Thursday, March 27, 2008

BookMooch!!!!


In 2008, I have been determined to give myself more time for reading BOOKS. I have a huge pile of books given to me as gifts as far back as three Christmases ago. I also have a mother with an insane amount of reading time on her hands. She has passed a lot of books on to me. And then there was the school book fair. I have a lot of reading catch up. When I am feeling ambitious, I will make a little sidebar list of books I have read since the start of 2008. There will be no reviews from me, beyond a thumbs up or down. Writing a book review feels way to much like homework. I read for fun.

Two weeks ago, Geoff and I discovered BookMooch, a website for trading books. You list the books you are prepared to give away, and for every book you send to someone else, you receive a point. You can use your points to "mooch" books from other people. Geoff is an even more avid reader than I - he actually gets up a half hour earlier than he needs to each morning so that he can read for a bit before heading off to work at 6AM. When he realized that we could get "free" books, he ransacked the house for books to trade. Consequently, I spent an hour the next day preparing and shipping 11 books off to their new owners. We are giving away all the chick lit. I buy in the summer, all the books given to Geoff by one of his accounts at work, as well as the occassional literary work deemed not worth keeping on a book shelf. (Geoff is not just a reader. He is a collector.) So far we have received a Nancy Drew book for Thing One and a couple Sophie Kinsella books for me - because I might as well get my summer reads for free.

And while I am throwing around the word "free," I should mention that shipping is paid by the sender of the book. Between shipping materials and shipping charges, I figure we are spending just under $4.00 for every book we send. But still, what is more exciting than a book coming in the mail?

6 comments:

Beck said...

Can Canadians participate too?

Steph said...

Yes!
Unfortunately, BookMooch does not recognize a middle ground between "I only ship to my country" and "I will ship anywhere in the world." So, my profile says I will only ship in the US, but I would happily ship to Canada as well.

Waldeck Dry Goods said...

The site I use (sounds exactly like this one) is called paperbackswap.com. Rob's parents give us all of the books they're done with, and I trade those along with the books I don't want on my shelves anymore. I'm a book collector, too. :)

Tracey said...

Oh, my Steph. Between Stumble and BookMooch, I may not leave the house as much as I should. :) I'm so glad you wrote about this.

I'll love to hear about what you are reading - I am always looking for recommendations!!

Unknown said...

I would love to read more! Wish there was more time in the day! Yes, I agree with Tracey...I have too much going on already!

mormar said...

i am going to check out book mooch for sure. I have so many books