Information 12 Nov 2006 06:56 pm
Book Mooooooooch
There are plenty of sites out there that are useful for the “sharing books” idea. This article came to mind after reading the Publishers Weekly article on the topic. The concept of Freecycle but just for books appealed to me. I tried the local Cheshire Kat trading site, but I just did not keep up with it. Recently, I stumbled across Book Mooch which is set up in such a way that I seem to be drawn to it. I just keep wandering around finding books and adding them in. As you can see from a sample bookshelf in my own bedroom, I read an eclectic variety of books, and any one of them could be mooched!
They have two systems for adding books. One is to enter the title, ISBN, or author. Another way is to enter multiple titles at once. If you have the book on hand, then you can just flip it over and enter in multiple ISBN’s. It makes it very easy to add 2, 3, 4, or even more books at a time.
Another aspect that I like is the nice factor. I have only dealt with two people so far (I am a newbie) but both were very nice! One, after an email apologizing for my lateness in sending out a book, replied in about 4.7 seconds saying, basically, “no worries!”
One aspect that I do not like about this international site is that not everyone chooses to send their books to other countries. If you want a book, but say it is only available in Australia, but that user will only send to other Aussies… You are just out-of-luck.
Regardless of all that, you can find so many books, and even though you have to wait for your points to build up as you send out books that people mooch from you, eventually you get to mooch too!
Remember that you do get fractions of a point for every book you add (to help you get started). I have found that if you add some pretty generic titles, you will get a better footing for giving away books. Not that I am doing that of course. I am the only moocher on all by 2 of my books (being The Bourne identity and Princess Diaries: In the Spotlight).
If you like to read, I would recommend grabbing your “must read these books now” booklist and stop over at bookmooch.com… or any of the others listed in that PW article, and just browse around. A little effort could have you on the pathway to a LOT of fun!
Tags: book trading, bookmooch, books, fiction, freecycle, genre, hardcover, mooching, non-fiction, paperback, publishers weekly