Let's Mooch!

Wouldn't it be great if you could swap books with all the other booklovers of the world? You could simply send the book you don't want anymore to someone who is dying to put their hands on it and, in return, receive something you have been longing for ages. All for free, you are simply swapping books after all, you only have to pay  for the postage of the volume you are sending. Well, this thing does exist in the shape and form of a website, and its name is Bookmooch.  It is brilliant.

A few days ago it popped into my head that there used to be a thing called Postcrossing by which you could get postcards from all over the world, from total strangers, and in return the only thing you had to do is to send postcards from your town to other random people in other random cites and countries. I used to do it for a short period of time a few years ago back in England, and enjoyed it fairly much. It is fun to get mail from all over the world, especially nowadays when our lives are taken over by multimedia: we are happy to camp down in front of our laptops and spend hour after hour surfing the world wide web, building and maintaining virtual friendships and relationships via email, facebook, blogging, chatrooms and messengers while our ears are plugged in with our precious little iPods so we can absolutely cut out the world that exists behind our backs and over the screen of the computer. I know it's a cliche but in the 21st century when it is so incredibly easy to alienate ourselves, everybody needs a little bit of human touch, and that could easily be Postcrossing. I hate the Hungarian Postal Service with all my heart and I would cut it out completely if I could, yet, there's a good chance I shall start posting postcards again,  because I believe that Postcrossing is a good idea. Not only because you have the pleasure of receiving mail but because you also get to know about places that you had had know idea they existed. And I might wind up going to one of those places some day. 

So, as Postcrossing popped into my had, it occurred to me that there must also be a thing called Bookcrossing. I looked it up, and, indeed, it does exist. It works a little differently though, you don't simply post one of your unwanted books to a random address, but you leave it  somewhere in a public place with a special Bookcrossing ID in it. Then you start hoping that someone will find it, pick it up, then register it on the website. However, it works the other way around too, there's is a database of the  exact places/cities where members left their books and you can go there, pick them up, then register them. Sounds fun, doesn't it? It's like hunting for chocolate eggs in your back garden at Easter in England, except it's better and more fun because you get to hunt for a book in a real, life-size city. I am returning to Budapest tomorrow, then I will hopefully and difinitely try to nail down a couple of books and release a couple into the wild.

Another, but more organized and secure way for swapping books is Bookmooch. It is also a website I found a few days ago, and have been sort of hooked to it ever since. It is basically a virtual market for swapping books: you register the volumes you are willing the get rid of and wait until someone shows up and asks for one of them. You can also browse for books that are ready to be mooched, and put together a Wishlist or a Save-it-for-later list. I only registered yesterday morning, added ten books that I am happy to post to someone else, and of those ten volumes two have already found their new owners. I have also requested two books from other members of Bookmooch, hopefully these will arrive sometime soon. Sounds fun, right? Especially for such a bookaholic, as I am.