April 25th, 2008 a review: bookmooch

my book buying habits are practically zero now that i work at a library (but magazines are a whole other thing, how embarassing). i still have quite a few books though, that i bought in second hand sales that were sufficient to read once. and while i could donate them to work, really they don’t have any use for thirty year old tomes, and i know they would go into the next booksale. plus i personally know how much work is involved in that…

so how to find new owners who might enjoy them as much as you once did?

slightly scary representation.

bookmooch is a way of sending on books to others in exchange for points, which you can use to claim other books for yourself, mooching being the verb. it’s not a direct exchange, and runs overwhelmingly on goodwill. you bear the cost of postage, but it goes both ways since when books are sent to you, that poor person will have to pay for stamps too!

i find that i have to really search for titles i want, as bestsellers are most often up for trade, and, well, they’re not really my bag. for example, see the bookmooch top 100 most listed:

nooooooo! as illustrated the top five is dominated by dan brown books, with john grisham rounding it out. and as for things that are most requested, you’ll need to grab things quickly that are on demand:

requested books seem a lot more thoughtful than the pulpy paperbacks of the listed books. do people buy quick reads, but regret them later? or are they an indication of publishing volumes (supposedly more than 60.5 million copies of the da vinci code have been produced)?

personally, i would like to see more manga being shared around. i’ve bought a few in the past, but find they don’t have much life after a couple of reads, and at about A$20 each, that’s a really expensive collection sitting on my shelf. there’s few copies of english translated manga available, and they go very quick when listed (i snagged vol 8 of nana from a person located in italy, and another person mooched the remaining seven volumes from her an hour later when i checked). i do also have an ulterior motive, as i would like to have the good copies put into the young adult collection at the library, but only after i have read them. tee hee!

and incidentally, some of the books listed on bookmooch also have bookcrossing numbers, so either way, they can have some renewed life after each reading. share and share alike!