a mess, it’s important for them emotionally, to say nothing of the educational value.
Baloo, you can go through the post’s PAO office, but they might not be conducting any book drives unless they have a unit that is currently deployed. In any case, postage isn’t that much as you can send the books by book rate. I think the site said that you can send 50-60 paperbacks for just 7-10 dollars.
If you go to the S.O.S link on the Operation Paperback website, you can find out how to write to a soldier. You can even submit your letter electronically and not have to worry about finding a stamp and envelope. Some of these guys and gals don’t get any mail, so it means a lot to them. If you’ve got a spare couple of minutes, this might be a good way to use them.
Just an idea, but is anybody interested in sponsering a soldier or unit with me? We could each make a batch of cookies and buy a few things on their wanted lists…I’m thinking we could do a Halloween thing. Please e-mail me and let me know, I don’t want to clog up the boards with this, and I’m already taking advantage of the Chicago Reader’s generosity in letting me solicit for donations. Hey…maybe I could get them to send some free newspapers. 
Tatertot must be my twin… after thinking about it given this conversation, I just signed up for a soldier myself! I did it through adoptaplatoon.org.
Anyway, http://www.adoptaplatoon.org is where you can get info about the school adoption thing. There are three people (two at Camp Bondsteel, one at Camp Montfort, both camps in Kosovo) who are accepting shipments of school supplies, etc for the kiddoes. They don’t say specifically which schools, but they do have a photo of some soldiers at a school they’ve adopted. Addresses are right there.
Also, earlier this summer some soldiers stationed in East Timor put in a request for clothes and toys for the locals who had nothing. Those requests seem to filter through the other support efforts (like OP and AdoptAPlatoon) so if you’re interested in one-time efforts like that, just keep checking back.
I’ve also visited the SOS site but I find it’s harder to negotiate. I like the AdoptAPlatoon site better – and no, you don’t have to adopt an entire platoon, just a soldier! . It’s been a while since I have been to the SOS site, but I know they also had many links there, and ideas of what you could send. For example, I sent a huge bunch of blank greeting cards for distribution–to make it easier for them to be in touch with folks back home.
AdoptAPlatoon sent me a “soldier” of my own last night–the address! The address I mean! But tatertot, I’d gladly join in if any Dopers want to adopt an entire platoon. Last year a girlfriend was sent to Saudi Arabia and a bunch of us made an effort to keep the mail flowing (she had to leave a 7-month baby back home). It was fun putting together care packages.
Cranky, let’s do it! If you (meaning all of you) are interested, e-mail me, and I’ll put together a mailing list. Like I said Halloween is coming up and it might be fun to do theme care packages. Thanks for the links, I’m going to check them out right now.
(And talk about twins, I’ve got a box of greeting cards ready to go!)