what do you do with books after you read them?

[Knits4Fun]

Big Brother Big Sister takes books. They have to be in boxes and ea. box shouldn't be too heavy for the driver to pick up. I plan to get rid of some that way for their next donation pickup.

[Craft Forums]

[mele]

Books still in readable condition but with outdated material should be donated to
an organization like Goodwill. Don't limit the use to what you can imagine, let the charitable organization have the chance to sell the item. I have seen small tables made out of three colorful college text books!

[mrbubbles]

I burn 'em.
Just kidding. I try to give them to the library whenever possible because:
a)I move a lot, and it's a pain to carry them around.
b)There's something a bit pretentious about thinking that I can be a good steward for a book, when my experience has shown the exact opposite to be true.
c)I'm always returning books late to liberries. So it's good for my liberrykarma if I give 'em to liberries when I'm done with 'em.

Of course if a book is in poor condition, I'm under no illusions about their ultimate fate. Some stuff is too bad even for libraries.

[Lyssalicious]

I almost always sell back my textbooks, because I'm poor. That $1.50 for a $50 book helps a little.

If I buy a book at the Salvation Army or something I keep it. Almost always. Maybe someday I'll have to get rid of a lot of them, but I only pay a quarter apiece for them so I'm not out too much.

My mom loves doing altered books, and sometimes I do book rescues because book altering almost seems like sacrelige to me. Usually I don't mind, but I've rescued more than one English textbook from her. I'm just now realizing that she never attempts to alter my old poli sci and econ textbooks. Interesting.

Anyway, on occasion I'll leave a book at the train station, because they have one of those "read and ride" bookshelves and the only books there are always either awful, mind-numbing romances, or "Yes, Jesus Can Save You, Too!" pamphlets. With those options, other people needed Angela's Ashes more than I did.

[illybang]

text books - i always seel them back or on amazon (usually amazon fetches a better price)
leisure books - i keep them all. i have dreams of having a personal library one day, with the comfy chairs and rolling ladders... but i am the type of person who will reread a book i have bought and will lend friends/family my personal books. if i have bought a book that i don't particularly like (which is rare) i'll donate to the library or goodwill

[novaskies]

I have a serious book obsession, so I have a hard time parting with my books. The few that I don't keep usually go to the local used book store. I've sold back some text books, but I kept all the ones related to my major and a few from some classes I really loved.

[mele]

I keep the books I really really liked and would not mind reading again. Being in several book discussion groups, I can recommend my favorites as I pass around the book.

[YunCalhoun]

Keep them for a while, lend them to others who might like them. If they come back, I keep them if I might want to re-read, or give them to charity shops.