While Freebird naps on Saturdays and Sundays, Hubby and I tackle our “office,” which is really a nice name for a room that’s filled with books. Books from college, books from law school (his), books from grad school (mine), books we were given, and my neverending two-deep stack o’ romance novels. Since the “office” is the 3rd bedroom on that floor and will need to become a real bedroom for Baba O’Riley, we need to cut down the selection of books, AND since we’re absolutely bugfuck barmy and about to renovate our house, we can’t delay the decision-making by putting the books we don’t know what to do with in the basement. Eventually 90% of our kitchen needs to go in the basement, so there’s no room for all my multiple copies of romance.
Add to that a horrible habit – I never throw books away- and you have a huge, HUGE stack of books to be donated, recycled, and, in the case of a few really old prayer books, buried in the yard. It’s embarrassing how many different reasons I keep books. I have multiple copies of the same book, plus books I read once but because they were purchased by or given to me I couldn’t bring myself to toss them, or books I spent my hard earned dollars on in college and therefore refused to part from. It’s sad, really.
After putting all the romance in one specific box, I realized – we have over 6 boxes of books to give to the local women’s group that hosts an annual booksale to benefit college scholarships. Why not offer the box o’romance to the Bitchery readers in a frenzy of giveaways? At least I’ll know the books are going to happy readers, since I can’t keep them all.
So! My loss- your gain. I’m listing the following books for giveaway. You can pick up to 2 and I will mail them out domestic US media mail. Please note: I looked up the costs to mail books to international-type places like Australia, and holy freaking cowpie. $40 for up to .5 lbs!? Are you kidding me?! So until the US Postal Service and I see eye to eye on this issue, or until I can scam local postage via placing books in someone’s luggage to Australia, I can’t offer to ship internationally for this particular giveaway, and I’m sorry about that.
Please pick two and let me know which ones you want via email: please include your name, address, and the titles you’d like. First come, first served, so in case the book you want is taken already, please feel free to list a 3rd or 4th choice.
Further note: I make no promises as to the quality of the content of the books, as there are some I haven’t read in literally five or more years. However, all books are clean, in good or like-new condition.
So: to the list!
Austen, Jane
Persuasion
Brown, Sandra:
Three Complete Novels – Mirror Image, Best Kept Secrets, Slow Heat in Heaven
Note: hardback, counts as 2 choices. Dude. It’s heavy!
Brockmann, Suzanne:
Over the Edge
Coulter, Catherine
Sweet Surrender
The Valentine Legacy
Davis, Diane Wicker
Heart of the Raven
Goudge, Eileen
Blessing In Disguise
Hamilton, Laurell K.
Circus of the Damned
The Lunatic Cafe
Kinsale, Laura
The Dream Hunter
Note: trade paperback size, not large print
Lowell, Elizabeth
Only Love
Untamed
McNaught, Judith
Almost Heaven
Medeiros, Teresa
Charmig the Prince
Michaels, Barbara
Into the Darkness
Phillips, Susan Elizabeth
Lady Be Good
Just Imagine
Quinn, Julia
How to Marry a Marquis
Minx
Brighter than the Sun
Romancing Mr. Bridgerton
An Offer From A Gentleman
To Catch an Heiress
To Sir Phillip, With Love
Santmeyer, Helen Hooven
…And the Ladies of the Club
whoohooo! You’ve got mail! 😀
*sad Canadian* 🙁
Has anyone here actually read “…And the Ladies of the Club”? I own it, but the first chapter left me unenthusiastic. With a little encouragement, however, I would persevere!
This reminds me of the time, nearly 15 years ago, when I literally had to burn a Dumpster full of books because I could find no one to give them to (even libraries didn’t want them) before I moved halfway across the state. Literature, literary criticism, philosophy, history, and more. Oh, God…Fahrenheit—
Nope, still can’t even speak, type, or think the title.
You’re a peach, Sarah!
Very generous! Find them good homes…. Books get sad easily. They’ll stop eating. You have to watch for deteriorating behaviour, but it does happen.
When I was a kid, I would imagine that my bed was a magic carpet and I would keep some books on it at night, just in case it would fly me away – at least I would have reading material. I still do that – may be why I don’t have a BF right now.
I hate to get rid of books. This weekend I have to get up enough nerve to clean out my books – for a local library book sale. But I’ve probably already ordered enough on Amazon to replace them.
My shrink is beginning to think it’s a problem – yeah, right – what does SHE know, huh? I have hundreds of books and only three cats – at least it’s not the other way around.
Arethusa,
Is postage between Canada and the US hideously expensive? Perhaps I can convince you to take some of my books if shipping isn’t more than a week’s of my Starbuck’s habit 🙂
I’m seriously considering a book sharing service because my local libraries don’t buy much mass market romance or encourage their donation, local used bookstores don’t like mms much either, and my books seem to multiply whenever I’m not looking. I have a nearly full box of books I’ve read at work because I’ll be moving soon and don’t need more titles to sort through.
Wow, Claudia! That’s such a lovely offer. I actually have no idea how much it costs to ship to Ontario. I do think it’s comparatively expensive to US domestic though, it’s what I hear all the time. Umm, let’s see….
If you really are interested, would you care to e-mail me? Sweet Sarah really does feel bad about not being able to ship outside of the USA so I’m not keen to rub it in. 😛
That’s so not the emoticon I was going for, and you’d think I’d have figured this out after umpteenth years commenting here, but I guess not.
Claudia, I use Paperbackswap.com and I’ve been very happy with the results!
It really doesn’t cost that much to send one mass-market paperback romance novel internationally. Put it in a bubble envelope. Most of them run about 7 ounces when mailed and will run about 6.40 sent First Class International.
I sent a romance novel to Canada first class a couple of weeks ago and it only cost 1.95.
(I do a lot of international trading on BookMooch, which I do recommend for non-US residents trying to trade books.
Bookcrossing.com is another good resource for both getting rid of and getting books.
I wish I could participate, but considering that I just gave half a million books to Half-Price Books (a local buy/sell/trade place), I really shouldn’t. Half-Price wouldn’t even take some of my books—they glanced down at “Summer of Fear,” back up to me, and asked if I would like them to “donate” it.
Claudia…another recommendation for PaperBackSwap, although I don’t know about the border crossing thing…although I did send one to Puerto Rico for the same postage as US.
Arethusa: I’ll mail you book details.
Thanksto everyone for bookswap suggestions. I saw a blurb about Booksfree in a magazine, so now I have three places to check out 🙂
You guys don’t know about Media mail? (It’s also called an M-bag by the US Postal Service). You can send printed materials (i.e., books) for quite a low price. I have sent myself (to Italy) several big boxes and it costs about $1/pound in the end. I think it’s more convenient if you send large amounts, though – there may be a minimum! But a good way to “recycle” used books with us internationals! 🙂
Link:
http://www.usps.com/international/mbags.htm
I use BookMooch to swap books with other people. It’s saved me tons of money. http://www.bookmooch.com
I’ve shipped books to Australia before and it’s never cost me more than $8 using the US postal service.
Here’s another vote for BookMooch! Love it. 🙂
Sarah – You’re about to have a baby AND you’re about to remodel your house???
OMG. Words fail me. “All hope abandon, ye who enter here…”
Good luck. I’m not much for prayer, but in THIS set of circumstances, I’ll pray for you. I’m not Catholic, but maybe St. Jude would take an interest…