
I've been having so much fun lately, I've gotta share my new hobby. At the recommendation of a couple friends on my flist, I checked out
PaperbackSwap.com, where you basically trade in books you don't want for 1 credit each, then use those credits to get free books that you
do want. Basically, the way it works is that you post up all the books you're willing to part with and when someone requests a book of yours, you mail it to them. When you find a book on the website that you like, just request it and the owner will mail it to you. In the end, you only have to pay for shipping for the books you send; the books incoming to you are free.
My main reluctance was the shipping part. I hate waiting forever at the post office, so the thing that won me over was the fact that you can print mailing labels from home to send out the books. (You pay for the postage online, print out the mailing label on a normal sheet of paper with the postage already on it, and drop the book in the mail box.)
If you're thinking to yourself, "Eh. I'm not really the book-crazy reader type," don't let that stop you. PaperbackSwap has a ton of manga (including yaoi), comic TPBs, cookbooks, books on CD, you name it. I know most of my friends who are manga collectors have at least 50% of their titles on their shelves just for collection's sake and they don't think they'll really read them again. If you've got some dusty treasures that you're not getting enjoyment out of any more, trade them in! You could find some new series you never would have heard of otherwise, and at least you'll be reading something new.
At least for me, half the fun is just from sending out books as much as receiving them. I'm one of those crazy people who enjoys wrapping presents, so it's been fun wrapping up books, slapping on labels with packing tape, and sending them all over the world like some book-strewing Johnny Appleseed. Within the first two days of joining, I'd already sent out 20 books. By now I've sent 37 books and I just joined last Wednesday. >_> And it's not just the Christmas-in-July feeling of sending out packages, but knowing the books will have a good home that's satisfying. I put up a lot of my old gaming books and they got snapped up right away. It makes me happy to know some gamers might be having grand adventures now, when those books would have just collected dust otherwise.
Anyway, give it a look. If you're anything like me, I think you'd have a blast with it. Also, I posted up some
Fake and
Gravitation manga, a
One Piece art book, the original
Weiß Kreuz art books/manga and other fun stuff, and I wanted to let my friends get first crack at them. Someone snapped up my copy of
The Covering this morning, and I suddenly wished my friends had had first shot at it.
If you're into reuse/recycle/DIY/green-friendliness, this site fits the bill. Plus it's a great way to find out of print books or stumble across new titles you might never find at a bookstore or library. Anyway, check it out. You get 2 free credits just for listing 10 books. And I'm raving about the site because I genuinely think it's cool, not to get referrals, but if you decide to sign up, my account name is 'kokelly' if you'd use me as a reference or if you just want to browse my shelf:
http://www.kokelly.paperbackswap.com If you sign up, let me know so I can check out your books, too! =D