When’s the last time you weeded out your library? Do you regularly keep it pared down to your reading essentials? Or does it blossom into something out of control the minute you turn your back, like a garden after a Spring rain?
Or do you simply not get rid of books? At all? (This would have described me for most of my life, by the way.)
And–when you DO weed out books from your collection (assuming that you do) …what do you do with them? Throw them away (gasp)? Donate them to a charity or used bookstore? SELL them to a used bookstore? Trade them on Paperback Book Swap or some other exchange program?
Culling the library is an ongoing battle - the front keeps moving forward and back. I get really motivated from time to time and can actually get rid of a good number (keep in mind that "a good number" and "being realistic about what you can keep" amounts to 10 books on a really motivated day). I keep a box in my office and fill it up as I go - some books go in the box after reading, some after a weeding session.
I let my family have first pick of my "weeds" - my parents and brothers and sisters-in-law pick through the boxes and then my dad takes them to the drop-off for the Cedar Rapids Friends of the Public Library (which is in more need than ever since the library flooded and lost the majority of its collection in 2008). Taking books to the used bookstore for money/credit isn't really possible in a college town; the used dealers are innundated with books that college students don't want and the university won't take as a buy-back.
Donating to the library is a great thing to do with your unwanted books :-) It's all about the sharing.
ReplyDeleteAs mentioned in my post I donate to various sources, not just one..
ReplyDeleteBooking Through Weeding
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