Welcome!
My name is Matthew Page, I am the founder and owner of Simply Textbook.
I established Simply Textbook in 2017 to offer university staff a convenient and reliable method of disposing of unwanted academic books. I wanted to give staff peace of mind that they could hand on their unwanted books without any threat of those books ending up in landfill.
You will see the word “we” used a lot on this website – in reality, “we” really is “me” – Matthew! I do all the collecting, sorting, cataloguing, communicating, web designing, social media marketing, selling, redistributing, charitable donating… you name it, I am doing it. Simply Textbook keeps me VERY busy.
Simply Textbook is a completely independent, non-corporate entity. It’s just one person with a very simple, genuine and motivated desire to help people; and to breathe new life into good books gathering dust on the shelf.
Origins
Having been a lover of books since childhood, I began collecting unwanted books from the academic community in 2009.
How the collecting started is quite a long story; however, what basically started out as a one off favour to a friend, developed over time into a more regular and fun part time hobby. Then through a combination of fate and circumstance, this hobby snowballed into a fun, fulfilling, full time vocation and passion!
I have had the pleasure of visiting and collecting unused and unwanted books from almost every university in England, Scotland and Wales. (Come to think of it, there really aren’t many universities that I haven’t visited since 2009).
I have had the enormous privilege of meeting some very brilliant and interesting people along the way, have travelled to all corners, and every nook and cranny of the country, and have collected what must easily now be well in excess of a million books!
Goals and principles
With this experience, I set up Simply Textbook in 2017, to achieve the following major goals and principles:
- Make it easy for university staff to safely discard unused and unwanted books and textbooks
- Provide a free collection service, collecting directly from where the books are located, with no cherry picking the best books and leaving the rest
- Recirculate books that may otherwise be gathering dust, getting them off of the shelf and out into the hands of people that actively want to read or use them
- Sell books at lowest market prices to give readers and students the very best possible value
- Donate books and cash directly to charitable causes
- Ensure good books are kept very, very far away from landfill
My wife is a published author, therefore I know (almost) first hand the level of passion and devotion that goes into the writing of every book. It therefore seems rather sad when books are read once and never picked up again. Simply Textbook does all it can to get unused and unwanted books into the hands of people that actively want to read them, or otherwise benefit from them in some way.
Charity
I must be very clear, Simply Textbook is NOT a registered charity and does not purport to be a charity.
Charitable donation is however very much at its heart. Simply Textbook proudly supports Oxfam through book donations; and the fabulous work of Coram Beanstalk through cash donations.
Coram Beanstalk is a UK based charity that provides one to one support to children and young people who struggle most with reading and writing. Now in its 50th year, Coram Beanstalk is a fantastic worthy cause.
