Have any of you done something like this before, and would you be interested in doing so in the future?

A group of folks (say, 6 people) agree on (say) 6 hardcover books to buy, and share the cost. Each person gets one, reads it, and passes it to the next person in rotation. Once everybody has read each book, they are auctioned among the people or donated to a library; maybe have a minimum bid of 25% of the original purchase price, and if nobody really wants to keep it, give it to the library. Proceeds of the auction can be divided among the other group members, or donated to a charity.

I think a book every 6 weeks to 2 months would work well for this; faster readers can interleave other books on their own, of course. The rotation doesn't have to be "synchronous": each person can hand off books when they're done, tracking them online so that nobody ever has more than 2 books in hand at a time.

From: [identity profile] peristaltor.livejournal.com


I have thought about this, only not with books but with DVDs. Books are expensive to ship, sadly.

From: [identity profile] ironphoenix.livejournal.com


Excellent... a couple more, and we can start nominating books and setting up logistics details.

From: [identity profile] bastetschylde.livejournal.com


Be sure to include someone who has an iRewards card to get discounts on all the books, :P.

Not able to participate in this now but when things are settled, I think I would like to.

From: [identity profile] ironphoenix.livejournal.com


I have iRewards... it's kind of essential!

This will take a while to put together... how about you run with it on the assumption that by the time we're actually buying books, things will be more stable?

From: [identity profile] con-girl.livejournal.com


I'd be willing to consider it but I suffer from an intense need to keep books neat so I don't know that I could handle a system where we didn't get rid of them in the end. However, I also think paperbacks could be included and/or price sharing (adding the costs and spitting it because not all books cost the same.

From: [identity profile] ironphoenix.livejournal.com


The default is to get rid of the books at the end; people only keep them if they bid in the final auction.

My thought with hardcovers is that they stand up better to repeated reading, are pleasant to read, and are much-loved by the libraries that get them at the end.

Cost-equalizing is assumed!
Edited Date: 2010-04-16 03:43 pm (UTC)

From: [identity profile] black-cat11.livejournal.com


If I ever move back to Ottawa I'd be interested in joining in! (Doing this trans-atlantically would probably defeat the purpose, though, since shipping would be quite expensive)

From: [identity profile] black-cat11.livejournal.com


Not for a few years at least... :( Have to finish university first, and then it depends what happens afterwards.
.

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