Are your bookshelves teeming with books that you have read and don't plan to read again? Well, there are several things you can do with them, the newest of which is to join Paperbackswap. More about that in a minute.
In the past, my favorite way of disposing of used books was to donate them to a local public library. I know one in Cedar Rapids, Iowa that just lost 2/3 of its collection in the Great Flood of 2008. I know they are accepting donations. My own public library, the Iowa City Public Library, was luckier and avoided any flood damage. However, the Friends of the Library operate a bookstore in the new library and are always looking for good used books.
You can sell them in a yard sale. I perused several yesterday in our neighborhood. Books were generally going for 50 cents a pop. The paperbacks were definitely going faster than the hardbacks. You can set up a used book store online, or join Amazon.com as an affiliate and sell your leftover books there.
There's a new and unique swap 'n shop on the Internet. Check out Paperbackswap. This community of book lovers has a database of over 2.2 million books available for swap. The only cost is that the person sending the book on pays for shipping. At an average cost of $2.30 or so per book, that's probably less than it costs to drive downtown, pay for parking and library fines at my favorite public institution. (I suspect, though, that this will merely allow me to get rid of more of my books a little faster and cause me to read more. NOTHING will take the place of my trips to the public library every few days. I may haul fewer titles to the Friends of the Library booksale, although I'll certainly reserve some for that source of easy book disposal.)
I decided to give Paperbackswap.com a try. I added the ISBN numbers of a few of my used book stock and got an immediate match for two of the titles I was offering, "The Way Things Work Now" and "A Thousand Splendid Suns." I send the two out within a few days via mail, and I'll get two of my choice in return. If you add 10 or more to the stock of available books, then you are eligible for two books without a swap. The system will spit out the address wrapper for the person who wants the book, and will even print the postage online if the book is under 13 ounces.
You can tell your friends about Paperbackswap and get referral credits. (Remember to list me as your referrer when you sign on. My email is myworldwords@yahoo.com.) There are banners to put on your blog. There's a buddy list and and journal for posting your book reviews and lots of other cool web 2.0 features.
By the way, you can send and receive more than paperbacks. There are hardbacks, and there are also links to sister sites that swap CDs and DVDs.
Have fun and happy swapping!
Liz Nichols
ednenterprises(at)gmail.com
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