I went a bit nuts on Paperback Swap earlier this year, I got really excited at the idea of swapping books for free. OK, not free — you have to absorb the small cost of shipping. How about almost free AND you get to clean out your bookshelf. However, there’s a catch. Sigh, isn’t there always?
THE QUICK PROCESS
It took me less than twenty minutes to upload the fifty books on my bookshelf I’m willing to part with, Paperback Swap makes it a pretty smooth process.
Once I had all the books listed, I was pinged for six request notifications within the hour:
- Dear Mr. You by Mary -Louise Parker
- Why Not Me? by Mindy Kaling
- Are You There, Vodka? It’s Me, Chelsea by Chelsea Handler
- One More Thing: Stories and Other Stories by B. J. Novak
- Since We Fell by Dennis Lehane
- Luckiest Girl Alive by Jessica Knoll
I was pumped to have those six books listed, requested, and shipped off that very day. When you sign up, Paperback Swap automatically gives you two credits. 1 Credit = 1 Book. So with the confirmed ‘swap’ of the six books listed above, I had eight credits (which equates to eight books)!
As soon as I got back from USPS, I began my search — I had eight books to pick! FOR FREE! As the ‘requester’ you don’t pay a penny. Your only upfront cost is when you ship one of your books out to someone who requested it from you. Then you gain a credit, and can pick and choose at will.
THE LETDOWN
I quickly saw that any and all books I wanted were very, very backed up, and I was placed on a waiting list with anywhere from 25 — 225 people in front of me, requesting the same book.
And that’s when I realized Paperback Swap might not be the best idea for someone like me… someone who goes through books pretty quickly, and someone who isn’t a huge fan of waiting in lines… someone who ends up buying books after X amount of months on the library’s waiting list…
THE SELECTION
I had to dive deep, like really, really, really deep into the black hole of my GoodReads TR (to-read) list to pull up titles that I was even remotely interested in. I ended up selecting:
- Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
- In the Woods (Dublin Murder Squad, Bk 1) by Tana French
- The Giver by Lois Lowry
- Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer
- Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline
Because those five were the only five I could get immediately without being put on a list. I ended up adding myself to waiting lists for FORTY other novels. That’s right, FOUR-ZERO. I came back over six weeks later, and had to remove myself off quite a few, as I had actually read some of the books already.
To date, I still have three credits remaining, and it’s been nearly two months. I cut down my list, but still waiting, waiting, waiting for 19 titles I hope I’ll get before the end of the year, but I doubt it.
THE PROBLEM
So that, my fellow readers, is the problem with Paperback Swap. Almost anything even slightly popular will be in huge demand, where as supply is rather limited. But that’s life, I suppose.
Unless you’re willing to settle for older, not so popular books — this might not be the site for you. It was well worth the try, but I think I’m going to stick with traditional swapping methods: with friends and my book clubs!