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.

> 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.