In December I read this story at Book Riot and it inspired me to give it a try. I talked to some of my neighbors and we found a good date. I invited my book group and a few other book loving friends I hadn’t seen in a while. The day of the party I pulled out 50+ books from my shelves (read and to be read both) and put fiction on one table and non fiction on another. Because one of the neighbors said she only read magazines I included a magazine exchange on the ottoman ( I was happy about this since I get way too many magazines to keep up with!). I went to the store and bought wine, cheese, crackers, some marked down boxes of Valentine chocolates and a bag of Skinny Pop. Put everything out and waited for people to show up.
I forgot to take any pictures when people were actually here, but my friend took the last three when she came. I had 14 stop by and everyone came and went home with at least one book, many people brought and took a handful. I was left with a bag of donations for the library plus 14 books that I pulled to read myself (I plan on reading a chapter or two before deciding what to do with them). One neighbor even brought A Man Called Ove which I snatched out of her hands before it made it to the table since that’s our book club read next month 🙂
I thought it was a fun way to get friends together and will do it again, but I might fine tune it just a bit with one bookish activity that could bring everyone together for a few minutes. I encourage you all to host your own Book Exchange Party!
Stacy's Books 
That is such a great idea! One of our local bookstores has had several book exchanges. And I have enjoyed them immensely. But to do it in your home is way cooler.
P.S. I loved A Man Called Ove, especially as I went along.
I belong to something called Secret Sister Society. It’s basically a bunch of ladies who get together monthly for different activities. Our March get together is a book exchange and I am SO pumped!! I’ve already got 8 books pulled and I’m looking forward to what goodies the other ladies will bring!!!
Our mystery book group does a book swap at our December meeting each year. We eat (one of 4 times each year that we potluck) and we swap books and we talk about our ‘best of…’ books. It’s a fun meeting each year, plus we don’t have to worry about getting a book read during that busy season. And I bring books all along through the year to share with members. This looks like a fun time, Stacy!
I love this idea!
That’s a great idea. I wish I could put together something like this but I don’t have a huge number of friends who read huge numbers of physical books. 🙂
This look so much funner than a few of my friends bring a bag of books and we go through the bag and take what we are interested in reading.
I like this! I wish I lived closer to you, I’d have stopped by. 🙂