I can hardly believe it, but eight years ago, BookMooch was born!

Admittedly, due to eBooks, traditional books are no longer at their peak, but they're not gone yet!

Here are some interesting stats, as of today:

1) in the past year, 147,000 have been swapped on BM, an average of 403 books per day.

2) there are 236,000 unique book titles available for mooching

3) 15,000 people are currently active members on BM. 242,000 people have been members of BM at one time in the past 8 years.

4) My personal favorite: over 71,000 "smooches" have been given. Much love goes out to you, those who send smooches to people you admire!

5) Over 6,000 of you have given to charities of BM, for a total of 160,000 points !

When I started BookMooch in 2006, I knew that there would be a future decline in traditional books, but I wanted to do this project anyway. I wanted to do my part to see those books already printed remain in circulation, and have them find more readers.

At this point, BookMooch's software is fairly "mature" and I only fiddle with it now and then (recently, I changed how emails from BM are sent to avoid them being rejected).

I'm working on some new projects at the moment, some of which might be interesting to you, and I'll be announcing them here, when they're launched.

On another note, a few weeks ago I was in Berlin, and was upset to find that the "book forest" (a free lending library built into trees) I knew about was no longer there. It turns out that it had moved a few blocks away, and was in as good a state as ever.

Here are two photos: me in my recently acquired fancy Berlin clothes, and just the tree on its own.

Can I tell you the craziest thing I have been doing with my Bookmooch cards and bookmarks (until I get caught)?

I am a volunteer at our local Library. SO, I randomly put bookmarks in books at our Friends of the Library (FOTL) bookstore and the Library itself. I also put bookmarks and cards in random books I browse at our local bookstores.

I have to spread the love!

How can we increase the love (BM membership)? Only 15,000 active members?

Wow!

Brian

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

Happy birthday bookmooch

My father thought that Book Mooch was an excellent idea. I got my love of reading from him. This past week I added a lot of books that had been his. He's been gone a year now and I know he would have been pleased.

Hats off to you, John and your wonderful idea.

I send books away and I get books from elsewhere, it evens out over time, and I consider it a bargain anyway compared to the cost of new books.

I'll be here until nobody else has books or have sent away my library, one book at the time, whatever happens first.

And that my friend is why I like Bookmooch. I think you and I, along with the founder, will be the ones to turn the lights off on this project.

It is, what it is. Enjoy it, while we have it.

There whole villages in Africa or Asia that don't have books. There are people who are dying because they want to hold a book in their hands.

We're so lucky.

One feature I've enjoyed using is the browse recommendations tool. It's helped me discover new authors. I also read newsletters like Shelf Awareness and frequent bookstores often.

When shopping for new books, it's often in my mind that I will share it with the BM community shortly after I've finished reading it.

Whenever, I mooch a book from outside the U.S , I always smooch an additional 3 points to help reimburse the moochee.

Let's hope the site can continue to exist.

I used to ship internationally, from USA, for a number of years, BUT no longer do so since the point incentive for int'l mailing was removed, and postage/int'l postage has gotten so insanely high...and guess what, imho, postage costs will probably NEVER go back down and will probably only rise even more.

(just look at gas prices, for example. I remember $0.18 a gal gas when I was a child, lol...I'm rather old'ish. Now USA gas costs vary between $3 to $5 per gal and I've heard that other countries' prices are much higher).

Having only a tiny social security, I learned, early on, NOT to list heavy hardback or big heavy Tpb books, because the international postage was often MORE than the cost of the book, USA retail, new. Because I don't list/ship hc's, I also RARELY mooch em either. Those few hc's I do acquire now usually get donated to the local FOL.

Happy Birthday BM.

Have a Wonderful Day!
Charlene

Thank you and Happy, Happy Birthday, BookMooch!

Not living in an English speaking country I have found very few books are available to me - about 2 thirds of the time when I ask to mooch, the person with the book refuses - the common reason is that THEY CAN BUY THE BOOK cheaper than the POSTAGE THEY PAY - never mind what I have to pay or that they are getting 3 points.

It is true that postage has gone up - as it costs more despite printing matter once getting a discount to encourage knowledge transfer - but so have new book prices and buying new books can cost a lot more than an Amazon discounted purchase.

I hope that Bookmooch continues to be successful. BUT as things stand there needs to be a few innovations on the site - so that it fits better with other possible websites (like a Facebook / phone app where I can mooch directly from facebook for example) OR editing - so I can write comments about the books (not just condition notes) and where I can edit the details (not have to add the book separately, when Amazon screws up the details (which it seems to do more for non English language books). These are not definitive things, but I do think us that like real books will continue to exist for a few more decades and teh site will need to alter to keep up with changes.

John has done and does sterling work, Bookmooch functions is free and I have sent and gotten many great things out of it. I just want to see it expand the services offered without having to pay for them. I do look at comparable sites like BookCrossing, Goodreads and LibraryThing and wonder about how they are successful and if we could do more partnerships or advertising by book companies like Abebooks, local book shops and local libraries for example - that must have marketing budgets and a desire to connect with the reading public like us!