No Stupid Questions

if they are of decent quality a snd hand book store might take them

Check with your local library or schools to see if they accept book donations. If not, there are probably a few secondhand bookstores near you that will buy some of them from you.

Donate them to the library or used bookstore

I don't have a direct answer, but I will say be careful about giving them to Goodwill or what-have-you, or at least check first. I donated a mound of great contemporary books and the guy receiving them said they throw out anything that has marks on the page side or any wear on the cover.

Not to say all thrift shops toss them, but some do.

Edit: Look for local "free libraries"! Some cities will have random little boxes put up around neighbourhoods, and those won't get scrapped.

Take them to a used bookstore.

Make a little library on your front lawn and fill it up,before you know it they will be gone and people will have put others in its place.

it’s bad juju to throw books in the trash right?

The books you are talking about are mass produced commodity items, right? If you don't want them anymore and don't know anyone else who does just treat them like any other print product and toss 'em out. They weren't painstakingly copied by monks, the knowledge inside will not be lost, just being a book doesn't make them special.

Signed, someone who had to deal with a slew of outdated guidebooks, encyclopedias, cookbooks, reader's digest issues, never-read novels and whatever else from a deceased relative because they just couldn't bring themselves to put them in the recycling bin.

I’d definitely recommend just leaving them in a book box. The concept is easy: leave a book, take a book. But there’s nothing saying you can’t just leave book. Don’t have one nearby? Create one. 🥰

Recycle them. Or call up your local library and ask if they want them. Usually libraries will have an attached used book store, sometimes they put donated books there.

Do your best impression of a Christian Nationalist and have a book burning.

Depends where you are; in the UK I take them to charity shops or give them to people who would appreciate them (just a few to each person or it gets a bit overwhelming). You can also leave them out on the street in a small box with 'free' on the side. There are some places with free 'library'-type places that you can leave them in, or put them in cafes/leave on trains.

Good Will

Recycle them. It's a bound collection of cellulose (and some ink); cellulose can be upcycled into other paper products. Like insulation, attic blow-in, boxes, etc.

Trashing it is trashing a resource, which sounds worse than it is in reality. It'll rot & decompose nicely in a landfill.

Burning books...SUCKS...take it from me like it takes FOREVER and it burns page by page, you have to stir it constantly.

Finding a recycling center is so much better for the world, and easier for you. Win-win.

This is the service the library I used to work at used for discards. https://services.betterworldbooks.com/individuals/

I work with librarians and I have heard them say that sometimes an old worn out book is just a bunch of paper. Would you keep a bunch of paper lying around? Librarians throw out a lot of books.

Throwing them into a big box marked "FREE" and putting that outside on the curb is probably the least amount of effort.

Other than that, donating them, selling them to a second hand bookstore, or finding a local Little Free Library and adding to their collection is your best bet.

Donate to library or school if in decent condition. Recycle if not.

Leave them on the table in a coffee shop, one or two at a time.

In our country we have these peddlers who buy papers, books, metal items for cheap and then they resell them to recycle then ultimately or for other uses.

I have:

• Sold books to used bookstores
• Sold books online (one at a time, so only ones that could earn a lot)
• Sold books in lots on Craigslist and in local groups
• Donated them to my local library and Salvation Army
• Given them to my kids' school
• Given them to friends (after inquiring about their interest in the specific titles or authors)
• Left them.in a box outside labeled "Free Please Take"
• Placed them.in the free book thingy near my home where neighbors leave or take books (it looks sort of like an old time call box except with shelves and a glass door on top)
• Left them at hostels while traveling

Give them away.

I sell on eBay for the price of postage

Based on Fahrenheit 451: Call your local Firefighter.

In Jewish tradition, the answer is burial.

Personally, I think immolation -- burning -- is an elegant way of returning something to the world without taking space or requiring much effort. I know people have an aversion to burning books, bit I think the difference is similar to that difference between burying a loved one after they pass and burying an enemy alive.

If your city offers industrial composting, I'd compost your books.

Lastly, you can do any of these, including throwing books in the trash with a statement of gratitude. Mari Kondo advises that we thank or belongings for their service and then throw them in the trash.

Some libraries take book donations (either for adding to the collection, or for book sales), little free libraries (you can find local ones here), 'Friends of the Library' will sell them and donate the proceeds to the library, second hand book shops, thrift shops, charity shops, and of course there's always throwing them out.

We accepted the bad juju and burned the nazi apologia we found in my grandmother's abusive husband's (that's as close as I'm willing to admit being related to that shit) library, but other than that if you want the least effort just drop off a bag of books on the library's doorstep in the middle of the night with a fiver and a note apologizing.