Why is "me" needed in "Los libros que has sacado de la casa no me sirven"?

Question

In the following sentence, why is "me" before "sirven"?

Los libros que has sacado de la casa no me sirven.

Thee pronominal verb is not being used here since that means "to use/to make use of". It is not the reflexive verb since that means "to serve/help oneself". None of these meanings would make sense here. So the use of "me" above is not because the verb is pronominal or reflexive.

I´m thinking that the verb here is the intransitive verb "servir" meaning "to use". However, why would "me" be needed before it?

Answer 1

The meaning of servir in this sentence is:

6. intr. Aprovechar, valer, ser de utilidad.

The English equivalent for this particular meaning is: to be useful. Almost a word by word translation of "ser de utilidad".

In this case, as you have guessed, "me" is not mandatory. You can find the sentence without it.

Los libros que has sacado de la casa no sirven.
[EN] The books that you took from the house are not useful [or are useless]

In your original version

Los libros que has sacado de la casa no me sirven.
[EN] The books that you took from the house are not useful to me.

Adding "me" in the Spanish version only remarks for whom the books are not useful, the speaker can't find any utility for them. They may be useful for someone else. Without "me", the statement is more generic, probably no one would find them useful.

Answer 2

With:

Los libros que has sacado de la casa no me sirven

You are saying that the books aren't useful for you, for your specific purpose.

If you use:

Los libros que has sacado de la casa no sirven

Without context people may understand that you are saying that the books are totally useless, not only useless for your purpose.