You've decided to de-clutter your bookshelves - now what do you do with the books? Inspired by a recent discussion on the AnalogGTD Yahoo! group, I've pulled together this list.
1. Sell them at a used bookstore.
2. Sell them on-line, on Amazon.com or another outlet.
3. Sell them at a garage sale.
4. Give them to friends who would appreciate them - if you are sure they will appreciate them.
5. Donate them to a thrift store - many of these support good causes.
6. Donate them to a library, or a friends of the library group.
7. Donate them to a local organization that wants books. In the San Francisco Bay Area, some options include Books for the Barrios and the Children's Book Project.
8. Donate them to national organizations such as Books for Africa, Books for Soldiers, Operation Paperback (which also involves sending books to troops serving overseas), and Books Behinds Bars.
9. Swap them using one of the many on-line services, such as Bookins, BookMooch, FrugalReader, Novel Action, PaperBackSwap, Readers United, TitleTrader, WhatsOnMyBookshelf?, and Zunafish.
10. Register with BookCrossing, and "release your books into the wild" - leave them for someone else to find.
Updates from July 2007 and January 2008: Also see:
11. Chemotherapy Patients Could Use Your Books
12. Prison Libraries Could Use Your Books
Related Posts:
Clearing Out the Bookshelves
Book Lovers: Stop Reading Books You Don't Like
BookMooch: Give Books Away. Get Books You Want.
[photo from Jayna / MeiYing Chan]
Jeri,
ReplyDeleteYou must drop everything and marry me!
Your blog is the 'shitz. I love it. You write and write and write such terrific content. Thanks for the information!
- John
You should check out www.swaptree.com. They allow you to trade books, cds, dvds and video games for free. The coolest site on the internet.
ReplyDeleteHeres a quick video on how it works. Amazing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=GbCdhbXdsik
As a librarian, I think I should tell you that libraries 99.9% of the time do NOT add donated books to their shelves. They may sell them to the library public, or trash them. You gotta be OK wit this if you donate your books to a library.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous, you raise a very good point - good enough that I;m going to write another post about this specific subject.
ReplyDeleteThanks Jeri. You linked me here from unclutterer. I have now subscribed :)
ReplyDeleteGlad to have you here, Cody!
ReplyDeleteI have used Cash4Books a few times. http://www.cash4books.net/index_d.php
ReplyDeleteIt was an easy service to use.
Mary N.