What do you do with books once you've read them

[myhandsareverycold]

Just that really.

I write in the book what I thought of it and ask the next reader to do the same and then pass it on.

Perhaps it's defacing the book but I like doing that and don't keep a book once I've read it unless it's a reference book.

What does everyone else do once they have finished a book?

I keep most of them, unless I really didn’t like the book in which case it goes to the charity shop. We have shelves and shelves of books in our living room and I love how they look. These days, though, I do most of my reading on Kindle or the BorrowBox app, so there aren’t many actual books coming into the house.

Last time I gave them to a book swap table.
I've given to charity shops before
Now I'm Going to give my latest one to the phone box with books in that's just been put in in town

Return them to the library or give them to one of the homeless people I see on my way to work. He doesn't have an address so can't borrow books so if I see a book that he would enjoy I buy it and pass it on.

Pass it on. Sometimes to my son, but to friends who read and charity shops. I've left ones in hospital waiting rooms too when I had the misfortune of spending inordinate amounts of time in them.

I always put them in the charity bags that get collected from my house every few weeks. I don’t read a book twice so don’t want them cluttering the house

I donate mine to my gp surgery, they sell the books for 50p each and the money gets donated to local charities.

The hospital I work at has a trolley in the canteen you can leave books on so others can take them to read.

Keep them to re read.
Pass on to friends.
Donate to charity shops.
Donate to a book swap shelf.

I like the idea of passing them on to a hospital, I’ll look into that.

Thanks for all the replies. Really interesting and lovely up know people pass them on. Recycling at its finest.

Donate them to my local hospital breast institute for women who have sit in there for hours on end for appointments and chemo etc.

I only read in my kindle so they get deleted and sit there unloved in the cloud.

I was talking to my hairdresser this afternoon and we discussed books. Decided I will take them there and they can be shared out. No everyone has the spare cash to buy lots of books and it gives so many so much pleasure.

It would appear that a lot of discussion goes on about what everyone is reading. (I often purchase a book on Amazon whilst there!)

Keep them so I can read them again, unless I wasn't keen on it, in which case take it to a charity shop

I don’t tend to re read books, so unless it’s a classic or a particular favourite then I will pass them on or put them on the book swap table at the gym. I just don’t have the space at home to keep them. Until I live in my dream house complete with library (and wheeled ladder!).

Books I want to keep go on the shelves in the sitting room (reference) or in the garage (fiction).
I take what I don’t want to the local library where there’s a “free to a good home“ shelf.
I’ve only thrown away one book into paper recycling as I couldn’t bear to inflict it on anyone else: “Me Before You”.
I bought it for a bit of light reading on the beach. It nearly got frisbee’d into the sea!

BookCrossing.com
Register a book you want to pass on online, label it and release it, wherever you want.
If you’re lucky you’ll get a pm telling you that someone has found it.
After 3 years I was delighted to see that a copy of Skipping Christmas by John Grisham (much better than the film!) had turned up in a backpackers’ hostel in the middle of Australia.
On another occasion I’d left a book outside a nursery and received a lovely message that a 3 year old was excited to have found it after her very first morning at nursery.

Lots more information on the BookCrossing website. It’s fun and keeps books moving around the world

I reread it. The (very few) books that don't bear rereading are donated to our local charity shop.

I have always kept my books as I love re-reading them. But I have so many now and don't read as much as I used to now that I have young children and a dog, so I was thinking of doing something different.

I once found a book in a cafe which someone had written a message in saying they hope whoever finds it enjoys it as much as they did and I quite like the idea of doing something like that. I also did consider seeing if my local library would like some of them.

@Zippetydoodahzippetyay

Delighted to hear I'm not the only nutter that writes messages in books! Did you read the book left in the cafe and enjoy it too?

We have a 'read and return' book swap in our village so I swap there.

We have a book sale shelf at work which raises money for our local hospice, i take loads there. Always find goodies too.

@myhandsareverycold yes I really did enjoy it which was great as it probably wouldn't have been something I normally chose.

Haha no definitely not the only nutter. Myself and all my book work friends could be described as a little nutty.

Good ones i like or have sentimental value like a birthday gift etc i keep
ones i know my daughters will like i give to them
rest get given to charity shop, local Spar who sell them for charity, leave them in phone box libraries or coffee mornings etc i get through at least five books a week so lots of books to go round

Book swap shelves at my train station. Dumped 3 books there this morning on my way to work. I keep some but my bookshelves are overflowing.

It's a shame that we have so few libraries now. This wouldn't even be an issue