MemeMachineGo!

Paperbackswap is a great way to turn a pile of books you don’t want into a pile of books you do.

The idea’s simple: all books of acceptable condition or better are assumed equal. You list your books; if someone wants one, you mail it at your expense. When the recipient says it’s received, you get a credit, and can ask someone else for a book, and you get it without further expense.

I used to have a bunch of books listed on Half.com. Occasionally, one would move; mostly, they languished there month after month. A couple of weeks ago, I finally registered with Paperbackswap. For listing ten books, I received two book credits (in this respect, it’s sort of like a Ponzi scheme that works.) I requested Alternate Oscars, which I received promptly, and there wasn’t any other activity.

Last week, I passed on to Pocahontas a book I’d started and lost interest in. She quickly lost interest, too. “I know,” I thought. “I’ll post it to Paperbackswap.” While I was at it, I posted three recent mass-market science fiction paperbacks, too.

And, boom. Members can have wish lists, and as soon as a book on your wish list is posted, you’re informed and can confirm you really want it (or, alternatively, you can set it to automatically order a given wish list item without confirmation.) Three of the four new books had been others’ wish list items. Then I cleared nearly everything I’d had on Half.com and listed them and more on Paperbackswap.

I ended up mailing 4 packages on Friday, and have 8 more ready to mail today, which include things that had just sat on Half.com. The cumulative postage for all of these will set me back around $25, but, for that, I’ll have my pick of a dozen books shipped to my home.

(I vacillated on mentioning this, as I don’t like any appearance of shilling, but if, when you register, you list zedlopez as having referred you, I get a book credit. But I recommend it whether or not I get any referrer credits.)