UPDATED: Frequently Donated Books

What was once so normal in one's culture that it was not remarked upon eventually becomes obscure.

So, I want to record these currently "unremarkable" books commonly donated to the thrift store.

Self-help/pop psychology books must be one of the most time-sensitive kinds of book.
The thrift store gets tons of the "Don't Sweat the Small Stuff" and "Chicken Soup for the ____" series. (Hm, I haven't seen one of the "Everything I Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten" series in a long while...)
I keep one of the main titles around, but I don't think they ever sell. (I should start noting if they do.)

 

Pop bestsellers are time-sensitive too. Copies of books that people read in book clubs or give as gifts get donated in waves as people finish with them.
Before everyone's read the bestseller, the first wave of copies sells. After that, you can't give it away.

There are exceptions.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo books––Stieg Larsson's super popular Millennium Series (2005–2007)––continue to sell.

QUOTE: “Capitalists' wet dreams is to be involved in charity.”
So now these books are.

Another set just came in yesterday:

Books about politicians are hot while the politician is, and cold as yesterday's mashed potatoes afterward.
Books about former US president Trump, such as Michael Wolff's Fire and Fury (2018), are piling up since his defeat, and soon I'll move them to the 33-cents Bargain Book shelves.
(We get lots of Malcolm Gladwell's books, and they sell slowly and steadily.)

Lot of copies of books with movie tie-in covers, such as Jumpa Lahiri's The Namesake and Ian McEwan's Atonement:

The store almost always has multiple copies of...

The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren, pastor of evangelical  Saddleback megachurch
QUOTE: “The best use of life is love. The best expression of love is time. The best time to love is now.”

These novels that look the same and have geographical titles:
Plainsong, Kent Haruf (1999)--family in eastern Colorado;
Peace Like a River, Leif Enger (2001)--family in Dakota Badlands;
and Cold Mountain, Charles Frazier (1997), about the US Civil War

Loving Frank (Nancy Horan, 2007) is a fluke--the store usually has one copy, but not four.
I'd say its representative of some book club finishing a book and everyone dumping their copy at once.
It's a fictionalized story of the love affair between Mamah Borthwick and (married) Frank Lloyd Wright.)

Eat Pray Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia, by Elizabeth Gilbert
QUOTE: “I want God to play in my bloodstream the way sunlight amuses itself on the water.”  

What to Expect When You're Expecting: The Complete Guide to Getting Pregnant (Heidi Murkoff, the series)

Strengthsfinder––I think people get these at job hunting/workplace classes? And then give them away.

The Shack--A Christian novel that the author William P. Young says is about "the house you build out of your own pain". (--Wikipedia)

Other books we usually have multiple copies of:

The Kite Runner, by Afghan-American author Khaled Hosseini (2003);

Mitch Albom's Tuesdays with Morrie: An Old Man, a Young Man, and Life's Greatest Lesson.

The Twilight Saga by Stephenie Meyers, vampire-themed fantasy romance novels, 2005– . (Every once in a while someone buys a set of them.)
Ditto The Hunger Games series (2008–) by Suzanne Collins.

We usually don't have copies of Harry Potter because they sell immediately.
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NOTE: I took down what I'd posted here about JK Rowling's comments on trans people after I talked with a non-binary friend.
My friend agreed with me that JKR raised some valid concerns about the medical treatment (heavy duty chemicals (hormones), but they said JKR communicated those points in a divisive and hurtful way.

Rather than extensively revising my comments, I'm posting a link to JKR's communications;
if you haven't read them, you can decide for yourself:
"A Complete Breakdown of the J.K. Rowling Transgender-Comments Controversy" in Glamour, May 2021.