Don’t buy or borrow – mooch
John Buckman of BookMooch wants to spread the literary love
By Genevieve Diesing
Published: February 18th, 2008 | 9:05am
Attention, bookworms: Put down your library cards and step away from those overpriced bookstores! Bookmooch.com, an 18-month-old global trading network for anyone who likes to read, is making it possible for hundreds of thousands to share their cherished reads and get some in return.
The service works like this: Whenever you give away books, you receive a certain amount of points. When you see books that you like, you can use your points to purchase them. John Buckman, who created the money-free system, built the operation for people who not only love to read, but hate to see a good book go to waste. We talk with Buckman about the hows, whys and maybes.
What kind of a reception have you gotten so far?
Right from the beginning, there was a lot of interest, which really surprised me. After a year and a half, there are about 60,000 members listing 400,000 books to give away, and over 500,000 books have been exchanged.
What kind of a social impact can you see this service having?
I hope that more people will read more. I remember an interview I had with the LA Times: the woman who called me said she was doing the story because her 11-year-old had read 20 books in the past five weeks because of BookMooch, and she never was that interested in reading before. She loves the social aspect of money-free trading with other book lovers.
Why do you think BookMooch is superior to other sites that could fulfill a similar service – such as Amazon or eBay?
If you think “I could get $7 for this book, why should I give it away?” then by all means, go sell it on eBay. However, if you are thinking "I loved this book, I want to give it to someone else who wants to read it and will also enjoy it," then you're someone who would like BookMooch. Not everything in the world has to be about money and maximizing how much you get for everything. BookMooch is more about sending books off to a good home, and in return, finding books you want to read and receiving them for free. Another aspect of giving books away is that often the shipping effort is more than the cash you would get from selling it. Instead, use BookMooch to send a book you don't want to someone who does want it, and in return you can ask someone else to send you a book you really want. It's like getting books for free.
Could you give me an example of some of the trades that have already occurred?
Personally, I've given 517 books away, and this week I am boxing up and sending a variety of things, including several books by Rose Tremain, the Time Out film & video guide, several business books, and a picture book on making perfect espresso. I was so happy when someone mooched all my academic philosophy books from my graduate school days - they were doing a thesis on a similar topic, and most of those books were long out of print. Not only was I never going to reread those books, but they found a perfect new home.
Do you have any interesting stories thus far?
BookMoochers can give their points to various charities who need specific books, and thousands of books have found a good home this way. For example, we help stock small public libraries all over the world, from disaster-torn New Orleans, to a Women's Center in New Zealand. Just today I signed up HEROES, a California-based charity helping people volunteer to help in schools. There is also the BookMooch Journal Project, where people collaboratively write books, such as My First Six Months As a Father or an illustrated version of Alice in Wonderland. Each person writes a few pages on the chosen theme, and passes it on to someone else.
What gave you the idea for Bookmooch?
I was on vacation in Norwich, England and went in a local community center that had a room with bookshelves in it and a sign that said "Leave a book, take a book." People were meeting there to talk about books, others were flipping through the bookshelf to see what they liked. I liked the warm, friendly feel; gathering around to talk about books and give them to each other with no money being exchanged. What if I could recreate this feeling on the internet?
Any future plans for the site?
I'd really like to get libraries more involved. Not only do they have to throw away a lot of books each year that we'd like to make use of, but also they're usually tragically under-funded, and BookMooch can help them get more books for their money.
Issue #34
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