Recently one of my Facebook friends posted a comment on her page asking if any of her friends wanted to participate in a book exchange. The message said:

I'm looking for people to participate in a huge book exchange. You can be anywhere in the world. All you have to do is buy your favorite book (just one) and send it to a stranger (I'll send you their details in a private message). You'll receive roughly 36 books back, to keep. They'll be books from strangers around the world. Inbox me and I'll send you the details.

Needless to say, I was intrigued. I absolutely love to read and lately I have been struggling to find new things to read. This is exactly what I was looking for. But it sounds like a catch right? How can you get so many books in return after only having to purchase one?

It's all about promotion via social media.

When you copy and paste the status above on your social media pages, hopefully your friends will comment that they want to participate. Designate one friend to be the friend who "starts" the book exchange. Your other friends who wish to participate will then send a book of their choice to this "starter" friend. These friends will also need to post on their social media pages so that their friends will send books to you! So the more of your friends participate, the more books you will ultimately receive!

Since people have friends on Facebook and Instagram from many different places, you could potentially be getting books from all over the world, thereby allowing you to read a wide range of books you may never have been exposed to otherwise! You'll be receiving your friend's friends' books so they will likely not be things your friends have already recommended to you.

If you use the website called book depository they ship for free worldwide so this shouldn't even be a high cost to you for the one book you have to purchase to begin the exchange.

This is the message that you can send to your friends who wish to participate:

Here's all the details for the exchange if you want to do it!
#1. copy & paste my status about the project on your timeline, Instagram status or any other social media site (this is how we'll find the next participants).
#2. You only need to send ONE book you love to the person below:
(address of the person YOU got the book exchange notice from) ((**or if you started the exchange, the address of the friend you designated to "start" the exchange))
3. Finally, send this message to the people who commented on YOUR status, and give them MY address: (which will replace name and address in step #2)
(your address should go here)
4. Then those who comment on your friend's status will send you books too, and that's how it all works.

I'm so excited both to get packages from all over the country and world and get to read some new books!