About Bookswap A note from a bookworm

I’ve been a bookworm for as long as I can remember. Torch under the duvet, “just one more chapter” at 2am, a book in the glovebox in case of a long red light. Reading has taken me everywhere: to boarding schools and dragon caves, across oceans and into other people’s heads. It’s still my favourite way to spend an afternoon.

Then I had two girls, and they caught the bug too. Our house slowly filled with books. They’re on the shelves, under the beds, stacked beside the couch, and somehow there’s always one in the bathroom. My daughters tear through stories faster than any bookshop budget can keep up with, and every few months we look at the piles and ask the same question: what do we do with all the ones we’ve loved and finished?

It felt wrong to bin them. It felt wrong to let them gather dust.

Why we built Bookswap

So the three of us had an idea around the kitchen table. What if every finished book in New Zealand could find its next reader?

Bookswap is a simple place to do that. List the books you’ve finished. Swap them for something new to you, or simply give them away to someone who’ll treasure them. There are no due dates and no late fees. Unlike a library, the book stays with its new reader until they’re ready to pass it on again.

We made it for:

• Kids and teens, with parent-managed accounts, so young readers can swap safely.
• Parents, who know just how fast children outgrow a bookshelf.
• Grown-up bookworms, with a spare room full of paperbacks and a long “to read” list.
• Anyone who believes stories are better shared.

What we hope for

We hope a well-loved copy of Matilda goes from our house to a girl in Dunedin. We hope a crime novel travels from Whangārei to Invercargill and back again. We hope fewer books end up in landfill and more end up in hands. Most of all, we hope Bookswap helps someone discover the story that turns them into a reader for life, the way books did for me and my girls.