The "classical" bookswap is simple:
- We meet in a café and put the book(s) we brought down on the tables.
- We browse and discuss the books with one another while sipping coffee or hot chocolate, or eating cake.
- We write our names down on any books we’d like to take home (post-its and pens provided).
- At the end of the evening, negotiate any books that are contended and take a new-to-you book home!
Books/happiness shared are books/happiness multiplied! A Bookswap is 10 times better than a Book Club because you can talk about ALL the books instead of just one!
This is a great way to give your books a new home and make room for new books: that book you feel guilty for not having read even though it's been sitting on your bedside table for the last 5 years, the book you liked but didn't love, the book you loved so much you want everyone to read it, the book you somehow own three copies of, that book you absolutely hated even though everyone else loves it, and so on.
Moreover, you will meet fellow readers, get a new book or two, and several book recommendations. We’ve often had readers experience books they wouldn't normally buy and enjoy it.
GROUP EXPECTATIONS for PLEASANT SWAPPING
- Please bring a book! It's not that you bring one you take one, but do try your best to bring something.
- Books stay on the tables, open for sharing, until you are ready to leave so that everyone can have a look. We are notably not first come first serve. Please wait until you are leaving to bag the book.
- If two or more people want the only copy of a book, negotiate. Maybe one of you reads it first and then gives it to the others. Or perhaps they have found another book instead. Or leave it to fate and toss a coin. The best part: now you have found somebody whose taste you can really admire. In any case, please don't walk away with a book with several names on it without letting the others know.
These negotiations are fun and easy, so don't shy away from a book because there's already a name on it, and feel free to put your name on as many books as you find interesting. It's not that you bring one you take one; you may take as many as you can negotiate.
- Political discussions with consent: make sure the people you are talking to would like to have a political discussion with you.
- Please respect this space as first and foremost a community for connecting readers over their love of books and reading, stories, and narratives of all sorts. Please be respectful of tastes and opinions.
- If something is bothering you, please reach out to the organizers, and we'll do our best to resolve it.
- Lastly, don't expect your book back. It will find a new home. If you love it, let it go.
Major LANGUAGES (and genres) of this meetup: English, German, French, Spanish, Italian; Fiction, Non-Fiction, Serious Reading, Light Fun, “classics", Krimis, Booker winners, Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Self-Help and more. You never know who can read what languages, and there's no accounting for taste.
We are a delightful and international group of readers.
We look forward to swapping with you!
