to ask what you do with books when you have read them

[risetowefall]

do you donate or sell them or just keep them

Keep. I spent a significant amount of money a few years ago tripling my amount of shelving. Future proofed for about 20 years now.

Donate.

Keep the ones I know I will reread or have some sentimental value.
Gift others directly to others I know will read them.
Put in the free take-one-leave-one libraries around my town.

We keep them all, even our books from university (DC likes to look through all the anatomy and animal books - so they are still getting some use). DH recently built 6 massive floor to ceiling book shelves in our home office and they are only 3/4 full, so we will have to keep all future books if we want the whole library look.

Give them to charity shops good causes, as often as possible,

I might give them to a friends now and again, or offer occasionally a book to family member but they are rarely interested ...

I use my library. You can order books free from any library across the county. So I can get any book I want. I had about 1000 books but lost them in A fire I don't intend to replace them. I own about 15 books now that have been bought for me.

I put them on a bookshelf. When my tiny flat gets full I have a sort through and donate any I won't read again.

(I may have 60 or so hiding under the sofa).

Drove past one of these the other day and came home with 6. Must have been 300 books there all piled up!!

Costs money to order books in at my library. £3

Keep or redonate to the charity shop I bought them from

Save them to swap with my daughters when we visit each other.
They then either pass them on to friends or bring them back to me. I then take them to my Zumba class where we now do a book swap.
I then pick up a couple for myself which, when read, get passed on to my daughters...and repeat.
Any that have sentimental value or that I have particularly enjoyed, I keep or ask to have them back when my DDs have read them. They then get boxed up and put in the loft.
I am just about to invest in a decent sized bookshelf (in addition to my far-too-small one) so any keepers will then be on display.

Keep them of course! What a question.

@IDontWantToBeAPie that's a shame. Different counties seem to have a different approach. Some libraries are volunteer led others are staff run. I'm lucky where I am the la invests in its libraries and they are a popular part of the community.

I read on my phone but when I read actual books gave them to charity which I'm sure they loved as it was all smut.

I carefully remove 5 pages with a scalpel so that it's unnoticeable.

Then I gift to charity.

Pass some to friends and family, the rest go on the charity shelf in our local supermarket.

I keep certain authors or really good ones, the rest go to the local book swap library where I restock my to read pile

Vast majority I read on kindle, but otherwise I pass them on, or donate.
I once had a potential boyfriend come over snd say at a later date we could never be a couple as I didn't have any books. I said that I read every night but do not understand why anyone wants to have shelves of old paperbacks they'll never read again. The only books I keep are cookbooks and design books (I have all of Tricia Guilds books for example).

So you are the one who does this, I just thought it was a publishing error....don't tell me sometimes you very carefully and cleverly put the pages in the wrong order, or even upside down....I new it must have been a mumsnetter and not a book faerie 🧚.

I take them to work for the book swap bookcase.

Any MNetters visiting me would be very judgey, as I don't own many books now. I moved last year and got rid of thousands of books that had been on floor to ceiling shelves for years. My new house had a lot less space and I felt so sad to give up the books but it was oddly freeing. I donate them on community groups or to second hand book shop.

Why would you remove 5 pages before donating them?

@BringCathyBack , that would be a very odd, mean thing to do? I thought the page removal might be for copyright purposes or something.