That’s my vote. Hospital is what first came to my mind.
The Paperback Exchange I used to visit had an entire wall devoted to serial romances, mostly Harlequins. They exchanged at a different rate from other books IIRC, but they were certainly there. If there’s an Exchange or Book Swap or similar establishment in your neck of the woods, give them a call. If not, donate.
My favorite place! (I spend too much money there.) I was actually thinking of Recycle as a place that wouldn’t touch them.
This is a high class used bookstore, but there are plenty of others which have a target demographic that loves these things. But giving them to a senior citizens center would be nice.
You never can tell. I wandered into a place in South Lake Tahoe which had a zillion Perry Rhodans for 20 cents each. I was glad to get ones I didn’t have, and she was thrilled to get rid of them.
Bookstore owner chiming in here…
Many (most?) used bookstores either won’t touch them or will give miniscule credit in return. I have deals with our local libraries to take what’s left after their book sales and give them donations in return. I’ve accumulated a lot of serial (Harlequin, Silhouette…) romances. The senior centers won’t take them. The hospital won’t take them. Goodwill turned them down. They went unsold on eBay (I started the auction at $0.01 for 20 books with $4.00 shipping). I don’t know what to recommend.
You realize, of course, that you were breaking the law; basically stealing books from the publisher and giving them away? It may have given you a warm Robin-Hoody feeling, but you shouldn’t be promoting illegal activity on the boards here.
Hmmm, a bunch of rectangular objects of approximately the same size? I’m thinking either outsider art sculpture, build a house out of them (you’d need more of course, but there’s no shortage, right?) or use them as insulation.
Hey, stick a couple hundred inside the walls and who knows, a century from now some collector might think it’s a jackpot!
Not really a General Questions.
Moved to IMHO.
** samclem**
Go on ebay and offer to trade them for a house.
Meh. They were going to be thrown out. SCOTUS has ruled that trash is public property, hasn’t it? Thus, we just took them from the trash. However, although the bookstore may have been violating the terms of it’s contract- what crime was I breaking?
Back in '73 I donated about a thousand to our public library (Lomita, CA). They were thrilled to have them for their honor shelves. The honor shelves are for paperbacks that aren’t worth the cost of entering into the system. They just note how many you took and you bring back the same number.
And, no, I did not buy a thousand harlequins. My grandmother had four or five people that she was keeping stocked with every single title that came out. She kept notebooks on who had which. My dad put his foot down at a thousand. After that it was book in = book out. So when I left for college, I already knew the library would take them.
Let some kids use them for paper airplains.
Dang.
Might I inquire as to why your grandmother was in the business of playing Harlequin-crack-dealer to five persons?
That’s just weird.
Many years ago (many years ago), I briefly considered submitting to Harlequin, so I got a list of their restrictions and requirements. For the regular Harlequin books (the “baby” Harlequins–I can’t recall what they’re called), there will be NO pulsating manhoods. If I correctly recall, the characters couldn’t even have sex…
I vote for donating the books to a nursing home or someplace.
They were appreciably naughty when I was, like, 15. 
He’s not promoting illegal activity. He noted what he used to do until he was told that he could no longer do it.
Or in other words, lighten up, Francis.
Years ago, I remember seeing an interview with an author who had started out in Harlequins and later made the jump to independant novels. She said when she wrote for Harlequin (IIRC, it was during the late sixties and early seventies), the female character had to be a virgin. She said the rule irked her so much that she would find ways of leaving it ambiguous.
I agree with the suggestions about donations. Add up the total of the cover prices, divide by 2 and get a receipt from the organization for that amount. Write it off your taxes next year.
Your original posting made it sound like you were donating them as a representative of the bookstore, in which case you were breaking the law on their behalf. If, on the other hand, you said, “Lookey here, a bunch of novels with stripped covers in the trash can–let’s snag 'em,” then you were doing nothing wrong.
Francis? In a thread about what to do with romance novels, it sounded like he was recommending that others do what he did. Rereading it, however, you can’t strip & return old used books anyway, so I probably jumped that one a bit hard.
I wouldn’t feel right about “half of cover price”.
For instance, in my last Harlequin adventure, I wound up getting about 25 titles for… $1.00 USD. Heck, at these prices, I’m wondering if I shouldn’t use these things for firewood.
Based on these prices:
http://www.jwiwood.com/cgi-bin/prices.html
I’m thinking that my cost is in line with Douglas fir firewood, when considered by the square foot.
You can swap your trash for good books. If you don’t want any more books, just mail yours out and send me your credits. 
I’m considering that. I noticed some people CAN sell lots of Harlequin novels on Ebay… and some people can’t. Not sure what that’s about.