My friend Alasdair just introduced me to Book Mooch, a website for trading books. Like all brilliant ideas, the concept is simple: you get 1 point for each book you give away, and you lose 1 point for each book you “buy.”

I just signed up for an account and added 10 paperbacks to my inventory. 2 of the 10 were duplicate books (somehow we owned 2 copies of Tom Wolfe’s Bonfire of the Vanities and Voltaire’s Candide). The others were crappy paperbacks that I’ll probably never read. I was awarded 1/10th of a point for each book I uploaded, so I’ve already accumulated enough points to get a free book!

eBay was supposed to be the salvation for hoarders like me, but it just seems like so much work to list an item, especially when it will likely only sell for $2.50.

On Book Mooch, you feel like you’re getting real value because:

1. you’re trading away stuff of little value (a book you’re already read, with low resale value) in exchange for stuff of high value (a book you want to read, that would likely cost you at least $10)
2. you feel like you’re part of a community of rebel intelligentsia…

Exchange your books at BookMooch.com