Not to worry, I'm not getting rid of great books.
Here, below, is a cart of long-unsold books I weeded from the bookshelves when I started--full of the sorts of books I don't even bother putting out––
unless they're vintage or somehow cool (for collage material, etc.):
1. Outdated computer/Internet books (anything older than three years)
2. Outdated business books (New Ways of Managing Conflict, 1976)
3. Color Me Beautiful (1980 ed.):
actually, now I have a 33-cents shelf, I'd put it there
4. Best of Modern Humor, Mordecai Richter, 1983:
Ditto the 33-cent shelf, but copies online sell for $0.01
5. Old travel books (boring ones, e.g., Readers Digest guides to national parks), and price guides to collecting antiques
When our warehouse has a few hundred boxes of these, they are sold them for pennies a pound to... I don't know. Need to check on this.
II. "It's the little things that get us through the hard days...."
Good books that don't sell (there aren't many), we donate to a local church for their rummage sale
or to the excellent Women's Prison Book Project.
Women in prisons around the country write to them to request specific books, or books on specific topics–– recovery from addiction, for instance, and crochet books (you can crochet but not knit in prison).
The WPBP serves women in prisons nationally but lucky for me the project is housed in a bookstore only a couple miles from the thrift store.
You can mail them books there too:
Women’s Prison Book Project
c/o Boneshaker Books
2002 23rd Ave S
Minneapolis MN 55404
Sometimes I set aside books on most-requested topics for them, knowing the thrift store clientele can get a wide range of books from libraries and incarcerated women can't.
Here's a list of some frequently requested but rarely donated books.
Here, below, is a cart of long-unsold books I weeded from the bookshelves when I started--full of the sorts of books I don't even bother putting out––
unless they're vintage or somehow cool (for collage material, etc.):
1. Outdated computer/Internet books (anything older than three years)
2. Outdated business books (New Ways of Managing Conflict, 1976)
3. Color Me Beautiful (1980 ed.):
actually, now I have a 33-cents shelf, I'd put it there
4. Best of Modern Humor, Mordecai Richter, 1983:
Ditto the 33-cent shelf, but copies online sell for $0.01
5. Old travel books (boring ones, e.g., Readers Digest guides to national parks), and price guides to collecting antiques
When our warehouse has a few hundred boxes of these, they are sold them for pennies a pound to... I don't know. Need to check on this.
II. "It's the little things that get us through the hard days...."
Good books that don't sell (there aren't many), we donate to a local church for their rummage sale
or to the excellent Women's Prison Book Project.
Women in prisons around the country write to them to request specific books, or books on specific topics–– recovery from addiction, for instance, and crochet books (you can crochet but not knit in prison).
The WPBP serves women in prisons nationally but lucky for me the project is housed in a bookstore only a couple miles from the thrift store.
You can mail them books there too:
Women’s Prison Book Project
c/o Boneshaker Books
2002 23rd Ave S
Minneapolis MN 55404
Sometimes I set aside books on most-requested topics for them, knowing the thrift store clientele can get a wide range of books from libraries and incarcerated women can't.
Here's a list of some frequently requested but rarely donated books.
The Women's Prison Book Project is very interesting. I had never heard of them before. A quick look at the requested books was quite fascinating. I can only imagine what it would be like not to be able to access books as easily as we can.
ReplyDeleteReading the note from a very appreciative person really put it in perspective.
I will say that the books in the buggy are certainly not sparking joy!
Kirsten
KIRSTEN: ...And not to be able to access books in boring, stressful circumstances when you'd need them most.
ReplyDeleteI don't know now I'd have survived high school without books.