5 Ways to Share Your Books with Others

Is your already-read pile of books overflowing? Here are several ideas to pass your books on to others and make room for new treasures.

• Check out Bookmooch or PaperbackSwap. Both are online book swapping sites. You'll need to list your books as available to trade and when you accumulate enough points (Bookmooch) or credits (PaperbackSwap) you can request a book and it will be mailed to you. You are responsible for paying the postage (go media mail!) to members who have requested your books.
• Visit your local used bookstore; trade in your books, get some new ones and know that your books will find new homes.
• Sign up with www.BookCrossing.com and leave books in your favorite spots around town for others to find and read and then pass them on again. If people log the book's travels, you can see it online.
• Trade with friends and family and see what good finds everyone else is reading.
• Donate to the Friends of the Library. They sell books and profits go to the library.
  

New Reading Material...

Two books made their way home with me today:  

• Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner. Been wanting to read this one for a while.
  
• Buddha by Deepak Chopra. Haven't read anything on the Buddha lately and thought I'd try this.

How to Store Books

Since books can easily be damaged if stored improperly, there are several ways to ensure that they will be protected while in storage. One of the most important things is to store them inside the house, not outside in a shed or even the garage so that they don't draw damp.

So Many Books...

I'm not entirely sure of the exact number, but there are around several thousand books in our house. They are in almost every room and are all on shelves...mostly. There are a few stray stacks here and there, but for the most part they are resting on shelves and organized by subject, author and title. And even with that system I still manage to bring in a duplicate once in a while. 

I have read and collected books my whole life and continue to add to my collection weekly, if not daily. Along the way, I have learned a lot about care and organization of books, mostly from having run a used bookstore with my husband for seven years.

I just reorganized my cookbooks and it's so nice that they are now on shelves and not in stacks on the floor in the corner of the living room. My goal was to sort through them and get rid of enough so they would fit onto the three shelves of the small bookcase. Success! ...Almost. I have three books that don't fit that I absolutely can't part with and I just keep moving them from one horizontal surface to another. I did manage to get rid of about twenty cookbooks, however. When I realized I had twelve vegan cookbooks, I knew some could go. I mean, really, who has twelve VEGAN cookbooks?

Thanks for visiting my blog! Happy reading :)