What to do with read books

[CopperBolt]

GiantCardboardPlato said:

PS I've never worked out how people who go on about spines on books manage to actually read books without causing the spine to fold/crease. it has to for you open the book...

Its an acquired skill - basically you bend the front cover when reading the left page, rear cover for right page. Gets more tricky the thicker the book though.

I regularly browse charity shops for books and the spine conditions vary from 'like new' to well thumbed so they seem to take most condition books.

[Ryyy]

Our morrisons has a little bookshelf that you donate books too to help a charity, check there?

[p1doc]

popped into barnados last week while waiting for dominos-minimal books 2 shelves at best and sign saying not accepting anymore books-bizarre

[rambo19]

I take mine into work.
About 25 drivers there(I drive a lorry).

A few other drivers bring books in as well.

[BoRED S2upid]

We have a book exchange in an old phone box you take one and leave one. Works a treat.

[K87]

I don't buy many if any modern paperback novels but if I did I think I would like to give them, one by one, to people that I think would likem them. My daughter likes crime novels and she swaps with another person.

I buy second hand, Pg Wodehouse and as early Jane Austen as I can afford.

[K87]

By coincidence a neighbour has put a table at the bottom of their drive loaded with books and a sign 'help yourself'

[jimwilli]

I put the paperbacks on my front wall and they all went eventually. I gave the hardbacks to a local library i joined thinking they might put them into circulation but they just sell them in a constant book sale to raise funds. No wonder their book inventory is crap

[Cloudy147]

Our local supermarket has a book swap shelf at the back of the checkouts. We put a bunch of read books in there a couple of weeks ago and they’ve all gone. So it must be a well used and enjoyed service in ours.

[Glosphil]

I currently have 5 books on loan from the local library - 2 were donations.

[Randy Winkman]

The recycling "bins" for glass, paper etc near where I live also have a books one. Though I think that's a local scheme and I've no idea what happens to them.

[andrewcliffe]

If you want to raise an absolutely insignificant sum of money, then Ziffit or Music Magpie may buy them. When my mother in law was moving house and downsizing, there were a lot of books to rehome. I think I got £ 8 for one large box. Subsequent boxes I donated to local phone box library, or a charity bookswap table operating in the local Dunelm shop.

Seems a shame to consign them to landfill.

Edited by andrewcliffe on Tuesday 21st May 20:03

[Mr Tidy]

My village has an old phone box so I leave them there and get replacements.

Some Motorway services have books you can take, they just ask you to leave a charity donation - Frankley services on the M5 for example.

[Hill92]

Start a break room library at your workplace to swap books?

[Derek Smith]

Glosphil said:

I currently have 5 books on loan from the local library - 2 were donations.

Bit of a resurrection.

I've got out of the habit of keeping all my books, apart from motoring ones. I still dip into F1 and some marque books. I have run out of shelves and, very similar to new facts entering my brain, if I want to keep a new book, one of the old ones has to go. I offer them to my family, with a request that they pass it on to someone who would benefit from it after they've finished with it.

I've given a few of the unwanted books, all hardbacks, to my local library. They welcome them. All they ask is that the book is in very good, ie it doesn't have to be as new, condition and be published within the last few years. Oddly enough, if I see any of the books on the shelves, I get a boost from it, so a bit of a pay-back. I've yet to see someone booking one out. That'd feel brilliant.

[lizardbrain]

I like to doodle in books as I read them, a hangover from uni i guess, but i feel more engaged if i underline and scribble or doodle, even though 99.9% of the time i never revisit.

It means i often throw books away. I don't think there is anything inherently sacred about books

[jimwilli]

I've built up a stock again trying to get rid of. I put some on ebay, even if i just list fir the postage cost plus a penny you struggle to shift them. I dint know how these other sellers manage it. Do world of books etc get discounted trade rates on postage?

[Monkeylegend]

Keep them long enough, read as many as you can, you will forget about the ones you have read and you can then start all over again.

You need to be 70 ish though to allow the memory genes to fade away.

[jimwilli]

Monkeylegend said:

Keep them long enough, read as many as you can, you will forget about the ones you have read and you can then start all over again.

You need to be 70 ish though to allow the memory genes to fade away.

Property is too valuable to fill it up with used books i can buy again on ebay!

[cuprabob]

jimwilli said:

Property is too valuable to fill it up with used books

That's exactly what our local council said when they closed down the library