Blog by Sumana Harihareswara, Changeset founder
"It is what it is. Namely, it."
Hi, reader. I wrote this in 2008 and it's now more than five years old. So it may be very out of date; the world, and I, have changed a lot since I wrote it! I'm keeping this up for historical archive purposes, but the me of today may 100% disagree with what I said then. I rarely edit posts after publishing them, but if I do, I usually leave a note in italics to mark the edit and the reason. If this post is particularly offensive or breaches someone's privacy, please contact me.
I called last night's Babylon 5 "Married to a Mob."
Today: cleaning, brunch, and an "adult party" (in that I don't have to keep my guests from eating paint).
Leonard likes to give books away via BookMooch. While cleaning and making room on our bookshelves for new comics and thrift-store finds (yesterday I snagged a Thurber anthology), he coaxes me into giving away less beloved books, like the Jim's Journal anthologies and random kids' books that I treat as popcorn. My sister participates in the similar Paperback Swap service and also reports positive results. It's a warm-and-fuzzy way to declutter.
Comments
Zed
http://www.mememachinego.com/
15 Jul 2008, 1:31 a.m.
Sumana
15 Jul 2008, 7:18 a.m.
Zed: yes, it does beat simple steady growth. Leonard is a hoarder and donator of his points. Come to think of it, he may be hoarding his points towards the day when you can leverage extra points to get extra-rare books or compensate senders for international postage costs. You may have already read Leonard's tips born of experience on achieving good Bookmooch inventory turnover.
Zed
http://www.mememachinego.com/
15 Jul 2008, 19:00 p.m.
Actually, I hadn't yet. Hunh. Bookmooch and Paperbackswap (the one I use) are more different than I had realized. Paperbackswap is predicated on the notion that all books must be in 'acceptable' condition, and lacks a mechanism for specifying anything about a book you've listed. As a recipient, you can define additional requirements (no ex-library books, from a non-smoking home, whatever); the sender decides whether a given book meets the requirements.
I should write this up on my blog... I'd been meaning to write more about my Paperbackswap experience.
Trouble is, if you use the credits you get, you wind up with the same number of books. I'm reasonably certain that I've ended up with a greater volume of books.
Beats non-stop acquisition of books with no culling, at least.