Have you ever wondered what to do with all those old books piling up on your shelves? You know you’ll probably never read them again, but maybe you heard from former library aides like me that most donated books get recycled instead of entered into general circulation, and you don’t want Trixie Belden’s 50’s-era adventures to end up as some poor office schlub’s TPS report.  Good news for you then that my new favorite site Paperbackswap.com is here to help.

PaperbackSwap allows you to upload your old paperbacks in exchange for credits. (Hardbacks are welcome, too, but I suppose hardbackswap.com sounds like a different type of site entirely.)  If memory serves, you get two credits for signing up, and then one more credit for every book you send out to another PaperbackSwap member. It costs a little over $2 to ship a book, and you can even pay postage through Paypal and print a shipping label right from your computer, meaning no need to stand in line at the post office. Then, armed with your handy dandy credits, you are able to search for all those books you’ve been meaning to read among the 3 million available on the site.  Basically, for less than the price of a used book, you can have books shipped directly to your mailbox. Becoming a reclusive shut-in has never been easier!

The site also allows users to post book reviews and ratings, and communicate with one another through message boards, PMs and all the usual Web 2.0 suspects.  By far my favorite side feature is the “wish” system where you tag books that aren’t available yet and the site emails you immediately when another user posts them on the site.

Does it work? Well, let’s just say that the postman at my new place knocked on my door the other day to tell me how busy I’ve been keeping him. So far I’ve shed old textbooks, well-intentioned Christmas gifts, and books that I love but know in my heart I’ll never read again.  In return, I’ve received half of Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s bibliography, my favorite book as a child, and a really cool book about serial killer profilers, among many, many others. Now I just have to make time to read them all.

 One of the author’s many overflowing bookshelves. Yes, I made it deliberately small to obscure any embarrassing titles. 

(And before I forget: murklins, murklins, murklins!)