WFMW: Cheap books online!

Side note: Unnnnbelievable. My favorite posts to create are the Featured Flikr Photo posts... mostly because I love finding great photos of places that I love. I spent forever this morning and last night crafting a photo post about my favorite romantic spots in Chicago. I posted it it... and now I come back at lunch to check on it and.... *poof*... it is nowhere. Not in drafts, not in posted, not in scheduled.....

I only have one hope left - I might get home and find that if I hit Ctrl-V, it will still be saved from when I copied it into a post. Maybe.

So - in the hope that I can find it tonight, it will be posted tomorrow. In the meantime, I'll post my WFMW post early, since I am feeling a need to have something new posted today.

Works-for-me-Wednesday (one day early): Paperback Swap



I forget what first led me to the Paperback Swap website a few weeks ago. At first I thought it was essentially FREE books as long as you had books to give away, but I forgot about shipping costs. In the end, you're getting books for about $3 each.

Here's the deal. You sign up to join the Paperback Swap website. In order to begin the process, you find 10 books that you can give away (that are in decent shape). That was easy for me, I already had a stack of books to take to Half-Price books, but I get more bang for my buck this way. You upload the ISBN number of each of your 10 books. This starts your account, and you are given two credits to start off with. Each credit is worth one book, so you now get to search for a book that you want to read. When you find one you like, just select it and it will be sent to you.

When someone on the website wants one of the books you've listed, you'll be notified via email, and you click in to print off a label for your book. You can wrap it in plastic wrap and the printed label, and send it media mail for about $3. Easy. No stamps. No mailing bags or padded envelopes. When the person receives the book, you are credited and able to pick another book for yourself.

I've received two books so far and sent out five, and I'm almost done with Jhumpa Lahiri's "Interpreter of Maladies". When I'm done, I'll post it online and get another one back to me. I have created my "wish list" of books, so whenever I'm ready for a new book I check to see which of my wish list books are currently available.

This is cheaper than Half-Price books, amazon.com, and definitely cheaper than Borders and Barnes & Nobles. It is not cheaper than the Library, so if that's your go-to book source, I don't know that I'd recommend a switch. It is also not for you if you like to keep all of your books, because you have to keep posting books in order to keep receiving them.

Oh, and contrary to the very clear name of the website, it is not all paperbacks.