In the Dumps
How I found books and didn't break my budget
by watermelonsMarch 9, 2007
I love to read. That's a fact. But I am a student and on a tight budget. The local library is my friend, but the books are only loaners. It's just not the same as having my own books.
One day, I was biking past a used book store and saw, horror of horrors, that they were dumping books out into the dumpster. Boxes of books. Bags of books. All being trashed. I turned around and rode up to the dumpster and surreptitiously lifted the lid (after checking no one was looking). Slipped my hand in and pulled out a Mary Higgins Clark book, then pulled out a thriller by Kellerman and finally a sci fi book that I wouldn't read but my boyfriend might like. Then I quickly rode away without looking back.
My dumpster theft haunted me, but I was also drawn by the lure of free books. I didn't know if raiding someone's trash was legal or not, so I did a little looking. To my surprise, the practice even has an entry on Wikipedia (though why that surprises me, heaven knows. Everything seems to find its way to Wiki eventually!) According to Wikipedia, "Dumpster Diving, also called Binning, D-Mart, Dumpstering, Garbing, Garbage picking, Garbage gleaning, Skip-raiding, Skipping, or Trashing, is the practice of sifting through commercial or residential trash to find usable items that have been discarded for being unusable by their owners, such as food, furniture, or clothes." It seems though, that the legalities of the practice vary from state to state and country to country. Because of issues of identity theft and such, the practice is being more closely watched. But I do it not to steal someone's identity -- I do it for books!
After my second dumpster raid, I felt guilty, so I went to the store owners and 'fessed up. They didn't mind me going through their trash they said. Feeling bold, I decided to try my luck at another used book store. I asked them straight out about their discards, and they told me that if they ever caught me in their dumpster on their property, they'd press charges for tresspassing. Different strokes for different folks, I guess.
Now thoroughly disheartened, I decided to change tactics. I tried to think what would be a legal and harmless way to get the same results, that wouldn't involve me calling my parents in Wisconsin for bail money. I'm not going for that advanced degree for nothing. What if I just went asking around at the various places that took used books in and eventually threw them out if the books remained unsold? It couldn't hurt. I already knew what rejection felt like. And if I got them before they hit the dumpster, then maybe I could avoid the other garbage that was in the bin, or not feel sad like I was when I found a copy of Emma splattered with mustard and relish from a thrown-away lunch.
I approached a charity shop and asked what they did with their overstock. They told me they threw them out. I asked if they would consider giving them to me to share with the world, and they said YES! For the past two months, I have picked up a box of books from them and have filled my shelves at home (though not my virtual one yet.) I downloaded loads of pre-numbered labels and put them in the books and have scattered them around town and around my parents' town when I went back to visit. Nobody has checked back in, but I'm able to BookCross on a student budget and that makes me happy.
So I guess it's true. One man's trash is another's treasure. Just be careful whose trash you take!
One day, I was biking past a used book store and saw, horror of horrors, that they were dumping books out into the dumpster. Boxes of books. Bags of books. All being trashed. I turned around and rode up to the dumpster and surreptitiously lifted the lid (after checking no one was looking). Slipped my hand in and pulled out a Mary Higgins Clark book, then pulled out a thriller by Kellerman and finally a sci fi book that I wouldn't read but my boyfriend might like. Then I quickly rode away without looking back.
My dumpster theft haunted me, but I was also drawn by the lure of free books. I didn't know if raiding someone's trash was legal or not, so I did a little looking. To my surprise, the practice even has an entry on Wikipedia (though why that surprises me, heaven knows. Everything seems to find its way to Wiki eventually!) According to Wikipedia, "Dumpster Diving, also called Binning, D-Mart, Dumpstering, Garbing, Garbage picking, Garbage gleaning, Skip-raiding, Skipping, or Trashing, is the practice of sifting through commercial or residential trash to find usable items that have been discarded for being unusable by their owners, such as food, furniture, or clothes." It seems though, that the legalities of the practice vary from state to state and country to country. Because of issues of identity theft and such, the practice is being more closely watched. But I do it not to steal someone's identity -- I do it for books!
After my second dumpster raid, I felt guilty, so I went to the store owners and 'fessed up. They didn't mind me going through their trash they said. Feeling bold, I decided to try my luck at another used book store. I asked them straight out about their discards, and they told me that if they ever caught me in their dumpster on their property, they'd press charges for tresspassing. Different strokes for different folks, I guess.
Now thoroughly disheartened, I decided to change tactics. I tried to think what would be a legal and harmless way to get the same results, that wouldn't involve me calling my parents in Wisconsin for bail money. I'm not going for that advanced degree for nothing. What if I just went asking around at the various places that took used books in and eventually threw them out if the books remained unsold? It couldn't hurt. I already knew what rejection felt like. And if I got them before they hit the dumpster, then maybe I could avoid the other garbage that was in the bin, or not feel sad like I was when I found a copy of Emma splattered with mustard and relish from a thrown-away lunch.
I approached a charity shop and asked what they did with their overstock. They told me they threw them out. I asked if they would consider giving them to me to share with the world, and they said YES! For the past two months, I have picked up a box of books from them and have filled my shelves at home (though not my virtual one yet.) I downloaded loads of pre-numbered labels and put them in the books and have scattered them around town and around my parents' town when I went back to visit. Nobody has checked back in, but I'm able to BookCross on a student budget and that makes me happy.
So I guess it's true. One man's trash is another's treasure. Just be careful whose trash you take!
