This is such typical, annoying, bureaucratic, government red tape that it makes me want to scream, but probably a very worthwhile place to send your excess books, and I think, but am not sure, they pay postage, or the recipient does.

This group also has another option. One can register on their site, and then offer books in their "We Have Books" forum. These books have to be listed by title. Then military personnel who come to their website can view the titles and send their requests and addresses directly to the bookseller. For more info on these folks, go to their website, booksforsoldiers.com.

Many libraries will still accept books. They are really picky about what books they take and often they will put donated books in their Friends of the Library sales. But, what the heck, it is better than tossing them in the land fill or burning them. Give your local library a call and find out what their needs are and what they will and won't accept. It goes without saying that they probably want clean books with no tears, stains, ex-lib marks, or pages missing, but most of us have those kinds of books anyway. You can find more on library donations at www.adoptalibrary.org.

Another excellent place to send your books is to American Indian Reservations. According to their website; "Statistics show that, over the course of an entire year, over 90% of tenth graders in reservation schools did not read a single book outside of the classroom." If you can send a book that jump-starts one kid into becoming a reader, then go for it. Many reservations accept donations of used books for their local reservation libraries. For further information and donation requirements, please contact the reservation of your choice. For a list of those, go to www.ncai.org/Tribal_Directory.3.0.html. They have a link on that website to a list of Native American K-12 schools.

I found two organizations that encourage you to send books to prisons, and there were more, I'm sure. The Prisoners' Reading Encouragement Project serves as a support organization to prison libraries and educational programs. They have donated more than 40,000 books to 23 New York State prisons. They support libraries and educational programs at ten New York State facilities. New and gently used books, audiotapes and videos are most often requested by their librarians and program counselors. In general, they cannot use books that are more than ten years old. Some prisons won't accept books from any place but a bookstore or an organization such as this one. For more information about donations contact Annette Johnson at Prisoners Reading Encouragement Project at info@prisonreader.org.