Paperback Swap

My local newspaper ran a story on how the barter system is making a huge comeback with the help of the Internet, and it mentioned a website called PaperBackSwap.com.

I just joined this group, and I want to recommend it to anyone who's an insatiable reader like me, and who also has a lot of books around they'd be willing to give away but can't get the used bookstores to take.

The site is really wonderful. After you join, you enter your disposable books by the ISBN number. The site produces a picture of the cover, the author's name, and some other information from a database, and lists it as being on your "bookshelf" so that anyone who might be interested can see exactly what the book is.

Once you've entered your books, you get credits depending on how many you've made available, and you use those credits to request books from other members. If someone requests one of your books, you get an e-mail, print out a label to attach to the book, and mail it off. For every book you send to another member, you get more credits to use to request books yourself.

Personally, I have a ton of books taking up my shelf space - which isn't even remotely enough for my book collection anyway - that I never plan to read. Some of them I read and then didn't like, and quite a few I acquired from a friend of my mother's who passed away and left me all her books. She was a big Danielle Steel and VC Andrews fan, and I'd rather be tortured with hot pokers.

I highly recommend this club.

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Knowledge is one of the few things that can be given to others without reducing the amount you have left.

A chalk outline is being drawn around common sense in this country, and most Americans can't even identify the victim. - Dennis Miller

The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools. - Herbert Spencer

Sounds interesting...I'll check it out.

Our local GoodWill sells used books by the shopping cart (in the clearance section ). $8.00 for a half cart/$10.00 for a full. I used to go twice a month to buy books to donate to the veterans hospital,some children's reading programs and the retirement home. While sorting and boxing I would run across books that looked interesting and put them aside to read myself. After many months of this, I now have more books then I can possibly read.

I should list some of them on that webpage and clear out some shelf space.

I love Paperback Swap. I've given away a lot of books through PBS, mostly non-fiction. I also give away a lot of fiction books through my local Freecycle.

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People are most conservative on issues that they know most about. --Ann Coulter

Yup, I do that too. I buy a book because it looks interesting, read it, hate it, and then I'm stuck with it, especially if I bought it used to begin with. And because I have an enormous collection of books I DO want and intend to re-read, I need to lose some dead wood.

And all books deserve a chance to be loved and treasured, so why not give them to someone who DOES like those sorts of books? Just because I consider Danielle Steel to be one of the biggest wastes of paper and ink on the planet doesn't mean that millions of people don't adore her work. Diff'rent strokes, and all that.

__________________
Knowledge is one of the few things that can be given to others without reducing the amount you have left.

A chalk outline is being drawn around common sense in this country, and most Americans can't even identify the victim. - Dennis Miller

The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools. - Herbert Spencer

Thanks for the information cecilie1200 I would have to check that out.

The more people I share it with, the more cool books I have to choose from.

__________________
Knowledge is one of the few things that can be given to others without reducing the amount you have left.

A chalk outline is being drawn around common sense in this country, and most Americans can't even identify the victim. - Dennis Miller

The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools. - Herbert Spencer

Ooooh this looks great. I have too many books from bookclub, need to find a new home for them - Now I have to go dig em up and see what's there to puit on the site.

Tx!