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Have not thought about my books after my passing, but if my husband survives me, then I hope he passes my books to my youngest nephew who loves to cook and those books he does not want, I hope he is able to sell through ebay.

hillsboroks, that's an affecting story on many levels.  It's good to know that Eat Your Books was so useful in the process of getting a new home for Pat's books.  My heart goes out to you and to Sharon; I'm sure you each miss her every day.

I wonder what will happen to my books.  When my youngest daughters first moved out of our home to an apartment togethe, I bought them a good all purpose cookbook.  They rolled their eyes and asked me what they were to do with it.  I said, "Well, when your beloved comes over for dinner you can cook him something nice."  They rolled their eyes again and said "He can get his own dinner."  

My daughters have learned to cook since those dark days and their beloved ones do not starve.  Yes, their amours also cook.  But still, I can see that no one loves my books like I do.  Occasionally they borrow one for a while but they give them back in immaculate condition.  Something to think about.

My partner and I don't have children so I tend to think a lot about where our "things" will go after we're gone. He actually has a tremendous library of about 5,000 (and growing) books on the Italian Renaissance, many collectible and rare, which he's been catalogging using book collector to keep track of. Those we may donate to the local library or college if they have an interest in the collection; it's something we definitely want to discuss with them before we get too much older so we can plan accordingly in our wills.

For my cookbooks, I don't know. My collection isn't that big but I do have books I love. My partner has some younger neices/great-neices and nephews whom I suppose will get first pick? Otherwise I'd be happy to just see them donated to a thrift store or do so myself when the time comes. I know I shop for most of my cookbooks in thrift stores to begin with so I'd be happy if they found homes with anyone who would appreciate them. Not many of my titles are necessarily historic or rare, or valuable beyond being useful to anyone who'd enjoy them.

There's a charity in London which provides culinary training and mentorship for people who have experienced homelessness. At the moment they are running a campaign to ask people to donate their cookbooks so their students can build up personal collections. I will probably donate mine to that sort of charity, once any family members have picked over the pile.

This is certainly a problem, and applies of course to other collections than just books; I collect trains as well.

Let the family pick them over first, certainly, or bequeath specific items where they will be appreciated. Sell the better items on Ebay, if there is some-one prepared to do the work, and who has an idea of what is worth what.

Donate to charity sounds good, but many have no idea of value, and I've seen books sent off for pulping if they don't sell quickly; Oxfam in UK does have a better grasp of book values with specific bookshops and will collect large collections.

Public libraries seem to be in terminal decline, and most councils have no interest in extending their space-consuming back collections. A college or training scheme with a cuisine bent might be an idea, but in the end I think we have to do something ourselves before we pop off, and not leave it to others.

RayS

ahh trains.  I collect books mostly and used to collect certain jewelry.  My husband collects trains - N-scale.  We are both collectors of sorts but organized one at that.