Re-inventing book exchange to create new social network for readers — why Readsnet happened
Inception
Interning at Teach For India and volunteering for Make a Difference (MAD) had changed my perspective on today’s education system drastically. Suddenly, from being a single child brat, I had become this grateful soul who constantly reminded herself about how privileged she was.
One incident that stuck my memory during my stint at TFI was the jugaadu concept of book exchange. As a part of my research to gain financial picture of students under TFI schools, I asked them a simple question of how they managed new books each year. One of the answers was “I have a pact with one senior class bhaiyya (brother) whose sister is my junior class. We 3 exchange our textbooks every year. Bhaiyya gets his book from someone else. We share story and drawing books also. We are a mini family on our own”.
If you read closely, they were not just saving money, the relations went beyond simple book exchange — the kid said they were like a family even though they were not related by blood. Why did a simple book rotation instill such friendship among them? Is there something more happening here than simple economic savings?
Realization
I knew giving up books and notes to juniors, but wasn’t aware about such rotations. Rotating books or exchanging them is common between siblings and people who are your neighbors. I connected it with how I myself used to get my engineering books or notes from seniors which is a common practice.
But I also noticed how with people to whom I have given books or taken — the closeness in the friendship went miles ahead than a simple conversation of hi or hello. When someone gives you something they have used or cherished, you don’t just give the commodity, but your memories that were a part of you someday. A common ground is instantly established between them — a topic to talk about when they meet again or the feeling of gratitude that tickles the dopamine in your brain.
I realized how creating your own mini community for something as simple as a book exchange can have a scalable economic, social and environmental impact. But most importantly — an opportunity to form a new kind of social network for readers wherein they connect over books and conversations beyond!
Trigger
I started visiting book exchange events to get rid of my finished reads and surprise myself with something new. I crossed my fingers every time to get hold of my books on wishlist. Every time I went, I was disappointed as I had to give up my loved reads and settle for books that I may or may not like. Being a lazy bum that I was, travelling all the way from home to the book swap or book clubs location to find lame books used to make me feel annoyed.
But book exchange did have an overall positive experience:
- I met both like-minded or opposite people, connecting with them over books and beyond.
- I ended up with a dynamic library — I was constantly giving up old/unused/finished reads and updating them with random chosen reads.
- I stumbled upon books I never thought I would have had discovered otherwise.
- I never paid for my new books. I was constantly recycling and getting them for free!
- Most importantly — I was getting curated reads that people had chosen to read and love at some point in their life. I had discovered an invisible filter here!
I saw I was unknowingly spreading knowledge, recycling, curating for fellow readers and socializing beyond conversations. If only I knew what books everyone had and this process was more streamlined, I would end up a happy broke bibliophile.
The greedy reader inside me wanted more:
- I wanted books on my wish list.
- I didn’t wanted to travel mountains and rivers to the book exchange place, there must be someone nearby me who has books I want to read, right?
- I wanted to connect with readers who took my book during the exchange and talk about it! It’s always difficult to find someone who likes same stuff as you do. What other books have they enjoyed?
- I would like to know what others are reading who have varied tastes, what’s their collection like?
Summing up my experiences so far in both the spheres of education and leisure reading, I decided to create a book exchange community. Being aware of the flaws of present book clubs and book exchange events, creating a web application seemed a solution I can check out. I started drafting the concept and quickly created my landing page. Took interviews, iterated and other random startup jargon etc etc.
The Why of Readsnet
Today, 4 months since inception of the idea, I have a 5 member team working with me who passionately believe in the concept. I have received great feedback and appreciation from the reader’s community which drives me to continue going into this journey of creating Readsnet.
We do not aim to be another online second hand bookstore or rental books marketplace. We simply aim to create a community to connect like-minded readers who are mutually sharing their libraries with each other —to engage with each other through books and beyond, just like the students at Teach for India affiliated school. We envision an open library network of readers and books who aren’t restricted by location, culture or language — being appreciative of what’s around them and access the beyond.
We aim to be a unique social network for them to approach economically sustainable way to get second hand books, discover great reads around them and connect like-minded readers both online and offline in the process.
Opportunity
But, why a community and not a marketplace?
Because I believe second hand books aren’t worth buying. They are meant to be donated, shared or exchanged.
There are so many used book selling portals and rental websites coming up each day and shutting down. All the books that are in good condition are sold at more or less the same price as the MRP, while when you find out a book is priced cheap, you’ve got to think twice about it’s physical condition.
Also, books lose their value once you have read them until and unless the book is some reference book in your professional domain, a signed copy, special edition or gifted. What’s common between them? — These 3 types of books are either expensive or hold a special value with the reader.
What about other books that are left apart from above “elite” mentioned types? Donation? Raddi? Shred? Burn during winters?
Or maybe, you can just exchange/donate it with your wish list using Readsnet :P
I think this is one important point startups in marketplace or rental platform for used books fail to understand — books aren’t high value commodity and with presence of ebooks (torrents, PDFs, *coughing*), why should I rent? Renting works only for high value commodity like house, vehicles, expensive dresses etc, and books aren’t one of them (maybe except for the very expensive ones).
Impact
We are not just for the elite readers who collect books and bookstagram. We are more relevant to the next billion — the Tier 2 and 3 cities and villages of India and abroad who struggle to get educated because of financial reasons and are in constant lookout to cheap alternatives — even for books.
I still remember how I still have my high school IIT — JEE books with me and was in lookout for CAT study material. I wish I could find someone for whom my unused books were valuable, maybe an IIT — JEE aspirant’s older brother/sister who had just given his/her CAT exam?
There are so many exams in the world with so many study materials published for them. I can only imagine how much of it goes waste. This wastage is much more compared to the “leisure” literature we come across.
Community
Redefining the way readers socialize — not as follow/unfollow but as a community culture
We are actually a community — Readsnet has no other choice but to be one. The willingness to share your reads to get a dynamic library with same shelf space cannot be done without the support of people.
Forming local communities and being rewarded with things you will like for what you are doing for them is on our plans. Stay tuned!
Hoarders, stay away
To all those book thieves who think they will only take and not give — our ravens are watching you. Period.
Mentions
We would like to thank everyone who has helped us bring this project to life — from people whom I have interviewed to anyone and everyone who has lend their hand with their skill sets and feedback :)
We were also covered by Maharashtra Times (part of Times Group)— a leading newspaper in the state of Maharashtra, India)! Long way to go!
P.S — our name was Swapeer when we got published which we later changed to Readsnet.
https://epaper.timesgroup.com/TOI/TimesOfIndia/index.html?a=c
Feedback
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