Christmas Gift Idea – Host a Book Exchange

Committing to reading a book a week this year has been awesome.  Really, I have benefited from it in so many ways–it’s forced me to sit down and relax, it’s offered me new perspectives, and it’s given me a brief escape from my own, mostly mundane problems.  While I have picked up quite a few of my books from the library {I heart the library, and I don’t mind admitting it}, and a some from that awesome book exchange mail box I passed while on a walk a while back, I’ve also purchased a few.  Some, I totally want to reread–the gardening ones mostly, but others, I am ready to pass on.

It occurred to me that instead of a cookie exchange with my friends this year, maybe I should host a book exchange?  I could provide finger foods, and we could all exchange books for the new year.  Instead of reading reviews online, I can totally get an instant review of the books straight from my friend’s mouth.  No money spent {except on the finger foods, which is a small price to pay for an afternoon spent with my peeps}, and we all get something we can use.

If you want to host a holiday book exchange {you could totally adapt this for a classroom party  or work party too}, here’s some guidelines:

Send out invitations {evites work too} that detail the rules.  If you are going to have a certain number of books peeps should bring {I say leave it open, if they go back home with some, that’s cool too–the more books, the more options people have}.  Let peeps know, each book will be a one for one swap.

To potluck or not to potluck?  Decide whether you will be providing the food/drinks, or whether you want to go potluck.  The beauty of potluck is that you can have people make something relevant to one of the books they are bringing.

There’s a couple of ways you can organize the whole affair.  You can provide guests some sort of ticket for each book they bring–each ticket is good for another book.  Set out all of the books and let people browse, flee market style.  You could also make it a little more interesting and interactive by creating a gift exchange sort of vibe.  Sit in a circle, the first person picks out a book {you can allow “steals” or not}, and you continue to go around the circle.

On Reader’s Lane, they suggested providing post-it notes where the people who brought the book can write a little summary and why they would {or would not} recommend the book.  You could even have them give it stars, Amazon-style.  I kind of loved the idea, because it makes it so much more personal.

At the end of the night, provide a donation box where people can leave their extras books that didn’t get picked up in the exchange {if they want to, of course}.  As the host/hostess, you can swing the box by to your local charity or library later in the week.  That way, you can all go home with new reads and a warm and fuzzy feeling.

What do you think, will  you be swapping a cookie exchange for a book exchange this year?  It will be way less calories ;).

~Mavis