I am sorry that Patrick Russell (Letters, 22 October) was upset that his local Oxfam shop would not take his National Geographic magazines. After 10 years in an Oxfam bookshop I can tell him that this is because they are completely worthless, as are most magazines, in that nobody will buy them. There are a exceptions such as a Strand Magazine with a Sherlock Holmes story, but they are few and far between. A quick phone call would have saved him a journey – the shop would likely have advised him to put them straight in his recycling bin, as I have just done with about 20kg of Model Engineer magazines.
John Hurdley
Birmingham
• I am sure that most charity shops will take books if they have room. When I closed down my secondhand bookshop I had 205 polythene bags full. The people in the first shop were delighted, but after about 12 bags said: “Thank you, that will be enough.” There were then 16 charity shops in my town and the adjoining one, and I had to hold back a few bags for later delivery. Bearing in mind that these were all books that had survived a three-month closing down sale at cost price, and that I had run everything through the computer and was only giving away books available at less than £1, I think I was lucky to offload so many. And by the way, I never accepted National Geographic, because the only people who bought them were mothers for primary school projects, and the projects hardly ever coincided with the countries covered.
Margaret Squires
St Andrews, Fife
• Patrick Russell could donate his National Geographic magazines to art groups. The highly pigmented ink, printed on the clay-coated page, makes fantastic altered papers for mixed-media art. It is amazing what one can create with Citra Solv concentrate cleaner, and also with Brasso (Nevr-Dull in the US). Google it.
Jennifer Henley
London
• I work as a smiley, always grateful (for donations) volunteer in one of the busiest Oxfam bookshops in London. We will only decline donations, with a smile and thanks, on publications that we know will not sell as recycling costs us money. Makes sense, doesn’t it? Please don’t be offended and keep bringing your books/music.
Chris Goodyear
London
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