I have lots of damaged books; books that are still fine to read, but can't be posted here. I was wondering if anyone would be interested in us keeping a running thread as a place to share our damaged books. We could make these books freebies, but have a "take one out, put one back in" rule. So, if you want someone's damaged book, you have to add a damaged book of your own to the list for someone else to claim. Or, maybe there is a better idea...

Is anyone interested in sharing like this? Do you even have piles of unpostables sitting around like I do? Would you rather be able to offer it as a freebie or have the right to ask for a credit or ask for a request from your shelf in order to get the freebie? I'd be cool with those ideas, but I think it would work better as just a "freebie, but add a book to the list" kind of thread.

Thoughts? Opinions?

I think it's a good idea and worth kicking around. I have a HB that came with the jacket lose from the book and got a minor credit from the bookseller, but it's certainly not one I could pass along via swap.

I think this is a great idea. I also have some ARCs and Complimentary copies I'd like to be able to add. 

Sounds like a great idea for those of you who have piles of unpostables lying about. Alas, some of us don't -- but I could always start reading my books while taking a bath or eating Cheetohs....

I saw the title of this thread (and the author) and thought, uh-oh.

But this is a good idea. Really!

Good idea!

And now I'm hungry for Cheetos!!

Oh, I love this idea as well.  Some of the paperbacks (over 500 pages) don't hold up as well with repeated readings as the smaller ones and these big boys are sometimes the best reads.  They are often times very readable just not up to PBS guidelines of postable.

Well, great! I think this is a great way to share those books that are too good to trash, but unpostable here.

Now, the next question is...Does anyone see a reason why starting this thread would get us in trouble? Should I ask permission? Is offering our own books as freebies something that would even require permission?

Maybe we should ditch the idea of requiring a book being placed back in the thread when you request one so there is no similarity between our thread and a game.... I looked in the games forum this morning and saw  that our thread sounds a lot like something they do in there called a "Virtual Box".

Instead of requiring a book to be added when one is requested, maybe we should just ask that requestors post in the thread when they request a book. This group would share their books anyway, required or not, that's just how we roll! :-D

Valli, haven't we always been able to offer unpostables as freebies?  I think it was only recently that it was okay to ask for a credit for an unpostable...I don't see why it should be a problem.

This would be similar to an unmoderated virtual box.  The difference being that in a virtual box on Games Forum, you sign up for each "round" and then players take out and put in to the box in order. In our case, it sounds more like you are wanting to create a "box" for unpostables and anybody can go in any time and ask for one.  Depending on how people want to do it, you might end up with 3 "boxes"....

Box 1: The owner is willing to mail it by itself...no credits involved

Box 2: The owner is willing to mail it as a freebie with an order off their shelf.

Box 3: The book is WL'ed and the owner would like a credit for it.

I believe that all three of those options are allowed in the genre forums without any special approvals. Maybe people could post in the thread when they have a book to offer and when they take one, and the OP on the thread could keep the "boxes" current in the first or second post. So you could come at a glance in the first post what is available without scrolling through all the posts.

I think it would be best if this thread wasn't much different than the "available books" thread we have now. You offer a book and if someone wants it, they ask for it.

I'll start it up and we'll see how it goes.