Book News: BookMooch
June 22nd, 2009I saw this news story about a book sharing company called BookMooch. From The Houston Chronicle:
For the cost of postage, readers trade books through the mail in an online library of sorts that includes generous souls interested in sharing or neat freaks determined to clear out the dust collectors on their personal shelves.
Are any of you doing this? It seems to me that it would just be easier and cheaper to go to the library…no? And if you wanted to get rid of the books you don’t want anymore you could just take them to Half-Price Books or donate them to the library. I guess I’m just confused on the actual benefit of this service.
What do you think?
You might like these...
June 22nd, 2009 at 10:27 am
I’m trying it to see if I like it. I refuse to sell anything to halfprice crooks. Although usually I donate to my local library.
June 22nd, 2009 at 11:04 am
Unless your a shut-in…just go the the library on your next trip out
June 22nd, 2009 at 12:30 pm
I’ve been using a competing serview Paperbackswap.com for some time now. You can print out prepaid wrappers for the books so you don’t have to go to the post office if you don’t want to.
Everything ships media mail, except small books which are cheaper first class, so the cost is usually 2.25 per book. It’s easy to list the books you have to swap and to create a wish list of books you want. When something on your wish list becomes available you can have it automatically shipped to you.
I think it’s great. I’ve recieved over 50 books to date, only one of which was in bad shape. It’s a much better deal than trading them at used bookstores, though I do still buy from them, and you get packages in the mail, which I enjoy.
And, if you find something on-line that sounds good you can just pop over to the site and add it to your wish list. When it only cost 2.25, why not give it a try.
Of, course, you can do almost all of this with the library, too, I know. If the library only delivered……
June 22nd, 2009 at 4:41 pm
I use BookMooch. The library’s great, but not if you like to keep books around for rereading. It is much cheaper to trade you books on BookMooch or PaperBackSwap then to sell books to HPB and then buy some of theirs.
June 24th, 2009 at 5:44 pm
I tried BookMooch for a while. I got a couple of books that I wanted, at least one of which that was hard to find (Witness by Whitaker Chambers). I also sent several books.
But I dropped it because it was easier to give my books to my friends than to keep them sitting around until someone wanted it from BookMooch. The whole point of giving away the books was to get rid of them.
June 27th, 2009 at 11:16 pm
[...] my last post about Book Mooch I received and interesting comment from Amy (of MyFriendAmy fame!): I’m trying it to see if I [...]
June 28th, 2009 at 8:10 pm
I do swap books, but prefer paperbackswap.com – I just find I have better luck getting the books I’m interested in.
June 30th, 2009 at 7:23 pm
Living in a rural town, the local library doesn’t offer much, and what they do have doesn’t mesh well with what I actually want to read, or the book I want is not there or I have to be on a list to get it. Used bookstores give next to nothing for books, and the library is more likely to offer them in a semi-annual book sale than to shelve the books for others to read. Using BookMooch is much easier than paying for the books I want, plus shipping, or driving the 50+ miles to be able to buy a book new. And, there’s always the joy of sending the book to someone who wants it.