On an October evening at the St. Vrain Cidery in Longmont, Morgan Lifner organizes books on a table and greets people arriving for this month’s book swap.
She’s the organizer of the Longmont chapter of the Book Swap Society, a group that started in Denver in 2022.
“Initially, it was just a group of friends that wanted to get together and exchange their old books,” she said.
The group grew to more than 200 members, so the founder created new chapters, including the Longmont chapter, which began in March.
People pay a $5 fee, and they bring in any gently used books they’d like to swap. They then get to take up to four new books home.
“The idea is to keep books out of the landfill and to give them a new home (where the books aren’t) going to be wasted,” said Lefner.
“A lot of books that get donated to places like Arc and Goodwill, unfortunately, do end up in the trash,” she said. “So the idea is that you can bring in books that you're no longer interested in having in your house, but know that they're going to go to a good home and be recycled to people who are interested in reading them.”
These events are not just an eco-friendly way to share literature. They also help people build community.
“People who have just moved here, people who tend to be bookish and a little more introverted, see an opportunity to mingle with people with similar interests in a really low pressure setting,” said Lefner.
In the corner of the cidery, a few friends are gathered around a table comparing their finds.
“I got The Alchemist, which I was very excited about because it was one of my favorite books,” said Katie, who is attending the book swap for the first time with some friends.
Also sitting at the table is Brie, who recently moved from Texas to Longmont. She said she was looking for ways to connect with people through books.
“I just feel like it's a common ground with people, especially in a book club, being able to talk about it,” she said. “You know, sometimes it can be a little bit awkward when you're meeting new people. ‘What do we talk about?’ That kind of eliminates that barrier, and then it just kind of naturally starts to flow. So that's why I like trying to build it around something that I enjoy,” she said.
After the swapping winds down, a few books remain, but Lefner said they don’t go to waste.
“All of the books that stay behind at the Book Swap Society that don't get swapped, I take and either donate to the Longmont Public Library, their Friends of the Public Library books sale, or to the little free libraries around Longmont, and then some of them I cycle back into the book swap,” she said.
The Book Swap Society now has chapters across Colorado’s Front Range and beyond, with groups in San Diego, Kansas City, and Rhode Island.
Copyright 2025 Rocky Mountain Community Radio. This story was shared via Rocky Mountain Community Radio, a network of public media stations in Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, and New Mexico, including Aspen Public Radio.
