First we have this story about a Tomo Matsui and his moving library. We’re told that:
. . . many of the villages he tours with his “moving library” of 100 picture books are located smack in the midst of a civil war between government troops and guerrillas.
The children in these poor, mountainous villages cannot go to school. Until Matsui came, most had never seen a book.
And then we have this story about the Knox County Tennessee libraries throwing books in the trash.
To quote the profound RK Mortenson, “Hmmm.”
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Interesting contrast. No reason given for the Tennessee library throwing the books away. That was curious.
Becky
They didn’t have room for them anymore. But they should still do a library sale where they sell bags of books for a dollar. Or they could just give them away. Some of them were old and battered but some were in great condition. About half of them were ones that no one could explain why they’d been thrown away.
The thing is that so many people in this world have nothing and we have so much. I don’t really know what to do about that. I throw a lot of stuff away, too, that people in other countries could probably find use for. But I don’t know if my keeping the stuff would benefit the poor people around the world or not.
No, it doesn’t help them if we hold on to stuff. That reminds me of my mom and her teaching us to clean our plate at meal time–”Think of all the people starving in China.” So what was I supposed to do, ship my leftovers? And how was cleaning my plate to avoid leftovers a help to those without food? BUT the point about being wasteful is valid.
I think there are lots of charities who take stuff we throw away. I found that out in particular when going through my mom’s stuff. Her things were not in good shape, so some places were not interested, but eventually we found someone willing to take even the 30 year old battered couch.
Becky
It is sad to think of children’s books being thrown away. I volunteer at a library in California, where the Friends of the Library organization sells the discarded library books (along with many donated books) at book sales each month. People wait in line outside of the library before the sales open, and they particularly rush to the children’s book section – people definitely want these books. But I would imagine that the libraries in the Tennessee article don’t have active enough Friends organizations to help out with this (it is a lot of work to sort and sell the books), and that the librarians simply don’t have the time for that.
I was thinking about those library sales when I posted this, Jen. I love those friends of the library sales. I load up on books. I’m a homeschooler and we love books, books, and more books, for our children. I feel a house can never have too many books. =0)