Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Tuesday Thingers:Books on the Move

Today's topic: Book-swapping. Do you do it? What site(s) do you use? How did you find out about them? What do you think of them? Do you use LT's book-swapping column feature for information on what to swap? Do you participate in any of the LT communities that discuss bookswapping, like the Bookmooch group for example?

I'm a BookMooch junky/hoverer/stalker. I love Mooching. I accidentally wound up with 2000 of the little BM business cards and I give them out everywhere (gave one to the lady at the PO yesterday when I sent out some books, in fact).
I just launched my first BM Journal: The BookMooch Needle Arts and Fiber Arts Journal! Go on, add it to your wishlist.
I love, love, love that LibraryThing has a book-swapping column. Every single time someone mentions a book that sounds good, I immediately use it to add to my wishlist. Of course, that might account for the fact that my wishlist is now 550+ and growing daily, but still....
I am a member of the LT BM forum. I'm a reasonably active poster there, and like the discussion. I never use BM's own boards, so I get my info and advice here. I did in fact learn about BM from LT; I think there were a couple of people with whom I was corresponding, and I noticed they were both members from their profile pages, so I checked it out and never looked back!
I only wish there was some way to get more people with books sitting around they'll never want or use to list those on BM so I could Mooch them right up.
I have such a strong relationship with books that for years I have had trouble giving them up. Books I'll never re-read, ones I'll never use, ones I wouldn't recommend to my kids, ones I bought and never bothered reading; I kept them all. Two things are getting them off my shelves, and those two things are LT and BM. LT because if the book is in the house I am compelled to catalog it; if I don't want it in the catalog, I have to inventory it and get rid of it now. BM because it gives me a sense that the books I don't appreciate are actually wanted by someone; rather than trying to convince myself I should donate or sell the book to a shop where it may sit on the shelves for decades, unwanted and unappreciated, when I Mooch a book out I can feel like I am helping someone else and getting them a book they actually desire or need. It's a very powerful motivator and a psychological impressor that I need to override my book-owning obsession. I'm actually quite grateful I have found both the LibraryThing community and the BookMooch service.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yay! finally someone who's as passionate about BookMooch as me!

Marie Cloutier said...

I feel the same way about mooching- it's nice to have a sense that the books are *wanted* by someone. I used to donate a lot of books to charity shops but it depressed me to see huge *huge* piles of books in those places, just moldering away. With BM I feel like someone will love them! :-)

Melissa said...

I am on BM too, but have never used the LT swapping column. I'll have to check it out.

S. Krishna said...

I have a TON of BM cards as well!! And I'm a complete BM stalker too. I think you, me, and koolaidmom should start a club!

Kathleen Gilligan said...

It does sound like a good thing to help break my obsession.... :)