Where Do The Books You've Read Go?

I’m asking, because I need new creative places to take them! I have long ago left behind the notion that I could keep all the books I’d read. As a teenager, it didn’t seem so difficult–stack them in a corner of the room, and let them be. By college, I didn’t want to lug them back and forth from home to school, so I left larger piles in my parent’s house, usually my bedroom closet, and some piles in my dorm room. Once out on my own in the teeniest apartment in the world, keeping any books I’d just read was impossible so I think I may have slowed down on consumption, because I don’t remember reading all that much in the months right after graduation.

Once in New York and sharing with two other people, space was a premium, and once again I believe my reading was cut down to a minimum–trying to find work and working while trying to find acting jobs, gave me little time.

But this changed when I started working at Lorry’s Book Company. All those books! Slowly my bookshelves in the small apartment began to fill and they didn’t get emptier after I’d read some because most were now art, or architecture, or illustration books, and those are keepers. But the ones I didn’t need anymore I began to place on the heat register in front of the mailboxes on the first floor. I took them down as I left the building–no way was I going to make a trip up and down a 5 floor walk-up just to leave a couple of paperbacks for some one to take.

And this practice continued until the landlord got pissy and demanded nothing be left there–probably because others had taken up the habit and now boxes of books were being deposited and no takers. Not big reading apartment dwellers, I suppose.

When I started seriously collecting first editions and vintage crime fiction, I didn’t get rid of anything, except a few reading copies here and there, and I’d bring them into the my place of employment  and hand them off to co-workers.

But then the real problems began. What to do with advance reading copies I never read, and paperbacks that seemed promising but I didn’t get around to and now don’t really want to read anymore, and freebies I never had any intention of reading? I felt so guilty ditching books I’d not at  given a chance that I held on to them in case I changed my mind, which created a huge amount of tomes tottering all over the apartment.

Once I returned to my parents house to help with the care of my ailing dad, things got better because I’d left all those books back in the apartment! However, bit by bit, boxes upon boxes were brought down, and I had to contend with a zillion signed first editions, old paperbacks, unread hardcovers, and just about every book any mystery author wrote.

So, now, once a book is read and not on my mental must keep list, I put in a pile to go somewhere. But where? Ok, library sales are always a good idea. Help out the local establishment make some dough. Downside? I also buy from there, and quite often pick up a book and find it’s been inscribed to me! Or, I buy back the same title I donated, forgetting I’d already read it!

Of course there’s the trade in paperback places-but that’s the catch–paperbacks only. For a little while that was working out well, there was a place that had loads of books and I found many that interested me so trading almost made sense. But after a bit I noticed the inventory never seemed to change, and that’s not good for the purchaser, when he brings good titles into the store but can’t go out with the same quality and quantity.

A couple of other trade in stores have been explored, but the same thing seems to afflict them. Still, the books are gone and I have some credits or, the books are gone and now I’ve brought three times my credit back home with me.

And I have traded many untouched hardcovers to a well established bookshop that wouldn’t allow trade ins for recent titles, and all the older ones I ‘d read, so I didn’t get much of a bargain there–except boxes and boxes of books were out of my mother’s basement. And I had the large credit to look forward to. Until the store went belly up out of nowhere.

I would give as many G rated novels as possible to my godmother but she’s struggling with dementia  and no longer reads, sadly.

I’ve thought about trading on the internet–even joined some kind of paperback exchange. I’m just to damn lazy to do more work online even if it does lower the piles by a goodly measure.  And selling? Ugh! There are a billion gazillion people who are selling books online, my teeny finger in the air will not be seen by a single reader–the time and money one must have to put into this practice is staggering. And not worth it for some valueless types of titles.

I do intend to check out a few hypermodern prices, and see if I can sell them on bookfinder somewhere–they are too good to just give away, but not good enough for me to want to keep!

So now I’m reduced to putting some every once in awhile in a plastic carry all bag for my mother to take into her senior exercise class, even though they only seem to want romance novels, which I certainly don’t have.

Please, help me out here! What good places do any of you know of to recycle hardcover books, in particular, and any kind of book, in general? I’ll have my forklift ready for action the minute someone gives me a good tip!

 

6 thoughts on “Where Do The Books You've Read Go?”

  1. Besides used bookstores, friends and relatives, there are also thrift stores (e.g., Goodwill), library sales, and library secondhand bookstores. Other nonprofit groups will periodically hold sales and welcome donations. And maybe a good book scout would buy some of your better titles to resell on his or her travels to other bookstores.

    As for trade credit, there’s no reason you shouldn’t be able to get books as good in quality as the ones you’re bringing in. Talk to the bookstore owner. What the bookseller is anxious to avoid is people bringing in junk and trading for treasure, but that’s not what you’re trying to do.

  2. Operation Paperback is a way to get paperbacks to U.S. troops. Soldiers send in request lists, and Operation Paperback does the distribution.

    I donate to local thrift shop (monies are used to assist pregnant women without resources); donate to my local library; Amazon has a buyback program for some books–they give Amazon credit; our local hospital takes book donations to use for bingo prizes and for ER, especially for calming children; local schools that are financially strapped may be happy for children’s books in good condition–we have some schools where children may not even have their own books and would be happy to have a book of their own.

    The books you discussed sound valuable. I am sure there are booksellers who would be happy to buy them.

  3. Perhaps setting them on bus benches as you are passing them will work. Weather permitting.

    I’ve seen it mentioned that some east coast bookstores in the path of the last storms had inventory destroyed. An internet search for them might give you a few locations willing to take some off your hands. Shipping and handling on them of course.

    I know what you mean about internet sales of the “valueless types of titles.” I see people offering and selling books on eBay for a penny plus $3.50 shipping. I’ve bought a few for my daughter’s schooling.

    Seems to me the time involved in an operation like that has got to make the profits minimal. Listing, storing, picking the sold books, packaging – After eBay/PayPal & shipping fees not to mention the time and cost of printing and labeling packages I don’t see how they do it. They must streamline the time management process to such a degree that there is no lost time and the overage on the postage paid gives them a couple bucks per book which covers the eBay listing costs of all the unsold items.

    That is more work than it is worth just to move out some volumes that are taking up space…

    Perhaps a check of some local convalescent homes might give some locations to drop off books.

  4. Send the books to Kenya! A large number of people are struggling to make a living and very few can afford to purchase books which are not textbooks.We have several programs which aim to promote reading for leisure that would gladly accept and distribute the books. I can only imagine the difference your books would make!

  5. Well, the previous comments include all my suggestions so I have nothing to add except an emphasis on library donations and charity shops. I’ve used prying1’s suggestion except I’ve left them on subways and in airplanes’ seat pockets. We have a library patron who works at a nursing home and she takes our discards but only the paperbacks; she says the hardbacks are too difficult for most of the residents to hold, and we take her word for it, we’re just grateful to reduce our unwanted stacks.

  6. How about places like Half Priced Books. I “sell” my used books to them and can often buy either other used books or new ones if they don’t have the used copy available. You get pennies on the dollar but at least the books are no longer cluttering up my house.

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