I know Celestina I was teasing 
Yes I had stacks of books in every room now they all sit in boxes waiting to go to a new home
Once again thanks everyone for your advice so far.
I just like to say thanks to FisherQueen for mentioning bookcrossings.com. What a great site! Everyone should register.
Well, first of all I’d look through your books and see if there are any rare books. I recently went to a used bookstore and found a copy of Robert Anton Wilson’s “Nature’s God”. This is a very hard book to find. It was only released in cheap paperback, but it’s the rarest book I’ve ever looked for. The bookstore sold it to me for 25 cents. I would’ve paid upwards of twenty dollars, maybe more.
Of course, I really have no idea of telling you how you’ll find out which books are worth bank and which are worth none.
The library idea. I work for a library. You should see the tonnage we get donated to us, most of it sheer crap. I view it as a service to the public now. We get rid of boxes of their crap, and they not only have to pay a dump to get rid of it, they get tax breaks. Not to mention they feel better for having donated. Most of these get thrown straight into the trash. (Of course, you should see how many people think old National Geographics and Reader’s Digest condensed books are valuable donations.)
Really, hardcovers will always sell well. Especially when they are at Friends of the Library prices of a dollar a book. But paperbacks of romance, westerns, mysteries and sci-fi/fantasy are not even a dime a dozen.
Now I’m not trying to denigrate the literature value of these books. Not even the cheesiest of novels. But these books are pretty much deadweight. Nobody really wants them, except for book fiends like yourself who will soon find themselves in a similar situation.
Don’t think I don’t know where you’re coming from though. My father has a whole wall in our garage dedicated to his sci-fi books he can’t throw out. It must be two or three books thick by now. I’m more than happy to raid his collection for good reads. But if you want to throw books like this out, you’ll find nowhere to turn.
I think your best bet is to donate them to a good used bookstore. One that knows it’s buying public. This has the best chance of getting the books out to the people who want them. Take the credit if you can get it, it will help. But face facts that these books are just junk weight you need to get rid of. Like a smelly old couch.
Heck, maybe you should give them to a recycling center. In fact, that’s probably the best idea I can think of.
Ahem, “and they not only don’t have to pay a dump to get rid of it. . .”
Teach me to try to use a double negative.
So, Osip, just to satisfy my curiousity, what was the one book you WOULD burn?
Always in the wrong place at the wrong time, me. No one’s ever given me a huge stack of books. Having said that, I did get some fabulous books given to me by my wife’s grandfather, that were distributed to the forces during WWII.
The much anticipated book “Hannibal” I despised that book.
The last third of the book sucked, it was as if someone else decided to finish it.
Ick.
celestina writes:
> When I posted what I did, I was just trying to imagine what it’d
> be like to have 6-7 thousand books in my house.
It would be like the way I live now, except less crowded (since I have about 6,000 books in a two-bedroom apartment.
Mofo Rising writes:
> I recently went to a used bookstore and found a copy of Robert
> Anton Wilson’s “Nature’s God”. This is a very hard book to find.
> It was only released in cheap paperback, but it’s the rarest
> book I’ve ever looked for.
And one of those books is Nature’s God.
My library has a “Friends of the Library” sale several times per year and the buyers are readers, not real estate folks.
If you have recent books, Amazon will allow you to list them for sale. You type in the ISBN number, condition info, and they post it. Anyone looking for that title on the site sees a link to listings of used copies for sale. Amazon takes a cut of the sale. You ship book rate (they pay you a few bucks for shipping out of a shipping charge to the buyer). They transfer the $$ to your bank account.
Listings expire after 90 days, but you can renew them. You can set yourself on “vacation” to hide your listings if you cannot ship for a time. Otherwise you agree to ship within two business days of getting a “sold” email from Amazon.
It is a clever idea, it cut into the boxes of books I usually donate to my library periodically by a few titles, but it got me to take a walk down the street to the PO.
Osip, why I do declare. You were trying to tease lil ol’ me? [giggle] And here I was thinking I’d offended you or something. I’m glad we got that all straightened out. 
Wendell Wagner, goodness. Six thousand books in a two bedroom apartment? I hope it’s just you and the books. I don’t think you’d have much room for anyone else up in there. I have a lot of books in my house, but I don’t think they add up to 6K, but then I can’t count either. Still, to have 6000 books. [sigh] Some people have all the luck. Happy reading, hon.
might i suggest operation paperback. they have addresses for us military units world wide. it is a bit cheaper to send to an apo or fpo.
they also have address for va hospitals.
http://oppaperback.virtualave.net/
look in the phone book for rehab hospitals in your area. i have sent 10 copier boxes of books to a rehab hospital in my area. the patients are very happy to have something to read. esp. the romances and the mysteries.
are there any bed and breakfast places near you? they always have a library area.