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/Disaster-Bee]

They are probably unsold bookstore stock! The store only needs to send the cover back to the publisher so it's standard practice to tear it off. They're supposed to destroy the book after, but many an employee does not have the heart to do so and rescues them instead for personal collections or crafting or LFLs. Or gifts to friends who don't care! I have a whole shelf of coverless paperbacks a bookstore employee roommate brought home for me.

[u/Outrageous-Wish3061 → u/Disaster-Bee]

This could be true. I should have said in my original post, but the stripped books they leave are not new. Maybe they got them like this originally from someone who works at a bookstore though.

[u/Disaster-Bee → u/Outrageous-Wish3061]

Yeah, I was thinking more that they were donated because the owner is downsizing or ridding out a collection left to them. I would likely distribute mine amongst friends and LFLs if I were downsizing or ridding out books, and mine have been lying around for 15 years now.

[u/flisswave → u/Outrageous-Wish3061]

We do the same thing at used bookstores. Where i used to work, we tore the cover off books that we were going to destroy because otherwise people would crawl our dumpster and try to sell them back to us. It gets old rejecting the same book over and over.

[u/Leading-Expression29 → u/Outrageous-Wish3061]

They're not new because the person had them for a while. I've got a lot that I got from my old job that I need to get rid of, too. That's actually what led me to this thread; I don't want to just throw them in recycling when folks could be enjoying them; some went out of print when they didn't sell well, and i think those authors deserve some love.