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Have you donated any of your books to charity?


emelee

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I've realized that some books I have read, I will just never read again. So last week, I packed up some books and handed them in to a store that sell things people have donated - profits go to charity. One of these stores is for the Salvation Army and the other for the Red Cross. 

 

I love their 2nd hand stores. Almost only because of the books you can find there that others have donated. I recently bought 4 "Game of thrones" novels in one of these stores. 4 books for the price of what 1 usually costs when ordering online. 

 

 

I am now thinking I will donate a bunch of clothes that I never wear anymore. Better they go to charity than to the dumpster. 

 

 

 

Have you ever donated books to charity? 

Or bought books for charity?

 

 

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Although I haven't read many novels recently, I have purchased some books from the late 1800s from some charity shops. I have a strange fascination with old books, and always end up perusing the shelves for some obscure, ancient relic.

 

If the charity is one that I actively support I sometimes offer to pay more than they're asking; any extra money is always welcomed!

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I have been donating my books and clothes to charity for years.  I used to have a huge book collection which some I realised I would never read again and when we started getting the bags through the door It is a good way of tidying up for myself and helping someone else at the same time.

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Most of my paperbacks go to the charity shop after I've read them.  Bookshelves are full to capacity already, so only favourite books I might read again or think I might lend to others are kept, so I regularly take carrier bags full to Oxfam.  It has reduced dramatically since I've got a Kindle, but I still buy some paperbacks, just not as frequently.

 

We had to take down a whole rooms bookshelves recently while we have some work done, so all the books have been packed away but once the room is redecorated and the bookshelves rebuilt, I'll have the perfect opportunity to have a new cull of books that can go off to find a new home. :)

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I've bought some great reference books from a charity shop which is well organized and has two floors. I could spend all day in there. I also buy some wonderful books from an RNLI shop.

 

I donate paperbacks to a shelf in a railway station - books for commuters/passengers - which raises money for charity.

 

I've turned out loads of clothes recently and given them to The Salvation Army. Just yesterday I took a bunch of warm wool scarves (donated by my son) to the Sallies for their homeless people.

 

I think it's a wonderful way of circulating 'stuff'. But sometimes my 'stuff' reaches the stage where it is fit for nothing more than the dustbin!

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If i can't sell them at boot sales i split between giving them to certain charities and  using bookcrossing.com and leave them for someone else to read and see if they travel anywhere.

 

Just recently i have been giving them to a work friend who sends them home to Ghana for her late Sons School library which needs books for the school children who are both boarders and non boarders.  They have renamed the school library in his memory.  This feels me with so much joy and happiness as when i speak to my friend she always gives me a hug and cry's and says how much people care and are so kind.  

 

Something so simple like giving books away which does so much good can only make you feel good and  that is good for the soul

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I only keep a relatively small amount of books in my permanent collection - several series by my favourite authors, and some special editions, but all my other books get passed on when I'm done with them. I used to keep them all, and had thousands of books, (yes, literally thousands!), but I had nowhere to keep them all, so I sold a load of them, swapped some others, and put loads in book crossing places where there were free books to be picked up and taken by whoever fancied them. I also regularly donated books to a library that hadn't had an acquisitions budget for several years. When they had duplicates, they sold them to make money to buy other books, bu most of them ended up on the shelves, which made me very happy to think many other people would get to enjoy them. Now I either pass them on to family and friends or donate them to charity - there are several places nearby that sell second hand books for Macmillan Cancer Support - people just pop 50p in the pot for whatever book they want.

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Nice to read what others do with their books.

 

I would like to sell some of my stuff (I'm really not made of money!), but I live in an apartment and I don't want to pay rent for a place to sell things at. Or spend a lot of time selling online and shipping etc.

 

So I can choose between keeping it, or donate to charity. I lean towards option 2.

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I have both bought and donated books to charity shops. We even have a special kind of free library/bookshop in Rotterdam called 'Leeszaal West', one can take their books for free and keep them. Anyone can donate anything, even in different languages. 

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Haha, this!

 

I don't donate books, I'm too much of a hoarder, but I do regularly buy second hand books from the Irish Cancer Society charity shops in town :)

 

I used to be too, which is what led to my flat and my Dad's attic being completely filled to overflowing and necessitating my getting rid of a lot of them. Once I'd done it once, it got a lot easier to do again. :)

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I donated some books recently to our local Animals In Distress charity. I mostly read Kindle books nowadays, but I still have a couple of bookshelves full. When I do get around to reading them, then I will probably donate them to the same charity again.

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I'm mostly a book hoarder, but I get rid of books I haven't enjoyed or likely won't read again. I donate some books to charity, give others to friends and family, and try to sell some online or to secondhand bookstores (like Emelee, I'm not made of money!)

 

I also buy some books from charity. I usually go to a big annual book fair that supports my favourite charity, Lifeline (mental health services). All proceeds go to the charity. I usually spend several hundred dollars when I go there, so they're well supported by me.  :blush2:

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  • 1 month later...

I simply don't have room for many books in our house, so apart from a few that I refuse to get rid of or want to read again, most books once read, go off to the charity shop. As most of the books I read also come from there (the Age Concern charity shop by us has a seperate book room), it makes sense to donate and replace at the same time. I get a varied reading choice, the charity gets to sell the book at least twice over, so hopefully everyone benefits.

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I have donated children's books to an educational non-profit I volunteer for.

 

In a city close to where I live, there's a really amazing charity shop that is basically just a warehouse that takes book donations, shelves them, and then anybody can take anything they want from there for free. The shelves are always packed full, so I assume they must take in a great deal of donations to be able to sustain that. It's a really neat place. 

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I do keep most of my books, apart from impulse buys and 3 for 2s where I had to get a 3rd book, or if I've read a book and didn't particularly like it, and they either go to a local charity shop (depending which one I can park nearest to, as a bag of books is pretty heavy...) or I donate them to a local charity which raises money to renovate an old house not far from where I live, although unfortunately I don't get to go there too often as they're not generally open to the public, and it's a bit difficult to get when it isn't open. 

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