4 ms·

I've seen a lot of these pop up in various neighborhoods over the years. It's a cute concept, but most of the what I see in them are things that nobody has any

I've seen a lot of these pop up in various neighborhoods over the years. It's a cute concept, but most of the what I see in them are things that nobody has any interest in and would be better off just being recycled. Old manuals for MS Word 1997, crappy romance novels, water damaged cook books from the 80s, etc.

hombre_fatal 5y ago
Sounds like what happens to any “leave one to take one” book box over time. You really need to reset them with good books from time to time.
jetrink 5y ago
It's the same around me, but I think that's due to the survivor effect. Just last week I needed to make space on in my bookcase, so I dropped about a dozen novels in the little libraries around the neighborhood. By the next day, half the books had been taken and a few days later, they were all gone. If their main purpose is to help books find new homes, then they seem to be very effective.
- steviedotboston 5y ago
  Yeah, but my guess is the people who took your old books will probably not actually read them and then will donate them somewhere else in the future. We have an aversion to throwing out books out of principle, but sometimes you just have to admit that a book is worthless and perfectly fine to throw out.
  - pessimizer 5y ago
    Luckily we don't have to admit that when somebody else wants the things that we were throwing out. Let them get a chance to admit it. Pass that chance down the line until the book ends up in the landfill. We all end up in the landfill eventually, there's no hurry.
gordon_freeman 5y ago
Not sure about you but the one in my neighborhood usually has 1-2 books which are classic/bestseller. I always peek into the shelf to see what books interest me and over the last few months I've seen sci-fi classics from Neal Stephenson to William Gibson etc.
matthewowen 5y ago
Romance is generally the best selling genre, so it seems off to claim that they're something that "nobody has any interest in" – are you sure you aren't projecting that on the basis that _you_ don't have any interest in them?

hombre_fatal 5y ago

Sounds like what happens to any “leave one to take one” book box over time. You really need to reset them with good books from time to time.

jetrink 5y ago

It's the same around me, but I think that's due to the survivor effect. Just last week I needed to make space on in my bookcase, so I dropped about a dozen novels in the little libraries around the neighborhood. By the next day, half the books had been taken and a few days later, they were all gone. If their main purpose is to help books find new homes, then they seem to be very effective.

steviedotboston 5y ago
Yeah, but my guess is the people who took your old books will probably not actually read them and then will donate them somewhere else in the future. We have an aversion to throwing out books out of principle, but sometimes you just have to admit that a book is worthless and perfectly fine to throw out.
- pessimizer 5y ago
  Luckily we don't have to admit that when somebody else wants the things that we were throwing out. Let them get a chance to admit it. Pass that chance down the line until the book ends up in the landfill. We all end up in the landfill eventually, there's no hurry.

gordon_freeman 5y ago

Not sure about you but the one in my neighborhood usually has 1-2 books which are classic/bestseller. I always peek into the shelf to see what books interest me and over the last few months I've seen sci-fi classics from Neal Stephenson to William Gibson etc.

matthewowen 5y ago

Romance is generally the best selling genre, so it seems off to claim that they're something that "nobody has any interest in" – are you sure you aren't projecting that on the basis that _you_ don't have any interest in them?