Web Spy: PaperBackSwap

[There are over 100 million sites on the Internet. 100 million! You might think you know about all the important ones (CollegeCandy, Gmail, Google, Facebook…), but there are thousands of other sweet sites out there (like Spreezio, Teach Parents Tech and We Are Hunted) and more showing up every day! We get it – it’s not easy or fun sifting through the crap and porn to find those gems, so we’re gonna bring the gems to you. Just sit back, kick up those feet and allow us to introduce you to the diamonds in the internet rough.]

If you’re an avid reader and book-lover like I am, your bookshelf is probably crammed with dozens of books. Mine is filled with several of my favorites, of course, but also dozens of old textbooks and cheap paperbacks I have never even opened probably won’t ever read again. Books that have been packed and moved and unpacked 6 times in the last 4 years. In my never-ending quest to get organized (and spend less money on moving boxes), I’ve decided to do something about all the books that I don’t use and are just sitting there collecting dust.

Of course I considered selling them or donating them, but I’ve discovered something better: swapping them.

PaperBackSwap is an online “book club,” where members can exchange books they’ve already read with other members. Read More »


Get Swapping–Books, That is

If you’re dying to get rid of your old English lit novels, or if you find your boxed set of Little House on the Prairie books gathering dust in the corner of your room, then boy, have I got the places for you.

What if you could find someone on the Web who wanted your old books, but you wouldn’t have to go through all the trouble of finding that person yourself? What if you could also search the Web for almost any book you wanted and get it for free? Pretty cool, right?

Well, swapping books is all the rage nowadays, and there are a multitude of book-swapping sites to prove it. Most are free to join and score you on a point system. For listing a book on the site, you get some fraction of a point. For actually giving a book away (that is, putting it in an envelope and slapping on the postage to send it), you get a full point. And for every full point you earn, you get a free book of your choice.

Here’s a smattering of what’s out there: Read More »