I read Doris Lessing's acceptance lecture for the 2007 Nobel Prize in Literature (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/2007/lessing-lecture_en.html) which Nate the Great posted here (http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=17161) (thanks, Nate!). I was quite moved. A quick web search and I see that there are several organized efforts to collect and send books to children in Africa. In the U.S., the largest organization is Books for Africa (http://www.booksforafrica.org/index.html). They're located in St. Paul, Minnesota but shipments of books to them can be mailed at the "media mail" postal rate of only $19.09 per 50 lbs. That's probably one bookshelf's worth of books. I have two or three shelves of public domain books that I will send them this week. These are all now available to me as ebooks so I have no reason to keep them. I also have my old college textbooks that are still relevant but would see better use if I sent them, too. It seems like a better destination than my local library, which has been reluctant to accept my offerings lately, or the dumpster. Boxing them up and shipping them should be a pretty trivial effort. And with the increasing supply of ebooks available, maybe I will be repeating this in the future. There are other organizations, too, like the U.K. Literacy Association (http://www.ukla.org/international_projects/appeal_books_for_africa.php), Books for Africa Library Project (http://www.forafricalibrary.org/), the Mona Foundation (http://www.monafoundation.org/books/books.htm), and several others. Here are a couple of YouTube videos (http://thelibraryclub.wordpress.com/2007/09/25/books-for-africa-youtube-videos/) about Books for Africa. I hope you'll consider sending some of your pbooks, too. :)

I cleared 75 paperbacks from one shelf and part of another and sent them off today in my first shipment. About 36 pounds in two boxes cost me just $16.16 to mail them to Minnesota at the "media mail" rate. And I still have all of them as ebooks on my computer and Reader: Joyce, Emerson, Shakespeare, Asimov, Thoreau, Dickens, etc. I hope they are enjoyed again as much as I enjoyed them. :)