The beautiful library in Disney's The Beauty and the Beast
As an avid reader, I have a lot of books. When I was younger, I asked my parents to buy me books all the time. My favorite book series were The Baby-sitters Club and Nancy Drew. (I even asked my dad to enroll me in a BSC book club where I would receive new books & BSC-themed merchandise per month! Nerd! :P) But, eventually, I ran out of space and my books are creatively stacked in different ways to fill any available space in my bookshelf, and to an extent, the corner of my closet.
I’ve read some of the books more than once, while some of them just need one reading and I’m golden. But, I always want new books to have. (It’s my neverending thirst for knowledge :P)
My friend, J.J., had the same problem. She accrued a lot of books, but had to get rid of many of them during her move from California to here. That’s when her friend told her about Paperbookswap.com, which she later passed on to me.
It’s essentially a book swap club, but on a massive scale. You post books that you want to swap and books that you want to have. When someone asks you for a book, you send it to her/him. In return, you earn a credit that you can use to ask for a book you want. So far, I’ve gotten rid of 5 books and have asked for 2 books. I’m still in the process of putting up all the books I want to get rid of. I like knowing that someone else will get something out of my old books, and in a way, I’m spreading the love
I’m not sure if it’s available outside of the U.S. yet. But, if it is, I think it’s worth a try when you want to get rid of old books in exchange for reading something new
There’s no denying that books are very addictive, at least for an avid reader. I can understand how you feel since I’m a bookworm myself. Every single time I walk into a bookstore, I can’t help but to hold myself back from buying new books despite still having a lot of them pending in my list. They’re just addictive. And Nancy Drew! I used to like reading the series so much! All the mysteries and such, they’re intriguing.
Oh, interesting concept of “book swap” there. Unfortunately though, I’m just too protective that I don’t really let other people borrow my books, especially if they are not avid readers and only want to read just because “they’re curious” (which in the end, I can deduce they won’t even finish half the story) =___=
And regarding your question about The Mortal Instruments, it’s a good book. To be honest, it doesn’t get me addicted til long time, unlike Hunger Games or other series. But TMI is still a creative series, with all the shadowhunters and other characters. It’s worth to try, although I’d say it certainly is not the kind of series that make me remember them all the time. Then again, this is a pretty relative topic. I haven’t finished the series myself, since the heroine annoys me to no end. :))
When I was younger, my dad had to give me a limit on how many books I can have. I always had many cradled in my arms. Hahaha. Now that I’m older, I do the same as you. I hold myself back every time I go into a bookstore.
I used to read Nancy Drew at my school library during breaks. I’m not really sure why I was so into it. And, though I don’t read them that much anymore, I still play the Her Interactive Nancy Drew games. They’re actually quite fun!
With your advice, I’ve started reading the first book of The Mortal Instruments series and was bored by it. I think I’m just having “young adult” fatigue. I will definitely come back to it later, when I’m in a “young adult” mood I’m reading “A Discovery of Witches” at the moment. It’s quite intriguing so far. Have you read it?
Oh that’s actually a good idea! I remember when I was in Providence there was a 2nd-hand bookstore where you could bring your old books there and do something like it and get paid (or something like it). The details are a little hazy in my memory since I only went there once when my friend brought me along.
When I was growing up I loved the Little House series and Boxcar Children. I also got into a bit of Goosebumps then it went to manga, music books, drawing books, and everything about web development
I don’t think I ever read Goosebumps, but I definitely watched the show! That and “Are You Afraid of the Dark?” I think I read the first book of Boxcar Children, but I don’t remember much from it.
My friend tells me that there’s a second-hand book place like that in the city. But, you don’t get paid for books, you get to exchange it with whatever they have that you want. I’ve yet to try it.
That seems wonderful! I just don’t think I could give away my books tho. Hihi.
I think book swapping is a brilliant idea! It’s one way of getting rid of books and getting new ones in return.
Like you, I love reading books too but I have this problem of keeping / stacking them as I don’t really have a big bookshelf anymore. I used to have this big shelf but when we moved out from our previous house, my mum said I couldn’t bring all my books as we’re moving to a smaller house so I use the little cupboard under our stairs as my mini book shelf. So this book swap thing really intrigues me so I can swap some of my books and get new ones at the same time Thank you for the idea!
Woah! Nancy Drew! That reminded me of my highschool days. :3
I remember reading Nancy Drew I’ve read about 8 of them, 1-8th. I love reading I buy books occasionally but I usually go to the library. I think I'll bookmark that link, I don't really re-read most of the books I have. Hopefully they have it for Canada, I'm going to check haha
Wow! I love reading books since high school.. I wasn’t able to realize that not before college. I’m gonna book mark this site so that I can dispose some old books that I was already read.. Besides, I usually borrow books from my friends and from the library so my bookshelves doesn’t usually get cluttered.
I used to love the Nancy Drew books when I was a kid, the Sweet Valley series, Famous Five and Animal Ark…. back then when all I ever did was read. I had to give most of my books away when we moved, but I gave them to a library of a poor school so I know they were put to good use there
A book swap website? That is so cool and very clever!
Oh wow. I’m actually doing the same thing… but not on that site. I’m just giving away my books because I don’t want most of them. I’ve read most of them at least once or twice, and I just want to keep my favourites. I do love reading so, so much, and I don’t think books are useless at all, but I do think that it’s not necessary to keep so many. They aren’t always read. I did manage to get rid of some, to my friends who wanted some new books to read.
I wish I could offer the books to people outside of here, but it would be expensive to ship, so I said that I’d only send to people willing to pay for shipping.
It would be nice to do a book swap but there aren’t many books I want, if any. ^^; I’m just giving them away for now.
You seem really have too much love for books Not really nerd huh. But you know what, I once dreamt of having shelves full of summit books. Specifically, chic lits ones :)) I love novels too.
Ooo, I remember reading BSC when I was little! Another favorite series of mine was the Sweet Valley series. I ran out of room on my bookshelf, so I’ve given all those books away. I kinda miss them now that you brought it up
The website sounds like a good idea, and I actually think there are a couple similar sites already operating in the US, but I’ve never tried any of them before.
Book swap seems very time-consuming to me. I love the idea, but maybe I’m too lazy. ><
I used to have lots of books. My dad and I were both bookworms. 8D But as I grow older, I read lesser and lesser, and all my books were thrown away/recycled away.
Very stupid of me, I could have donated it to the community library of some sort. Now, I do wished I kept some of my favorite books. My younger sister is currently in her reading phase, and there are so many old books (that I used to have) that I want her to read.
*waiting for my Roald Dahl book reservation in the library.*