Loads of books

I donated my DGM's collection to the local hospital League of Friends to put on their book trolley.

I think op is in a country that doesn’t have Ziffit et al.

Ziffit! I visited my elderly parents last week and DM was desperate to get rid of her books.

I've used Ziffit before (I'm not affiliated in any way!), download the app, scan the book barcodes, package them up and Ziffit send a courier to collect them for free.

You won't get masses of money and they don't accept everything, but DM got rid of 40 books and received £12. Easier than dragging them to a charity shop!

I’d offer the mein kampf to a war museum, the raf museum has German planes on display, it’s all part of history. Destroying it won’t achieve anything.

I read everything on an E reader too nowadays, I used to love books but the papers beige, the ink is dark grey no black it’s just not as easy to read as an E reader.

Atomic I loved your description... those are exactly the sort of books we get donated in huge quantities in our charity shop .. no one wants to buy them ... some of our less knowledgeable volunteers spend hours sorting them and displaying them ... only for me to go in and take them all of display..... so depressing that so many books are published in the first place really. Typically they are the 'Christmas gift' type books that are issued ever year ... Z list celebrity biographies or 'fitness guides'.

Ziffit covers the UK.

www.ziffit.com/en-gb/?cq_src=google_ads&cq_cmp=1023829872&cq_con=51935433113&cq_med=&cq_plac=&cq_net=g&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIn4Kc_-LGgQMVS9btCh3t2AlWEAAYASAAEgIPFvD_BwE

You could contact a second hand bookshop to see if they are interested in any. They often buy from house clearances or when people are downsizing. You might get a small amount of money for some of them.

Just take them in batches to charity shops. Around here we have 2 charity bookshops - Amnesty and RSPCA - but most charity shops take them hereabouts. The more old fashioned ones are usually more attractive

NSPCC and Samaritans do book fairs. Samaritans do it once a month where I live. I emailed them, organized a date and the guy came and picked them all up from my house.

https://littlefreelibrary.org/map/ although not all of the ones near me are on here.

People will take books if they are free, but charity shops only take new books. I would take it too little libraries, trainstations, kerbside with a note saying 'free' etc.
Where I live people do this regularly and it gets taken. All of the books I have put in the little library get taken too, no matter how old.

Prompted by this thread, I've spent the evening checking Ebay for prices for some of my older books. Surprisingly I've discovered that a couple of cookery books are worth quite a bit (£30+) and several of my art books are really valuable (£100+). There are also a few first-edition children's books here in varying states of usage, which could be worth something.

I'm not sure if this knowledge will help me to get rid of them or to hold on to them though!

I was waiting for someone to suggest school libraries! Please don't do this! If a charity shop won't take them why on earth would a school library want old, out of date, inappropriate books?

sort into piles

• keep
• get a valuation
• charity shop
• tip

you may well end up with 50% or more going to the tip, but it is better to put them straight into the paper recycling section in reasonable condition than to leave them on the street or dump them on a charity shop that can't sell them.

You could always stick them in a box outside your house with a 'Help Yourself' sign.

It's always difficult to know what might be somebody else's treasure and what will be everybody's trash; but at least you've then given people a fair chance to rescue anything that's wanted.

As you've kept the favourites I'd honestly take them to the tip and release yourself from the burden! They've had their time and given pleasure.

This is why I'm an avid library user these days.

Is it worth sticking them on eBay as a job-lot, buyer to collect only, for a tenner? You could always wave away their money if the collector seems genuinely interested in rehoming as many as possible.

I agree it's very sad to just tip them all, even if that's where some of them may well end up.

Also, do you know any craft groups that do book folding? I did a one day class on it and made a hedgehog. 😁

@AInightingale that's the kind of thing I'd be really interested in - was it published to show British people the nature of the regime they were up against? Or was it a German translation that was deliberately selective? The initial English translations very carefully omitted the most bloodthirsty parts to try and conceal the true intentions of the regime. Your parents' library sounds like something I'd love to peruse!

I’d love to read the copy of Mein Kampf. I can image finding it difficult to read but it’s an important part of history.

Have you looked up any of the books on AbeBooks That will give you a good idea if anything is particularly valuable.

@AtomicBlondeRose that really made me laugh. Our suburban Tescos is at least a little better than that!

This is so sad to read.

I've got so many books in my house.

Sad to think what would happen to them after I'm gone. It's all fiction though.

Our local council tip has special enclosed skips for book recycling. A lot of my parent’s had to go in there when they downsized.

Sorry no help but this is why I got rid of 1000s of my books a few years ago.
I don't miss them, prefer having the shelf space back and prefer reading on kindle.