Random Scenes From Swap.com
Every so often I take a random walk through the stuff swap.com says I can get for the books in our "read it, will never read it again, might as well try to get something useful out of it before we run it over to the library sale" pile. And by "pile", I mean "the overloaded bookshelf in one of our closets that's in danger of a jenga-like catastrophe because there are so damn many books on it." Swap.com has its virtues (the concept itself) and its flaws (the UI drives me to frothing fits of inchoate rage), but what it never lacks for is low comedy in the variety of possible trades it offers up for consumption. Among the latest are:
In exchange for Dan Brown's Angels and Demons (which, I must state for the record, actually came from my folks), I can get Peter Conti's sublime masterpiece How to Create Multiple Streams of Income Buying Homes In Nice Areas With Nothing Down . I understand that's the first book of a trilogy, which continues in the subtle character study The Economy Did What? Seriousl y? and concludes with the stunning How to Unload All Those Houses You Bought In Nice Areas For No Money Down Now That The Mortgages Are Below Water, The Areas Aren't So Nice And Large Men With Well-Worn Socket Wrenches Are Looking For You Or Members Of Your Immediate Family .
Getting a bit more science-fictiony, there's a copy of Charles Stross' Accelerando on our stack. While there are a couple of bits of skiffy that it could bring back, I'm more intrigued by the person who wants Stross at his Strossiest, and in exchange is offering up titles like Rekindled Hearts , possibly the first romance novel ever to hinge on the conjunction of a tornado, some construction projects, and what appears to be a tasteful red sweater.
Surprisingly, it's possible to trade Friday the Rabbi Slept Late for the autobiography of the esteemed thespian The Rock. I'm not quite sure why; surely something by Goldberg would be more appropriate.
Bruce Sterling's Islands in the Net offers up a few intriguing possibilities. The notion of trading a seminal work of cyberpunk for something in the Gossip Girl series is almost worth following through on for the sheer dada of it.
And to round this particular random walk out, there's Alfred Bester's The Demolished Man , which is one of Melinda's favorite books and a landmark in the annals of the genre. (We have multiple copies. Don't judge.) There are folks out there who want this book and have wonderful things to offer - Ian McDonald's Desolation Road , which is one of my favorite books. The World Treasury of Science Fiction . Stuff like that. And all four volumes in R. L. Stine's The Baby-Sitter series.
In exchange for Dan Brown's Angels and Demons (which, I must state for the record, actually came from my folks), I can get Peter Conti's sublime masterpiece How to Create Multiple Streams of Income Buying Homes In Nice Areas With Nothing Down . I understand that's the first book of a trilogy, which continues in the subtle character study The Economy Did What? Seriousl y? and concludes with the stunning How to Unload All Those Houses You Bought In Nice Areas For No Money Down Now That The Mortgages Are Below Water, The Areas Aren't So Nice And Large Men With Well-Worn Socket Wrenches Are Looking For You Or Members Of Your Immediate Family .
Getting a bit more science-fictiony, there's a copy of Charles Stross' Accelerando on our stack. While there are a couple of bits of skiffy that it could bring back, I'm more intrigued by the person who wants Stross at his Strossiest, and in exchange is offering up titles like Rekindled Hearts , possibly the first romance novel ever to hinge on the conjunction of a tornado, some construction projects, and what appears to be a tasteful red sweater.
Surprisingly, it's possible to trade Friday the Rabbi Slept Late for the autobiography of the esteemed thespian The Rock. I'm not quite sure why; surely something by Goldberg would be more appropriate.
Bruce Sterling's Islands in the Net offers up a few intriguing possibilities. The notion of trading a seminal work of cyberpunk for something in the Gossip Girl series is almost worth following through on for the sheer dada of it.
And to round this particular random walk out, there's Alfred Bester's The Demolished Man , which is one of Melinda's favorite books and a landmark in the annals of the genre. (We have multiple copies. Don't judge.) There are folks out there who want this book and have wonderful things to offer - Ian McDonald's Desolation Road , which is one of my favorite books. The World Treasury of Science Fiction . Stuff like that. And all four volumes in R. L. Stine's The Baby-Sitter series.
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