I'm in love.

Yes, folks you heard it right.  I am in love.  And I am not talking about Kirby (though I do) or my children (though I do) I am talking about my favorite website of all time (and, no, I am not talking about Facebook). 

For those of you that love to read I highly encourage you to check this out.  Truly, it is amazing. 

I LOVE to read.  I love getting lost in a book and forgetting my world for a while.  And though many have encouraged me to get the Kindle or the like, I love to HOLD a book.  I love the way it smells and feels...I love to turn the pages and use a bookmark.  That is one piece of technology I have no desire in owning. 

Every week I hop online, go to my Swap.com page and update my list.  I have one list of books that I want and one list of books that I am willing to part with (I often save books to reread so not all of my books are listed).  Then I initiate some trades. 

Most recently I received The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.   I am not one of those people that reads things just because everyone else is reading them (it took me almost a year to pick up The Twilight Saga - not that I regret a minute of taking the time to read that..).  But this book intrigued me.  I wasn't sure why but the moment I saw it I wanted to read it.  So, I put it on my want list and traded it for Ecology of a Cracker Childhood (honestly, I hadn't read it, it didn't grab me).  Within a few days I received my "new" book and I was off and running.

It was a tough start and I was thinking I shouldn't have traded for it but about 100 pages in I was hooked.  The female lead is the girl I want to be (for those of you that have read it, please don't think ill of me...).  I loved it and have gone on to read the rest of the series (well, I am halfway through the 3rd book The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest). 

Honestly, swap.com is not the only place I get books.  Sometimes I just can't wait for a trade of exactly what I am looking for (like the last two books in the series previously mentioned).  I still shop at the local bookstore (partly because I want them to stay in business) but for the books that I want to read and I can wait a bit for, I head over to swap.com.  And it is certainly a whole lot greener than buying new books (and I usually reuse the shipping packaging that the book I receive was sent in and use it for the next book I ship out.). 

According to my stats I have saved $235 (I don't know if this takes shipping expenses into account but I media ship everything and it costs less than $3 for each book) and decreased my carbon footprint by 339 pounds for only 40 trades.  It's amazing.     

 

So, if you love to read, want to be a little greener (and save yourself a boatload of money) check it out. 

 

 And that's the end of this advertisement.  Please move on to your regularly scheduled programming...