What to do when books need good homes?

Many used bookstores will come and take your books, and pay a decent price. When I worked at one, when they weren’t buying entire collections from estates, etc, they really only wanted to buy sci fi, westerns, and romance novels!

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There is an annual charity book fair in my fair-to-middling city. They have a drop off shed for book donations. Maybe there’s something similar in your area?

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The one I used to go to back in the day (which was the 90s) had a good selection of RPG books and boardgames. I traded and sold a lot of stuff there, but it was always slightly disappointing. They’d give you store credit of I think about 1/3rd what they would sell it for, or cash 1/6th of what they would sell it for. And their prices were good, so that 1/6th of the price of a used book wasn’t much.

Last time I moved I just donated about 9 bags of books to the library. At least with those, when they have the annual book sale or whatever, some kid might find some books they love for 50¢ or whatever they sell them for now. That was how I found some of my favorites and a few obscure ones when I was a kid.

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This is the used bookstore where I worked:

Four floors crammed with books; there’s also a non-public ephemera section. He sells rare and first editions, cool signed stuff, etc.
It had been a glove factory.

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IKR? Just want a nicer person in charge of the joint tophat-wink

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Ooooh, you worked at John King? That’s amazing!!! :star_struck:

For those who’ve never been, they literally give out a map to help you find what you need:

john king books store map for post

I made a few visits years back, when I was working downtown… but that place is seriously dangerous to a book-lover’s budget.

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I discovered Gerald Durrell there, in the PB non-fiction section. Bought a copy of each title they had for $1.50 - $2.50

I hated it when they’d send me wandering around the joint to keep an eye out for nefarious doings: I’d find six more books to add to my want pile.

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I only let myself go there with a list of specific titles and authors, since my bookshelves were already groaning from the weight. I can imagine how hard it was to work there!

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I even managed to find some great stuff when I was helping to set up the store in Ferndale.

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In Arizona we have a place called Bookman’s. They will give you cash or in-store credit for books in good condition (and other things as well.)

Sadly, I have a partial box of books that are most likely going to get dumped in the recycle bin, as they are in poor condition or are something that Bookman’s wouldn’t accept.

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Down here it’s McKay’s. They trade books, movies, cds, records and Legos. But they reject over half the stuff I bring in (come on, it’s the complete 26 volume 1972 Gardening Encyclopedia!), give you a pittance in trade, and the place is always so packed with shoppers I have to run away. I like the bookstores where there’s only a couple people in there at a time.

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We usually give ours to the local library. The board books were put into circulation :laughing: they were excited we had a whole box. Understandably those wear out quickly.
The rest would be checked to see if they were on the library’s acquisition list and everything left over sold at the twice yearly sale to raise funds for extra programs

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My wife and I live by the motto “It’s not hoarding if it’s books!”

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As a bookseller I support this notion (I mean as someone who inevitably came into possession of a lot of books, not someone with a vested interest in others buying more of them). Marie Kondo-type advice will often say “You’re never going to read those books, just get rid of them”, to which I say bullshit. I have a reading pile of close to 100 books and I do pluck out old books and finally get around to reading them, years after acquiring them. Only a few of them are common titles that could easily be reacquired if I did get rid of them. I do heavily advocate for not keeping books after reading them unless they are very special and precious and you genuinely will return to them in the future, though. Keeping all the books you’ve read as though they’re trophies is a form of hoarding, IMO.

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Bookshop.org run this but i haven’t got around to trying it yet.

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Most of my hard-copy books are either reference books or gaming books; if I still need to refer to them, I still need to refer to them.

That said, I’m doing another round of triage. I have a lot which either I don’t need, or I have ebook copies of, and don’t need the hard copy any more. I also have games which I don’t expect to play or use as reference books.

The local book bin isn’t there any more; the local libaries aren’t local; there don’t seem to be any used book stores or thrift stores. At least not that I can safely or easily reach, with all the roads blocking everything.

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