"The pile beside my bed never shrinks; at the bottom of the stack are books I've been planning to crack open for months. My shelves remain full of lingering aspirations," writes the Walrus's Michelle Cyca. She looks at the problem of unread books, and the difficulty in offloading our libraries. What do you do with your unwanted books?
It's hard to sum up all the comments we had on this post, but suffice to say, the Mastodon community LOVES books, with Little Free Libraries, online selling and leaving them in common spaces of your apartment building with a "Take it for free" note some of the ways folk donate their books. @lorimolson gave us a peek at her books, and some insights into how she organizes the collection, which is 99.9% science fiction and fantasy.
@CultureDesk@bookstodon New hardbacks that I know I won’t read again I put on eBay. Other ones I give to friends or donate to a local book stall that sells them for charity. I have a cull once a year or so.
@CultureDesk@bookstodon
Selling books I don't want to book sites, even if I only get very little for them. Gift them to people I think would like them. Buying more ebooks if I only need the book for work/studies or know I'll only read it once
@CultureDesk@bookstodon
I resell to my our second-hand bookstore. Don't get much money but hoping to keep the local store. Or, I pass them to a friend.
Trying to read more e-books from the local library. I've found the due date keeps me reading quicker than my hardcopies
I have a weird hybrid collection of physical books & ebooks. I've been buying more ebooks so that whoever has to deal with my stuff when I die won't have to deal with disassembling my library.
I was also an avid library user until I lost my car. It takes 90 minutes each way to go there on the bus & is too physically demanding for me.
@CultureDesk@bookstodon I love books and literature but having to clean out the house of a deceased friend who kept every book (many unread), I now try to donate most of my books, only keeping the few that I absolutely love. Going forward, I make regular use of the library or use an E-reader. I don't want to burden whoever has to clean out my stuff when I'm gone.
@CultureDesk Most fiction I do as ebooks thru my library. There are a few exceptions where a book is so fantastic (Monk and Robot series for one) that I have to own a physical copy.
My physical books tend to be things like cookbooks and other reference type books.
@CultureDesk@bookstodon I get most books from the library and I donate a lot of books to charityshops and mini libraries. I keep the books I someday want to read again and/or want to lend out to friends and family.
@CultureDesk@bookstodon I'm going with "I keep all the books I buy" because it's as near the truth as any of the options. I donate books occasionally (donated a fair few the last time I moved) but I have a hard time parting with them.
@CultureDesk@bookstodon I read a lot of fiction but ran out of shelf space years ago so all my new fiction is ebooks. I do like some print nonfiction, so if I need to make room will donate books I probably won't read again to my library.
I'm living in an apartment building, 24 apartments, mostly young people. I always put books on a window bench in the 2nd floor of the staircase with a note 'Take it for free'.
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