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Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning.

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Speaker 1: This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's

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Speaker 1: tip is that if you love reading but hate clutter,

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Speaker 1: consider hosting a book swap. You can pass along some

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Speaker 1: good books to good new owners, and you may find

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Speaker 1: some new treasures yourself. Longtime listeners know that I am

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Speaker 1: a frequent library visitor. One upside of a library is

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Speaker 1: that after you are done with a book, you return

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Speaker 1: it so someone else can read it. The book gets

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Speaker 1: more use and the ideas spread to more people. Unfortunately,

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Speaker 1: with books we own, even if we enjoy them, most

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Speaker 1: likely we won't reread a title multiple times. We can

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Speaker 1: pass books along, but I know book lovers want to

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Speaker 1: know books they liked are being enjoyed. The rise of

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Speaker 1: all those little free libraries in people's yards is partly

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Speaker 1: about making sure books get a second life with people

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Speaker 1: who will appreciate them. But another approach to making sure

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Speaker 1: good books find good homes is to host a live

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Speaker 1: book swap. This has sort of the same premise as

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Speaker 1: a little free library. Everyone is welcome to give and

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Speaker 1: take books, but a book swap happens in real time,

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Speaker 1: so there is built in interaction. If you are hosting

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Speaker 1: the book swap, you could set up card tables and

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Speaker 1: label each table with a genre literary fiction, cookbooks, romance,

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Speaker 1: and so on. People could put the books they're giving

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Speaker 1: away into the appropriate place and browse the genres they

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Speaker 1: are looking for. People will likely talk about the books

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Speaker 1: as they are swapping, and so they're likely to end

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Speaker 1: up going home with books they like thanks to others recommendations.

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Speaker 1: Any books left behind after the swap can be donated

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Speaker 1: to the library or a school or goodwill. If this

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Speaker 1: sounds like a little more hosting and logistics than you

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Speaker 1: are up for, you could simplify and the next time

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Speaker 1: your book club gathers, just encourage everyone to bring any

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Speaker 1: books they want to give away. Then you can all

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Speaker 1: look through each other's book bags, take home any you want,

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Speaker 1: and someone makes a donation run for any books that

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Speaker 1: no one takes back. However large or simple, a book

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Speaker 1: swap can provide a great way for people to declutter,

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Speaker 1: to connect, and to get some new reads. So why

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Speaker 1: not give it a try. If you host a book swap,

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Speaker 1: I'd love to hear about it. You can reach me

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Speaker 1: at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. In the meantime,

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Speaker 1: this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's to making

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Speaker 1: the most of our time. Thanks for listening to Before Breakfast.

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Speaker 1: If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback, you can reach

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Speaker 1: me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast

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Speaker 1: is a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts from iHeartMedia,

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Speaker 1: please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you

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Speaker 1: listen to your favorite shows.