Reading in Reykjavík

At the beginning of the year I changed my status on BookMooch from “ask me first” to “worldwide”. For the uninitiated this means that a step was eliminated from the process of mooching a book from me. Before, the person interested in the book would have to e-mail me and ask if I was willing to send the book to their country, and only after I had said “yes” could they mooch it. I did this because I was offering some books that were so heavy that even for 3 mooch points they were still not cost effective to send outside Europe. I always got a few mooches every month, but I also got a number of “will you send to my country” requests that came to nothing but took the book off the inventory list for a week, because if done right, asking automatically reserves the book for the asker. I think the number of “can I mooch” e-mails that never resulted in mooches was so high because many people don’t realise that the book is reserved for them when they use the “ask me” button. Once a book has been...

This time it's 10 mysteries, some of which I have reviewed here, and 1 Regency romance: Carol Higgins Clark: Snagged (a Regan Reilly mystery) Charles Cohen: Silver Linings Emily Hendrickson: The Wicked Proposal Timothy Holme: The Devil And The Dolce Vita (an Achille Peroni mystery) Cecile Lamalle: Prepared For Murder (a Charly Poisson mystery) Charlotte MacLeod: The Palace Guard ; The Convivial Codfish ; The Withdrawing Room ; The Plain Old Man (Sarah Kelling and Max Bittersohn mysteries) Charlotte Macleod: Wrack and Rune (a Peter Shandy mystery) Qiu Xiaolong: A Loyal Character Dancer (a Chen Cao mystery)

This time it‘s a mixed bag of humour, action, romance, science fiction and picaresque. Kingsley Amis: Lucky Jim Alan Dean Foster: Jed the Dead Carl Hiaasen: Double Whammy Valerie King: A Christmas Masquerade Stephanie Laurens: A Comfortable Wife Alan Parker: The Sucker's kiss Nina Porter: A Matchmaker's Match

This time it's a stack of Regency romances someone gave me just as I was losing interest in the genre. Some of them appear to have never been read. Titles: Claire Darcy: Elyza Barbara Hazard: The Calico Countess Sandra Heath: A Matter Of Duty Elizabeth Hewitt: Marriage By Consent Judith A. Landsdowne: Lord Nightingale's Triumph Dorothy Mack: The Steadfast Heart Anita Mills: Scandal Bound Patricia Oliver: Lord Gresham's Lady Mary Evans Porter: Toast Of The Town Margaret Summerville: Fortune's Folly Sheila Walsh: The Rose Domino Joan Wolf: A Double Deception

Diane Mott Davidson: The Last Suppers Diane Mott Davidson: Prime Cut Diane Mott Davidson: Tough Cookie Alex Duncan: The Diary of a Country Doctor Susan Dunlap: Diamond in the Buff Ann Granger: A Season for Murder James Hogg: The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner J.J. Marric: Gideon's Week Anne Perry: Bluegate Fields Anne Perry: Seven Dials Anne Perry: Southampton Row Arthur W. Upfield: Boney and the Mouse Arthur W. Upfield: Murder Must Wait

I've been having a major cull of my library and have added some 17 books to my BookMooch inventory, and will be adding more soon. The rest of the culls (mostly heavy books that cost to much to mail abroad) I will be donating to a library. The books are: Margery Allingham: Death of a Ghost Mary Balogh: Slightly Wicked Agatha Christie: A Pocket Full Of Rye Stuart Kaminsky: Murder on the Yellow Brick Road Karen Kijewski: Alley Kat Blues Pamela Labud: Spirited Away Donna Leon: Through a Glass Darkly Charlotte MacLeod: The Luck Runs Out Anne Perry: Rutland Place Ellery Queen: The Siamese Twin Mystery Nora Roberts: Chesapeake Blue Nora Roberts: Inner Harbor Nora Roberts: Rising Tides Nora Roberts: Sea Swept Dorothy L. Sayers: Lord Peter Views The Body Arthur W. Upfield: The Battling Prophet Valerie Wolzien: We Wish You A Merry Murder I have another 70 books in my inventory, mostly mysteries and romances with a few non-fiction books thrown in. Click on the title of this entry to see my Bo...

I have been doing a bit of pruning in my TBR shelves and am putting the 'cuttings' on my BookMooch trade list. When I got them, some of the books were being given away for free and looked interesting at the time, although I now can no longer remember why they looked interesting, while with others I know I can easily get them from the library and also that I will have no desire to own then after I read them. And then there are the books I do no remember being given, buying or taking from the 'free books' table. How they got into my book collection is a mystery. If anyone can give me reason why I should keep and read any of these books, please drop me a comment. Iain Banks: The Wasp Factory - I am only mildly interested in it and if someone mooching it suddenly makes me want to read it, I can easily read it in 2 hours before sending it off. John Bunyan: The Pilgrim's Progress . Not only can I get it from the library – it is also available on the net. I have mostly be...

One of the ways I aquire books is by trading them for other books, but many trading websites either cost money to use (meaning I could just as well go and buy the books) or are restricted to one country or continent. The one I have been using, TitleTrader, is international, well designed and easy to use, but there are not many traders there who trade to Europe. Most of the users are Americans who only trade within the USA, and if they trade abroad, it is usually only to Canada. The result is that it can take months before I find a book I want. Now I have discovered BookMooch . Not only does it have loads of European traders, but it has a system that is designed to encourage traders to trade outside their country and continent: you get 3 trading points for sending to another country (only 1 if you trade within your own country), but you only have to pay 2 trading points to request (or mooch) a book from abroad (1 point for local books), meaning that a free trading point is generated eve...