Note: I’ve made some changes because the editor of the post seemed to have misunderstood my meant-to-be-sarcastic tone in the opening and it seemed necessary to rephrase my statements as they were in the original text.

I love to read and it has been an expensive hobby of mine because for a while I, like many New Yorkers, believed the stigma that NYC libraries are dirty, only have old books and no one goes to them anymore. Although some books do have eyebrow-raising stains on the pages and smaller libraries don’t have a wide selection on site, most new books are clean, you can request books to be transferred to your local branch and they have been full of people since the frugal movement kicked in. I went with the system for a while but I encountered a small problem – three weeks is too short to read most books. Plus, I couldn’t renew most books because they were on waiting lists for other people.  Thus, every three weeks I’d have to return the book, add myself back on the waiting list and hope that my turn will come around again so I could pick up from page 87.

That’s when I discovered a review of Swaptree.com on The Greenest Dollar a few months ago. It’s a site that allows you to “swap” your books (cds, dvds and video games too!) with other users. You make a list of books you have and a list of books you want (you can import your amazon.com wishlist, which is convenient), then the site will find a user to make a trade with based on your list and theirs. If both parties agree, you ship your items and viola!

It may not be free like the library, since you pay for shipping (about $1.50~$2.50), it’s a pretty good deal for a book and you don’t have to worry about due dates. And, if you’re like me, and you prefer to own your books rather than borrow them, you can keep the good books you love and continuously trade out the bad apples. Naturally, there are some drawbacks since you can’t really decide which book you get next and, if your “have it” list is made up of books that will never end up on someone’s “want it” list, you’re a little bit out of luck. Also, if you’re the type that wants to read new books that came out within the last week, it’s probably not a fit for you. But, I’ve traded 4 books and 2 cds for 6 new books in the last 2 months so I’m pretty happy.

There are similar services out there but many use point systems that gets a little complicated. Swaptree allows users to be passive with the system and that works for me. I’m hoping they become popular so more books are available for circulation. If you’re a frugal reader, try them out! Happy reading!