What to do with old books?

[Perpetuallywondering]

Just as the title says, really! I’m helping my parents clear their house for downsizing and am having to push for a lot of decisions to be made.
Next up are the books. The “read but still in good condition” books are easy to donate to local second hand bookshops, but what do you do with nearly century-old books, no first editions, in terrible condition but with some sentimental value. We can’t keep literally shelves full of them. They’re largely children’s books which are are musty, outdated (and frankly some have dubious opinions).

Contrary to my aged-p’s belief, I don’t think any second hand shop will want them. They have no monetary value. Do we just tip them, though?! That seems only one step up from burning 😱

Loads of antiquarian maritime books here. Also huge collection of classical LPs. WTF do you do with those? I open the cupboards and close them again, it's overwhelming.

I’m on the app so can’t pm, but you can email me on [email protected]

So's my mum just into her 90's. She's a big fan!!

I have just done this OP.
We Buy Any Book, don't actually buy any book at all, but for books new enough to have bar codes it is very quick to scan them in and pack them up. They will fetch them to be shipped. You can give small quantities to charity shops, and there are antiquarian book sellers that will take a lot over anything that is really old. The rest we took to recycling because no one really wants 2nd hand copies of things that sell for a couple of quid new on Amazon!

We donated 2500 books (some 1st editions) to a National Trust house for their 2nd hand bookshop. We had sent a list to a number of London Charing Cross 2nd hand bookshops and rare book dealers and no one wanted them. Couldn't skip them so was pleased to donate to NT and hope they can make some money out of them. Kept only a few books in the end, not 1000's!

I've used Ziffit to sell books. The books have to have a bar code, and they tell you right away how much they'll give you (pennies usually!). You then package them up and drop them off at a parcel locker. I think they paid me via PayPal.
Frankly unless the books are recent it's not generally worth it, but at least finding out is quick and it might ease your conscience about dumping them.
You could offer them free via Facebook, for crafting woth. Some people use properly old books for junk journalling and similar.

Lovely to hear. I collect a specialist item and books on that subject might be old but so difficult to find. I love rummaging through 2nd hand book stalls.

Thanks everybody.

We have donated loads (hundreds!) to National Trust bookshops and so forth. Really, I think the ones we have left are not in good enough condition for anyone to want or enjoy (spines falling off or no longer existent, pages falling out etc). I sort of need permission to dump - and I do feel we’ve genuinely reused and passed on all that could be rehomed.

Glad it’s not just me in this position too - I’m finding being squeezed between young children and aged Ps quite hard!

Similar issues here, and sympathy. It sounds as if you've done all you can in the way of donation, OP, and do need to summon up courage to bin things.

Most of the ones I've had to deal with have gone to Oxfam, but I have had to bin some that were mouldy. I'm about to try Anglo Doorstop Collections - a friend has used them several times and recommends them. They take books - you box them up and leave them out for collection. 60% of proceeds go to charity. I won't link in case it looks like I'm spamming, but they are easily findable online for anyone in the thread interested. I don't think they cover the whole country, though.

Oh, and a few years ago, dealing with a family member's books in Fife, we made a lot of use of the Better World Books recycling points there.

Really helpful to know about the Fife points as I am going to have a similar situation there in a few years..!! 😭

Are then any dedicated book sales near you? The Guides Dogs charity do an annual one near us and they have all manner of books in all kinds of conditions.

Please don't send books in bad condition to developing world charities. Africa is not a dumping ground for our rubbish. As someone who worked in the trade: condition is almost everything. With very few exceptions, mass produced books from the last two centuries that aren't signed, dust-jacketed, first editions etc. are worth very little.

You find an antiquarian maritime book dealer online and a classical record dealer.

Don’t worry, I’m not going to do that 😊 I’m very keen only to give these to people who’d want them.

I might see if local crafters want any with nice pics, but otherwise I’m going to encourage my parents to dump. We genuinely have given any that I could envisage selling in a charity shop.

Hard when there’s sentimental value, but it’s got to be cleared at some point!

The charity wouldn’t send them. They specify new or used in gc and no damaged books.

Thanks, I think I struggle to believe that some of these things have any value any more.

This