Something practical for a change - Bookmooch.com

I read a lot and by "a lot" I mean "enough to spend copious amounts of money to support my addiction and flood all the available surfaces in the house with books".

I am also very fond of my library and believe firmly that a person should have well loved books on standby so (s)he could pick them up whenever it feels like that, be it day or night.

However - there will always be books you'll just enjoy once and never pick up again. They'll just gradually take over the shelves, covered with dust and doomed to be never opened again.

Those books could find MUCH happier homes if you put them up on Bookmooch.com.

It's a very simple book exchange system. You put up a list of books you are willing to give away. For every book given you get points which you can then use to mooch books from others. You can also make wish lists and get notifications when somebody has put up the book you'd like to get.

And it's brilliant!

Couple of tips in case you're thinking of joining:

• For every book sent abroad you get 3 points and every book sent locally 2 points. Mooching a book locally just costs you 1 point and from abroad 2 points. So it's well worth to ship worldwide as in theory you could get 3 books for 1.

• Big heavy books are quite expensive to post. Either don't put them up or add a note in book condition that you'll only post them locally due to cost & weight.

• That's kinda petty but it really annoys me when people are not willing to post worldwide but will happily expect other people to send them books from all over the world. I think it's a bad trend and should be addressed. If you feel the same you can always specify that you will post worldwide only to people who are doing the same.

• The whole system is based on trust, but people can leave comments on your transactions. So be precise about your posting, let people know about delays and keep communication always open.

• The site can be down sometimes - maybe for maintenance, maybe the server is just not coping with traffic. Don't let that throw you off. Just try again a little later.