Readin' the books. All the time.

May 2, 2008 2:33 PM

I am a reading fiend! I spend a good portion of my paycheck at bookstores and a good portion of my time at the library but I still want more.

I've signed up for Bookmooch, and it looks promising, but I'm just curious if it really works. For some reason I have this fear that people are out to get free books to sell at their local fleamarket and I won't get anything back in return (I know there's a points system but it looks pretty easy to game). Anyone tried out Bookmooch, or any similar site? I'm in the UK, Leeds specifically, if it matters.

posted by cilantro to media & arts (16 comments total)

Ebook reader + intertubes and non copyright classics - win :)
posted by iamabot at 2:40 PM on May 2, 2008

I've used http://readitswapit.co.uk/ 5-6 times with no bad experiences, not recently though as I have amassed quite a pile of things to read.
posted by gregjones at 2:54 PM on May 2, 2008

iamabot, I hear you, I actually have every non-copyrighted book I have ever loved and even the ones I haven't read that I think I might love saved to disk - but I'm a big dork and I like to hold the paper pages in my human hands. There's something about the way they feel...
posted by cilantro at 2:55 PM on May 2, 2008

I've been using bookmooch in the US for awhile now and love it:

Mooched/given: 200/204
Pending mooch/give: 12/2
Books receiving lost: 2
Books sending lost: 1

Not bad odds.
posted by kbuxton at 2:56 PM on May 2, 2008

I'm in the UK and I like Bookmooch a lot.

I've passed on at around 50 old books of mine that I was never going to read again to other people in multiple countries. I've also gained at about 30 new books from others and discovered that I love authors and genres that I would never have tried if I'd gone into a bookshop and had to gamble actual money on liking it or not.

I'm not sure how the points system could be gotten around, really. At a push I suppose people could list a huge amount of non-existent books for others to mooch, collect the fraction of a point you receive from listing a book and then add all those fractions together to make points that are then used to mooch books from others, but that's an extremely laborious way of making flea market money and anyway, you have to maintain a certain receive/send ratio in order to receive books, no matter how many points you have. In any case, the point of mooching is to swap books you no longer want, so even if they did end up making 10p from something I'd sent them I can't say I'd be too bothered, especially as I'd just be trading those sending points for a new book of my own.
posted by Acarpous at 3:01 PM on May 2, 2008

I love the feel of paper, but it got to be too much packing 2-3 books on business trips. I have a problem with getting rid of books that I buy, for me the ebook reader was perfect.
posted by iamabot at 3:16 PM on May 2, 2008

Acarpous, you are totally correct, now that I think about it. Gaming the system would probably be more trouble than it's worth.

I've listed about 20 books. I clicked the box that said "I might send small or hard-to-find-books out the country, ask me" and within an hour I got about 30 requests for my popular, regular-sized, easy-to-find books, and none of the requests were from the UK- they're all from Northern Europe, actually, excepting the one that's from Portugal.

I don't mind sending them wherever, international printed paper post is pretty cheap - I just want to make sure they're going to readers and not resellers.
posted by cilantro at 3:25 PM on May 2, 2008

I BookMooch regularly too and have been doing so for a couple years. It works great for me. I get rid of stuff I don't want and get lots of good books in return. And most of the ones I've Mooched have been in very good condition as well. I highly recommend it!
posted by kclassic at 4:11 PM on May 2, 2008

I use Paperback Swap and haven't had any trouble in the year or so I've been sending and requesting books.
posted by shesbookish at 4:27 PM on May 2, 2008

Yep Bookmooch works. I do PaperbackSwap too. PBS is nice because you can print out labels for books you mail out, and because you can set your wishlist to request books automatically when they become available. Bookmooch is nice because it's less picky about the condition of the books---you can post strips, ARCs, books with writing, etc. as long as you disclose it in the condition notes.

I don't think most users are out to get free books to sell at the flea market. I (and I would guess a fair number of other swappers) request books, read them, and then re-post them so they go back into circulation.

I highly recommend either or both systems. Good for the environment and your wallet.
posted by slenderloris at 6:07 PM on May 2, 2008

I'm another bookmoocher-
Name: Kimdog (USA: NY)
Books received: 98
Books given: 116

I've been on since October of 2006. I've had nearly all positive experiences. There are scammers, but it's a very small percentage of the entire community, and they are usually caught very early and don't get away with much. There's a team of admins that look at the metrics and respond to member concerns very swiftly.

I've had virtually no problems. Out of the 98 books I've mooched, only one had a significant unreported condition issue, and another book that I thought got lost in the mail eventually turned up after about 9 weeks. It's pretty awesome. I will say that it may be hard to get super popular wishlisted books, but not impossible. But there are plenty of times I get turned on to a book/s and find them all there ready to be mooched.
posted by kimdog at 7:17 PM on May 2, 2008

Oh and about the reselling... it's a pretty firm rule on BM that it doesn't matter what a person does with the books they mooch- whether they read them and re-list, keep them, give them as gifts, or re-sell them. There's even an artist who is gathering diet books to repurpose (in the form of paper mache) them for an art installation. It's been debated many times in the forums, and the official rule is that a mooch is a mooch is a mooch. Besides, no book is "free". It cost point(s), and those points are earned by paying the postage to send a book to someone else. In fact, if you refuse a mooch based on what you think a person may do with the book you can get banned.
posted by kimdog at 7:25 PM on May 2, 2008

Do try bookcrossing.com too - there is an active group in Leeds. You think you'll get rid of books, actually you'll end up with more than you could possibly imagine! It's kept me in reading material for 4 years now...
posted by LyzzyBee at 11:08 PM on May 2, 2008

I'm another bookmoocher with positive experiences. The thing that prevents bookmooch from becoming compromised by dealers is that, frankly, 99% of the books aren't worth anything. It's a site for readers, not collectors, so it's a great way to get reading copies, but there are so many books in the world that you would have trouble selling most of the books on bookmooch for more than a buck, so it isn't really worth it.

It's so easy to research a book's value on the internet that there are very few people giving away valuable books.
posted by crazylegs at 2:56 AM on May 3, 2008

I love Bookmooch! I ship internationally. :) I've received around 236 books and given 157 books (with 24 to receive and 1 to give). Even though I'm paying for shipping, it's like getting free books. I've had no bad experiences, other than people not replying to my requests, which I've then cancelled. I've gotten books for my 8-yr-old to read, and we all know how expensive brand-new kids books are.

Of course, if you're looking for a particular book that just came out, you may have no luck at first. But if you're looking for older books that you never bought a copy of but always thought you might like to read, Bookmooch is good for that.

I prefer Bookmooch to some of the other bookswapping sites I've looked at because there are no requirements other than shipping the books out to the requestor. If I get lucky and get a wishlisted book, then I'm excited. If not, then there are other books to be mooched.
posted by cass at 8:51 AM on May 5, 2008

Another Bookmoocher here. It's really helped me get a handle on my spending, as I was spending a fortune on books.

If you absolutely must be reading all the time (like me), check out Librivox. Free audiobooks, so you can read while you drive! Yeah, they're all public domain books, and some readers aren't so good at it, but it's free. I just finished my chapters of David Copperfield, and I'm really looking forward to listening to the entire book.
posted by cereselle at 9:46 AM on May 5, 2008