10 Things You Should Not Donate to the Library

It's the rare magazine cover that does not shout at us to buy it to read about:
10 Tricks to De-Clutter Your House

8 Days to Dental Health!

5 Foods that Fight Fat!

6 Sexy Secrets to Spice Up Your Summer Nights!

 3 Exercises That Will Make You Skinny!

 (and always, always) 4 Best Jeans for Your Body Type


I don't know if it's a trend, or if I've just been noticing it more and more--I wonder if lady's magazines from the nineteen-naughts had those same headlines? Anyway, I am not a physician, dentist, personal trainer, sex therapist or fashion columnist, but I am big into volunteering at my local library, and the book sale room is my domain. As such, I am somewhat of an expert in what can be resold in a library book sale and what will NOT EVER SELL and YOU SHOULD NOT DONATE IT BUT SEND IT OUT WITH THE PLASTIC BOTTLES AND OLD NEWSPAPERS AND THE REST OF YOUR RECYCLING, DESPITE THE ADVICE THOSE DE-CLUTTERING ARTICLES GIVE YOU TO DONATE EVERYTHING YOU ARE THROUGH READING TO YOUR LOCAL LIBRARY. Please pardon my screaming rant.

10 Things You Should Not Donate to the Library


1. Anything with "Readers' Digest" printed anywhere on it. The people who come to library book sales are READERS, and they don't buy condensed material.
2. Your National Geographic collection. No--school children do not want them for research.
3. Sylvia Porter's Money Book, or any outdated financial advice book
4. American Heritage hardcover book-magazines
5. Textbooks. The professor will want you or your child to have the specific edition that he/she just wrote.
6. Almost anything that would be shelved in a "religion" section.
7. Outdated travel guides. (Same goes for Almanacs, Buying Guides and the like)
8. Old art books that have poor black and white reproductions of famous paintings. I know. I love my 1979 Jansen with the little sections of colored plates, and those books cost a lot. But in the 21st century, we have art books with colored reproductions on every page! Not to mention access online to any painting in any museum, anywhere at the touch of a button.
9. Colored-in coloring books. Really. (Does that need to be said? Unfortunately, yes.) Same goes for completed crossword puzzle books or Sudoku books.
and 10. Encyclopedias. And Encyclopaedias, too.

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