Everyone loves that accomplished feeling of finishing a book, but now that you’re done with it, what should you do with the thing? Here are a few ideas!

By: Mariana Schuetze

Summer break is upon us, and you might be getting back into your time-consuming hobbies. For me, that’s going to be reading — though one thing does come up when I keep devouring one book after the other: what to do with the physical copies of the books after you finished reading them? 

One simple thing I’ve started doing in the last couple of years is reading on an e-reader, like the Kindle. But I know there is nothing quite like the feeling of holding a good copy of a book in your hands (and don’t get me started on the palpable smell of its fresh pages). So here are a few ideas for what you can do with your book after you’ve finished reading it!

1. Paint them

Let’s start this list with the most controversial idea I could come up with: decorate your books. If you’re an artsy person, or just want to try it out, you could gather the books you’ve read and paint or draw on them. You could write little poems that relate to the story, or maybe draw what you imagine a character looks like. This way, you can still preserve the story in the book, if that’s important to you, but now there are some unique details to it that make the text unique only to you and your idiosyncrasies. 

What I think I would do, since I’m not the most talented painter, is try some watercolour painting to create a nice first page for the book. One thing to keep in mind if you choose to go this route is that you’ll probably need to put in some sort of protective layer, like a piece of craft paper, in between the page you want to paint and the rest of the book. This way, the paint doesn’t bleed through. And don’t forget to let it properly dry! 

2. Use them for arts and crafts

Now, if you don’t mind cutting up and ripping out some pages of your book, you could use its pieces to do some arts and crafts. You can use some pages to do blackout poetry, or you can cut out some words and use them to create collages. You also can glue things onto the page and make a cute scrapbook out of the entire book. 

I actually created a Pinterest board with some fun ideas for a few art pieces you can create out of a book you don’t care too much for. 

My mom and I even tried doing some collages using old books and magazines (Mariana Schuetze/CanCultrue).

3. Create an exchange program with your friends 

Back to talking about those dear books that you might not want to risk ruining for art: what about lending them to some friends? You can create a book exchange program with your family and friends where you trade your favourite books and then talk about them. 

Another idea: you could all do some sort of White Elephant game where everyone brings a book they’ve read and you all get to go around choosing another book to read next. You can add to this by wrapping up the books and writing only a brief synopsis on top. This can be a fun game that can even turn into a monthly book club. Every month you can all bring a book you’ve read to lend to someone else; when the month is up, everyone does a short presentation on what they enjoyed (or even hated) about their chosen book. This can give some life to those books you love too much to get rid of. 

4. Use them as personalized gifts

This is my favourite idea! So, let’s say you read a book you really enjoyed and now think one of your friends might appreciate it too. You can personalize the book with sweet messages and insightful annotations and then wrap it up to make it look like a present. Now you have an amazing gift full of love that you can give to your friend on the next special occasion. I am sure your fellow book-lover will appreciate it very much! 

5. Sell or donate them

One more common way to give your book a new purpose after you’re done reading it is to sell it online or donate it. Selling it on websites like Amazon or even in an in-person yard sale can be a great way to make some extra money and share the book with other people in a more affordable way. On the other hand, places like public libraries, thrift stores and charitable organizations, like The Children’s Book Bank in Toronto, are always looking for new donations of books.

I hope this little list helps you make the most out of the books that have given us so much! If you do end up making some art with it and post it to your social media, we’d love it if you tagged us @canculturemag so we can see what you’ve created!