I'll Send You Mine if You Send Me Yours

It may be a bit early for this post, but tonight (I don't know you that well yet, but thanks, Mela) I was turned on to paperbackswap.com, and all instruments register an 8.9 on the Richter Scale of Radical!

Anyone that's read previous posts knows that I can't control myself around used book sales.  One book becomes ten books, which eventually becomes an old Sutter Home White Zinfandel box full of books (the box isn't mine...it came with the books.)  So needless to say I have shelves and shelves and boxes and stacks of mostly unread reading material.  What's an overzealous bibliophile to do?

Swap them.  Paperbackswap.com is exactly what you'd imagine it would be.  List all the books you want to get rid of and receive credits when another user requests one of them.  That user pays nothing for your book, and you pay to ship it.  You then use your credits to "buy" books from other users, and they pay for that shipping.  No money changes hands directly between the parties involved.  You're truly trading books (and CDs and DVDs) with a very large community of people.

I just signed up for an account and tomorrow sometime I think I'll peruse my shelves and shelves and boxes and stacks for grist for the trading mill.  I will say though that my book addiction is tinged with the collecting bug.  Reading the book is important, of course, but that rarely happens.  The "having of" the book is motivation plenty.  It remains to be seen whether I can find books I can part with.  I'm hoping I have a copy of "Potat-OH!: An Illustrated History of Tubers" that I can get rid of.

Note: If any of you sign up after reading this entry, use jdbloom@comcast.net when they ask who referred you.  Apparently I get some small bonus.

Note Also: I didn't write this entry in order to get the above-mentioned bonus.  I just think the idea is a really good one.  If you agree, remember who told you about it.

Note As Well: The Richter Scale of Radical doesn't actually exist.  And that registers very low on the Richter Scale of Radical.

Reading (on the Cheap) is Fundamental

I'm not much of a shopper.  I tire out pretty quickly and lose interest.  Clothes shopping is the real killer.  Kate can attest to that.  I do pretty well with electronics and oddly, flea markets and art shows.  But stick me in a used bookstore, and hours disappear.  I love regular bookstores, too, but the cheaper than cheap, bargain basement, two steps away from using books as kindling stores are my favorite.

There's one in particular, in Wheaton, that I go back to again and again.  Not only are the books cheap; most paperbacks are one to two dollars, but they're also in decently good condition, alphabetized on shelves, and categorized by genre.  It's a wonderland!  It's as if some incredibly anal librarian with no concept of money let people come down into her basement and shop from her personal collection.  And I'm all too happy to take advantage.

I think what I love most about it, apart from the visceral sensation I get thumbing through racks of books, is the experimentation dirt cheap books affords you.  I can buy books I'd never think of paying full, or even half price for.  Books that I've never heard of but just have an interesting title, cool cover art or an author whose last name rhymes with some funny word.  I've discovered some really awesome books by scanning at random and buying in bulk.  I can't help but walk out every time I go in with a cardboard box full of books.

And since Kate and I have run out of places to store all those books, it's a good thing. Cardboard boxes store much better in the attic than plastic bags.  Who needs bookshelves?