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Comment by dhosek | Hacker News Reader

I feel a bit that way about my life’s accumulation of books. I suspect that the vast majority will end up getting donated to the library book sale after I die (plenty of worn and ancient paperbacks). I have made a point of pre-segregating the books that will likely have a notable resale value, but those are not many. Perhaps when I’m older but not too old I may spend some time trying to connect some of the specialized sub-collections with individual collectors who will treasure them as I did.

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I bought a used book online, and it had a person's last name and a book club in it. I was able to trace it back to a woman in the Carolinas that died without family. Her obituary gave a bit of her life story and I treasure the book all the more because I know a bit about the woman and how she loved reading and gardening (it was a gardening book).

Somethings do get passed on.

I have a book which has some diary entries written at the ends of chapters. It seems that the diarist's wife wanted them to move from the farm they lived on and the diarist was reluctant to do so but was going to acquiesce out of love for his wife.

I'd check if they can be donated first, rather than leaving that burden for your next of kin. The phrase also works the other way around: One man's treasure is another man's junk.

When we had to clear out the apartment of MiL, she had a sizable collection of books, and a bunch of clothes and shoes that had only been worn once. We tried the library and a few different charity shops, but for most things they said no. The books went in the trash and the clothes went in a clothing recycling bin - which I guess means they also ended up in the trash.

Clothing that can't be sold can be recycled into rags, cushion stuffing, cleaning cloths etc.

Hopefully all of my (by now many) physical books will get donated to the village library from where my mother grew up and where my parents live right now. I remember I borrowed a David Copperfield translation and never returned it, that happened about ~30 years ago. I still feel guilty about it from time to time.

Based on personal experiences trying to give away my collection of 2000's scifi/fantasy books, it's hard even to give them away.

The physical book market is shrinking and a significant portion of new readers likely use ebooks/audiobooks instead so there's just far less demand for physical books.

I think it's going to be very hard to even give books away in the coming decades, I can see the vast majority going to recycling.

County jails. Having spent time in county jails, a lot of them have few or no books and people in them are desperate for something to read as jails tend to have literally nothing to do except stare at the walls (no TVs, radios etc). They all happily take book donations. Doesn't matter how weird or esoteric the books are, someone will read them. I read over 800 books in jail, and because beggars can't be choosers I read some weird and wonderful things.

Book charities won't send to jails, only to prisons, because they say people aren't held long enough in jails, even though I know people who have been waiting 11 years for trial so far.

Did you try a used book store? They'll at least take them off your hands for a nominal amount, even if they then throw most of them away. Half Priced Books has this business model.

Used book stores--such as there are these days--tend to be very selective about what they take. So you haul in a box or two and they'll take a relative handful off your hands.

My local library will take books for their annual fundraising sale. But I suspect most end up recycled or tossed even so.

Libraries Are over run - few take donations.

Here in Ithaca, NY the "Friends of the Tompkins County Public Library" has a book sale of donated books twice a year. Each sale goes over several weeks with prices declining, with the last day being "$1 for a medium sized bag full of books".

After the sale a large dumpster is parked out front and the volunteers fill it with things that didn't sell, to be sent off for disposal (recycling, I think.)

https://www.booksale.org/

I'm also kinda worried about my parents bookshelves. Some of it has probably bit over minimal resale value like book series still collected. Many things albeit interesting for period not so much actual value...

I wonder how it will end up, let the people pick interesting stuff and then leave some value there and have someone buy it in bulk or get all of it and save the cost to recycling and processing it.

When my grandfather died some 30 years ago, he left behind a significant library that was of little interest to anyone but him.

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