Paperback Swap is wonderful!

I love to read. Really, I love, love, love to read. If I have spare time, you will find me curled up with a book somewhere. I've been that way for as long as I can remember and, if given the opportunity, I could read a book a day. I don't like to spend a lot of money on books, though. I like used book bins at our library. In fact, I love our local library system...it is fantastic, but there are times I can't find what I'm looking for at the library and buying books at the bookstore is very expensive. That is where Paperback Swap (www.paperbackswap.com) comes in. Paperback Swap is an online resource that allows you to "trade" books with people all over the country. It is amazing.




This is how it works: You have ten books on your bookshelf that you're not reading and don't need to keep. They can be any genre and they don't have to be paperbacks. You list your books on your virtual "bookshelf" and immediately get two "credits" so you can get books yourself. (Listing your books is easy, too...they just ask you to type in the ISBN number which is above the UPC code and it recognizes your book.) Each book trades for a credit, so before even sending out a book, you have the opportunity to request two books be shipped to you. Every time a book of yours is requested, you print out a shipping label on your normal paper, use that label to wrap your book, tape it, put postage on it, and ship it out. You pay for the postage (media mail) to ship your books when they're requested, but you never pay to receive a book. Each time you ship a book, you get another credit to use for a book you wanted (remember, it is clearing out your bookshelf). It is that simple. When you receive books you've ordered, you acknowledge that it has been received and the sender gets their credit for shipping out a book to you. There is no fee for membership...the only thing you pay is postage on outgoing books, which gets you credits to request books. (If you're wondering, postage averages $2.23 for media mail...that means each credit costs me $2.23...far less than even the bargain table at the bookstore.). There are literally millions of books to choose from (3,370,751 when I last checked!).

When I first joined up, I got rid of cookbooks, romance novels, science fiction novels, whodunit novels, self-help novels, the works. Now I just repost books I've gotten from other swappers...it is great to have a revolving bookshelf. (When Charming signed up, he got rid of anime books...I think all of his were snapped up in 3 days!) You can even do books on tape. Also, they have a sister site for DVD swapping, too: Swap A DVD.

So, clear out some space in your house by getting rid of books you aren't reading by joining Paperback Swap. Oh, if you want any of my books, you can find me via a member search: 'thenagle5'!