# What to do with the books you can't sell and can't bring yourself to throw away **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 12, 2010, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-do-with-the-books-you-cant-sell-and-cant-bring-yourself-to-throw-away/550071 "2010-08-12T18:43:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![E-Sabbath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19adc/32.png) [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2010, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-do-with-the-books-you-cant-sell-and-cant-bring-yourself-to-throw-away/550071/21 "2010-08-13T03:02:18Z")
So THAT’s what the Fulfilled by Amazon thing means. I can do that! ---
**Author:** ![constanze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f9ae1b/32.png) [@constanze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/constanze)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2010, 11:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-do-with-the-books-you-cant-sell-and-cant-bring-yourself-to-throw-away/550071/22 "2010-08-13T11:29:39Z")
Want to second bookcrossing or paperbackswap and similar sites. If the books are newish, is an Oxfam shop in your area? The one in my city has a flyer with guidelines on what they take and what they don’t want. For ebay, I would recommend not putting up individual books unless they are worth something or hot (like a Harry Potter), but the older, less attractive ones, put 10 or so in one cardboard box, until the max. weight for normal postage, and offer the whole box cheaply (still listing all titles in the description). This is often bought by private sellers for flea markets or bookcrossers. It helps if you do themed boxes, like 10 detective novels in a box, one box of horror novels etc. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2010, 11:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-do-with-the-books-you-cant-sell-and-cant-bring-yourself-to-throw-away/550071/23 "2010-08-13T11:45:47Z")
I just leave them on the sidewalk in front of my house, just like unwanted furniture. People take them, eventually. ---
**Author:** ![GHO57](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/df788c/32.png) [@GHO57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GHO57)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2010, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-do-with-the-books-you-cant-sell-and-cant-bring-yourself-to-throw-away/550071/24 "2010-08-13T11:53:48Z")
Thankfully I don’t have that problem, I’ve got lots of storage space… I can still fit another couple of thousand books in before I have to buy a bigger house. Hmm, I do have to park on the driveway tho… so perhaps it is time to get rid of some, ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2010, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-do-with-the-books-you-cant-sell-and-cant-bring-yourself-to-throw-away/550071/25 "2010-08-13T16:00:09Z")
> [@GHO57](#): > > Thankfully I don’t have that problem, I’ve got lots of storage space.. I can still fit another couple of thousand books in before I have to buy a bigger house. I said the same thing three years ago. And I said it before that when I moved to a bigger apartment in California. It doesn’t last. And I don’t really want to buy a bigger house. We can’t afford it, and I’d have to pack up all the books in boxes, which is an enormous pain in the ass. > [@Alessan](#): > > I just leave them on the sidewalk in front of my house, just like unwanted furniture. People take them, eventually. That would probably work better in a seasonally dry climate like Israel or California than it would here. We generally don’t go more than a couple of days without rain. > [@Rigmarole](#): > > You can sell books by the yard these days. (for people who just want to fill up a bookshelf. Yeah, I know) There are people who have… extra space for books? 😕 How do they do it? Do they have like really huge houses or something? ---
**Author:** ![Notchimine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/bcef8e/32.png) [@Notchimine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Notchimine)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2010, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-do-with-the-books-you-cant-sell-and-cant-bring-yourself-to-throw-away/550071/26 "2010-08-13T16:38:45Z")
I bring all my paperbacks to my office. Since I read so much, I accumulate a bag full every three or so months, leave them in the break room in the morning and they are gone by lunch. Hardcovers I keep. As a matter of fact, if I read a good paperback that I will want to reread, I will buy it in hardcover just to own it for all time. ---
**Author:** ![Hello\_Again](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2010, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-do-with-the-books-you-cant-sell-and-cant-bring-yourself-to-throw-away/550071/27 "2010-08-13T16:41:57Z")
My apartment building has a “give one/take one” bookshelf in the laundry room. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2010, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-do-with-the-books-you-cant-sell-and-cant-bring-yourself-to-throw-away/550071/28 "2010-08-13T16:42:26Z")
I have a ton of cookbooks and pretty much no charity will take those. Looks like Half-Price may be the way to go. I don’t have issues with throwing books away except that I’d fill up our garbage allotment for the week, and the garbage collectors would refuse to take such a heavy can. ---
**Author:** ![Serenata67](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/serenata67/32/10646_2.png) [@Serenata67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Serenata67)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2010, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-do-with-the-books-you-cant-sell-and-cant-bring-yourself-to-throw-away/550071/29 "2010-08-13T17:06:17Z")
My husband and I have too many books. We have a “library” (a room-sized foyer of sorts, lined with with three full-sized bookshelves and one half-sized one under the window). All of those bookshelves are full. Then we also have three large Rubbermaids full of books in the basement. We have lots of book. And we can’t bear to get rid of them. ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2010, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-do-with-the-books-you-cant-sell-and-cant-bring-yourself-to-throw-away/550071/30 "2010-08-13T17:24:02Z")
A relative of Mr. Neville’s told me recently that having bookshelves in your dining room is “in” these days. I’m glad. Now when my parents act like it’s weird to have bookshelves (full of books, of course) in the dining room, I can tell them it’s a new trend. ---
**Author:** ![polymorphism](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/d9b06d/32.png) [@polymorphism](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/polymorphism)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2010, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-do-with-the-books-you-cant-sell-and-cant-bring-yourself-to-throw-away/550071/31 "2010-08-13T21:33:58Z")
I used to volunteer at a Books to Prisoners outfit. There looks to be one in your area: [http://bookempittsburgh.org/](http://bookempittsburgh.org/) Book 'Em is an appealing name. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2010, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-do-with-the-books-you-cant-sell-and-cant-bring-yourself-to-throw-away/550071/32 "2010-08-13T21:48:14Z")
The Salvation Army takes anything, no questions asked. We got rid of about 20 boxes of books before our move last year. They may throw out some, but at least I didn’t have to. ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2010, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-do-with-the-books-you-cant-sell-and-cant-bring-yourself-to-throw-away/550071/33 "2010-08-13T22:12:21Z")
> [@polymorphism](#): > > I used to volunteer at a Books to Prisoners outfit. There looks to be one in your area: > > [http://bookempittsburgh.org/](http://bookempittsburgh.org/) > > Book 'Em is an appealing name. I’ll have them in mind for the next round of shelf-cleaning, whenever that happens. (This round is more or less done) I do tend to accumulate books on history, which it sounds like they might want. They also have a place where you can drop off books, so I wouldn’t be required to mail anything- another big plus. I’ve probably got stuff that I meant to mail when I moved to California in 1998 and still haven’t gotten around to sending. Seriously. That’s why something like selling stuff on ebay isn’t an option for me. One problem I always have is that my tastes in reading aren’t mainstream, so of course there’s less of a market for the sort of thing I like. My mother-in-law does better with re-selling her books than I do with mine, because she mostly reads bestsellers. ---
**Author:** ![Patch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a183cd/32.png) [@Patch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patch)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2010, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-do-with-the-books-you-cant-sell-and-cant-bring-yourself-to-throw-away/550071/34 "2010-08-14T01:20:26Z")
I donate mine to Goodwill. They take anything. ---
**Author:** ![pudytat72](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@pudytat72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pudytat72)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2010, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-do-with-the-books-you-cant-sell-and-cant-bring-yourself-to-throw-away/550071/35 "2010-08-14T02:48:45Z")
A doper ( **wmulax93** ) had a thread earlier this year asking for books for his classroom library. > **[Please help me build my classroom library](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=559585)** > > Note: I did receive permission from the SDMB (twickster in particular) to start this thread. As some of you may know, I teach at an urban charter school in Phoenix, Arizona. We don’t have a proper library, and as such the only “library” we have is... media mail is a really inexpensive way to send books. ---
**Author:** ![Cicero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cicero/32/3594_2.png) [@Cicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cicero)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2010, 10:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-do-with-the-books-you-cant-sell-and-cant-bring-yourself-to-throw-away/550071/36 "2010-08-14T10:02:41Z")
I had a really boring book about the start of the Vietnam War. I tried to sell it on Ebay for $2. A friend sent me $5 not to send it to her. ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2010, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-do-with-the-books-you-cant-sell-and-cant-bring-yourself-to-throw-away/550071/37 "2010-08-14T21:38:27Z")
> [@Cicero](#): > > I had a really boring book about the start of the Vietnam War. I tried to sell it on Ebay for $2. A friend sent me $5 not to send it to her. Would your friend like some more summer nonreading material? ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2010, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-do-with-the-books-you-cant-sell-and-cant-bring-yourself-to-throw-away/550071/38 "2010-08-15T05:02:36Z")
The thrift stores around here do NOT want books as a rule, though they will take cookbooks, non-fiction, and kids books, sometimes. I drop unwanted books off at a bin at the library, they are sold at a big October booksale. Where I buy more books. Rinse, repeat. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2010, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-do-with-the-books-you-cant-sell-and-cant-bring-yourself-to-throw-away/550071/39 "2010-08-15T05:39:08Z")
> [@Reply](#): > > > [@Cicero](#): > > > > I had a really boring book about the start of the Vietnam War. I tried to sell it on Ebay for $2. A friend sent me $5 not to send it to her. > > Would your friend like some more summer nonreading material? I have all kinds of books that are not suitable for reading, by anyone. You can reject mildewy or non-mildewy, your choice. Rejecting non-mildewy costs more, though. ---
**Author:** ![Student\_Driver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3da27b/32.png) [@Student\_Driver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Student_Driver)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2010, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-do-with-the-books-you-cant-sell-and-cant-bring-yourself-to-throw-away/550071/40 "2010-08-15T05:48:10Z")
> [@salinqmind](#): > > The thrift stores around here do NOT want books as a rule, though they will take cookbooks, non-fiction, and kids books, sometimes. I drop unwanted books off at a bin at the library, they are sold at a big October booksale. Where I buy more books. Rinse, repeat. Odd. The thrift store I worked for was quite fine with all book donations; whatever we couldn’t sell was trucked to other locations that received fewer book donations or sold by the ton to a recycler, so we made money regardless. I guess it pays to contact a thrift before donating or holding off on donations. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-do-with-the-books-you-cant-sell-and-cant-bring-yourself-to-throw-away/550071.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-do-with-the-books-you-cant-sell-and-cant-bring-yourself-to-throw-away/550071.md?page=3)