I've been using BookMooch since May 2007 and I think that BookMooch is a fantastic online tool for trading books and getting rid of the books which you no longer want to hold on to.

How It Works

For the official explanation of the point system go to the BookMooch About page.

Giving Books

Sign up for BookMooch, then add some books to your inventory that you are willing to trade away, and you will get +0.1 points per book. If someone from your country asks for the book, then you can mail them the book to receive +1 point, and yes you pay the cost of postage, and if the cost is too large then you can decline the user's request. If the user is outside your country then you receive +3 points, and the cost of mailing is higher. When you're paying the postage to give away your books for free think of it as prepaying for books that you will receive later. Once the user that requested the book acknowledges receiving the book you will gain another +0.1 points.

Receiving Books

To request a book from someone within your country you only need 1 point, to request from outside your country you will need 2 points. Once you request a book the book's owner will either send you the book free of charge, or give you a reason why they cannot send you the book in which case you would not lose any points.

Librivox is an amazing website that I have been watching for a number of years now, and it helped me out enormously in those awful required Art classes I took while at UBC. Now the site is far more interesting to me as I have some time to read what I wish, and because I find listening to audiobooks, and switching to reading every now and then to be the most efficient way for me to digest a non-technical book.

Librivox is basically just a repository of free audiobooks that were made for free by volunteer netizens like you and I. All you need is a computer with some recording software which is ubiquitous at this point, in fact the iPhone Voice Memo app (which is also available for the iPod Touch) is a great way to do this from the comfort of your favorite chair and couch.

Remember not to be an dick! OK please.