Help me rehome my books!
January 14, 2009 8:14 PM Subscribe
Movingfilter: I have 1,500+ books and nowhere to put them in my new home. How do I find them a new home?
* None of them are particularly valuable (many currently selling for less than $1 on ebay) and the sheer number of them makes ebaying them kind of senseless.
* Money would be nice, but not necessary.
* I would love to see them go to people would would appreciate them. I've spent years collecting them and getting rid of them is slightly traumatizing.
Any ideas? I live in northern NJ.
* None of them are particularly valuable (many currently selling for less than $1 on ebay) and the sheer number of them makes ebaying them kind of senseless.
* Money would be nice, but not necessary.
* I would love to see them go to people would would appreciate them. I've spent years collecting them and getting rid of them is slightly traumatizing.
Any ideas? I live in northern NJ.
Take them into NYC to the Strand. They'll take damn near anything.
posted by youcancallmeal at 8:21 PM on January 14, 2009
posted by youcancallmeal at 8:21 PM on January 14, 2009
Response by poster: What type of books?
Wow, that would have helped, right?
Historical romance, contemporary romance, paranormal romance, urban fantasy and sci fi, mainly.
posted by crankylex at 8:23 PM on January 14, 2009
Wow, that would have helped, right?
Historical romance, contemporary romance, paranormal romance, urban fantasy and sci fi, mainly.
posted by crankylex at 8:23 PM on January 14, 2009
Take a couple with you every time you see a doctor or dentist and sneak them into the racks in the waiting room.
Donate them to high schools. Or homeless shelters. Or prisons. Or thrift stores.
Hollow out the thick ones and hide stuff in them.
Drive through a neighborhood in the burbs and stick one in every mailbox.
Make art.
posted by phunniemee at 8:23 PM on January 14, 2009 [2 favorites]
Donate them to high schools. Or homeless shelters. Or prisons. Or thrift stores.
Hollow out the thick ones and hide stuff in them.
Drive through a neighborhood in the burbs and stick one in every mailbox.
Make art.
posted by phunniemee at 8:23 PM on January 14, 2009 [2 favorites]
Donate them to a library. There are plenty of places where libraries don't get proper funding. Call around, see if they want them.
For others, there is a store here in Ohio called Half Price Books. They buy and sell used books. There's probably something similar in your area. Contact a bookstore and ask.
posted by JuiceBoxHero at 8:31 PM on January 14, 2009
For others, there is a store here in Ohio called Half Price Books. They buy and sell used books. There's probably something similar in your area. Contact a bookstore and ask.
posted by JuiceBoxHero at 8:31 PM on January 14, 2009
Give them to your local library! They will frequently give you a tax-deductible gift receipt if you ask.
posted by rabbitrabbit at 8:31 PM on January 14, 2009
posted by rabbitrabbit at 8:31 PM on January 14, 2009
Well, library book stores love used books.
Take a few of your favorites/most meaningful and release them via bookcrossing (I suppose you could do this with all of them, but it would be really time consuming...).
posted by lemonade at 8:34 PM on January 14, 2009 [1 favorite]
Take a few of your favorites/most meaningful and release them via bookcrossing (I suppose you could do this with all of them, but it would be really time consuming...).
posted by lemonade at 8:34 PM on January 14, 2009 [1 favorite]
Libraries will just throw out most of them. They only want DVDs and other crap these days, with the exception of a few really compelling books. Your library may differ, I hope. If your books have value to you, rent a storage unit.
posted by caddis at 8:48 PM on January 14, 2009
posted by caddis at 8:48 PM on January 14, 2009
If you have the money and don't want to get rid of them, why not rent out a storage shed and make it your own personal library?
posted by Effigy2000 at 8:51 PM on January 14, 2009
posted by Effigy2000 at 8:51 PM on January 14, 2009
I'm sure there would be some charities in town that would love this stuff and might even take them away for you, and you could probably take a couple hundred of the least ratty and more modern volumes to a secondhand bookstore for a few bucks, or maybe some exchanges.
Or just, you know, leave them around town, in coffee shops, waiting areas, diners, whatever you like. You'd be surprised how quickly they will be picked up. I used to do this all the time with books that the secondhand shops wouldn't take.
Lug a suitcase of them down to a street market, line them up, and announce books for sale at a buck or fifty cents a throw.
I'd love to take the sci fi off your hands but, yeah, you're on the other side of the globe. Perhaps Craigslist might be helpful?
posted by turgid dahlia at 9:00 PM on January 14, 2009
Or just, you know, leave them around town, in coffee shops, waiting areas, diners, whatever you like. You'd be surprised how quickly they will be picked up. I used to do this all the time with books that the secondhand shops wouldn't take.
Lug a suitcase of them down to a street market, line them up, and announce books for sale at a buck or fifty cents a throw.
I'd love to take the sci fi off your hands but, yeah, you're on the other side of the globe. Perhaps Craigslist might be helpful?
posted by turgid dahlia at 9:00 PM on January 14, 2009
Best answer: Why not donate them to a prison?
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 9:07 PM on January 14, 2009
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 9:07 PM on January 14, 2009
Best answer: You might think about donating it to somewhere like a Kohl's House or Ronald McDonald House, or a DV shelter.
(Here are some posts from Smart Bitches, Trashy Books about book donation. The nice thing about having romances and other genre fiction to donate is that you can send them to places where people need an escape.)
posted by sugarfish at 9:20 PM on January 14, 2009
(Here are some posts from Smart Bitches, Trashy Books about book donation. The nice thing about having romances and other genre fiction to donate is that you can send them to places where people need an escape.)
posted by sugarfish at 9:20 PM on January 14, 2009
Nursing Homes and VA Hospitals often really appreciate book donations.
I LOVE bookcrossing.com it's really fun.
If all else fails, freecycle them.
posted by mazienh at 9:22 PM on January 14, 2009 [1 favorite]
I LOVE bookcrossing.com it's really fun.
If all else fails, freecycle them.
posted by mazienh at 9:22 PM on January 14, 2009 [1 favorite]
I give books to the local library. They keep the ones they want, sell the rest, and I get a nice tax deduction.
posted by Argyle at 9:23 PM on January 14, 2009
posted by Argyle at 9:23 PM on January 14, 2009
Libraries will just throw out most of them. They only want DVDs and other crap these days, with the exception of a few really compelling books.
As a librarian who has worked with library friends organizations, I'm going to have to disagree with caddis. While it will certainly vary according to the size/needs of your branch, I wouldn't dismiss donating your books out of hand, because a lot of them could potentially be great for resale. You could ask the library to choose which books they could use, then freecycle or take one of the other great suggestions in this thread for the rest of them.
posted by teamparka at 10:53 PM on January 14, 2009 [1 favorite]
As a librarian who has worked with library friends organizations, I'm going to have to disagree with caddis. While it will certainly vary according to the size/needs of your branch, I wouldn't dismiss donating your books out of hand, because a lot of them could potentially be great for resale. You could ask the library to choose which books they could use, then freecycle or take one of the other great suggestions in this thread for the rest of them.
posted by teamparka at 10:53 PM on January 14, 2009 [1 favorite]
I wrote a blog post with 12 different ways to find new homes for your books.
posted by jeri at 11:29 PM on January 14, 2009
posted by jeri at 11:29 PM on January 14, 2009
You could ask the library to choose which books they could use, then freecycle or take one of the other great suggestions in this thread for the rest of them.
That is good advice. My comment just comes from knowing how many books our library gets rid of in such situations where they don't get to choose,but rather just receive a big donation for which they feel they do not have the shelf space. Not all libraries focus as much on media such as DVDs as ours does either.
posted by caddis at 5:37 AM on January 15, 2009
That is good advice. My comment just comes from knowing how many books our library gets rid of in such situations where they don't get to choose,but rather just receive a big donation for which they feel they do not have the shelf space. Not all libraries focus as much on media such as DVDs as ours does either.
posted by caddis at 5:37 AM on January 15, 2009
3rding donating them to prisons. Prison Book Project is a good organization, but it looks like they're only serving New England and Texas (?) at the moment.
posted by grapefruitmoon at 5:59 AM on January 15, 2009
posted by grapefruitmoon at 5:59 AM on January 15, 2009
Also: you can put an ad on Craigslist that says "BOOKS FOR FREE." When I moved and couldn't take a bunch of my stuff, I put up a Craigslist post with the time & the location and all of my unwanted junk was gone in half an hour.
posted by grapefruitmoon at 6:00 AM on January 15, 2009
posted by grapefruitmoon at 6:00 AM on January 15, 2009
Are you SURE you can't keep them? That's a lot of books, but a wall of book cases should hold them easily. You could probably prune down your collection as well. Keep the really good stuff, get rid of the rest. I've been contemplating doing something like this in my own home- build or get tall bookcases that are only 6 inches deep. These would hold the paperbacks, CDs, DVDs, just fine. Think of a 7 foot tall, 3 foot wide, 6 inch deep shelf- that wouldn't take up much room at all, and store a heck of a lot of media. Use a couple of deeper ones for the larger books.
You could also look at Ikea's catalog- they have a section (or they did last time I looked) for apartment living, and storage issues therein. Put up a wall of bookcases on the top half of your walls, so the wall space under them is free for other stuff like dressers, beds, desks and such. As long as you install it right, it shouldn't fall on you...
Otherwise, yeah, if they are books that might not be valuable to a proper library, find ones that will value them. Prisons, hospital book mobiles, shelters, doctors' offices. Give them to friends. Maybe inventory them and make a website or spreadsheet where your friends can pick out what they want.
Ebay/craigslist them for a penny, and charge enough shipping to cover the shipping and packaging. Whatever the book auctions for is gravy. Free books, they pay the shipping basically. Padded envelopes are cheap, book rate mail is cheap. Even if you only get $1 after expenses, that's still over $1000...
posted by gjc at 6:19 AM on January 15, 2009
You could also look at Ikea's catalog- they have a section (or they did last time I looked) for apartment living, and storage issues therein. Put up a wall of bookcases on the top half of your walls, so the wall space under them is free for other stuff like dressers, beds, desks and such. As long as you install it right, it shouldn't fall on you...
Otherwise, yeah, if they are books that might not be valuable to a proper library, find ones that will value them. Prisons, hospital book mobiles, shelters, doctors' offices. Give them to friends. Maybe inventory them and make a website or spreadsheet where your friends can pick out what they want.
Ebay/craigslist them for a penny, and charge enough shipping to cover the shipping and packaging. Whatever the book auctions for is gravy. Free books, they pay the shipping basically. Padded envelopes are cheap, book rate mail is cheap. Even if you only get $1 after expenses, that's still over $1000...
posted by gjc at 6:19 AM on January 15, 2009
Best answer: From your tone, it sounds like you really *don't* want to get rid of them. Which I totally understand, as a book-hoarder myself.
One trick I learned from my stepfather is to put a couple of pieces of 2x4 at the back of every shelf on your bookcase. So long as the shelves are tall and deep enough, you've now doubled your capacity: there's a front row of books, whose spines are totally visible; and a back row, elevated by the 2x4s, the top halves (or so) of whose spines are visible, above and behind the first row.
I've also discovered that using stacked VHS tapes in place of the 2x4s solves two problems: it doubles your bookshelf capacity, and ALSO gives you something to do with the VHS tapes that, for one reason or another, you can't get rid of. (I, for instance, have a bunch of very rare stuff on VHS, so I can't bring myself to just toss it...)
posted by Dr. Wu at 6:35 AM on January 15, 2009 [2 favorites]
One trick I learned from my stepfather is to put a couple of pieces of 2x4 at the back of every shelf on your bookcase. So long as the shelves are tall and deep enough, you've now doubled your capacity: there's a front row of books, whose spines are totally visible; and a back row, elevated by the 2x4s, the top halves (or so) of whose spines are visible, above and behind the first row.
I've also discovered that using stacked VHS tapes in place of the 2x4s solves two problems: it doubles your bookshelf capacity, and ALSO gives you something to do with the VHS tapes that, for one reason or another, you can't get rid of. (I, for instance, have a bunch of very rare stuff on VHS, so I can't bring myself to just toss it...)
posted by Dr. Wu at 6:35 AM on January 15, 2009 [2 favorites]
Grace Church in Jersey City (a progressive Episcopal congregation) has a weekly book sale and they take donations - every Sunday afternoon. Depending on where you are in NJ it could be a good option. It tends to be well attended and have a variety of types of books.
When I asked at the Strand about selling books they gave me the impression they were fairly picky. Dissuaded me from schlepping them there, anyway.
posted by yarrow at 7:30 AM on January 15, 2009
When I asked at the Strand about selling books they gave me the impression they were fairly picky. Dissuaded me from schlepping them there, anyway.
posted by yarrow at 7:30 AM on January 15, 2009
Definitely check out if your local public library has a "Friends of the Library" book sale. If you love books, you'd be contributing to a very good cause. Also, is there a Freecycle list for your area? Posting to Freecycle is often a very quick and easy way to get rid of things.
posted by aught at 7:33 AM on January 15, 2009
posted by aught at 7:33 AM on January 15, 2009
Seconding what aught said. My local library has a book sale several times throughout the year. The Community Room is filled with books in dozens of areas of interest and they're constantly bringing out more from the back room to restock the sale.
It's hard to believe that a library would accept your books and then throw them away. If they don't have book sales, maybe they could suggest another place where you could donate them.
posted by SoftSummerBreeze at 9:24 AM on January 15, 2009
It's hard to believe that a library would accept your books and then throw them away. If they don't have book sales, maybe they could suggest another place where you could donate them.
posted by SoftSummerBreeze at 9:24 AM on January 15, 2009
I am a reformed book hoarder.
Retirement homes, English as a Second Language classes, AAUW, children's hospitals (the waiting rooms are full of adults), dump a bunch on the bookswap shelf of your coffeehouse.
posted by 26.2 at 4:15 PM on January 15, 2009
Retirement homes, English as a Second Language classes, AAUW, children's hospitals (the waiting rooms are full of adults), dump a bunch on the bookswap shelf of your coffeehouse.
posted by 26.2 at 4:15 PM on January 15, 2009
If the library can't use them, many of them make money through used-book sales.
here is a list of other prison book programs.
posted by micawber at 5:26 PM on January 15, 2009
here is a list of other prison book programs.
posted by micawber at 5:26 PM on January 15, 2009
Best answer: Bring them to the Englewood library! Well, not all of them, but we'd gladly relieve you of one or two hundred-ish books. Book sales are great for library fundraising (especially now!), and ours is pretty popular. I don't know where people are getting the "libraries don't want books info", but I know of at least a few other BCCLS libraries that are always looking for used books. Also, I know that I personally would take a bunch of those off of your hands, as your reading tastes seem to dovetail nicely with my own.
You can go to http://www.bccls.org to get contact information for other local libraries. If you're not in Bergen County (or not in one of the Essex/Hudson county libraries that are a part of BCCLS), but are interested in donating to a library (or many libraries, even), you should check out the web site for your local library consortium and get contact info.
If you're not into the whole library idea at all, maybe you could look into distributing them via a local Freecycle mailing list. People love free books. Good luck with the books and the move!
posted by LiliaNic at 10:53 PM on January 15, 2009
You can go to http://www.bccls.org to get contact information for other local libraries. If you're not in Bergen County (or not in one of the Essex/Hudson county libraries that are a part of BCCLS), but are interested in donating to a library (or many libraries, even), you should check out the web site for your local library consortium and get contact info.
If you're not into the whole library idea at all, maybe you could look into distributing them via a local Freecycle mailing list. People love free books. Good luck with the books and the move!
posted by LiliaNic at 10:53 PM on January 15, 2009
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posted by k8t at 8:20 PM on January 14, 2009