Keeping the book herd thin: PaperBackSwap
Treehugger alerted me to this library alternative. If you’re willing to part with a few of your paperbacks, PaperBackSwap allows you to trade them in for credits, in order to recieve other books. The service is free — you just have to pay postage when you send the books out. I suppose it also depends on the honesty of the receiving user: if he decides the book never got there, you don’t get credited. But I imagine for products as inexpensive as used paperbacks, there’s probably a very low probability of sleazeballs gaming the system. Oh — and they also do CDs. Unlike the book service, they charge 49 cents on top of postage, but if the disc skips, they’ll give you your money back. That beats iTunes.
Related: Thinning the book herd.
April 7th, 2007 at 7:49 pm
You might like http://www.bookmooch.com from the people behind the non evil http://www.magnatune.com music label.
April 7th, 2007 at 10:50 pm
PaperBackSwap is an excellent site for book geeks like me who, at the same time, have far too many books but are always looking for more books to read. I have been a member for about a year and a half now. I have sent & received 20 books, and every single one has been quick & successful. The selection is awesome…I love sci-fi & they have a huge selection with even some obscure books I’d been wanting for ages.
April 9th, 2007 at 3:00 pm
That’s cool, I’ll have to take a look at Magnatune’s offering too. I’ve bought a few of their albums — it’s a great site.
April 11th, 2007 at 7:06 pm
PaperBackSwap doesn’t do CDs, swapacd.com does CDs. It’s the same management and members of one can join the other with a single mouseclick, but I don’t think the credits transfer between sites.
I gave up BookCrossing when I found PaperBackSwap because it’s so satisfying knowing your book is going someplace definite.