Loads of books

[AInightingale]

I couldn't think of anywhere else to post this, so apologies, it is not health or wellbeing related. My mum is downsizing and can only take a small bookcase of books with her. We have selected her favourites and those that mean a lot to her, but I really don't know what to do with the rest. I can't take more than a few. They are mostly quite old and I don't think charity shops would be interested in more than a few bundles of thrillers, etc. A lot of cookery books, encyclopaedias (70s vintage), old hardbacks from the 40s/50s, biographies of historical figures, a full set of those purple kings and queens books she bought from one of those book clubs years ago. The thought of binning books or throwing them on a skip is too harrowing. Any thoughts? I am in NI so the 'We Buy Books' website does not cover us.

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.

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

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

Regarding old cookery books - these are really popular round here. Celebrity bios are not that interesting, agreed, but old guide books seem to sell at our RSPCA shop

@Ragwort I will say that in comparison, the charity shops have quite a nicely curated selection of books. Not all to my taste but they do weed out the complete shite very well.

I would bundle together books that are hardback vintage style and list them locally on FB, people want books to put on shelves as an interior design look.

Thank you all, I am going to try Ziffit - they seem to work with Collect Plus stores, so we have these in NI. I'm not in my mum's atm - when did books start to get IBSN numbers, does anyone know?

Oh, just Googled it myself- 1967! Many of these books are actually older.

We had to get rid of lots of MIL's books when she went into care. Many charity shops didn't want them. We ended up driving to a National Trust place that had a "book barn" to donate them. The people who volunteered there were really grateful.

Thank you everyone for your suggestions.

The people who would be interested in buying Mein Kampf would be not very nice. If it was mine I would make sure it was destroyed.

When my mother downsized, we had to part with literally thousands of books. A local second hand bookseller came round and she was able to sell some of the good ones. Charity shops weren’t interested in most of the others. It was really upsetting taking lots of books to the recycling centre, as well as backbreaking.

Honestly, destroy the Mein Kampf - burn it or tear it up or something.

A university teaching that period of history will already have copies of it in the library. Same with a museum library and I very much doubt a school library would even consider it.

Invite a local bookseller to come and take their pick and make an offer.

After that, skip at local council recyling.

I organise a charity booksale every year (get 1000 + books donated by community).

We get plenty of saleable stuff but also a lot of what you're describing and it does me no favours. Took a whole car load to skip earlier this year.

I love books, but there is a limit to what is useful.

I decided I needed to offload many hundreds of books when I last moved house so I put a small bookcase outside my house, just up against the wall on the pavement, filled it with books and made a sign saying 'Free Books - Help Yourself'. And kept refilling the shelves as they got taken. Overall about three quarters went. And some days I'd find a nice note or two saying 'thank you' had been left. It was a good feeling. The rest went in my recycling wheelie bin.

Burn the nazi book.

Unfotunately, in some areas, books can not be recycled. So if no Charity shops will take they will have to go into household bin. I discovered this when I was sorting my parents books and my own.

Never bin anything without price checking!

There is a home for every book.

I'd never bin a book unless it was severely damaged/mouldy. (I even kept a book that was part nibbled by a mouse)

Phone your local Oxfam bookstore. We had a lot of boxes of books and our local shop took them (just check first).

There is a home for every book ... that really isn't true. We have endless charity shops, free book stalls, jumble sales etc etc where I live and many books are just not wanted and end up being pulped.

Some online traders buy second hand books?

I'm not sure whether somebody is mentioned this, but you can donate to your library if you have good copies. They usually have a charity box there as well where you can leave decent copies.

This is a good London solution but I don't think it works in more rural areas

Was going to suggest could you create a local free library

Do check carefully before you dispose of them that there is nothing valuable. A colleague of a friend was clearing his mother's house after she died. House clearance took all the books along with everything else. He discovered afterwards that one of the books, which otherwise looked pretty insignificant, had been a gift to his father signed by Winston Churchill. It was worth a small fortune.