BookMooch

I don't really think of myself as a pack rat, but does anyone? The one thing I know I have a bad habit of holding on to is books. What's worse is that they're not even all books that I've read. I tend to buy stacks of books that sound interesting and never get to them. I've got two full shelves in my bedroom as well as a couple boxes that I don't think my parents realize are still in one of their closets. And, that's just the books I haven't read yet.

I've gotten better about buying books recently, so a lot of the ones on my shelf and in my old closet are a few years old. My tastes have changed in that time (from a pretentious English major to someone willing to settle for more mainstream fiction). But I can't bring myself to get rid of them. I've sold some online and brought quite a few to Half Price, but if there's any chance that I'll ever think of reading it in the future, I've still got it. The prices you get for used books are so pathetic, it's often like trading five (or more) books for one.

But yesterday I discovered BookMooch. It's a network of people who trade books for free. All you have to do is list the books you have that you're willing to trade. When someone requests one of your books, you ship it to them (that's the only cost), and you get a point. You can then exchange your point for a book on the site. You also get a point for every ten books you list. So, each book is an even trade. I give someone a book I don't want and I get a book that I do. It makes it a lot easier for me to justify getting rid of old books if I get a new one tha I'm excited about reading in exchange.

And, since the site works a little better everytime a new person joins, I wanted to tell as many people as possible.