What Shall I Do With All My Books? Almost all homes that I enter have some books, many have hundreds if not thousands. The owners feel that their books are a representation of themselves. Most books have been read only once or twice. The majority have been sitting on shelves, dusty and forgotten for decades, although as a recent client said, “Books make the room!” We are at an unusual place in history, where reading electronically has overtaken the printed page. Textbooks are online, you can load your Kindle with five novels for vacation and even rabbinical students can reference the Torah on their smartphones. Large booksellers have closed their stores. Libraries have endless banks of computers where there were once stacks. People under 30 rarely opt for a physical volume over reading on a device. The volume of secondhand books is huge, the market for resale is small. An estate liquidator recently told me that he gets $5 for a large box of books, an amount greater than the cost of packing and transport. There is a market for rare old books and first editions. These books must be taken to a specialty auction house or book seller for evaluation. Most book owners want to find new homes for their many volumes, but it is not easy. Paperbacks, foreign language books, dated textbooks, encyclopedias, and National Geographics, usually cannot be donated. Even if you have books that are desirable, such as recent hardback novels or coffee table art books, they are heavy to transport. You will have to arrange to get them to the library or thrift store. Donated books may still end up being discarded. If you have the time and energy to donate your books, start very early in your downsizing process. Identify books in good condition that fall into the preferred categories for donation or resale. Research the avenues for donation in the links below, and call ahead insure success. You can save your back by gradually whittling down your collection. Understand that because there are so many used books, there is a very good chance that some or most of your books will not find new homes.Here are some links to help find places to bring your books in the NYC area: https://gclibrary.commons.gc.cuny.edu/2016/06/20/reuse-re-read-book-donations-elsewhere/ https://charity.lovetoknow.com/where-can-i-donate-used-books-new-york-city https://pocketsense.com/places-nyc-accept-book-donations-10654.html |
Judith Kahn member
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