Book Glut

What to do with used, unwanted books? Every year, nay every month, families ask me if I can use the books they no longer want. Many are beloved, in excellent condition and need a good home. I am touched that they think of our library, but the awful truth is that we can't use them. A school library is a carefully created collection, one that reflects the specific needs of the school for pleasure reading and research needs. It is also a finite space. I can't fill it to the max. Many school librarians will tell how they undertook a massive summer weeding project, purging hundreds of volumes, and the students arrived in the fall asking if the books on the shelves were new. Nope--but you can't find the gems if they are packed tightly in and surrounded by "perfectly good" titles that no one wants anymore.

The quantity of books that our community needs to discard is staggering. I often think ruefully of Chaucer's clerk, a thin and threadbare student of philosophy who spent his money on books instead of food. I was an early book lover, saving all those college textbooks in anticipation of re-reading them (Samuelson's Economics from 1978? How dumb could I be?). But now, in a community awash in the things that we once hoarded, we must jettison the ballast.

So it's off to the thrift store, or the Brandeis book donation box (near the Toco Hills Kroger), or the Salvation Army, or... Every year or so, some of our high school students sponsor a book drive for disadvantaged schools. One year I got involved and learned that the librarian at the underfunded school could not accept anything with a copyright date more than five years old--or they would be overwhelmed with discards. (The children, however, happily accepted free books to take home.)

A few creative minds have done some stunning things with unwanted books:


(For more art from old books, click here.)

This video, Your Life Work, dedicated to Moey and Alejandra, my after-school shelvers: