"Rescuing" old books

[Nic1107]

Several days ago, I read an article that I found very disturbing, all about how libraries and bookstores too often make room for new inventory by pulping/trashing old books without always checking to see if it's something culturally important or monetarily valuable they're destroying.
https://www.cracked.com/article_19453_6-reasons-were-in-another-book-burning-period-in-history.html

Later in the week I was wandering around Half-Price Books (used book store) and browsing through their 'Old and Interesting' and 'Printed Before 1900' shelves in the Collectibles section and I got to wondering what might become of some of the fascinating but often obscure and very old books they had. I ended up buying one of them ("A History of Music", written in 1888; the specific volume I bought was printed in 1904) and offering it up to my FB friends who are interested in music theory. I had three takers right off the bat, and now I'm wondering if it may be my calling in life to "rescue" old, 'endangered' books and pass them along to a good home.

Am I just weird, or does this sound like a worthwhile thing to anyone else? Have you ever bought a book just because it was old and had its own story to tell, even if the subject matter wasn't necessarily of interest to you?

 

[Every Rose]

I think it's something you could do.

Some book dealers do very well out of it, although if you wanted it to be your career you would have to do your research and know your stuff.

But I think it's a great idea, even if it's something you do as a hobby rather than a full time job.

I've seen someone on etsy making jewellery etc out of old books and the sight of all those ripped out pages made me feel ill.

And I've seen a house design magazine feature where the designer ripped off the hardback book covers and used the exposed but still glued together pages as ornaments. She said the books looked better that way

 

[smokey]

I used to work in a library (was my first job experiance when I was 14) and I think its pretty rare to just destroy books especialy without checking what they are.
One of my jobs was to bundle up old books and we had a massive store room full of old no longer used books and most of them found good homes.
The library would either sell them on at the library or they would send them on to other libraries or people specificaly looking for copies.
I think books are more endangered from people and their own book collections rather then libraries, people throw away books without having a clue what they are or the meaning behind them.
I once bought a book from a bootsale because it looked old and when I looked at the front it was a 2nd edition, not realy worth much about £40 but I loved the idea of having such an old book that was over 100 years old

 

[Regalpeas]

Rescue rescue rescue!!!!!!!! I'm currently going through my own personal library and donating overseas during the holidays. I hate to throw books away. I just dont believe it in.

I too worked in a library part time during college. Our library system usually takes old books out and try to sell them for about a year. They'll keep reducing the price until they lay them out free for anyone to take. Then it goes through one more process where I think they donate to a used book store affiliated with the system. I have not known of books thrown out but I am sure they do eventually but most book had to go through like a 1 1/2 year process to give othesr opportunity to get the books once they are out of circulation.