I’m sure your mother pounded the sharing ethos into your head like my mother did into mine, but sharing is good in adult situations too and not just when another kid wants to play with your toy or when you have a friend over and you have some candy or other goodies.Yes, I’m talking about books.
Yes, this is a continuation of last week’s post.
Last week I told you about a fellow who is leaving stacks of used books all over New York for others to take (or borrow). What do you do with the books you’ve read but don’t want to keep or simply don’t have the room for?
Of course you can do as he does and leave them in strategic places with a sign that says TAKE ONE—OR SEVERAL or FREE BOOKS or PEOPLE’S LIBRARY. But there are other things you can do with them, too. Let’s discuss your options.
- Check FreeCycle.org to see if this worthy organization has a branch in your area and, if they do, join (it’s free) and give away your books through FreeCycle.
- Donate them to your local library, which will either shelve them or include them in their next fund-raising book sale.
- If they’re books for kids, or adult books that are suitable for high schoolers, donate them to a school library.
- Donate them to your church or synagogue, either for their library, if they have one and if it features secular books as well as religious ones, or for their next fund-raising yard sale.
- If you live in a condo or in a house that’s governed by a Homeowners Association, see if there is an informal “library” somewhere in a common area of the building or the HOA. In the condo where I live, there is a library in the clubhouse’s card room, in addition to which people sometimes leave books (and magazines) on the tables in the various buildings’ laundry rooms. In my mother’s old condo, the “library” was on shelves within the garbage room enclosure. (The location did not indicate a judgment on the value of the books!)
- Donate them to your local VA hospital.
- Donate them to any other hospital in your area—or to a nursing home, senior center, or other type of facility that serves people with lots of spare time.
- Another movement I’ve read about is that of people who set up private libraries on the edge of their property, where the front lawn meets the sidewalk or road. These are small structures one can reach into (not walk into), up on poles so they’re at eye level, with signs inviting passersby to take a book or borrow one—or leave one.
- Pass them along to friends, neighbors, and acquaintances if you think so-and-so would enjoy a particular book or books you’ve read.
- Donate them to a charitable organization that holds fund-raising yard sales.
- If they’re easy to read, donate them to a literacy program.
- Hold a book swap party. Have all your friends bring the books they’d like to find new homes for, and let everyone browse through everyone else’s book stacks and see what new “finds” they can go home with.
- Offer them on CraigsList.
- Spread them out on a table on your lawn on a Saturday morning, yard-sale fashion, and put up a sign: BOOK GIVE-AWAY.
- Or actually sell them in the same fashion. In this case, your sign might read: YARD SALE—BOOKS AND MORE BOOKS.
What other ideas can you come up with?