Books and bicycles

I think the bikes will be easier to dispose of than the books. Books are a drug on the market when it comes to charities of any kind. I cannot think of any that would take that number, all unseen. It will depend on titles, authors, age, condition.

I belong to a county archaeological society and members regularly leave us their archaeological libraries in their wills. We will go and look at them, take perhaps half a dozen books and decline the rest. The books are too old, too out of date, have been revised 5 times since the edition our departed member bought.

You could start by cataloguing them and noting whether hard or soft backed and condition and circulate the lists to a couple of charities. Catalogue the specialist books separately and have a look online or on ebay to see whether it sells and you could give the proceeds to charity, or circulate the list to book sellers specialising in that particular subject to see if any are interested..

As regards to the bikes are they what type are they , racing or other.
On the Book front , check for 1st editions there are some specialist book shops around the UK .
Mick

Thanks for responding. The bikes are tourers.
I am realising now that my fantasy of bequeathing the books as an entirety (so as to avoid the pain of splitting them all up) may be far fetched. I was envisioning a scenario where an institution, like a prison or a college, would take the lot for their readers.

I don't know where you live, but QMC hospital in Nottingham have a library and they are always after book donations.

A male prison is unlikely to want any chick lit novels or any perceived as 'girlie'. Most college libraries are only interested in books relevant to the courses they teach - and that would mean only novels that fit in with their literature courses.

And 3,000 is a lot of books, I cannot think of any recreational library (hospital, care home or the like that could take that many.

I am not trying to be death's head at the feast but I had to disperse a smaller collection of books belonging to a relative and had to take a cold eye to them; First family members took any they wanted,I sold a few, selected specialist books that could interest an Oxfam book shop - and then recycle the rest. or in other words, take them to the tip and put them in a paper skip.

sendbookstoprisoners.co.uk/ say that "UK Prisons are overflowing and it is hard for prisoners to to access quality reading material to help break the boredom. UK Prisoners need books and other reading material to help pass the time. At many prisons there are very few quality books available to the prison population, and often what is there is poor quality in poor condition. "

However, there seem to be so many rules about it that it could be difficult. You have to send books to an individual, at an individual prison, and they have to conform to the policies of that prison. You can look up a list of prisons and their rules from the URL I quoted, or there are general rules for delivery of books to prisoners:-
sendbookstoprisoners.co.uk/general-rules-for-delivery-of-books-to-prisoners/

But an enquiry wouldn't take you much time, and could get you more information.

(About chick lit - there are women's prisons too, maybe they would read it?)

But how really kind and generous are you nana5852 what a lovely idea.
The bikes will get snapped up I’m sure.
And I do hope your books can be transported en masse to a very lucky institution. Good luck ☘️

Thanks everybody for your ideas and comments. I’m now wondering if a struggling school or college, perhaps after a war or due to extreme poverty might welcome a shipment. It’s good to get the grey matter stimulated by other people’s thinking. What about the bikes....I’d like to dispose of them soon (the books stay till I’m dead!)

Gumtree for local people who can collect and pay for them. Freecycle if you don't want money, just to get rid of them? In my experience, people DO turn up from Freecycle to get something for nothing, unlike Gumtree buyers who say they are coming round in an hour but are never heard of again. There were even people contacting me a week later to say "If you still have XXXX I'll take it off your hands", (they would probably be selling them down at the pub that evening).

PS The best time to advertise bikes is in December.