One of Britain's largest stocks of second-hand books ever amassed

I just helped clean up the estate of an uncle of mine that died. He'd collected an absolutely massive amount of books during his lifetime. Besides that he played the violin and had collected an equally impressive amount of music books.

I managed to save some of the rare works but I could find absolutely no takers for the bulk of the books, at any price or even for free. That generation is leaving behind an enormous amount of paper and it is mostly going to waste. Very frustrating, if I had had the space I would have been happy to take all of it. I would have read some and I would have tried to find a new home for the remainder but that takes time and the housing company only gave us two weeks to vacate the place, which was much too little time even for proper cataloging. Fortunately he had already organized things to the point that it was obvious which ones were the precious ones.

And the violin got a good home. The guy lived like a monk, the whole flat was just paper and shelves, and a tiny spot for a bed. You could have made the pictures in this article in his flat as well (I didn't make any, it was too sad of an occasion).

My own books I keep giving away on the promise that whoever gets the book will read it and pass it on. That way they stay alive for a little bit longer. Some books I keep buying again just so I can have the pleasure of giving them away once more. Douglas Adams' hhgttg is probably the record holder.

Here in Australia one of the charities runs huge book fairs every few months where vast amounts of literature are loosely organized in to subject sections. It's all volunteer labor and I believe the proceeds go to homeless people and victims of domestic violence. I have acquired some awesome old maps this way as well as rare and interesting works. Unless aggressively digitized, most of the data will become unobtainium at some point. One learns to respect previous standards of writing, editing, illustration, design, publishing and printing. Oh how the mighty have fallen!

Sorry for your loss. It's sad that his collection didn't get the full attention it deserved.

> "the housing company only gave us two weeks to vacate the place"

It's a very good idea for a collector to own a place to keep the stuff.

The British book collection mentioned in the article is housed in a former youth hostel in the countryside. That kind of place can be surprisingly affordable to buy... But of course it's the renovations and upkeep that truly test the collector's wallet and dedication.

It's a shame. I'd happily take good books (low cost or free) but storage and shelf space is the problem.

I used to imagine running some kind of second hand book business (non profit) when I retire. Sad that these days it may not be feasible.

> It's a very good idea for a collector to own a place to keep the stuff.

Perhaps, but even for valuable things like musical instruments the floor space ends up being far more valuable than the objects. Hence the relentless march of waste disposal. It's very sad but a core fact of modern life that land is money.

(the phrase "housing company" implies that the collector did not even own a house for himself, let alone the collection..)

Unless you go deep rural. I've been to a few "bookstores" that were basically somebody's house, but an hour's drive to the nearest town and therefore only getting specialist traffic or people in the area for other tourism.

I've also started to do this. I've given away a few copies of Neuromancer now. One of which I gave away as part of a Android: Netrunner sale I made :)

> That generation is leaving behind an enormous amount of paper and it is mostly going to waste.

But what is really the problem with this? (Assuming the paper in the books is recycled, to be clear.)

I disagree with the idea that books are generally precious objects. At this point in time we have many more books than we need, and many of the books in existence simply will never be read again.

I'm curious about this - do you have the name of the charity in question?

I've been taking quite a few bags of books down to my local library for their annual book sale. I still have a ton but trying to winnow things down a bit.

So I give them a chance at a new home but having been at the sale on the second weekend I have no doubt that a ton end up pulpled.

This is an example of a general phenomenon: people keep objects that used to be valuable, just because they used to be valuable (but no longer are).

Think of collections of fine china that you never use, antique furniture, pianos, artwork, old electronics, personal relationships, etc. You either spent money at some point to get the things or someone in the past spent a lot of money on it. Tossing it becomes a repudiation of that past value, a painful admission the value has decayed away.

Used bookstores are increasingly online now, through abebooks or similar. In-store traffic has become progressively less important. This I think it was has really led to used book stores closing their doors. As long as the owner of the used book store can travel well enough to acquire books the business can sustain.

Haha, yeah I've also given books away to one person, gotten a new copy, just to have the same book come up in a conversation with a different person and giving the new copy away. Rinse and repeat. :)

https://www.lifelineh2hsydney.org.au/love-books/2025-book-fa... Lifeline: turns out it's suicide prevention focused. https://www.lifeline.org.au/ Not sure why they have two websites.

A recent event raised $300K: https://www.booksandpublishing.com.au/articles/2025/09/02/31...

> It's very sad but a core fact of modern life that land is money.

It always has been. And it's an ongoing scandal that it is not taxed.

"I could find absolutely no takers for the bulk of the books" : archive.org ...