Decluttering

[fivemack]

Well, after the last entry you must have guessed what's coming ...

Is donating books to the local library with the intent of having them end up circulating a sensible thing to do? I imagine it imposes some cataloguing effort on them; is there anything I can do to reduce that effort?

I'm not sure why I'm unhappy with the idea of giving the library books which they'll sell to raise general funds; I suppose it's that the general funds will then (hopefully) buy books, which makes this a way of converting books into books with 90% friction; selling the books to a 2H bookshop which uses part of the money they get from selling them on to pay the council tax that funds the library isn't all that much less efficient.

I've had little luck selling books (standard paperbacks) on ebay, the postage is a fair chunk of what I'd pay for a second-hand paperback and the ebay search-driven experience is nothing like as good as the 2H-bookshop browsing version. Has any of my gentle readers managed to sell books online?

Comments

Esprit de l'escalier strikes again.

[fivemack.livejournal.com]

I think I've figured this out.

The reason I'd be unhappy giving the library books that they'd sell, is that I'm viewing giving books to the local library as a way to keep in-principle access to the books, whilst letting other people who want to read them do so in a way more efficient than I can manage by forcing them on my friends. I would be happy to look in the e-catalogue and see that the book was loaned out; but if it's not in the catalogue, then I've lost the benefit of it and probably at most one person has gained it.

That is, I've argued to myself that I'm prepared to pay the full price of a book to get it into a library system to which I have access. This cannot be usual, elsewise the libraries would be larger and not so strapped for funds.

[wow! the local library system has four copies of The Iron Council ... time to ask for a replacement card and sort out my change of address]

[liv]

I think libraries do sell most of their donations, yes.

Have you considered BookCrossing as a decluttering alternative? If you don't like that idea, is giving your books to charity shops rather than the library more efficient? Charity shops don't pay council tax and obviously most of their staff are volunteers and generally they have pretty low overheads.

It may be possible to make money from ordinary as opposed to precious second-hand books. I rather doubt it, though.

Specialist charity shops

[purpletigron.livejournal.com]

Find the nearest Oxfam bookshop (http://www.oxfam.org.uk/what_you_can_do/shop/what_you_can_buy/bookshops.htm) ... and maybe volunteer for to sort them yourself?

[fivemack.livejournal.com]

It turns out that the local library doesn't sell on donations, and the man there seemed distinctly happy with the two large bags I brought in. I've the breed of impatience that buys hardbacks, which then clutter up my shelves with their bulk; if it turns out I'm not going to re-read them more than once, they stay in good condition for the library to circulate.

Happy now.