海角大神

For years, I鈥檝e been trading books online using PaperBackSwap. It鈥檚 such a wonderful service that鈥檚 fueled a lot of my reading over the past five years or so.

When I first signed up for the service, I swapped a ton of books. I went through my shelves, packaged up several dozen books that I knew I wouldn鈥檛 read again, and shipped them out (it really didn鈥檛 cost much to ship them).

In exchange, a trickle of books started arriving in my mailbox. Books that I actually wanted to read. Books I鈥檇 wanted to read for a long time, like A Summons to Memphis and American Pastoral. Books I wanted to read to my children.

In other words, it was a great deal.

Here鈥檚 how it works.

You sign up for an account on . When you sign up, you鈥檙e asked to list ten books that you own that you鈥檇 be willing to trade by mail. When you do that, you get two 鈥渃redits.鈥� You can use a single 鈥渃redit鈥� to request that any of the five million (or so) books listed on PaperBackSwap by other members of the site be sent to you.

So, how do you get more credits? You list more books. If someone on the site requests one of the books you鈥檝e listed, you just print out a mailing form (provided to you by the site), wrap that form around the book (perhaps with a bit of additional wrapping), tape it up, and mail it. When the other person receives your book, you get another credit.

Shipping the book (via media mail) costs about $2. So, in essence, for $2, you get a book of your choice mailed to you (and also pass on one of your unread books to someone who will enjoy it).

In my eyes, that鈥檚 an exceptional deal. Of course, I鈥檓 a heavy reader, so having a flow of fresh books is a very good thing.

Let鈥檚 say you don鈥檛 enjoy reading, though. SwapACD does essentially the same thing for music CDs. (which I鈥檝e used a fair amount) does essentially the same thing for films.

In each case, you mail out your own items using media mail for about $2 apiece and then eventually receive replacements (things you want to read or watch or listen to) in the mail for free.

Trading media by mail is a great convenient way to refresh your book, DVD, or CD collection at a very low price. Give it a try!