Mathew found second-hand book site Green Metropolis the other week. It’s a site that matches up sellers of second-hand books with buyers, using a simple pricing model. Buyers pay between £3 and £3.75 for most books, with free postage on many paperbacks. I have used it to buy three books so far: Ian Gale’s Four Days in June, Patrick O’Brian’s Clarissa Oakes and Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve. All three have been in splendid condition, well packed and delivered quickly directly from their sellers, and I have been most impressed. The selection is wide, though you can’t automatically expect to find any book that takes your fancy on there. I have looked at the selling terms, and they seem fair and easy to understand, though I have not sold any books yet.The site promotes itself as being a way to recycle books, and their unique angle on this is that for every book you buy 5p is donated to the Woodland Trust. According to the site, donations were £4,090 during 2006, which is not to be sniffed at, and members can donate additional proceeds of sales of their books to the charity too.

While it’s fair to say that any book-swapping or second-hand-book site is to some extent promoting recycling of books, Green Metropolis is the only one I have found with an overt environmental benefit, so more power to them. From now on I shall check it for books before I turn to eBay or Amazon Marketplace.

Simon A

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