I've been in a bookmooching slump. Does this ever happen to you? It's been ages since I've gotten a book though Bookmooch (maybe that's why I went so crazy recently with all the new book purchases?). Nothing on my wishlist ever seems to come up for possible mooching. If it does I don't get to it soon enough to request it. Or I find a book that I want, am all excited to finally mooch something, and then see that the book has been reserved for someone else, so I can't mooch it. Or the book owner lives outside the US and isn't willing to mail abroad. Do you think Bookmooch books are getting picked over? I am definitely requesting books that are too popular or too new. And forget trying to find any Viragos (from American moochees) these days.
So when I read Dorothy's post on Bernard Malamud's The Assistant it sounded like a perfect Bookmooch candidate. Malamud is not an author I had really considered reading until I read what Dorothy had to say about it, but it sounds like something I would like--a "nearly perfect novel". A story about the Jewish-immigrant experience, set in 1950s NYC. And yes, there are moochable copies out there. Granted the one I am getting is not a nice new one with this lovely cover. It will be a much older one and likely will have one of those cheesy 70s covers, but it's the contents that matter, right.
I have a feeling that if I want to find some good mooches, they are going to be older books, more solid literature. Perhaps I'll go through some of my book lists and see what I can find. There is no guilt involved in mooching. And I plan on adding some new titles to my own inventory over the weekend as well--nothing too exciting--some duplicates or books I won't ever read again. If you are a Bookmoocher (or use a similar service), what have been your recent finds?