All good things must come to an end, including ownership of a book. I've reached the point in my reading journey where I have too many books and nowhere near enough shelves in my house to hold them all. Some of you may be thinking "Why don't you get books from the library? Why not try ebooks?" To answer the second question first, I do read ebooks, but I'm also a book dragon, so I feel this need to collect as many physical books as possible. I don't take full advantage of library the way that I used to because, well, I tend to forget that it's an option. Anyway, this post is not about all of the books I have.
I wanted to talk about what happens when I get rid of books. Mainly how I decide which books go, and what happens to them. Because I do occasionally sit down and go through my book collection, pulling out books that it's time to say goodbye to.
The biggest factor to deciding if I'm going to keep a book or get rid of it is if I read it. I know it sounds obvious, but there are quite a few books I bought, intending to read, and just haven't. Sometimes it's because I've outgrown the story or age group and sometimes it's because I've realized I'm not a fan of the genre. If I've owned a book for more than a year, and I haven't even attempted to read it, I doubt I ever will. The second biggest factor for me in deciding which books to get rid of is how much I enjoyed a particular book. If I disliked a book or DNF'd it, I'm unlikely to read it again. Meaning it's pretty much just taking up space on the shelf. Aside from a few books that I've kept for sentimental value or ones authors have sent to me, any book that I don't intend to reread gets put onto the chopping block. Lastly, I try to decide if there's someone I know who might enjoy the book in question. Sometimes, I'll buy a book because I want to give the genre or author a chance, and I don't like it. That doesn't mean my sister or a coworker wouldn't like it. So, if I don't like a book, I might give it away to a friend or family member who enjoys that genre. The way I see it, I'm not getting rid of that book, I'm just giving it a new home.
Now that I've explained my methods for deciding what books I get rid of, let's talk about what I do with the books I decide to get rid of. (Not including the ones I give to family/friends). First, I try to donate them to the library. If the library won't accept them, due to the number of books or having enough of that particular title, I find a used bookstore and see if they're accepting drop-offs. Whatever they don't accept, I sell on eBay or another reselling site. Is it the most original tactic? Probably not, but the book finds a new home anyway.
So, that's what happens with the books I decide to get rid of. What do you do with books you no longer want?
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