Kell
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Posts posted by Kell
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You register (for free) then you uplaod however much you want to into your Green Met account from your bank account (you can transfer it back to your bank account whenever you want to). The transactions on Green Met all happen via your Green Met account, so the seller never has access to your bank account details and you don't need to use anything like Paypal or send cheques (they don't even know your real name unless you use it for your user name).
Everyone who sells books on Green Met gets rated by the buyer. All buyers can see this rating before they decide to buy from that person. The ratings is a recent development - everyone was automatically put to being 4 stars. If anyone has a 5-star rating it's because they've had a lot of successful sales since it was brought in and have a lot of very happy customers.Most people are still at the 4-star stage unless they've been particularly bad sellers, in which case their rating will have dropped significantly.
You can also contact sellers for more information on the book they're selling to ask things like which edition (if you're a first edition collector) or whatever else you want to know. Again, it's all done through Green Met, so your email address isn't given to the seller. Your identity is protected at each step.
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People have just really been setting their own personal challenges and joining in ones that appeal to them.
For example, last year I set myself several challegnes including Classics, Modern Classics and Chunky Reads, with a plan to read at least one of each every month.
I have two ongoing long-term challenges that I'm continuing with - the Olympic Challenge (reading books by authors from every country that takes part in the summer olympics) and the 1001 Challenge (reading all the books listed in the book 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die by Peter Boxall).
Some people like to challegne themselves to read books by a speicif author or from a certain genre that they don't usually read, just to try something a bit different.
The possibilities are endless - go wild and enjoy yourself!
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The person at the other end does not have access to any of your details - all sales go directly through the site.
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I almost went on a book-binding course once, but it got cancelled (shame!). That might have been very interesting...
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I think that the UK law is something like anything over 50 years old is out of copyright and therefore OK to download. I'm not 100% sure on that, but I'm sure if you google it you can find the info.
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I'd forgotten about them, Beef! Nice timely reminder. You get hundreds of free classics to download and read at your leisure (must get back onto them...).
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It's always nice to know folks see the links on profiles elsewhere, and equally nice to see another "face" from Aberdeen (I swear, we're taking over the forum - LOL!). Good to see you here, Tambo.
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Yes, you could use those three points to mooch 3 x 1-point books from your own country. It's up to the individual to weigh up the pros and cons of the cost of postage abroad versus how many books thay can then mooch with the points they gain.
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Did anyone else's heart skip a beat when they saw the word 'Bookless'?
Yes, mine did!
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Seeing as how I'm taking part in the "Read 3, Buy 1" thread, my book buying has come crashing almost to a standstill. Not so long ago, I would think nothing of coming home with half a dozen books every couple of weeks and ordering a few online in between time, but I'm trying to be very good at the moment and bring down the size of Mount TBR!
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It depends on the size and weight of the book, really. You can set your profile to say you'l; only send to people in your own country (which reduces expenses - lots of people do that - myself included).
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I'd love to own a book shop, but I'm afraid that as a shop owner, I'd be a bit like Aziraphale in Good Omens, complete with eratic opening hours and a reluctance to actually sel any of my books unless the buyers could prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the books would be well cared for!
Like many others, I harbour a secret (or not so secret, actually) desire to be an author. One of these days I'll actually get a full-length novel out onto paper...
I also would LOVE to make a living from reviewing books - perhaps for a magazine or something. That would be pretty cool.
I don't think I could stand working in a library though - all those books coming back lookig worn and tired with page corners turned etc. It would make me fel quite sick to see it no a daily basis!
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The points system works along these lines:
- For each book you list for swapping from your own collection you get a partial point (I think it's 1/10th of a point per book listed).
- Each book you request costs a certain amount of points dependent on whether it's located in your own country or is coming from abroad (between 1 and 3 points per book). You "spend" these points when your request is accepted and the person posts it to you (they pay the postage - you get the book for free).
- When someone "mooches" a book from you, you get points based on whether you are based in the same country or elsewhere in the world (1 to 3 points per book). These points are then yours to "spend" in the future. you pay the postage on the book you send out.
- When you receive a book you have requested, you leave a comment to let the person know the book arrived safely and whether or not the service was good. You get partial points for doing this (I think it's 1/10th point per book) which get added to your points total.
- If you remove books from your own list (because you've decided not to part with them after all), you get the partial point for that book removed from your total (the same amount as you received for listing it in the first place).
It's a nice, simple system that means you are not obligated to do a straight book-for-book swap (like on Read it Swap it) and so you don't have to choose a book from the requester's list of books that you may not be so interested in reading. You can save up your points and spend them as you please or donate them to the varfious charitable groups that are listed on Book Mooch (which is also very nice).
i hope that's of some help to you. If you have any other questions, give me a shout - I've been on Book Mooch for a little while now and it's great fun.
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Well, from the ones you haven't yet read, I'd go with either The Remains of the Day, Kazuo Ishiguro or Moby-Dick, Melville.
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Ouch! Painful situation there, Blossom! I always have quite a large TBR pile (hence Mount TBR!) - it's currrently sitting at around 60 books.
Have you thought of joining a swap site like Book Mooch? you only pay postage on the books you send out and the books you get from Mooching are absolutely free - a nice way to top up your supplies of unread books while making space for them by getting shot of the old books you won't read again.
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I watched a documentary about Trek fans last night, called Trekkies.
It's a light-hearted look at the convention-going fans of one of the most influential sci-fi franchises in TV histoory. To be honest, I found some of the fans a little scary in their intensity, and there are tales of fans who really can't quite separate fiction from reality, but most of them come across as regular Joes who are just a little eccentric. The makers don't poke fun at the fans (mostly the fans do that themselves - LOL!) and it's entertaining enough for anyone who's ever had even the slightest interest in any of the Star Trek canon.
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I'm about 50/50 with buying new and buying/swapping 2nd hand.
There are certain series by aithors that I collect and keep, therefore I buy (or get them given to me as gifts) new, preferably in hardback. I often get book vouchers, so I spend those in places like Waterstones or on Amazon. I also buy cheao new books from discount stores like The Works, especially for classics.
For buying on a budget, I tend to go for Green Metropolis - if I'm getting hold of a book for a reading circle and it's an untried (for me) author, I'd rather pay a cheaper price and 2nd hand is fine (although I still try to get them as new-looking as possible - LOL!). I also swap some books through Book Mooch. I used to use Read it, Swap it, but I got sick of having to choose books from lists where nothing really grabbed me as unmissable when someone wanted a book from my list - the points system of Book Mooch appealed to me more.
I have been known to use the library too, but a it entails a trip into town if I want a decent choice (the smaller branches usually have pretty much nothing that grabs my attention) and another trip back into town to return them (usually on horribly busy Saturdays), I only really go when I'm after a specific book on a temporary basis and I think they'll have it.
I used to use the library a lot more when I lived literally around the corner from a very decent branch library a few years back. I went in roughly every other day and the assistants knew my tastes so well that they would keep books back for me that they thought would interest me, as they knew I'd be in within another day!
I also donate books to charity on occasion...
The thought of ever just throwing a book out in the trash makes me feel physically sick!
I used to keep ALL my books, but I ended up with hundreds and hundreds of books in storage, never being read again, whereas some got read in rotation time and time again. I decided I needed more room for books I hadn't read and for new books I wanted to read, and that keeping hold of old books I knew I'd never read again, I had to find new and loving homes for them all! That was when I started selling and swapping them. I've sold nearly 100 books on Green Metropolis (and others via other means), swapped about the same amount and donated piles of them to charity shops, just to clear some space.
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This sounds rather interesting. I don't tend to read much non-fiction, but I may well be tempted on this occasion as I'm a bit intrigued here!
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Yup, you can find the discussion HERE.
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Some of the books we've read at Posh Club are:
Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
My Sister
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You could always specify that each month has a theme, that way you ensure that you get something different each time and don't get stuck in a single genre...
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I'm almost completely up to date on this series - I have the 8th (and most recent) one waiting to be read. I've loved them all so far!
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I'm proud to say I've managed to whittle my pile down to just 62 (from around 150 not so long ago!).
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Good advice there - libraries are always a good place to start.
You might also like to think about a few things before you advertise though:
1. What kind of books will the group be reading? Will it be a specific genre or author? Or will it be something different each time?
2. How often will the group meet? Will it be weeky, fortnightly, monthly or other?
3. Where will the group meet? Will it be at someone's home? At the library? Elsewhere? Will the location be fixed or will it change from meeting to meeting?
You might also like to think about how many people would be ideal, for example, if you'll be meeting in each others' homes, a smaller number would most likely be better. Also, a few ground rules might be a good idea - have a few in mind for the first meeting and then ask other members for input too (things like who chooses the books? Do you take turns? Or do you nominate several and take a vote? Do you take turns providing refreshments or does everyone bring/buy their own?). Also, once book groups get past a certain number of members, it can get TOO big. Having 30 people all trying to talk at once about the same book can mean that not everyone hears all the discussion or that several smaller discussions are all going on at once and some of the shyer members can become intiidated.
Just a few things to consider there. Best of luck getting your book group off the ground!
ETA: You might also find THIS helpful.
Question about Green metropolis
in Book Buying
Posted
If anyone has any more questions about Green Met, I'd like to direct them straight to the official FAQ section of their site HERE.
Don't forget, you can also contact them directly with any questions not answered there (they're very nice people, I promse!
).