Donate or Throw Away Old Books? A Chicago Guide

Which Old Books Can Be Passed Forward in Chicago?

Almost every old book in Chicago can be passed forward, as long as it is dry, intact and readable, no matter how dated the cover looks or how many times it has been read.

Far more books are sent to a landfill than ever needed to be, usually because someone assumed nobody wants an old textbook or a shelf of encyclopedias. Meanwhile the handful of books that genuinely are beyond saving get kept, because the mold looks like it might brush off. It does not.

Two boxes came up from the basement. One of them smells like a basement. One of them is fine. The difference matters, and it is easier to spot than people think.

Which Books Are Genuinely Beyond Saving?

Books with active mold, water damage, pest damage or missing sections of text cannot be reused. Active mold is fuzzy and gray-green, with that sharp cellar smell that catches in your throat, and it spreads to whatever is packed beside it.

• Books that were soaked and dried into a warped block
• Books with pages fused together, or a spine that has let go completely
• Anything showing evidence of pests
• Books missing whole sections of text
• Anything with active mold, which can compromise an entire box

Items that cannot be reused may eventually be recycled as a last resort. That is the honest end of the line for a small number of books, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.

The Damp Chicago Basement Problem

Chicago basements after a wet spring are the single biggest reason good books do not survive this city. An Albany Park bungalow with a below-grade storage room, cartons sitting directly on the concrete, one heavy May, and the bottom layer is gone.

The books on top are usually perfectly fine. Two things are worth knowing. First, a musty smell is not the same as mold; plenty of books that smell like a cellar are structurally sound and air out on a dry shelf. Second, if you store books down there at all, get them off the concrete and onto a shelf or a pallet. That one change saves more books than anything else you will ever do.

The Books People Wrongly Write Off

Old textbooks, encyclopedias, book club editions, cracked-spine paperbacks and children's books with a name inside the cover are all donatable, and together they are the biggest category of avoidable loss in Chicago.

• Old textbooks. Public libraries often cannot take them. Tutoring programs, ESL classrooms and adult education programs ask for exactly this.
• Encyclopedias. Yes, the whole shelf. Heavy, dated, and still requested.
• Book club editions. Not collectible. Perfectly readable. A reader does not check the imprint page.
• Paperbacks with cracked spines. They were built to be read to death. Someone will finish the job.
• Kids' books with a name written inside the cover. Nobody minds. Nobody has ever minded.

Give My Books Network takes books plus DVDs, CDs, vinyl, VHS, audiobooks, board games, puzzles and video games. No sorting required. That call happens offsite, after collection.

The Ten-Second Test That Settles It

Open it, smell it, bend the cover. If it does not smell like a wet cellar, if the pages turn, and if the cover flexes without cracking apart in your hand, it goes in the donation box.

That is the whole test, and you will pass far more books than you expect to. The reference set nobody has opened since 1994 passes. The paperback that has been read four times passes. The one that came up from the basement smelling like a cellar and holding together anyway probably passes too.

How Do I Pass Old Books Forward in Chicago Without a Car?

Give My Books Network collects donated books free from Chicago doorsteps, so no car is needed. You pack the boxes, because a Local Pick-Up Partner does not bring boxes, and set them out starting at 8 AM somewhere dry.

Not on open back steps during a wet snow, and not out in the alley where the weather will find them. The window runs 8 AM to 8 PM and you do not need to be home. Many items are redistributed to readers, schools, libraries, nonprofits and organizations that request books through the Give ME Books program. Some are resold by the partner to help sustain the free pickup service. For a second opinion on what donation programs can realistically accept, the American Library Association's Book Donation Programs guide is the reference librarians point to.

If a partner serves your ZIP code, you can book a service day instantly. If not, your request enters the out-of-area pickup system, where nearby partners may claim it.

Pack the good ones. Set them out. Done.

Or browse all Chicago donation services including Community Book-Sharing Program, Large Quantity Book Pickup, Video Game Donation Pickup.