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Question folks. Where can people take unwanted books in your community? Can any be mailed to service members? Are there communities that are short on access? The one time I had a book giveaway from my front yard, only two people showed up and one was my boyfriend. I even put an ad in the paper about it. One day I'm going to try again with my bookstore. I thought about doing what The Bookthing in Baltimore does, which is just give them away. But that doesn't pay rent or utilities. My boyfriend is as crazed as I am over books. Explains the many times I haven't found a dumpster for him yet. Transplants from NJ, NY, PA, and even Atlanta were excited to find my store. But the general Christian folks here avoided me. Not enough money came in to stay open and I took my books home with me. I've got about 400-500 boxes in a doublewide out in the country. Is there a town out there screaming for me, hungry and jonesing for cheap paperbacks? At least I've lots to read. Seriously though, where are books really wanted and needed in your community?
Our library takes used books, I think most do. they have a used book sale a couple times each year. also, goodwill etc. takes used books. I have been in the goodwill stores and see lots of books for sale. You could check with your local american legion or VFW to see if they are sending books to servicemen. also, you might check with local nursing homes etc. they may want some books. probably not all that you have, but some. your local school libraries may be interested in your children's books, a high school possibly some of the other books.
Another idea might be hospitals. There oftentimes seem to be puzzles in waiting rooms but it'd be nice to see books too. I've not seen many but I have seen them. I like the nursing home idea or senior communities. Along with Goodwill I would mention The Salvation Army Thrift Store. Maybe if any local churches have upcoming rummage sales they'd take some to sell.
ETA: Not sure if the SA Thrift Store is considered a Christian charity but ours sells romance and I've seen the others you mentioned in your other post. I even found The Golden Compass series at ours. Maybe it depends on the Christian charity itself and how conservative they are??? I can think of some churches I know of that would probably turn away some unpleasant ones but I don't think they all would do that. Maybe that's just me and my experience though.
Jail. I've seen requests a few times. Apparently they could use more books and more variety of titles, and they have lots of time to read! Big Brother/Sister might be another. Or you could list them on Amazon?
This creates a paradox in my mind. What happens to books that will never be looked again? My stepduaghter once asked me to help her move. There were boxes of books. Two years later she moved again. Same boxes, same books, never opened. A year later she moved again. Same boxes, same books, still taped up. In thrift shops, shelves and shelves of books, that will never be sold. What happens to them? Libraries full of books whose last due date was 50 years ago. Trucklads of remainders on shelves at a buck apiece in malls. It is my conservative estimate that 90% of all books currently in existence will never be opened again. What happens to them? Why should they be so zealously protected out of some dogmatic idea that it is sinful to destroy a book?
go to booksforafrica.org This is a place where your books can make a huge difference in peoples' lives. We don't all have $$ to give to everything, but with old books you can give the gift of education. They take almost anything, just NO religious material. If you mail them "media mail" it's very inexpensive (a few dollars for a big heavy box of books). And it's tax deductible.
go to booksforafrica.org This is a place where your books can make a huge difference in peoples' lives. We don't all have $$ to give to everything, but with old books you can give the gift of education. They take almost anything, just NO religious material. If you mail them "media mail" it's very inexpensive (a few dollars for a big heavy box of books). And it's tax deductible.
I'm going to check into that! I know it is also dirt cheap to mail things 4th class (or is it 3rd?) continentally...when we moved and visited alot I would often do that intstead of travelling with stuff, it just took 2+ months.
I read a book, The Camel Bookmobile, that had donated books to Africa as a plot line...and it talked of the obscure and irrelevant books that came.
Contact the head of the English department at your local high school. Classroom teachers LOVE to have books on hand for kids to read, but since most of them have to pay for anything that goes into their classrooms, they can't afford to subsidize a lending library. We've donated dozens of books to both school libraries and to the English department for teachers to use in their classroom libraries.
If your local school district is pretty well-off, do a bit of digging and find the nearest "Teach For America" district, one of those grossly underfunded and underserved districts. We used to live in such a region, and there were literally children who never saw a book in their lives until the first day they walked into a classroom. Those places are desperate for any reading material they can get.
Jails and the prison system are good suggestions as well. They generally do some censoring for subject matter - books on bomb-making, for example, or the latest escape techniques are not welcome.
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