My 86 year old dad is a retired English professor with a book collection of several hundred books. He admits that there are many he could probably get rid of, but he doesn't know where to start when it comes to downsizing. He believes that his local small-town library will take the books, but I am not so sure, since I have heard that libraries are reluctant to take used books. Most of his books are in good condition. I am horrified at the prospect of throwing them out when he dies. BF and I live in a small condo which already has about 5 bookcases full of books since we are both book lovers. (We got rid of several hundred books but we can't bear to part with the remaining ones!) Has anyone successfully given a lot of books to a library? Is there any other way to get rid of them so someone else can use them? There are book donation drop boxes where I live, but none where my dad lives. Thanks!
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Posted 1 year ago #
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Some libraries have book sales to raise money. Schools do too. Call the ones in your area and see if they have any planned in the near future. Then you can start going through the books and start getting rid of some.
Also, see if nursing homes, halfway houses, and even prisons will take any.
You could also try selling them online. You won't make much, but at least some will be certain to get into appreciative hands.
Posted 1 year ago # -
You say, "I am horrified at the prospect of throwing them out when he dies."
Why does the thought of throwing them out (in the trash or recycling bin) bother you so much?
I sympathize with your stress. You seem to believe that you might be stuck with these books. For your own sake, give yourself the option of throwing the books out if the library will not take them.
Good luck to you.
Posted 1 year ago # -
The library near me sells used books to help fund itself (although of course, yours may vary). Most charity shops such as Goodwill and Salvation Army will take books. A used bookstore might take them too, although these days I find they're not giving much back in the way of cash. Freecycle.org is a good resource for giving stuff away for free, or you might be able to sell the lot on Craigslist. If any of the books are really valuable, Ebay is an option. Personally though, I feel like if something isn't going to sell for at least $10, it's not worth selling on Ebay. You can do a little research and see what things are going for.
Posted 1 year ago # -
When my mom moved from Michigan to California, my brother and I helped her winnow down her books. We did indeed take hundreds of them to her local library, which seemed glad to get them.
But there are many other options, too. I have a blog post listing 10 ways to find new homes for your books - and two more got added as postscripts.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Having worked in a library, and being on the receiving end, I would encourage you to call the library and describe what books you have and how many. They should be able to tell you which ones they would like (usually not old textbooks) and how many they can take. We got blindsided one time with 35 boxes of books: we had nowhere to store them inside, and no indication of what kinds of books we had and in what condition.
Posted 1 year ago # -
suzjazz, it might be worth asking if any of the academic institutions your dad worked for would like his books, or at least those related to his areas of expertise; perhaps a campus library would be delighted to have them as a special collection. Recycling may be another option for some of the books, too. Please don't be too hard on yourself if you do have to throw some away. It's wonderful that you are working to find a good home for them, but you are one person versus hundreds of books accumulated over a literary lifetime. Those books enriched your dad's and his students' lives, so their mission is already accomplished, wherever they go to next. Best of luck!
Posted 1 year ago # -
There are a lot of options listed. I doubt you'll have to toss any of the books.
Posted 1 year ago # -
If he has first editions or some rare books, those are the ones I would take to a used book store that specializes in them or sell them online. I have one locally that happily screens through bags/boxes brought in on certain days. I'm sure there's one in his region - you may have to travel a bit, but your Dad may know where to go (after all, he acquired them somewhere). You might want to ask your Dad to put all the first eds/rare books in a specific place, so that you don't need to sort through all the books later on. Books not in that case or on that shelf can be disposed of to libraries, etc, but the first eds or rare books could be sold over time as he/you need the money.
Oh, and any book not in good condition should just be tossed: water damage, highlighting, broken backs... any books with those should just be recycled. No one will take those, so they're not worth keeping.
After that cut, I would start culling by asking him if there are genres or authors he's not re-reading, and start getting those out of the house. Of course, my standard is that if I'm not going to re-read a book, it's gone [yes, I'm strict with myself.] Good luck.
Posted 1 year ago # -
English professor's book collection? Wow, if a university town heard of a sale like that, you might have a crowd. Let us know what you do, the book lovers among us will want to know!
Posted 1 year ago # -
That's a good thought, Deb.
To take Deb's idea a little further, you could have a book sale, post it to the university's bulletin board, and all proceeds go to a charity of your father's choice.
Posted 1 year ago # -
As a librarian, I would say it depends a lot on what the books are. I've sorted through literally tons of donated books, so I can tell within minutes whether a book should go in a public library book sale, be sold online, added to the collection, recycled, or stuck on PaperbackSwap. I listed the most valuable books ever donated to our library on our state's library email list because we didn't need them, but some other library might. I'd start by talking to a university library, then move down from there.
Posted 1 year ago # -
I freecycled several hundred books a couple of years ago. Mine were primarily paperbacks, but they were in good condition and I didn't want to just toss them. I tried the local library but they weren't interested, and I didn't want to spend hours driving around trying to find someone who would take them. (It's surprisingly hard to find someone on the phone who will say, "yes I will take your books" and driving around to dozens of hospitals, nursing homes, etc., only to be turned down, takes a lot of time and gas.) So I posted a description on Freecycle and said, you've got to take them all. Someone who loved to read took them. If you can't find another taker, or if you just want someone to take them off your hands, try Freecycle. If you have different types of books, you could divide them up into lots.
Posted 1 year ago # -
If nobody else then I imagine students of English literature could be interested? I would be cool with receiving used medical books in good condition that are still up-to-date or have historic relevance to my studies/area of speciality.
Posted 1 year ago # -
We donated over 3000 books to the local art center book sale when we moved to MN, and I haven't missed them at all. We moved them 11 times, and they were the most expensive item to move every time. I don't know if you have a used book store nearby, but most of them will buy lots of books, by the pound for regular collections, individually for special/rare items. They may even come to you to appraise your collection.
Posted 1 year ago # -
My husband is the hoarder of books. But, it is I who has packed them, created the space to store them, and sorted and cleaned them. In other words, it is I who has done all the "keeping".
This is a source of contention for us.
Right now they are all in his room/office/pile o'mess.
He really needs to go through them and make decisions about keeping what really has value to him at his point in his life, and getting rid of the rest.
Most are non fiction and many are concerning past social, political and scientific issues. Of course, there are some classics and some fiction. But, there are tomes that he has not cracked open in 30 years.
I will not do anything more than get rid of a few when he is not looking. (C'mon, is he really going to reread that book about youth angst of the 60's, or social problems of the African countries that was written in the 70's?---NO!) I refuse to maintain them any longer, at all.
He needs to set priorities and weed out the garbage so that what is left can be appreciated.
He also needs to remove the carpet and put in the rest of the wood flooring. I don't even want to tell you how many years it has been since the room was vacuumed. We haven't even have a vac that will do carpet, for many years.
I assure you that the rest of our house is NOT like that!Posted 11 months ago # -
Show him what you just wrote. The thought of that carpeting in my house would give me fits.
I once read on an organizing blog that people tend to keep books they'll never read again because it shows that they are well-read and educated. I don't know if that's true or not for your husband, but it could be one reason why there is resistance.
Just put your foot down, but don't nag or shame him. Figure out your schedules and when would be the best time to get that horrific carpet out of the house. Well before carpet removal day, he has to start going through his books. Get boxes for the books going out so they can immediately go into boxes and into the car.
Posted 11 months ago # -
Suzjazz, if the library won't take them as donations, it might be worth checking on Abebooks to see if there is a local used book reseller. We have a ton of used book stores locally, but a lot of them have gone online-only in the past few years.
Posted 11 months ago # -
What no one has yet suggested: go e. Anything classic and pre-1923 has probably been digitized and can be downloaded for free anytime you want it. I've donated hundreds of books to the library because I no longer needed a paper copy.
Genny's problem with the book-hoarding husband could perhaps be solved by stealth. Give him an e-reader. If he adopts it enthusiastically, he'll be much more likely to see his paper books as dispensable clutter.
I would be worried, however, that "putting your foot down" would be seen as an attack and resisted fiercely. Genny might have more success with a negotiated solution. If there's something that she does, or doesn't do, that drives her husband up the wall, perhaps she could commit to changing her behavior there in return for his commitment to cull, say, 10% of his books. Repeat as necessary.
As for the flooring, that's a separate issue. Genny could tell her husband that she is upset by the dirty carpet and plans to take it up herself. If she does the work, he can't complain. After they live with sub-flooring for a while, she can suggest that they hire someone else to install new flooring. She knows that he's busy, doesn't expect him to take on such a large project, etc. Have some contractors' names, ballpark quotes, suggestions on saving so much per month and having enough to do the floor in X months.
Posted 11 months ago # -
I used to be just like genny's husband, and I've reduced my book collection over several purges, separated by about 6 months each. Agree with Zora- I will never look at a paper book the same again after getting a Kindle. All arguments such as, "I like to have this book available in case I want to read it again" go out the door when you have an e-reader. At the very least, the classic novels can go. Many are free on e-readers.
I did photograph my books though- just a few key shots of the bookshelf, so the titles and authors are visible. I wanted to be able to remember what books I had read.
Posted 11 months ago #
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