try book swapping

Well, I got my book in the mail last week. The whole exchange went fairly smoothy; the book is in nice shape and is trying to lure me into reading it (must… study… textbooks…).

Altogether this was a good experience and I think I’m going to keep swapping books in the future.

An essay collection that I wanted popped up so I requested it. I guess I’ll see how swapping works from this angle now! :)

So all three books I sent out have arrived and I currently have five credits with which I can request a book (i got two as a bonus for listing my first ten books). But what to get?

As a part of my decluttering, I’m trying to avoid keeping books that I don’t love and will re-read multiple times. The trouble is that most of the books I adore, I already have. Hmmm…

I said originally that I could use book swapping to acquire books on my reading lists that my library doesn’t have, but my progress on those has stalled since returning to school and it seems premature to get them now. I mean, odds are that I’m going to move states before I get halfway through my specfic list so why jump the gun?

I may end up sitting on these credits for a while. Though I really want to fully test the system out…

I sent off three books to be re-homed today (postage was a little under two and a half dollars each). Wrapping the oversized paperback was a bit awkward, but mangeable. With luck they’ll arrive in a few days and I’ll have earned a couple of credits to requisition books back. :)

I’ve been working on decluttering my home and one area that needs serious targeting are books, because the house is drowning in them. Some get donated to the library, some (textbooks mainly) get listed on craigslist, but I wanted to try something different with the rest of them.

Enter book swapping. A practice which not only allows me to clear out my unneeded books, but gives me the chance to get new ones back!!!

Alright, it rather defeats the purpose in decluttering, but it warms my little bibliophile heart. Also, I’m working my way through three reading lists (and am thinking of starting a fourth!) so this might be a handy way to get hold of books which the library doesn’t have.

I looked at paperbackswap, bookmooch and bookcrossing and decided to start with PBS. I listed eleven books last night, three of which were on someone’s wishlist (one even has a queue 150+ deep) and I’ve already been contacted this morning that one of them has been accepted.

So I’ll see how this goes.