Sustainable Reading - Books on the cheap!

If you're like me, there are never enough hours to soak up some literary brain food. There is also never enough money to purchase all those missives...my wishlist sprouts branches while the budget wilts.

I've discovered some websites to fuel my obsession and line the shelves with new reads while still feeding the cat:

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BookMooch is a community for exchanging used books you no longer need in exchange for books you really want.

Give & receive: Every time you give someone a book, you earn a point and can get any book you want from anyone else at BookMooch. Points for entering books: you receive a tenth-of-a-point for every book you type into the system, and one point each time you give a book away. In order to keep receiving books, you need to give away at least one book for every three you receive. Once you've read a book, you can keep it forever or put it back into BookMooch for someone else.

No cost: there is no cost to join or use this web site: your only cost is mailing your books to others.

Help charities: you can also give your points to charities they work with, such as children's hospitals (so a sick kid can get a free book delivered to their bed), library fund, African literacy, or to BookMooch to thank them for running the web site.

World wide: You can request books from other countries, in other languages. You receive 3 points when you send a book out of your country, to help compensate you for the greater mailing cost, but it only costs the moocher 2 points to get the book.

Wishlist: you can keep a "book wish list" that will automatically arrive to you when you have the points and/or the book becomes available in the catalog.

Feedback score: each time you receive a book, you can leave feedback with the sender, just like eBay. If you keep your feedback score up, people are most likely to help you out when you ask for a book.

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neighBORROW

The newest kid on the block of ecology-minded swap shops is quickly making a name.

The concept is simple: An online community is created around existing traditional physical communities for the purposes of (among other things) borrowing, lending, trading and maximizing the use and value of "things."

neighBORROW is a free, interactive web site that boasts a real-time, centralized and consolidated database that identifies books, movies, CDs, and other miscellaneous items that may be available to borrow in your apartment building, office building, neighborhood, school, place of worship or from any group of people imaginable.

Join a neighBORROW-hood near you. List anything you want to lend and trade. DVDs, books, tools, more!

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BookCrossing, where 724,977 people in over 130 countries go to share their passion for books with theworld.

BookCrossing is earth-friendly, and gives you a way to share your books, clear your shelves, and conserve precious resources at the same time. Through a unique method of recycling reads, BookCrossers give life to books. Register your book on BookCrossing then leave it on a park bench, a coffee shop, at a hotel on vacation. Share it with a friend or tuck it onto a bookshelf at the gym -- anywhere it might find a new reader!

What happens next is up to fate, and we never know where our books might travel. Track the book's journey around the world as it is passed on from person to person.

Think, Geo-caching for books~

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Powell's, for more than 30 years this company has purchased books over the counter. They now offer online buying services too. Easy to manage system lets you bank your credits for future purchases.

1. Enter each book's ISBN in the text box on the landing page and click "Sell these books."
2. If you like what they offer, you'll just need to pack and ship the books with a prepaid media mail shipping label to their warehouse in Portland, Oregon.
3. Once they arrive, we'll look them over and issue Virtual Credit (about 30% of the resale value) to your Powells.com account.Use this credit to purchase your "new" books.
   

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WhatsOnMyBookshelf, a book trading community, allows members to exchange their books using a simple point system. Users maintain their own profile page with friends, book inventory, and wishlists.

How it works:

* For every 5 books that you register on the site you will receive 1 credit as a promotion.
* First, a member registers a book which is designated a point value based upon its new book price.
* Then, a user requests a book by redeeming some of their credits to order the book.
* Finally, the sender ships the book, and once delivered, will receive the requester’s credits.
* Under circumstances when a user cannot ship their book, the requester will be notified of the rejection.
* In additon to registering books, each user maintains a wishlist. When a book listed on the wishlist is registered on the site you will be notified by email.

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Swaptree is another way for people to easily trade the books, cds, dvds and video games they are finished with, for the ones they want, all for free. With Swaptree, your collections stop gathering dust and can be used to acquire other items you want. By offering to trade a single item, you can choose from thousands of books, dvds, cds, and video games that you can receive in exchange. Best part: everything is free, you only pay shipping.

Users list the books or other media they want and the ones they own and are willing to swap. Swaptree, at no charge, connects the have-nots with the haves, but not necessarily in two-way trades. It also allows users to trade DVDs for books, or video games for CDs, if they so choose.

Those sending an item print a U.S. Postal Service Media Mail label downloaded from the Swaptree site. The item's weight is automatically calculated, and the required postage (usually less than $2.50) is printed on the label, along with the shipping and return addresses. Postage fees are billed once a month through the sender's credit card.With the Swaptree label in place and the sender's identity known, postal security is not an issue.

That means the sender can use her or his home mailbox, avoiding the usual trip to the post office for items weighing more than 13 ounces. You also have the option of creating your own label for further savings or to keep your credit card securely in your wallet.

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Paperbackswap
To get started you simply sign up and list the ISBN number of nine books that you're willing to part with.

The site uses the ISBN number to create a listing complete with title, cover image, publication date, etc.

When another site member chooses a book you're offering, you get an automatic e-mail notification complete with printable mailing labels with postage calculated. Pack up the book, print the label, and ship off your books—it'll cost you just $1.59, via the USPS's slow media mail service for any book up to a pound.

After posting your nine books, you get three credits, and as soon as your recipient gets the book and registers the receipt with the service, you get a credit. You use the credits to request books of your own. Just search via book or author and click the request button to ask a user with the book you're looking for to send it to you.

You rely on the other user to send the book, just as he relies on you to confirm receipt. The receiver is reasonably safe; anyone who doesn't send books doesn't get credits. Senders rely more on the goodwill of receivers. If you're not a trusting sender, the site has its own Quick Credit delivery confirmation service. For just 41 cents, the Post Office scans and tracks your book; when it's delivered, the PaperBackSwap.com system is automatically updated, and you get a credit. It's not a bad deal, and it's even cheaper than the Post

Office's own delivery confirmation system.

Note: there's no minimum condition guaranteed. If you're particularly finicky about the condition of your books this might not be the club for you. Also, although the site focuses on paperbacks, you can trade hardbacks, but you'll have to bring them in to the post office if they weigh more than a pound, and your shipping cost may be more than $1.59. Another caveat: There is a wishlist feature but you currently can't request a book to your wishlist unless it's in the PaperBackSwap database.

It's a relatively young site and has an impressive selection of books— over 740,000 available in the system,

with 25,000 being shipped every week. It's free—for the moment. If you've got nine books you can bear to share, it's worth a try.

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TitleTrader makes it simple to add your items to swap on the site, there is no need to enter titles or descriptions. To post an item to your inventory click the "My Inventory" link at the left. Most books have ISBN numbers on them. You can enter this number, or search by keyword to find the item you have.

Requesting a item:
You can obtain Request Points three ways. The first way to earn points is by sending an item, like a book, to another user. The second way is to purchase points from us. Buying points is useful when something comes up on the site that you really want, but do not have the points to request it yet. You can also earn points by refering another active member to the site. The points allows you to request a book, dvd, or cd from another user. Simply use the browse or search function at the top of this page to find items that are available, then select the user you want to send it to you. The sender will be notified and your item should be on its way.

My Requests:
This is where the progress of your swap requests are displayed. List first are items you want sent to you.

Next to each item is a "Confirm Receipt" link. Be sure you press this link for each item as your receive them so the sender can get credit for it.

Listed second are items that you need to send out. You must send out and item before you can receive your Request Credit. Next to each item is the address you need to send the item to.

Listed third on My Requests are swaps that have pending feedback. You should leave feedback for the other user for each item that you send or receive.

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Bookins
The Basics of offering items are easy. No cost to join. Simply enter the ISBN or UPC code from the back of your book or DVD. The site will fill in all the details like title and cover image. Then, pick items you'd like to receive.

Their system will automatically arrange for shipments. From you to one member and from a third member back to you, and so on. You never have to contact anyone, there is no bidding, or hassles of dealing with different traders for each exchange. Keep the items you receive or exchange them when you are done.

Works on a point system similar to others listed here. Books are assigned a predetermined points. Once your shipped item is delivered your points accumulate allowing you to request items on your want list.

Convenient shipping. Print shipping labels using regular paper with free prepaid U.S. postage from our website. Flat rate shipping of $4.49, regardless of weight. This shipping charge includes
delivery confirmation. Track all shipments right on their site. This site offers 100% satisfaction Guarantee.

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Support the idea of saving our forests, growing our minds and extending the lives of books by sharing~