[neilmarr]

Like Bevdeforges, I'm in a neck of the woods where I can't give English language books away. No hospitals and charities will take them, and since I became housebound, I can't even drop them off in hotels and guest houses for tourists as I used to (and these places won't take the trouble to pick them up from my home -- even though I have several hundred gathering dust). Several local pals who rent out summer apartments to tourists, though, do now have well-stocked libraries for their guests.

Hospital libraries, in my experience, have always been terriblly poor. Perhaps -- because there's no doubt that relaxing reading aids recovery -- hospital authorities might do better to accept Worldwalker's cheques and put them towards some reading devices with a subscription to an ebook library. This, of course, would have the side benefit of eliminating any danger of cross-infection between sick patients, using paper books that have been breathed upon and handled by others in the hospital. Reading devices can very easily be made sterile before being passed on to someone in another ward.

Best wishes. Neil