To Read a Book is a Right

To read a book is a right, not a privilege.

And so, what do you do with the books you don't want anymore?

If you have books you no longer read, the correct thing to do would be to leave the book in a visible place so others can see it and perhaps grab it and read it. Passers-by will peruse it, take it, or leave it there for the next person until that book finds a home.

You may know what to do, but let me remind you about other ideas.

  > Check with family members if someone is interested in keeping them.

  > You can give them away as a gift to people you know will love them.

   >You can donate them to a school library, hospital library, waiting rooms in hospitals and medical offices, nursing homes, senior homes, Long Term Care buildings, local community centres, or the Salvation Army. You may come up with your idea, but please apply it.

   >You can leave them in hotels, airports, train stations, and other halls.

   >You can leave them in most neighborhoods' small house-shaped free libraries. "Take a book, share a book" is their maxim.

   >You can sell them at a minimum price in your seasonal yard sale.

   >When it is not raining, you may leave them in your front garden or a conspicuous place with a sign "Free" or the like.

   >Donate them to a Book Club.

   >Place them in Coffee Books.

   >Forward them to condominium libraries.

   >Place them in public laundry businesses.

Furthermore, you may use old books for crafts, but if the idea is to find new readers, you can follow any of the hints above.

But whatever you want to do with your once valuable collection, don't ever throw it away, leave it abandoned in a sideway, or throw it in the garbage bin. No. Please don't throw those books into the recycle bin either.

I found one of the most valuable books I had ever read discarded on a quiet street when ice was melting. The book lay on the sidewalk like an agonizing messenger pigeon with its wings broken, its message undelivered; the cold breeze flipped the pages as if the bird I imagined wanted to fly even in such sorrowful condition. I bent over, grabbed the book, removed the remaining ice from the cover, dried it with the tip of my scarf, and dropped it in my knapsack.

When someone discards a book on the sidewalk or throws it into the garbage bin, whether they have read it or not, toss the author's soul into the garbage bin.

Don't do that. Authors believe in their work. Authors create worlds. Authors are people who, with their words, move your soul forward.

Besides, if someone tosses a book into the garbage bin, they are unconsciously practicing an exercise of censure. They are mutilating in others the right to read. If the book is not suitable for you, others may like it. To others, like in my case, finding a book one loves may be equal to finding a moon ray that illuminates one's darkest night.

In conclusion, share your books. Don't ever throw them into a garbage bin.