Charity book shop begs public to stop donating copies of ’50 Shades of Grey’

[WildaBeast]

The Oxfam Swansea charity book store is being flooded with media requests after posting pleas on Twitter and Facebook for more recordings and fewer copies of “50 Shades of Grey.”

http://fox17online.com/2016/03/24/ch...hades-of-grey/

[popkulture]

Working in a used bookstore, I can sympathize. The flood of "Twilight" also seems to be without end in my location, and I often wish we could simply ask for folks to not bring them in.

The use of 'vinyls' in their tweet *shudder* like fingernails on a blackboard. I don't know why that particular pluralizing of a word that does not need to be plural bothers me so. It's 'vinyl' folks, doesn't matter if you buy a stack of records ("I bought a lot of vinyl this weekend.") or if you buy one ("Hey, look! I scored the Soft Boys 'Underwater Moonlight' on vinyl!").

[Andrew of Ware]

Is Fifty Shades of Grey becoming one of the most bought, but least read books of modern times?

BTW: Fox News has been in trouble before with their British geography. Yes, Swansea is west of Cardiff, but it is not a town, it's a city. More importantly, people from Swansea will not like their city's position to be identified by its relationship with Cardiff. I'm not saying they are rivals, but civil war almost breaks out when their two football teams play each other.

[Horse Chestnut]

Originally Posted by Andrew of Ware

Is Fifty Shades of Grey becoming one of the most bought, but least read books of modern times?

I'd say it's right up there with The DaVinci Code. Perhaps they can figure out a way to grind up oversold/underread used books with old tires, and use them to repave roads and cushion playgrounds.

[UEL]

Originally Posted by Andrew of Ware

Is Fifty Shades of Grey becoming one of the most bought, but least read books of modern times?

I know my wife was keen to get the book. And about 1/4 of the way through it, she put the book down and hasn't cracked the spine since.

I won't bring it to any used book store. I'll use it for kindling in the BBQ.

[Beachlife!]

This article has a picture of the fort they built out of the books:

Come on, Fifty Shades — haven't you done enough??

[Seaboe Muffinchucker]

This sort of thing happens with a lot of best sellers, especially romances. People don't re-read (even if they finish the book), and then the book goes out of fashion, so even if they liked it, they don't want it around anymore. Then they donate it to charity. When a couple million people all buy the same book, if even 10% of them donate them, that's still 200,000 copies of the book. Enough for the charity shops to drown in.

Seaboe

[Sue]

Same problem for public libraries. The first few donations of a big best seller are usually highly anticipated as it means you've got more copies of a popular book to put into circulation so the waiting list gets cut down. After that though it can become an embarrassment of riches! I was a student working at the our public library when Thornbirds was huge. Just in the summer I worked there we must have gotten about 150 copies donated to us - possibly more. .

[Beachlife!]

From the article, the particular problem here is that they can't even recycle them because of the special binding used for the books.

[Sue]

Shh, don't tell anyone but most libraries I worked at didn't recycle their cast offs either - they were binned, usually in the dead of night when no one (hopefully) was looking .

[Seaboe Muffinchucker]

Hardbound books can only be recycled if you take the time to cut the binding off, first (paperbacks are trending that way, too). No library (and very few charity shops) have the time to bother.

Many people become librarians because they love books, and one of the things they teach you to do is to throw away books. I always thought that was weirdly liberating.

Seaboe

[Sooeygun]

Toronto recycling accepts hardcover and paperback books (you don't have to take off the binding). Calgary accepts only soft cover. Not sure how they process them.

[Brad from Georgia]

Originally Posted by Andrew of Ware

....
BTW: Fox News has been in trouble before with their British geography. Yes, Swansea is west of Cardiff, but it is not a town, it's a city. ....

You mean those sailors lied to us...in song!?

[Andrew of Ware]

No, they didn't. Sailors are as straight as the day is long. In the 1870s and 1880s Swansea was still a town. It only became a city in 1969 in honour of Prince Charles becoming the Prince of Wales.

Now, Your Majesty, in honour of your 90th birthday have you thought about making Ware a city?

[kevinjwoods]

Having ran book departments in various charity stores over the last ten years until recently (long story but accidently discovered major christian charity was operating a theft ring in such a way that they couldn't be caught and was fired for reporting it) and I can confirm that sometimes you do get lots of copies of certain books at certain times and not just the expected stuff like Dan Brown and E L James but odder things like First Editions of Little Big which turned up twice in the same street, or the hundreds of copies of Kathy Reichs and Ian Rankin that turn up every month, so yeah you do get sick of putting out the same book in dozens of copies without anyone ever buying them.
Most popular books will turn up in charity stores because of the fact that thousands will buy them at a low price from supermarkets so that they are disposable being cheaper than some breakfast cereals so most paperback bestsellers will turn up within a month or 2 with surprisingly large frequency.

[DawnStorm]

OK used book stores, what would you rather have a gazillion copies of? A) 50 Shades of Grey; B) DaVinci Code; or C) Readers' Digest Condensed Books?

Option C used to be a used book store/yard sale given. I guess they're all balancing office kitchen tables now.

[Lainie]

Originally Posted by Andrew of Ware

BTW: Fox News has been in trouble before with their British geography. Yes, Swansea is west of Cardiff, but it is not a town, it's a city.

Terms like "town" and "city," usually have a legal meaning here (although that meaning will vary from state to state), but outside of contexts where that meaning has direct relevance, it doesn't generally govern usage of the terms in writing.

Colloquially, New York and Chicago are towns.

[Sue]

I just wish people would realize that when they are donating items that a charity has stated they don't want (i.e. magazines, Reader's Digest Condensed books, old encyclopedias) - and IME most libraries and charity bookstores make it very clear what they won't accept - that they aren't helping the charity in any way and in fact are causing them to potentially incur extra costs because they've got to get rid of the unwanted items. Not very charitable if your only reason to donate is so you don't have to throw them out yourself not because you really think any one else will buy them.

[Dasla]

Originally Posted by Seaboe Muffinchucker

Many people become librarians because they love books, and one of the things they teach you to do is to throw away books. I always thought that was weirdly liberating.

Seaboe

Well it would depend on the book.

Originally Posted by Lainie

Terms like "town" and "city," usually have a legal meaning here (although that meaning will vary from state to state), but outside of contexts where that meaning has direct relevance, it doesn't generally govern usage of the terms in writing.

Colloquially, New York and Chicago are towns.

I grew up in the city of Townsville. Work that one out.

[GenYus234]

Are you Bubbles, Blossom, or Buttercup?