What Can I Do With My Books?

[BangkokHank]

For the past ten or so years, I have been donating my already-read, English-language books to the library of the AUA on Rachadamri. (After I read a book - if I don't think I will read it again, I like to give it to a library so that it can be put to use - for the benefit of many.) In exchange for this, AUA very kindly gave me a lifetime library card, which allowed me to revisit my books whenever I had the desire to do so. It comforted me knowing that all of my ex-books were being safely kept in one place, easily available for me to visit.

Today I went to drop off another pile of books. The librarian told me that they would be closing soon (due to AUA's lease expiring and the owner of the land presumably wanting to develop it), moving to another location - and, to my surprise, NOT bringing donated books with them to the new location! They say they are going to give away the books that I gave them in the past (which probably means they will sell them), thereby defeating one of my purposes in giving them the books in the first place. At least the librarian was kind enough to warn me not to donate any more books.

So, here I am now with a pile of 60 wonderful books that I would like to give away. I don't want to sell them to a second-hand bookstore because they only give me a fraction of the value. I would much rather give them away - to a library through which they can be shared for the benefit of society.

Now here is my question: Does anybody know of a worthy - and perhaps more permanent library that accepts donations of English language books - on a variety of topics, but mostly literary classics? Thanks for any suggestions.

[Jingthing]

If you can't find a place in Bangkok, here's an idea --

http://www.northstarlibrary.fr-ray.org/index.php?p=history.php

[Thanyaburi Mac]

You might ask these folks, even tho they're our former "colonial masters," I'll forgive them for a worthy cause:

http://www.neilsonhayslibrary.com/

BTW, since you were going to the AUA I assume that you're American.

Mac

[Soutpeel]

Give them to one of the Universities or international schools

[harrry]

Give them to one of the Universities or international schools

Or take them to one of the Thai public libraries.

[Raesum]

What about starting up a TV "Book Club" for swaps? I know you have 60 books but some of us feel the same way about using the second hand book shops and getting either a pittance or rejected! Maybe could meet once every couple of months and bring along say 5-10 books and maybe if someone wants one of your books you get a credit to acquire one from someone else.Just a thought. I'm all for donating them but as is your dilemma-who to?

[CWMcMurray]

There is a Bakery shop down the Soi a bit on Thong Lor Soi 2 on the right hand side....

I havent been in their in a while, but I remember the last time I was in there reading a book and the owner advised that she collects English Language books that she donates to one of the charities...

It was more than a year ago, so the details are a bit fuzzy, but if you are ever driving by the Thong Lor area, it may be worth checking out.

[Ulysses G.]

In Chiang Mai we often give old books to the Westerners in the local prison. You can be certain that the guys in the Bangkok Hilton would appreciate them. :jap:

[Semper]

In Chiang Mai we often give old books to the Westerners in the local prison. You can be certain that the guys in the Bangkok Hilton would appreciate them. :jap:

IMO, the best answer so far.

[Beetlejuice]

Give them to one of the Universities or international schools

Yes, I was about to suggest the same thing.

My kids went to International schools and their liberies were always in need of new English language books for the students to read.

[daveyravey]

In Chiang Mai we often give old books to the Westerners in the local prison. You can be certain that the guys in the Bangkok Hilton would appreciate them. :jap:

IMO, the best answer so far.

Cany imagine the western scumbags in da monkeyhouse appreciating western literary classics.

I wonder if a few titles might be as follows.

No pride and plenty of predjudice by Jane Austin

the great gary Gad sby by scott fitzgerald

No great expectations by dickens

Huckleberry mickey fin by Mark Twain

Lord of the leave my ring alone by jrr tolkein

Lolitas ( best bj in thailand) by Vladimir Nabokov

Winnie im right in the poo by AA milne

Lord of the Flies by william golding

Dr Jekyl and id better hide by RLS

Anyone got anymore?

Edited July 4, 2011 by daveyravey

[Penefattore]

So, here I am now with a pile of 60 wonderful books that I would like to give away. I don't want to sell them to a second-hand bookstore because they only give me a fraction of the value. I would much rather give them away - to a library through which they can be shared for the benefit of society.

Tole' !

What you want is a place to dump your used books allowing you to come back to read them , all without paying any fee for storage.

Keenaow !

[JusMe]

I believe Thammasat University Library (main branch is Pridi Banomyong Library) accepts donations. I know they have a huge collection of English language books, and are accessible not only to students but to the general public also (20 baht per day fee to use all the university's library facilities).

[BangkokHank]

I want to thank all of you (well, except for Penefattore) for your useful suggestions. As I was reading down the list, several proposals caught my interest. But when I got to the suggestion about giving the books to prisoners, I immediately felt that that was the answer I was looking for. I know that if I were in a prison, I would be extremely grateful to receive these books that I am prepared to donate. (Among them the Complete Works of Shakespeare; The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire; several Dickens novels and lots of other classics.) On the other hand, perhaps it is precisely because these books mean so much to me that I am lucky enough to be on the outside giving the books rather than on the inside wishing to receive them!

Now to some of the other specific suggestions:

Jingthing, the library that you suggested in Pattaya looks like it would have been a great choice as well, but I don't have a way to transport that pile of books that far. As it was, I was going to carry them in batches of a dozen books at a time by Skytrain over to AUA.

Thanyaburi Mac: Ha - you were correct in assuming that I'm American - but that actually was not my motivation in choosing AUA as the original recipient of my books. Rather, back when I started doing this, they were the only ones who expressed any interest in receiving the books!

Although the international schools would probably put the books to good use, I feel that they can afford to buy books themselves.

Raesum: Your idea of a book swap club is good in principle - but in my case I'm looking to offload books rather than acquire any more. (There is a good possibility that I will be leaving Thailand soon - and I don't want to carry a ton of books away with me.)

CWMcMurray: Thanks very much, but I would rather not go through a "middleman" - even to give to a charity. I want to know where the books go.

As for your comment, Penefattore, which I will quote here: "Tole' ! What you want is a place to dump your used books allowing you to come back to read them , all without paying any fee for storage. Keenaow !" I hope you were joking, but in case you weren't: Actually I have plenty of room to keep the books at my home. And in the ten years that I've been donating books to AUA, not once have I gone back to read any of the books that I've donated in the past. I wanted to share my books - and it was just somehow comforting for me to know where they all were - and to know that just in case I ever wanted to visit any of them again that I would be able to. In any case, would it be such a bad thing if everybody "stored" their books in a library where they could be enjoyed by others? I can imagine worse crimes.

To summarize and conclude then: I will first pursue the option of giving them to prisoners. (If anyone has any specific suggestions about how to do this, please let me know - for example if there is an organization that goes there every so often whom I could join up with on one of their visits.) If that doesn't work, my next course would be to visit the Neilson Hays Library, the Thammasat University Library, and a few others, to see which place might make the most worthy home for my beloved books.

Thanks again very much for all of your input.

Edited July 5, 2011 by BangkokHank

[astral]

Contact the Hays Neilson Library.

[qualtrough]

I donated some books to Father Joe's operation in Klong Toey once. BTW, why not mail them? 30 kgs, costs only 460 Baht parcel post.

Link to Thai Post rate calculator:

My link

Edited July 5, 2011 by qualtrough

[NancyL]

The AUA library in Chiang Mai is still very much in operation. Perhaps they'd be interested in them. As pointed out, mailing them here is a cheap option. Please sign your name (at least your first name) so we can know who donated them. Some great fellow by the name of "Tom" donated a lot of books over a year ago and Hubby has really enjoyed reading his books and even going so far is to look for other books from the "Tom" collection in the library.

As UG mentioned, donating for the western prisoners is another great use for them. They especially like the paperback potboilers that I call "airport novels" because they're widely sold at airports to travelers. We make our donations thru a group of kind souls at the Raintree Center who visit the prisoners each week. Not only were they pleased to take Hubby's airport novels to the prison, but they were thrilled with our small collection of American-edition National Geographic magazines. Yes, Raintree is a Christian organization but they don't visit the prison for the purposes of evangelism and the prison management allows them to meet with all the foreign prisoners during the time that they come. Apparently, normally you have to list a specific person who you've come to visit. Instead, the prison guards permit all the foreign prisoners to visit the group from Raintree during the time they visit. Oh, they also accept books in foreign languages. Some of the members of their group speak other languages besides English and all the foreign prisoners, not just the English-speaking one, can join in when the Raintree group comes to visit..

[Beechboy]

The AUA library in Chiang Mai is still very much in operation. Perhaps they'd be interested in them. As pointed out, mailing them here is a cheap option. Please sign your name (at least your first name) so we can know who donated them. Some great fellow by the name of "Tom" donated a lot of books over a year ago and Hubby has really enjoyed reading his books and even going so far is to look for other books from the "Tom" collection in the library.

As UG mentioned, donating for the western prisoners is another great use for them. They especially like the paperback potboilers that I call "airport novels" because they're widely sold at airports to travelers. We make our donations thru a group of kind souls at the Raintree Center who visit the prisoners each week. Not only were they pleased to take Hubby's airport novels to the prison, but they were thrilled with our small collection of American-edition National Geographic magazines. Yes, Raintree is a Christian organization but they don't visit the prison for the purposes of evangelism and the prison management allows them to meet with all the foreign prisoners during the time that they come. Apparently, normally you have to list a specific person who you've come to visit. Instead, the prison guards permit all the foreign prisoners to visit the group from Raintree during the time they visit. Oh, they also accept books in foreign languages. Some of the members of their group speak other languages besides English and all the foreign prisoners, not just the English-speaking one, can join in when the Raintree group comes to visit..

I don't wish to put a dampner on things, but all my reading nowadays is done on the internet. I find it convivial, even with the laptop in bed.

The increasing popularity of this will clealy make the issue of book disposal less pertinent, although books are forever.

[BangkokHank]

The AUA library in Chiang Mai is still very much in operation. Perhaps they'd be interested in them. As pointed out, mailing them here is a cheap option. Please sign your name (at least your first name) so we can know who donated them. Some great fellow by the name of "Tom" donated a lot of books over a year ago and Hubby has really enjoyed reading his books and even going so far is to look for other books from the "Tom" collection in the library.

As UG mentioned, donating for the western prisoners is another great use for them. They especially like the paperback potboilers that I call "airport novels" because they're widely sold at airports to travelers. We make our donations thru a group of kind souls at the Raintree Center who visit the prisoners each week. Not only were they pleased to take Hubby's airport novels to the prison, but they were thrilled with our small collection of American-edition National Geographic magazines. Yes, Raintree is a Christian organization but they don't visit the prison for the purposes of evangelism and the prison management allows them to meet with all the foreign prisoners during the time that they come. Apparently, normally you have to list a specific person who you've come to visit. Instead, the prison guards permit all the foreign prisoners to visit the group from Raintree during the time they visit. Oh, they also accept books in foreign languages. Some of the members of their group speak other languages besides English and all the foreign prisoners, not just the English-speaking one, can join in when the Raintree group comes to visit..

I don't wish to put a dampner on things, but all my reading nowadays is done on the internet. I find it convivial, even with the laptop in bed.

The increasing popularity of this will clealy make the issue of book disposal less pertinent, although books are forever.

I suspect it will be a long time before inmates in Thai prisons have the option of reading books on the internet.

[BangkokHank]

I donated some books to Father Joe's operation in Klong Toey once. BTW, why not mail them? 30 kgs, costs only 460 Baht parcel post.

Link to Thai Post rate calculator:

My link

That's also a very good idea. Thanks for the suggestion.

Actually yesterday I was passing by a post office and I saw a pile of big parcels in front of the place waiting to be shipped off. So I went over and checked the destinations, weights and postage prices on each box to see if there was anything similar to the size and weight combination that I would like to send. Unfortunately in this case the heavy boxes were being sent to Europe and the light ones within Thailand. But this post rate calculator for which you provided the link should answer that question for me. Thanks again very much. Now I'm spoiled for choice as to what to do with my books.