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Books
The easiest thing to do with a big pile of old books,
especially you've got a variety of genres, is to donate them to your
local library. They will probably sell them to raise money to buy
books they need. (These are great sales to shop at as well.)
Here are some other suggestions if you have a more specific collection of books:
Educational Books
If you have a collection of recent textbooks or other educational
books, there are several organizations that collect such material to
send to developing nations.
California, Corona del Mar: Books for Freedom Also needs: books in Arabic, Farsi, Pashto, kids' books.
California, Stanford: Cosmos Education
Georgia, Roswell: Maasai Heritage Foundation
Illinois, Glen Ellyn: Book Rescue
Virginia, Arlington: Sudan-Safe
Washington, Seattle: EcoEncore
Kids Books
California, Los Angeles: Reading by 9
This program, sponsored by the Los Angeles Times, collects new and
"gently used" children's books to promote reading. Each donation is
matched, book for book, by a donation of a new book from Scholastic.
Massachusetts, Amherst: ReadertoReader Provides kids' books to needy communities throughout the U.S.
Also consider donating your children's books to your local school library or homeless/battered women's shelter.
Books to Prisoners
I can vouch personally for Books Through Bars,
one of a number of organizations that send books to prisoners. They
offer a little hope to a desperate population, and help stave off
bigotry through the written word in a place where racist groups recruit
heavily. Their wish list reflects those in similar programs:
-Dictionaries & thesauruses
-GED materials
-ESL books
-Books in Spanish -African/African-American/Mexican/Puerto Rican politics, history and culture
-How-to books
-Books on yoga/mediation, martial arts, paganism, queer studies,
and health -- especially HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis C, and tuberculosis
See if there's a prison book program near you.
General Books
California, Bay area: Regional list
Illinois, Chicago area: various suggestions
New York, New York: Used Book Cafe.
All profits from this bookstore go to Housing Works, a non-profit that
provides housing and healthcare to homeless New Yorkers and those
living with HIV and AIDS.
Super specific book needs
Massachusetts, Amherst: National Yiddish Book Center Donate your Yiddish and Hebrew books. It's easy, it's tax-deductible, and it's a mitzvah!
Texas, Houston: San Jacinto Museum of History Got a book on the history of Texas, and specifically on the Battle of San Jacinto? Give these guys a shout out! Here are titles they're specifically seeking.
Releasing Books Into the Wild
If you have a title or two you'd like to share, you can leave them in a public place and post its location on Bookcrossing. Their intent: to make the whole world a library. Neat-o, huh?
Books Nobody Wants
Please sort your books before giving them away. Even a place like the
library, which will take almost anything, doesn't want your copy of A
Catcher in the Rye with the peanut butter stain, no back cover, and
eight pages missing from the middle. Nor do they want your Let's Go
Europe - 1988. These are candidates for the paper recycling bin.
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links
What can you do right now to help the environment? Drop a line to save some of nature's BioGems.
It happens to us all: you've got
stuff you
don't
want anymore, don't need anymore, or never liked to begin with. Whether
you're motivated by a natural sense
of thrift, an environmental conscience, a desire to help others -- or
all three -- here are some suggestions as to what to do with many of
your unwanted items.
Hope they help!
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