On a more light hearted note than my last post (I really, really hope I’m not wasting my time with college…), I’d like to share a great service with those of you who don’t know about it: BookMooch. Here’s a snippet from their about page:
Give & receive: Every time you give someone a book, you earn a point and can get any book you want from anyone else at BookMooch. Once you’ve read a book, you can keep it forever or put it back into BookMooch for someone else, as you wish.
No cost: there is no cost to join or use this web site: your only cost is mailing your books to others.
I only signed up a few weeks ago, but I’ve already done a bit of swapping. For a couple of chess books, two books on Wicca, The Tipping Point, and a book on the Lucasville prison uprising, I’ve received or am waiting on:
- Beowulf: A New Verse Translation
- Auschwitz: A New History
- Ethics for the New Millenium
- The Vinland Sagas: The Norse Discovery of America
- Reflections on the Revolution in France
- Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind
- A History of Russia
It’s a great service, at least if you have a few books you know you’ll never read again. For a long while I held onto all of my books, even if I knew deep down that I’d never read them again (or even once, for that matter). I finally saw the light though. If I’m not going to read one of my books, I might as well swap it for something I will read.
As an added bonus, BookMooch has a feature that is tied in with LibraryThing (you do use LibraryThing, right?) Whenever you receive a book, when you mark it as received at BookMooch, there’s an option to automatically add the book to your LibraryThing catalogue.
(Speaking of LibraryThing… WordPress.com chaps, are we ever going to see a LibraryThing widget? If you’re in need of a template for one, here you go.)
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