Kool Thing 1: I've read it...now I'm swapping it!!! www.readitswapit.com

I have always loved books.

I remember once when I was about 8 years old, I found my first all-out detective novel. Reading it was like watching a high powered action movie. I read all night and was discovered by my Dad at 5.00am awake and engrossed in the book.

To say that day I had a heavy sleep hangover is an understatement. Plus I earned the nickname "Professor" which I lost somewhere down the line. Still it was interesting to hear a long unseen uncle call me by the nickname when I met him in London a couple of weeks.

As I have grown older, I've seen my love for books translate into a love for buying books. It's my one major vice now and I cringe at entering a book shop or seeing a bookstand. Somehow, I always leave with something.

I remember as AI Director in 2004, waiting to attend a meeting with HSBC in South Africa, stumbling across a book stand and leaving with 8 books. I felt the added wait when I had to lug my back pack on my way to the airport no doubt.

I had illusions sometime ago of having the largest private library starting one book at a time. I am still some ways there but I have no fear I might reach that goal one day. Who knows???

Anyways, with the cost of living in London not being exactly low and with a job being a amirage as yet, I discovered adding to my library of now more than 70 books in London alone is now kinda a daunting task. That's when information expanded my book assessibility horizon viw the internet.

No, not e-books. I find reading books from a screen tedious and one of the most effective sleep inducers ever (throw out the valiums; e-bookium is here).

What I found is a website where you can exchange already read books with a community of other members at no cost save that of posting the book. Excellent idea that has over the last 2 months seen me swap 28 books for such excellent titles as "The Mind Gym", "Life of Pi", "The Restaurant At The End Of The Universe", "London Fields", "Once More, With Feeling: How We Tried To Make The Greatest Porn Film Ever", "The Multi-orgasmic Man: All The Sexual Secrets That Every Man Should Know" amongst others.

The website is called Read it, Swap it!!! and they recently had the 99,000th book swapped on the site. I have had all positive experiences on the site and highly recommend it to anyone in the UK. Joining is completely free.

The website also has a community or members to discuss and request specific titles from others. They also recently added a shopping section for books linked to Amazon.

There are still a number of books I am looking for so join up as you most probably have it…