BootsnAll Travel Community

Hi.

Has anyone thought about putting together a book sharing club, buy a book, read a book... put it on a list... someone that wants to read it pays shipping, reads it, next person pays shipping, etc. Book rate is fairly cheap in the mail... Might even work to have a score card of sorts, have the shipper pay as long as they get another book from someone else?!?

Who knows the possibilities! Logistics would be quite an issue, but a system based on honesty would work fairly well (assuming we have honest folks on here!)

Any takers? What do you guys think?

I know it gets expensive trying to track down books... then once they are read they end up on a book shelf, because used bookstores dont give you hardly anything!

Aw 4 views... no responses! Was only looking for a "Yes/No" response, with a comment attached...

I had a bootie book swap! A fellow bootie sent me a book to borrow because I was too poor to buy it. What a nice guy

RocknRod

I think it's a good idea.
I would actually send people books for free if they wanted them and I didn't.

But I like your idea.

More of a pay it forward... You send a book, you get a book sent to you. Kinda a cycle... just have to have enough new books going in for it to keep in motion.

May not have enough book worms on here to make it work though!

I think it's just too much work to try and coordinate a BnA scale bookswap. If you want a book, ask if someone has it, but I think it's too much like 'subscribing,' if you know what I mean.

The logistics might a bit tough, but what the hell. I'm in on this.

anybody want a copy of

lonely planet's
unpacked again

a collection of travel disaster stories?

if so, what can you send me?
(lets private message one another)

zopa

It's a great idea, just one problem (for me at least): I have no books
This is probably a whole new topic, but i really don't get why do people buy books. I'm a book worm but i only own 5 books (all of them are dictionaries) all others i borrow in a library. Isn't it much cheaper to pay the library fee that to buy all the books you want to read?

The theory is great, but this bookworm would have a real problem - no fixed address I´ve been in Spain for a few months, and their postal system is taking its own sweet time getting a small care package from my mom to me. But I´m moving on at the end of the month, and will not have a mailing address, so I can´t join in right now.

Jusha, that would also explain one reason to buy books - I´m going to want something (several somethings, actually) to read while on the plane/train/bus, and will wind up in a different country than the origin of my journey, and libraries usually want their books back. So I´ll buy them, though I go for used books as often as possible.

And I always like passing books along, so here´s one of my other favorite websites: www.bookcrossing.com. Though trading isn´t the original/primary reason for the site, it´s definitely there, if anyone´s interested.
KML

quote:

Originally posted by jusha:
It's a great idea, just one problem (for me at least): I have no books
This is probably a whole new topic, but i really don't get why do people buy books. I'm a book worm but i only own 5 books (all of them are dictionaries) all others i borrow in a library. Isn't it much cheaper to pay the library fee that to buy all the books you want to read?

Some of us lean more toward technical manuals and such... but for fiction I agree! Dont normally have to look up a topic inside a fiction book...

My books are like my journals...I write the date and place I bought them and then when I look at them again..memories flood back...where I read the book etc.

I don't think the book swap is practical...books are heavy and to post em would cost a penny.

Local book swaps might work better.

It's an idea. I have no love for keeping books around that I have read already. I don't put my name in 'em or the date I bought 'em. I have 'em all over the house and some turn up like bad pennies( "Hmmm...Milk For Cereal. I'll just reach into the Fridge...What THe...? The Great Santini?¨) Used to reread books, but my memory got better. I'll send a book wherever. Hell, I give 'em away all the time. Funny thing is: I give them away...But the kindness(complete lack of care, but perceived kindness) makes people go out of their way to get these books back to me. Funny.

There should be a guide book exchange around here. Those fricking things are expensive!! I'd pay five dollars to mail a book to someone over them having to buy the thing at 35 dollars.

D

but rocknrod, what are the international rates like? Jushas in Slovenia, I'm in Austria, seraphim in Belgium, quite a few in the UK.... my mom stopped sending me packages and reverted to cash for gifts because it was cheaper.

Piecar, you're hilarious.

Elis, yeah, RR is probably thinking US book swap.

What a realistic thing to do might be
post books that people might be interested in, then they can post a message and work out a deal if they want them.

Just now, RR and I were talking about stocks on another thread. I have books on that I don't use anymore, so I could just simply list them.

Also, sometimes I have two copies of a book for some reason. I could list that.
Most of the books I have are like friends to me because I choose carefully to begin with.
I don't know.

I've done a "sort of" book swap thing on another board, but that was a country-specific message board so everybody shared the same interest, and it was MUCH smaller than BnA. We also weren't "swapping" so much as sharing some fairly hard-to-find, out-of-print books. But that grew into more as we all had gotten to know each other pretty well, personal tastes, etc. It definitely grew into swapping. Here's how it worked:

Whoever had the book just put it up for grabs. First person to reply got sent the book (at shipper's expense). They read it, then put it up for grabs. Rinse and repeat. Total honor system. People would sign the back, location/when read, etc. It was kind of fun to chart the books travels. So I could see something like that happening here. Or even a variation. In the forum that deals with books etc....I could post:

SUBJECT LINE: BOOK SWAP/Anybody want 2003 LP Mexico?

Then maybe in the text say whatever my terms are. Like: "This is available for three days to whomever PM's me the best offer. I'm especially interested in anything about SE Asia or info on the Galapagos right now." OR "I just bought the 2005, so whoever wants it, first come. Free."

I think it should probably definitely be limited to books that are somehow related to travel. Either a guide, or travel essays, or a novel set in some country, etc. Otherwise BnA could become a internet book thrift store, which I'm sure they don't want. If the posting of replies to book offering threads got out of hand and took up too much space, then it could be restricted to the PM feature, e.g., No Reply to this post will be considered, PM only.

By the way, the book exchange I referred to only included people in the US, Canada and England. So yeah, there is that. But it's not expensive to mail books WITHIN the US if you ask for the book rate at the post office. Unfortunately, I think anything across a border costs EXTRA.

(I JUST UNPACKED 10 BOXES OF BOOKS CAUSE I BOUGHT NEW BOOKSHELVES AND YOU PEOPLE CAN HAVE NONE OF THEM!!!! Hahahahahaha!!!!)

quote:

Originally posted by Elis:
but rocknrod, what are the international rates like? Jushas in Slovenia, I'm in Austria, seraphim in Belgium, quite a few in the UK.... my mom stopped sending me packages and reverted to cash for gifts because it was cheaper.

Clearly the only solution is to send me through the mail system to hand deliver the books to countries other than the USA.

Either that or take out a collection and send me via the airlines...

Damnit, Clay's being "sarcastic" again. Damnit.

Has anyone checked out http://www.bookcrossing.com?
I've been a member for a while and have found it to be really fulfilling (and fun).

So Rod: how many travel books do you have?