BookMooch: the best thing since sliced bread

The website Bookmooch recently joined my personal list of favorite things, right in there with rhubarb, daphne, Jimmy Buffett, and my ultra-light backpacking stove. I discovered it a couple months ago. I had just finished reading ‘Secret Life of Bees’, which I enjoyed but didn’t feel the need to hang onto. Except for travel, reference, and science books, we pass most books on to friends and used bookstores. I said to myself ‘I wonder if there’s any sort of online book exchange’ and, voila, Google introduced me to BookMooch.

How BookMooch works
First, you open a BookMooch account. I feel very comfortable saying that BookMooch is totally legit, there will be no spamming. BookMooch works on a point system. The only money involved is the cost to ship your books to people who mooch from you. You decide whether you will ship internationally, or there’s an option to have potential moochers ‘check with you first’ if they’re not from your country. Second, you create an inventory (books you are willing to give away) and wishlist (books you would like to receive if/when they become available). You receive points by: listing books in your inventory (+0.1), sending a book within your country (+1), sending a book internationally (+3), and leaving feedback when you receive a book (+0.1). You use points to: mooch a book from someone in your country (-1) or from someone in a different country (-2) or to donate to charity (any amount). How does BookMooch itself subsist? It is linked to Amazon, so every time a purchase on Amazon involves access through a BookMooch link, BookMooch gets a kick-back.

My experience so far
I’ve sent out 3 books, to Illinois, the U.K., and (‘Secret Life of Bees’) to Trinidad & Tobago, and will send a fourth book to Japan on Monday! I’ve mooched 4 books: ‘Time Traveler’s Wife’ (an amazing book), ‘Inkheart’, ‘Cat’s Eye’, and ‘Dune’ (haven’t read it in ~15 years!). I’m still waiting on ‘The Blind Assassin’ and a travel guide to Oahu. I like that BookMooch sends me an email notification if a book on my wishlist becomes available, so I don’t have to check BookMooch regularly. It’s also possible to browse available books by subject, title, author, etc. Or you can browse a BookMooch members’ inventory and mooch multiple books at once to save on shipping. I’m completely sold! Now I wish I’d saved my books in the past so I could accumulate points. Because I never know when a copy of my great-grandmother’s biography (‘White Woman on the Congo’) might show up in Timbuktu! Check it out (see link on my blog), and mark me as a ‘friend’ so I can watch out for books on your wishlist, too.