In the process of organizing my new office space I’ve come to the conclusion that we have too many books. This kind of thought is practically heretical. How is it possible to have too many books? Well, our paperback Science Fiction collection runs over 300. The stuff that schools require as reading runs over 50. Old text books run over 30. Religious books over 75. The Juvenile fiction is over 100. The picture books are probably over 200. And then there is all the miscellanous stuff which is more than 100. We don’t have enough shelf space for all of that. Not even with the paperbacks stacked two deep.
The problem is that they are BOOKS. Books are good and special even if we didn’t enjoy reading it that much. But I’m in a mood to be ruthless and so I’ve pulled stacks of books that I’m willing to get rid of. And here lies the next problem. I’ve got to show these stacks to Howard before they leave the house. Odds are really good that I’ve got books in the stacks that he isn’t ready to get rid of yet. We need to find a way for us both to be feeling ruthless simultaneously.
If we were able to sell them rather than just giving them away that would probably help. Unfortunately I check ebay and books simply don’t sell there. In the science fiction section none of the books had any bids. Large lots of 100 or more books were going for $2.50. That kind of money doesn’t make it worth my time to put up a listing. Amazon is probably a better place to sell books, but I still have to go to the trouble of listing all the books individually and then continuing to store them until they sell. Sounds like a lot of trouble.
What I probably need to do is find a local used bookstore and cart them all there. I’d be happy to sell them all for 10 cents each if I could unload the whole lot at once. And if I could get cash. Store credit is no good, I’m trying to get RID of books.
Well, store credit is nice if you can trade a hundred books for one that you really wanted – you still save space that way.
Another idea might be to find a place to donate them – local library, school, etc. That’s where (the library) all our extra books went after our garage sale a couple weeks ago.
But on the topic of eBay/Amazon, if you’re doing the sorting thing anyway, it might be worthwhile to make sure to pull out any really old/rare books, because there are people that would be interested in those, I suspect. (But then, you’ve actually looked on eBay, so you’d know better than I.)
Good luck!
I understand your feelings. My collection of (mostly) Science Fiction paperbacks is currently approaching 3,000. Fortunately, my son had room for bookshelves at his mother’s house, and I have moved them over there. He’s having the pleasure of reading them, and not having to worry about finding an out-of-print volume or waiting for the next book in a series.
I find it hard to part with books — especially given how much I paid vs. what I can sell them for. If you don’t find a good used bookstore, I would suggest a donating them to a library. Paperbacks don’t have much lifetime in the circulating collection, but at least a few more people could gain enjoyment from them.
There are a couple used bookstores (or were, anyway, about 3 years ago) on Center Street, on the south side, some blocks west of University.
There is that one used book store up on State in Orem, by 7-11 or so, maybe 400 S? Book Baron, maybe?
I’m sure you can find them as easily, but those are the ones I remember going to, that I know haven’t closed. There was another on the north side of Center some years back, and another in the Cougar Video shopping center for a little while, both of which have closed.
Consider this a formal offer: 25 cents apiece, I pay for shipping (or this is the excuse for the and I to come get them!) and you will always be able to request books back if you find yourselves desirous of a re-read.
===|==============/ Level Head
That is very kindly offered. I’ll talk it over with Howard when he gets home and inspects my pile.
Thanks.