By Kathryn White
Are last year’s book club picks still sitting on your bedside table? Have you kept those college textbooks from 20 years ago?
If your inventory of old books no longer brings you Marie Kondo-style joy, North Denver is here for you.
West Side Books on 32nd Avenue takes appointments for Tuesdays to look at up to three boxes at a time of your used books. Owner Lois Harvey said she most Iikes to see books that are fairly new or really old. Harvey sifts through what you bring and makes you an offer, which you can take as used-book store credit (to shop from their vast supply of well-organized used books) or a smaller amount in cash.
Denver Public Library branches take up to two boxes a day of your used books, music CDs, DVDs, BluRays and records (think milk crate-size boxes). Your supply may include items the library was already looking to add to its collection or your donations may go into one of the library’s popular book sales organized by the Denver Public Library Friends Foundation. The library does not accept magazines, broken or damaged items and anything in formats they don’t circulate (like cassette tapes and videotapes).
BookGive, a nonprofit that gives away new and gently used books from a converted gas station on Lowell Boulevard, takes book donations on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from 9 a.m. to noon. They accept books in good condition and are especially interested in books in Spanish. Their website says to “think giftable.” Visit BookGive online for a list of things they do not accept (magazines, comic books, reference books and more).
Letting Go of Used Books:
West Side Books
3434 W. 32nd Ave.
Denver Public Library
Smiley Branch, 4501 W. 46th Ave.
Woodbury Branch, 3265 Federal Blvd.
Corky Gonzales Branch, 1498 Irving St.
BookGive
4890 Lowell Blvd.
DreamBooks Co.
Still hanging on? DreamBooks Co. features a map of places around the city where book donations are accepted. Or, as always, you can deposit your book offerings around the neighborhood in any number of Little Free Libraries.
If, after all those options for letting go, you are still stuck thinking you will someday read those books again (heck, you might), consider your stacks and shelves loaded down with books from the vantage point of the people who will be left to deal with them when you are gone.
Margareta Magnusson has written about this angle in her refreshingly short and wildly popular book, “The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning: How to Free Yourself and Your Family from a Lifetime of Clutter.”
Perhaps you can pick up a copy of this title, as inspiration, at West Side Books. Stop in and see.
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