Yesterday Dom directed me to this awesome website, bookmooch.com, which is essentially a huge swapmeet for books.
Basically, you list a bunch of books that you don’t want, are willing to give away for free. For each book you give away, you can then recieve a book that you want. It works on a point system, one point per book.
This is so much better than selling your stuff to a used bookstore, where they have almost no cash value. And this way you know the books you are getting rid of are finding their way to a good home, to someone who really wants them.
Additionally, you get point just for listing your books so you can earn a free book right away as soon as you put ten books into your inventory.
As the founder, John Buckman, says:
I’ve got stacks of books on my shelves that have been read once, but will never read again. The local used bookstore would be only interested in a few of them and will pay next to nothing for even those they do want. Plus, it’s a hassle.
The books could be thrown away, but I just can’t bring myself to do that. There’s got to be a better use for these perfectly good books.
Why not give books away to people who want them?
Ok, there’s the postage cost of sending books to others. But it seemed fair that if you pay for the postage to send a book to someone, you should not have to pay for postage to receive a book, and that’s how BookMooch works.
BookMooch is like a giant bookstore, of all the bookshelves in people’s homes. By aggregating everyone’s home book collection, we should have the best selection of used books on the planet.
For more details go to the website.
I’ve already got one book on its way out to an eager new owner and one book being sent to me. This could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
Now the only problem is how hard Dom is hitting himself because several years ago he was forced to throw away a couple of boxes of books when he was moving because he couldn’t find a good home for any of them. How sad. At least we know this doesn’t have to happen to us in the future.
