New Homes for Old Books with BookMooch

Some of us have an addiction that is powerful and insatiable: books. I can’t get enough of them. I read a lot, usually several books a week, and read in all areas: fiction, history, computer books, biographies, mysteries and more. The down side of this jones is the amount of space that books take up. There are so many books in my house that it is hard to find space to organize them.

Over the past few years, I’ve taken advantage of the ability to sell used books via Amazon. However, since I live in France, and can only sell through Amazon FR, and much of my reading is in English, my “to sell” pile increases much faster than the grass grows on my lawn in summer. I’ve given books away to friends, and sent cartons of books to the American Library in Paris, but I’ve still got a few hundred books that need homes. Add to that the new books that I buy, read, and, for the most part, don’t want to keep, because I’ll never read them again, and you can imagine that my house could probably be a used book store.

Enter BookMooch, a new service for swapping books. Created by John Buckman, the mind behind Magnatune (an on-line record label and purveyor of digital music), BookMooch has jumped out of the gate to a resounding start. Nine days after it was launched, more than 4,000 people have signed up for BookMooch, listing an astounding 19,000 books for trade. What is especially interesting about BookMooch, compared with some of the other book trading services, is its international aspect: there are members from 44 countries, and this is increasing daily. For me in France, this is excellent: there are plenty of members in the EU, so I can swap without incurring overseas postage costs.The BookMooch principle is simple: you get points for listing your books, and spend points “mooching”, or requesting books from others. When you get mooched (when someone asks for one of your books) you get points as well. You can search the site by member name, topic (such as fiction, mystery, etc.), country (to find members near you to save in postage), and add a wishlist of books you really want; in this case, you’ll get an e-mail when someone lists a book on your wishlist so you can mooch it immediately.

BookMooch is interesting also because of the way its economy works. Unlike some book-swapping sites, you don’t have to trade book-for-book with a specific member; your points are good with any member. So I can mooch a book from Alice, send a book to Bob, and mooch one from Charlene. Basically, points work like scrip that is valid for any member, so there’s no need to worry about who you mooch from and who mooches from you.

BookMooch will appeal to all sorts of readers: those with only a few dozen books looking for a home, and those, like me, who read a lot. In my case, I’m mostly interested in finding homes for my books–the idea of throwing books away is anathema to me, but I’m fast running out of room. If I can give books away, and get other books in exchange, especially books that I’ve wanted to read, this is perfect. (Those who are Mac users and iPod fans will note that I’ve even listed some of my own books. I have more author’s copies than I can give away, so I’m hoping that they’ll find homes as well.) The only problem for me is for overseas shipping: from France, anything over one pound costs too much to send outside the EU, but you can refuse any mooch request if the postage is to onerous.

Check out BookMooch if you’re an avid reader; if you’re an occasional reader, you might find it useful as well. If you have any books that might interest others, go ahead and list them: there’s no risk, and no cost to sign up. Also, the more members there are, the more chance that even the most obscure book will find a moocher. The BookMooch community is developing quickly, via a mailing list and forum, and it looks as though this site will very quickly become a fixture in the book-swapping world. I’m very happy with the first nine days; I’m looking forward to the next nine-hundred.