{"id":5263,"date":"2018-06-27T20:48:52","date_gmt":"2018-06-27T18:48:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/?p=5263"},"modified":"2020-05-30T20:00:19","modified_gmt":"2020-05-30T18:00:19","slug":"unser-buechertauschschrank-ein-jahr-spaeter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/2018\/06\/our-book-exchange-cabinet-one-year-later\/","title":{"rendered":"Our Book Exchange Cabinet: One Year Later"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

More than a year ago, we set up a little book exchange cabinet right in front of our house. Back then, I already wrote about it here<\/a>, and now I don\u2019t want to miss the chance to write about it again \u2014 how things have gone with our little cabinet over time, what condition it\u2019s in now, and how we\u2019ve just given it a fresh makeover.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

When we first set up the cabinet, we weren\u2019t sure how well it would be received or whether anyone would actually use it. Now, after more than a year, it\u2019s clear that a book exchange cabinet is something people truly love and use frequently. It gets visited several times a day, and a surprising number of books are exchanged through it. Especially during the holiday season, things really pick up. At times, the cabinet has reached its full capacity, and I\u2019ve had to clear it out now and then. Some people even pull up in their cars, hop out, take a quick look inside, and drive off again. That really surprised me \u2014 I would have thought it\u2019s more of a thing you check out while walking by. Especially in summer and during vacation time, there\u2019s been quite a rush. In winter, things are much quieter at the cabinet.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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The quality of the books is quite mixed. There are often some really nice ones, sometimes even fairly new releases, but also many old and well-worn books. You\u2019ll occasionally find vintage editions from the 1960s, very old classics, or tattered paperbacks. After they\u2019ve been sitting in the cabinet for a while without anyone taking them, I bring them to our local recycling center, which also has a large swap shelf for old books\u2014though the quality there tends to be quite poor. Still, I\u2019m often pleasantly surprised to see how many decent books are exchanged here. The range of topics covers just about everything. There\u2019s an above-average number of romances, and fantasy, children\u2019s books, thrillers, and advice books also appear regularly. Classics are usually older editions\u2014so yellowed or grimy that I leave them behind. Sometimes I just have to shake my head at what people read. But then again, there\u2019s a market for everything.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Personally, I haven\u2019t found that many books for myself in the cabinet\u2014which isn\u2019t too surprising. I value nice editions and don\u2019t usually read mainstream titles. But we have found a few children\u2019s books, read them once, and returned them afterward. That\u2019s quite convenient. I\u2019ve also passed along several of my own books, especially those that wouldn\u2019t fetch much online and aren\u2019t worth selling. The books I\u2019ve placed in the cabinet usually disappear within a day.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

So far, I haven\u2019t noticed any kind of misuse. There are often books inside that still have value, but no one has ever looted the cabinet. There\u2019s also been no vandalism or anyone dumping trash inside. You sometimes hear such stories from other places, but we don\u2019t live in a big city, and our neighborhood isn\u2019t an apartment complex. Still, I think it would work fine even in more densely populated areas. Overall, it\u2019s just too uninteresting to steal from, and books simply have too little monetary value. Only once was the string of lights we\u2019d used to decorate the cabinet stolen. But doing something like that is so bad for one\u2019s karma that you can only feel pity for whoever did it.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

After a year and one winter, though, our little house started to show signs of wear. Moisture had seeped into the baseboard from below, so we had to raise it on wooden planks. During storms, the locking mechanism wasn\u2019t sturdy enough, and the doors sometimes blew open. Moisture also got in through the gap between the doors. When we checked it a few days ago, the handle had broken off, there was an ant nest underneath, and condensation had collected on the glass, causing the wood to rot.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

So, there were a few weak spots that needed fixing. Fortunately, my wife had found some high-quality Makita tools under the Christmas tree last year, so she got to work again. We installed new, sturdier hinges, built two new doors from a board and painted them with weatherproof paint, added new handles, and mounted lacquered wooden feet under the cabinet. We also reinforced the back panel and, of course, completely removed the ant nest. We decided to do without glass panes this time \u2014 it\u2019s more durable that way, and by now, most people already know what to expect inside our little cabinet.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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You can admire the result in the photos in this post. Now the cabinet is back in top shape and ready for its second year. I also sorted through the books again, so there\u2019s plenty of space for new ones. Everything\u2019s ready to go, and considering how well the cabinet has been received, all the effort is definitely worth it. I think these book exchange cabinets are a wonderful idea. Even though I\u2019m not necessarily the big winner in this, I love sharing the joy of books and promoting reading in this way.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

When we first set up the cabinet and I wanted to share it online, I noticed that there weren\u2019t many directories for such places. That\u2019s how I came up with the idea for the Book Cabinet Finder App<\/a>. An app for Android and iOS that guides you to the nearest book exchange cabinet. So, if you\u2019d like to exchange books, I can highly recommend the app. And if you regularly have books to give away or enjoy discovering free reads, I can only recommend setting up your own little cabinet. Our experience has been thoroughly positive.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

What about you? Do you also use book exchange cabinets? Do you have one yourself? What\u2019s your experience with them?<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

More than a year ago, we set up a little book exchange cabinet right in front of our house. Back then, I already wrote about it here, and now I don\u2019t want to miss the chance to write about it again \u2014 how things have gone with our little cabinet over time, what condition it\u2019s … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Our Book Exchange Cabinet: One Year Later”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7584,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"slim_seo":{"title":"Unser B\u00fcchertauschschrank: Ein Jahr sp\u00e4ter - lesestunden","description":"Vor \u00fcber einem Jahr haben wir direkt vor unserem Haus einen B\u00fcchertauschschrank aufgestellt. Ich habe damals bereits hier dar\u00fcber geschrieben und nun will ich e"},"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"_slim_seo_primary_term_category":0,"_slim_seo_primary_term_post_tag":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[243],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-book-exchange-cabinet"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/buecherschrank_beitrag_2.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5263"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5263\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}