Oh, my, how long has it been since I participated in Booking Through Thursday?

If you can’t tell, I’m attempting to give my blog a little more love this year. Let’s see how long that lasts. While I’m still in the resolution honeymoon period, though, I thought I’d rejoin some of the old memes I used to enjoy. This week’s question:

Do you ever weed out unwanted books from your library? And if so, what do you do with them?

I do indeed weed out books occasionally. Most often, what I do is put them up for grabs on PaperBackSwap. I suppose I could donate them to a used bookstore, but a) I’m not really sure where one is (I know, I’ve only lived here 2½ years, and I should have it figured out, right?), and b) I kind of like the fact that it’s sort of an even trade. With PaperBackSwap, I receive a credit when I send one of my books to someone, and I can use those credits to select a book I want.

The two major problems with PBS are that it’s not always easy to find books you want because books have to be posted by other members, and the waiting lists for popular books are looooong. Obviously, the first issue is a problem with any used bookstore as well. After all, any used bookstore is only going to carry books someone donated because they didn’t want them for some reason. On PBS, the pool is a little larger, so it seems like books can be somewhat easier to find than in a used bookstore. The second problem is just like the library waiting lists. Bestsellers and popular books or books that are in high demand for some reason are always hard to get. On the plus side, that means if you post one because you yourself don’t want it anymore, it’s snatched up right away, and you get a credit. On the minus side, there are books that I’ve had on my wishlist for years at PBS, and I’m not really closer to getting them.

I mostly select books I want at PBS if I’m not sure enough that I’ll like the book, so I am not sure I want to pay full price. I could get some of these books at my library, but not all of them. All in all, PBS is a pretty good deal.

Other books I don’t want in my own library, I donate to my classroom library. I still technically am keeping the book, but placing in that library means if a student really wants to keep it, that’s okay, and if it’s lost or never returned, that’s okay, too. Of course, I also buy books expressly for my classroom library as well.

So what do you do? Do you weed out books?