BookMooch - Give Books Away. Get Books You Want.

I've written about all sorts of swapping options before, including some for books, but BookMooch is a service I just learned about today. That seems a bit odd, since it's based in Berkeley, California - not that far from me. The interview with founder John Buckman is especially interesting, and explains why you might want to use BookMooch rather than selling books at a used bookstore or donating them to libraries.

And while BookMooch has its home base in California, it is specifically designed to support an international community of readers - not surprising, given the founder's background. You can search by country and/or language, the point system compensates you for the extra effort of sending a book outside of your country, etc. Over 100 countries are currently represented - some with many more books than others.

[Illustration credit Andrice Arp, courtesy of BookMooch.com - and isn't it a wonderful illustration?]

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