Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Throwing away books...

165 replies

SleepingStandingUp · 12/04/2019 14:06

Collecting DC from the nursery, parents behind me discussing what they'll come out with.

One says she hopes it isn't a book, she hates it.
The friend asks if she means the weekly reading book and she clarifies no, a gift book (like they had at Christmas)
She goes on to say that she just bins them and other one comments she bags them all away (presumably to chuck or donate)

Kids got a Mr Men book at Christmas so not crap books by any stretch.

I wish i'd said something to her (like, then bloody donate it you silly woman, don't throw a decent book in the bin) but I was just so astounded. Utterly flummoxed as to why you'd resent a free book (and a nice book at that!!) and bin it rather than donate or, you know, USE it!!

AIBU to not understand her ire?

OP posts:
KissingInTheRain · 13/04/2019 08:56

Throwing away books isn’t a political act - like public book burning - or a rejection of learning or knowledge. It’s just housekeeping (and there is no higher calling than that, on MN at least!).

Over the years, including having cleared a few dead relatives’ houses, I must have disposed of hundreds of books. And like others on this thread I couldn’t care less if out-of-date guide books, rubbishy children’s books or the cream of the works of Jeffrey Archer go to become something else, or landfill. I’d throw out most books in fact, if I thought I had no more use for them.

A friend who works in a charity shop told me not to bother sending books to them. They don’t want them.

I’m not denigrating the importance of books by the way. It’s also regrettable that newspaper readership has gone down so much in recent years. I just don’t think we should fetishise ink and paper.

SpriggyTheHedgehog · 13/04/2019 09:03

It's sad to hear that so many charity shops don't accept books. Every charity shop in my town and the neighbouring town accepts books. They're always looking for more.

If charity shops won't take books, there are some charity book stalls in some supermarkets(Tesco here) and B&Q too. That may be an option.

Loopytiles · 13/04/2019 09:08

That may be the case in cities.

I presume it’s that many smaller charity shops don’t have the staff resource to sort books, and send them to pay-by-weight recycling places.

Aroundtheworldin80moves · 13/04/2019 09:10

My children's school closes this summer. I'm already wondering what will happen to the library... In my dreams they let the kids take what they want... Reality will probably be the bin.

I've got rid of most of my paperback collection over recent years. We regularly pass on outgrown children's books. Most of mine are ebooks now. But my DDs are entering that read a short novel in 3 days bit of childhood. But I don't really want to buy full price Magic Animals or Secret Unicorn books. I'd love a charity shop selling children's books!

BlueEyedBengal · 13/04/2019 09:14

I donate my books to a local charity shop and also the school fundraiser sale all is welcome and they sell really well. I love to read and cook so have a collection of all types of books. I also have 6 children and make sure they have all the latest books that are on the curriculum.

BlueEyedBengal · 13/04/2019 09:16

I also found a suitcase in the attic, it was full of my favourite pony story books that I loved to read as a preteen. I can honestly say it was like finding treasure.

CapeDaisy5 · 13/04/2019 09:26

#Most free books given away are shit too. Charity shops often don’t want them as they don’t sell.*

I must be lucky, my local charity shops don't check the content I bring in, just tell me to dump it in the back room Grin

SoundofSilence · 13/04/2019 10:01

I feel odd about throwing away books. I think about how much effort someone put into writing it and feel guilty, and I have hoarding tendencies anyway. I try to suppress them because I've seen where it ends but books are the hardest thing to throw. I did make a start by giving four carrier bags of them to the school when they ran a book sale. The ones I really want to ditch are the shelf of ancient, dated and smelly encyclopedias which haven't been opened in twenty years, but tin hat DP won't hear of it and says they are a record of truths which political correctness has since tried to erase Confused.

HowManyFlatCaps · 13/04/2019 11:51

A charity shop that sold dog-eared books for a quid each and 3 for £2.50 would get my custom. Frequently. But not one that tried to sell me a pristine one for £2.50. The stock in a charity shop is limited and not usually stuff I'd go out of my way to buy, good condition or not. So I'm not going to gamble £2.50 on it when there's millions of secondhand books I can choose from and get delivered to my door for £3.

But I guess 3 dogeared books takes up more room than one new one. I just know that the big name charity shops in my local town now seem to have the same books on the shelf week to week whereas the independents that got driven out by the rates had loads of (yes, a bit tatty) new stuff every time I went.

BasiliskStare · 13/04/2019 12:49

@Bertrandrussell - this - Please can someone explain to me why it’s wrong to bin books?

Obviously, as with any other object, it’s better to pass on or donate, but for the millions of books unsuitable for this why not bin/recycle?

I have thought this about getting rid of books , and I think it gets conflated with binning / burning books with a certain opinion , but just some paperbacks which have given a few hours pleasure and don't really add to the sum of world knowledge then I think they can be recycled.

I am one who hated the idea of a kindle because I liked the heft and weight of a book. Now I love my kindle & adds to less waste etc. Now I keep the books I actually want to keep & no longer think any one will judge me on how many books I have. I have read the ones I have and those I liked I can remember. I do not need to have 5000 books on my shelves to prove I read a lot.

downcasteyes · 13/04/2019 13:39

"Obviously, as with any other object, it’s better to pass on or donate, but for the millions of books unsuitable for this why not bin/recycle?"

I don't really see how a book can be unsuitable for passing on or donating, apart from it being severely damaged?? It's surely not that hard to put it on a local Facebook group for free, or to take it to a charity shop?

KissingInTheRain · 13/04/2019 13:45

I don't really see how a book can be unsuitable for passing on or donating, apart from it being severely damaged??

I doubt that even a well kept copy of the Guinness Book of Records 2010 would excite much interest as a giveaway.

downcasteyes · 13/04/2019 13:53

Ahhhh, yeah, I see your point kissing. I wasn't thinking that some books have a sell-by date! Smile

NerrSnerr · 13/04/2019 13:56

I don't really see how a book can be unsuitable for passing on or donating, apart from it being severely damaged??

What about guidebooks for cities that were written 20 years ago? Or revision guides for GCSEs in the 90s? Or a how to use Windows 95? Who wants those?

NerrSnerr · 13/04/2019 13:57

Cross post!

KissingInTheRain · 13/04/2019 14:01

Cross post!

But, if I may say so, cross-posts of the very highest calibre.

Dongdingdong · 13/04/2019 14:01

I used to agree that throwing out books is sacrilege - but now I think it’s an ok thing to so if they’re crappy things like Fifty Shades of Grey for example. I’d have no qualms whatsoever about chucking a copy of that in the recycling, but I’d never throw away a good book.

Bodicea · 13/04/2019 14:05

There is a lot of point scoring on here regarding who reads to their kids the most /who loves books the most here.
It isn’t actually the most important thing in the world. I myself have always been a bit of a bookworm, as is my dad. I’ve done ok in life ( good professional job, above average income). Dh on the other hand has never been much of a reader. He is just interested in other things! His life luckily has not gone down the pan as people seem to suggest will happen to kids if you don’t force books down their throat every day! He actually earns about four times as much as me so he is quite alright.
Ds so far isn’t much of a reader either. He is more interested in building stuff and investigating how things work. He has a maths brain according to his teacher. I read to him but if he isn’t in the mood I don’t bully him into it. I don’t want it to become a chore. DD loves being read too so that’s what we do.
It’s ok to like different things!
I think there is too much pressure on schools to get Kids reading and writing too early too at the detriment of other things ( reduction of continuous provision in pro
Art schools for a start).

Tawdrylocalbrouhaha · 13/04/2019 14:12

Ah, but Bodicea! I've never valued reading in the belief that it leads to a higher salary, or any form of material success. For those who love to read, doing so is it's own reward, and this is a massive wonderful gift that we naturally hope our children will also be lucky enough to enjoy.

It is as close to living other lives and visiting other world's as we get. Nothing to do with money.

Tawdrylocalbrouhaha · 13/04/2019 14:14

Don't know where those Oxford commas came from! I swear excessive reading has not rotted my spelling.

Alsohuman · 13/04/2019 14:17

There’s the extra apostrophe too! 😉

Tawdrylocalbrouhaha · 13/04/2019 14:19

Er, my passionate love of reading caused me to cast grammer to the wind! Also spellcheck.

CalamityJune · 13/04/2019 14:21

I enjoy reading but I don't like the clutter of having loads of them around the house. I've gone back to using the library and I'm amazed more people don't.

I wouldn't throw a book away if I could donate it to a charity shop or a book swap event.

Bodicea · 13/04/2019 14:39

That’s fine Tawdry. I love reading for its own sake too. The earnings is just an example as some people seem to think you can only be successful in life if you are into reading. The point is you can not like reading and still be an interesting person. Dh bores me to tears with his interest in cars and how they work but that’s his thing and he gets infinite pleasure out of it. I just don’t think we should judge people for not being readers or valuing books in quite the same way. I remember the peer pressure of my nct group, everyone outdoing themselves on how much they read to their kids every night, how their child was always saying just one more and I would be despairing that I couldn’t pin my child long enough to get through half a book. It felt like another thing on the long list of things you have to do to be a perfect parent.

applesarerroundandshiny · 13/04/2019 15:31

Whether you enjoy reading or not it's wrong to throw away something which can be used by someone else.