Comments on: Getting rid of books

By: FrugalZen

FrugalZen — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 13:10:08 +0000

I’m a bookhound as well getting most of them via Edward Hamilton (remainder books…new or slightly shop worn if returns and noted in description and all of them have just a small black mark on the end of the pages denoting “remainder”) tens of thousands of titles…though you need to be careful..he had to set up a website a couple of years ago http://www.hamiltonbooks.com and start taking credit cards and he charges for the privilege by the shipping…use a credit card and shipping is $3.50 for the first book and $1.00 for each additional however send a check or money order and shipping is $3.50 no matter how many books you order. I just ordered 35 mostly hardbacks from the recent fiction catalog and spend only $170.50. No wait for the check to clear either…he ships right out and usually if a book is out of stock (rare) the refund check may arrive before the order does.

Another site good for hard to find books is http://www.bookfinder.com especially older out of print but be sure to go through the listings..a single letter changed in a description makes it a distinct entry in the system.

When I’m done reading…since that is the idea of this post…I usually donate them to the private school attended by my neice for their library. Very much appreciated.

By: YoungTightwad

YoungTightwad — Sun, 20 Feb 2011 23:48:59 +0000

I’ve been thinking about cleaning up and slimming down my collection for a while now. Useful article, thanks!

By: Mat B

Mat B — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 16:31:53 +0000

Bookmooch.com is another trade site.

By: Jon

Jon — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 21:03:24 +0000

I’ve also a big fan of using inter-library loans.
Another great service at my library is an patron can recommend up to 10 book purchases each year. So far this year, I’ve had the library buy 2 books. And if they don’t buy it, the request isn’t counted against the 10 requests. Nice, eh? Guess what book I recently requested that they buy? Hint: the author’s first name is Jacob. Hopefully they approve the purchase soon!

By: krantcents

krantcents — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 17:57:56 +0000

Are books going away? I still like reading books, so I borrow them from the library. I still like reading the newspaper and I think that is going away. I read more on the Internet, but it is not the same. I like to read magazines, but they are consolidating. They too are going away. It seems everything is going electronic, but I don’t want to be connected 100% of the time. I guess I will have to adapt to these changes or I will be going away!

By: Jacob

Jacob — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 17:56:37 +0000

It would certainly be nice of library donated books ended up in their circulation. For our library, what typically happens is that they end up in the library’s bookstore/cafe where they’re sold (for not very much) to fund general operations. They’re even pretty picky about what kind of donations they’ll take e.g. no paperbacks older than 1 year, and so on.

By: Surio

Surio — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 14:02:45 +0000

Sigh!,
That reads like the story of my life, at least the first two paras.

I usually remember where I read something (down to the location on the page), but I don’t remember the details exactly.

Ha! Uncanny. I have the same ability! Birds of a feather, as they say

Interesting old post I hadn’t read before, Jacob. At this rate, I will have nothing new or nothing left to write for my own blog

I have donated many of my collection since 2007 (the awakening, as I like to call it) to the local library, despite my parents’ loud protests that I’ve spent hard earned “£” on it!

There’s a lot they refused to send through. It’s idly taking space….. for now. In India, space is definitely a premium. More I un

By: Ward

Ward — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 13:32:11 +0000

Rather than donating the books to Goodwill, donate them to you local library. That way the books that they keep for thier collections will be available for others to read, and the ones they don’t keep will be sold to provide funding for the purchase of new books for the library.

By: Annemarie

Annemarie — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 13:27:00 +0000

I have the same problem. Our local library can get Nora Roberts via ILL but over half of the books I requested are not loaned out that way. (Mostly academic stuff and strangely the college libraries want to hang on to it.) Kindle isn’t much use because they don’t seem to have many 20C scholarly books yet; I gather there are copyright issues.

Finally we just established a book budget and resigned ourselves to the fact that we have a private library. Ah well, the point of frugality is to spend on what matters to you, right?

By: Luke

Luke — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 09:19:39 +0000

Forgot to say Jacob, but completely agree re. Kindle books – don’t know if you have VAT/tax on books in the US, but in the UK they’re normally VAT free. eBooks, however, attract VAT as preparing them for readers is a service. So, books from Amazon.co.uk can sometimes cost *more* than a new book!

By: Luke

Luke — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 09:14:30 +0000

@Photoguy – great idea and assuming you don’t share the PDF it probably doesn’t breach copyright law. One of the first posters in this thread suggested scanning books, but if you say, scan a book and then sell it, you’re no doubt breaking a variety of international laws!

I struggle with books as well, as I’m a professionally qualified librarian and have a degree in English Literature. I tend to buy new, but do plenty of research and try only to buy ‘keepers’. The library is fine for light reading/research/holiday reads, but for some reason I can’t bring myself to buy used books – which is odd for a librarian!

By: Photoguy

Photoguy — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 03:12:36 +0000

Fujitsu scansnap scanner with paper stack cutter. Chop the spine off the book, feed it into scanner, run ocr software and have a pdf with very little work.

By: Night Runner

Night Runner — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 14:10:28 +0000

There’s a fifth option, though it’s a bit of a mix between options 1 and 5. It involves selling your books to a local used bookstore. They’re almost always privately owned and have some sort of a buyback program. The one next to my house will pay $1.50 in cash or $3 in store credit for a book they like (no textbooks, no writing in the book, overall good condition). I know you don’t shop at book stores, but that store credit is usually given in the form of a gift card, and thus can be given to a friend (or DW! lol).

By: Dana

Dana — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 03:49:12 +0000

Another thing you can do, if you just *gotta* buy another book, is sell your books to Powells.com. Instead of sending you money they give you a store credit. This option, of course, is only gonna make sense if you buy fewer books than you sold.

By: The Executioner

The Executioner — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 04:35:37 +0000

Any tips on the best way to pack books for mailing?

By: Heidi @ Carolina Dreamz

Heidi @ Carolina Dreamz — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 22:57:29 +0000

I also suggest bookcrossing.com!

By: betsy - MoneyChangesThings.blogspot.com

betsy - MoneyChangesThings.blogspot.com — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 04:06:24 +0000

Just a reminder that OF COURSE you should also buy your books used. Much cheaper and of course a better environmental choice, since you’re reusing. I use fetchbook.info all the time.
I wrote about book downsizing, too:
http://moneychangesthings.blogspot.com/2006/12/books-books-more-books.html

By: Elizabeth

Elizabeth — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 03:47:23 +0000

Title Trader is another swap site that also does video games.

I love paperbackswap–have been using it for about 18 months now.

By: kiesa

kiesa — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 21:44:17 +0000

Out of curiosity, are the books you're interested in hard to get just in your local library or via their Interlibrary Loan Program also? (I'm assuming they have a free interlibrary loan program?)

By: Cherie Thomas-Wood

Cherie Thomas-Wood — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 21:19:45 +0000

Pass your books on with Bookcrossing.com