Infotropism Kirrily Robert’s blog

Bookmooch

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Heard of BookMooch? I was recently introduced to it via the London Perl Mongers mailing list. It’s one of several book-sharing services around, the best-known of which, I guess, is BookCrossing. But unlike BookCrossing, which centres around people dropping off books in public places, BookMooch matches up people who’ve got books and people who want them, and the transfer happens by good old snailmail.

Some of my recently listed books:

Get free books from BookMooch.com

I listed* a small handful of books a few weeks ago, and fairly soon someone popped up asking to mooch one of them. I mailed it off to Helena, Montana about a week ago, and today I got notification that it had arrived. I even got karma* for promptness and the book being in good condition.

(* Links may require login.)

The whole system works on points. You get 0.1 points merely for listing a book as available, 3 points for sending a book, and you spend 2 points to mooch a book from someone else. As you can see, for every 2 books you give away, you can receive three, but I suspect the imbalance is to counteract people dropping out of the system over time.

Another thing I like about it is that they actually realise that the world’s a big, round planet with people spread far afield. One of the preferences you can set is whether you’ll ship overseas: yes, no, or maybe — if the book’s rare or lightweight.

The slim genre paperback I shipped to Montana cost 8 AUD, which I don’t begrudge, but I don’t think I’d want to ship anything much heavier. At that rate, books I mooch will set me back around $5 on average. That’s about what I’d pay in a secondhand bookshop anyway. On the upside, I can do it from the comfort of my own home and not be tempted to over-spend or impulse buy. Downside: I love a good secondhand bookshop!

If any Australians are reading this and want to sign up, I strongly encourage you. Doesn’t seem like there are many of us so far, based on what the system told me when I searched for books in Australia, and it’d be nice to have a few more locals to swap with.

Another bookmoocher here! A small correction - you describe the system of spending 2 points to mooch a book, and receiving 3 if someone mooches from you. This is right as far as it goes, but you didn’t mention (maybe you didn’t realise!) that this is only the system for international mooches. If you mooch a book within your own country, the cost is 1 point, and the sender receives 1 point. So, if you send a book abroad, you have enough points to get three local books!

Joe: Ah! That explains it. I was sure I’d read that it was one point when I joined up, but then I got three for sending overseas, so I figured something had changed.

Much as I’d love to get 3 books for sending 1 overseas, I can hardly find any local to me, so I guess it’s 3:2 for now.