Does anyone use the book trading sites? Log InLog In I used to use them all of the time before I switched to digital books. Recently, I had a kindle stolen on the beach. I replaced it but it has left me thinking about whether it's safe to leave it with the chairs. It's much less of a problem with paperback books than with digital items so I was thinking about getting a few paperbacks for beach reading but I don't want to spend a lot of money on them or build up a library of physical books like I used to have. I don't have the space. I think these sites would help me with both goals.
I have a little experience with book exchanges and swaps. I don't have much of an opinion on them, but the one I used works as intended. These types of exchanges can definitely help you get rid of books after you're done reading them, so I'd say to go ahead and use them. I've heard a few good things about BookMooch, but I don't have personal experience there.
I buy books second hand- a lot of thrift stores sell paperbacks for about a buck; that way it doesn't matter if it gets sandy or wet or stolen while you're at the beach, and when you're done with it if it's still in good condition, you can donate it back to the charity shop! I think of it like a cheap rental with no damage deposit. Or, if you take good care of your books and don't want to spend anything, there's always the library...
I had heard of these sites, but haven't used them. I tend to buy second hand books, but if someone is giving them away I guess it's always worth checking. Postage is the only cost, but it can be expensive, so I still give mine away to charity shops. There are so many cheap book shops these days, you can easily build up a library again, but space is an issue. Somehow I bought a few at the weekend as they were a bargain at 99p each!
I think book swapping is ideal if you want to get books without having to spend so much money and if you don't have space anymore at home. As for me, I am a book hoarder/collector, and I wouldn't exchange them for new ones. I would just buy new books for me.
I used to be part of one of these but dropped out due to the cost of postage and time involved. I kept finding such great deals on Abebooks.com that it just didn't seem worth my time to save so little money swapping for a book verses buying a used copy in this site when I considered the time involved in packaging it for mailing, getting to the post office and standing in line for a very long time. I could just buy a used copy for a teeny tiny bit more and have it come to my mail box, no added time and effort.
Paperback exchange is a way to get really interesting books, but for me the economics of it just doesn't really work out. It turns out to be cheaper to get books at Goodwill or other thrift stores and I also had a good result from setting up a magazine and book exchange box at work. The only down side is that some people's contributions were so out of date or dirty that I had to just quietly throw them away on the weekend. But other people brought in a lot of stuff that was good just to get rid of it--so it all balanced out.
