Gone Girl question

Thanks so much Ruby. Great ideas!

Library's cannot do anything with advanced reader copies - they can't sell them in their book shop (if they have one) and they can't be added to the collection for customers to check out. If you don't have a friend you can give them to, rip the cover off and toss the pages in your recycling bin.

Please also keep in mind that that your local library probably only want your books if they are in like new or very good condition - nothing truly "old." If it's nonfiction, the info is likely outdated after a couple years. Any donated books should not have yellow pages, worn cover, or have been stored in boxes for a long time due to how easy it is for all that paper to be infested with bugs.

Makes sense. Thanks so much.

I have left books that I finished reading while traveling at the airports for other travelers. Of course, this doesn't help with loads of books! Also, retirement communities have libraries and always like to have donated books.

I have a little library outside my house! But donating them to any thrift store is what I do also. There is also some local book swap groups on facebook you can try.

I think the best thing to do is to donate them to a thrift store. But if truly no one wants them, don't be afraid to trash them. If they are books that are readily available in the library already, it's not a sin to destroy them. When I was working on my MLIS over 10 years ago, one of the most vivid memories is when our Collections Development professor ripped a book apart while lecturing to show that the "object" itself is not sacred. The information contained within is important, but when the object is either plentiful or has outlived its usefulness (as in the case of out of date science books), there is no shame in destroying the book. Academic libraries have to keep everything, even out of date textbooks for the historical record, but we don't have to keep everything in either our personal or public libraries. The point of destroying the book--if you put a complete book in the trash, people go beserk.

I set up a local village hall mini library with mine. Now we have a library shelf on wheels and people can borrow and return or even keep if they want and bring something back of their own for others to read.

It's very successful.

I love book art. I've seen a number of artists use old books in collages and in 3D sculpture works. And there's always the free section of Craig's List. I bet plenty of people would be happy to have them!

So far I have donated 120 books to my local hospital. Volunteers give the gently used books to patients who then may take them home or re-donate to the patient library. My local hospital is always appreciative of book donations.