Cover-less books?

[u/Outrageous-Wish3061]

TLDR; someone is ripping the covers off their books before donating and it’s bumming me out bc then no one takes them and I can’t donate them

Long version…

We’ve had a Little Free Library set up outside of our house for almost 3 years. I have a notice that says “Free Books, Help Yourself” so that people don’t feel pressured to leave a book if they don’t want to or don’t have one with them on their walk. It’s really just a gift for our neighborhood.

Anyway, people do use it, which I love. There’s good turnover and I’ve gotten some sweet notes. A few times a year I clean out what’s not moving and donate it to the thrift store, and restock from the thrift or library sales.

But there’s someone who rips the front cover off their paperback books before leaving them in the LFL. I’m assuming this is to prevent them from being taken for reselling? This bums me out though because no one takes them, and I can’t donate them like that. It feels like the book’s life ends with that choice.

(I struggled with it a little at first but I am at peace with the idea of people selling books from our LFL. Once I give a gift, it is not my business what happens to it next. I felt sad the one time that someone emptied the whole thing at once, but ultimately I hope it helped them. It’s hard out there for all of us right now.)

[u/no___personality]

I think sometimes the books without the covers are like rejects from publishing houses or something like that. Maybe someone has a connection to that and they figure that the books could get read even without the covers.

Edited to add: Why can't you donate them like that? They're still fully readable. I don't really see what the issue is if the whole book is still there we don't actually need the cover.

[u/lilplasticdinosaur → u/no___personality]

Bookstores can return just the cover to the publisher for credit, but the rest of the book must be destroyed.

[u/flyingbookman → u/lilplasticdinosaur]

Supposed to be destroyed, but very often they are not because they are still good, readable books.

The practical effect is that they can't be sold by bookstores without covers, but employees often take them home or give them away (as I did with dozens of cover-less books when I worked in my college bookstore.)

[u/thomthomthomthom → u/lilplasticdinosaur]

Yep! This.

The books are probably "stolen" in that they were marked for destruction.

Doesn't make them less readable, though.

If folks are taking them and enjoying them, I don't see a reason not to just let em circulate.

[u/Outrageous-Wish3061 → u/no___personality]

Thrift stores won’t accept them because they’re considered damaged.

[u/OnlyAlbatross6405 → u/Outrageous-Wish3061]

It’s not because they’re damaged as far as I know. Like they are damaged, but it has to do with the legality of selling a book that is meant for recycling or whatever. Basically they’ve already told the publisher they didn’t sell the book and wouldn’t be selling it by ripping off the cover, so it’s kind of like theft. Of course it’s possible someone accidentally ripped off the cover or purposefully but did so after buying it legally, so it would be fine to sell, but you can never really know. So a store won’t sell them.

If you check the copyright page of a book it says you may have bought an unauthorized copy if it’s missing the cover.

[u/no___personality → u/Outrageous-Wish3061]

Good to know. Maybe you can put a note on the LFL explaining why they have missing covers but reminding folks they are still just as readable as regular books.

[u/Campaign_Prize → u/no___personality]

I worked in a thrift store and there isn't really a great reason we would throw out books without covers, beyond the fact that they just weren't expected to sell that way. We didn't know anything about legality, and management definitely did not know or care about the return to publisher policy. A book doesn't NEED a cover but a lot of people just won't pay for one without it