If you liked Swopex, listen up. ReadItSwapIt is a UK-based book exchange system. If you have books you want to give away, you list them on the site. Other users can browse your library and offer to make an exchange. If you want to make the trade, you agree, and all each of you pays is postage to send the book off to its new home. If you don't, you just decline - after all, it's your book.
If you click on a given title (such as the latest submission, Spies by Michael Frayn, the site tidily pulls up all instances of people offering to swap that title, listing description (plot info plugged in from Amazon), book condition, and whether there's any damage. You scroll down, find a particular copy you like, click 'swap', and there you go. [Via Treehugger, which nicely named this week's Carnival of the Green as a post of the week. Aw, shucks.]
But, if you just want to release your books and don't mind so much about getting anything in return, there's always BookCrossing. You write your ID in the book, leave it somewhere, and then wait to see if anyone finds it and registers it on the site. Some books travel farther than you do! If you want to go somewhere too, try the BookCrossing Meetup.
[GT]
