Do you ever give books away?

We had a book drive here at one of the schools and I gave a whole box of books to the school. The books that they collected went to kids that could not afford to buy books. This also made me feel really good that I was able to help with the book drive.

No I don't give my books away. I do treasure books. I do lend my books to people who require them even though sometimes I am reluctant. If I have double books which I usually do since I get books donated etc yes I do like to give them to others who appreciate them.

oh yes I think it is a wonderful thing to do, I was never a reader myself but i do know how much some people get out of books, I would pass books on to people for sure..

My wife reads a whole lot of books. She buys most at garage sales etc. She does give them away but to friends and our daughter. She's never given them to a charity or the such though. HAPPY POSTINGS FROM GRANDPA BOB !!~

I have given books as gifts. Bought books for donations during promotions by book stores, given books to libraries and unintentionally given books to people when the didn't return them. One of my favorite things to do is for a baby gift for a shower or something is to give them a copy of a book that I loved as a child like "Where the Wild Things Are" or the "Pokey Little Puppy." Its a good thing to give away books especially like you are doing. I have a large collection and I mean to leave my collection to a library when I pass away.

I will be just as ready to donate my books as I would be to receive them. We take our books to the local library for donations. goodwill is also another benefactor of our "nasty" habit of collecting books. It feels so wonderful knowing that other people can enjoy the words and print that we enjoyed.

I think that is a wonderful way to re-home your books! It's also a thoughtful gesture. I always loved to read as a child and teen and the kids in these homes should be very grateful to get them! I love giving books as gifts. I do this often for all of my family members. I guess this is just natural for me since I've always loved to read and now I'm finding a huge love in freelance writing!

I have not read all of the responses yet but I wanted to say that I give books away all the time. I love to read, it's one of my favorite things to do so over the course of my life, I have received and bought many books. I tend to keep the ones that I really like and that I think I would enjoy reading more than once but all of the others I either give away, sell or swap. I do not know if someone has mentioned it before but there is a site where you can swap books with other people. It's called www.bookcrossing.com I think giving books to those who are less fortunate is a wonderful thing to do. I think giving them to kids who are in group homes is a selfless thing and I think it will do more good than you can imagine. I know those kids are going through a really rough time in their lives and sometimes you need a good story to take you away from the real world. Bless you for doing that!

I love to give books away! I don't get a chance to do it as much as I'd like, but I do manage to do it a couple times a year. Books are mankind's greatest invention, imo, and giving them to others has a great deal of meaning to me. Books are food for the brain! And regardless of anything else, I love to feed other brains as much as I love to feed my own. Especially the young. Normally, it's got nothing to do with charity for me. It's normally when I travel or get into discussions with people, normally those my own age (teens in other words), and they express a longing for that book or some other book. At flea markets, where I've mostly sold second hand books for years, I often find myself saying, "Ah, go ahead and take them." Or promising, "If they're still here you can have them. No really, it's no problem, I want you to have them." I know, I know. I'm a big softy, haha. But can you blame me?

[i]Hi Garden, I don't have a lot of books and some of my books which were borrowed by friends before wan't returned to me! I love to lend it to friends but I expect them to return it, most of my books were given![/i]

Sure, that is a wonderful way to make a contrib ution without it costing anything, either. Were you the one who was discussing that website where they leave a book lying somewhere with a note in the front that keeps track of where it has been and each person who uses it then places it in some public place for another person to take? People might want to use disinfectant on it before touching, but otherwise it is a great idea!

Always... I always pass on books I have read to family or friends to read when I have finished with them. I never throw them away when someone else can enjoy them :-)

As a matter of fact. My husband's company is doing a charity event and asked employees to donate books. I have a used book business, and some times I come across books that I can not sell on line for various reasons, I usually try and sell those at garage sales. But just today, I went through and gave my husband 500 books to bring to donate to his charity. I also send books to soldiers through booksforsoldiers.com from time to time.

Books make very good gifts for children. They are very good supplement to exposure to a bigger world of nature and human beings. Meanwhile, they help cultivate their interest in knowledge. I also donate a lot of my books to people who need them so much. For the victims of natural disasters, books are as important as the urgently needed clothing.

I do agree with all the above responses.In my opinion a book is the most valuable gift either as the recipient or the giver.One cannot know the true potential of a book since it caters to the needs of different persons in varying degrees.The way in which a book influences you might not be having the same effect on me and vice versa.When you give away a book to the right person as in your narration I think it is more than a charity done to that person, instead of you are mentoring him.

I have always given books away as if I didn't there would be no room in my home for anything else. I have always enjoyed reading since childhood and buy a handful of books each month. I give my books away to charity shops but I'm even choosy about which charity shops I give them to. There are certain charity shops that I feel are taking advantage of people's good nature as they're selling battered old books for £1 or £2 or silly prices sometimes which are even more than the original cover price. I prefer to give my books to the shops which will sell them for a reasonable price so people can afford them, e.g. prices ranging from 25p to 75p. So basically yes I do give books away to places where I feel they will benefit others but not to greedy "charity" shops that are trying to make a huge profit by selling books at prices which makes them difficult for others to afford...

Actually, I re-read mine so much they are practically falling apart LOL The only time I ever gave books away was when we got out of foster care I had numerous childrens books...I sold them all on Ebay. [b]~~IN SEARCH OF PEACE WITHIN~~ **AGAINST THE STORMS, I WILL STAND STRONG** [/b]

That sounds like a great opportunity for giving. I have really only given away books to the local salvation army or to friends.

I think that would be a great idea and yes I would do the same.

Yes I would as this is a wonderful idea, kids need books and sometimes books settle kids down. I am gla that somebody has come up with this idea asit is a very helpful thing. Foster kids need to be thought of also. They really need the help as most of the facilities can't afford to buy any extras for these kids so if you donate to them then the kids can take turns reading these books and the facility can spend more money where it is needed.