How to Host a Book Swap

The Circle of Friends x Celebrity Memoir Book Club swap and how to host your own

Jan 21, 2025

Beyond Substack Circle of Friends also exists as events to make connections and new friends while engaging in the circular economy, niche, I know.

Some of last year’s events included a dinner party with upcycled and regenerative food, a circular fashion brunch, and a book swap hosted with

Celebrity Memoir Book Club

. The latter idea came from my Stoop Series conversation with Ashley, of CMBC fame, on how to keep books in circulation.

hilliaryb

A post shared by @hilliaryb

If you want to attend a future event, you can sign up here. I will also be sharing more on Substack about how you can incorporate circularity into your own life through fashion, food, home, and the art of gathering.

While there are some books I want to keep on my shelf to reference, like the recipes in Ina Garten’s memoir, more often than not as soon as I finish a good book I want to immediately pass it onto a friend. Ashley and I knew there were others like us with stacks of books waiting to find their next reader and decided that we should bring them together over one large switcheroo.

Here is how Circle of Friends and Celebrity Memoir Book Club hosted our book swap and tips for you to host your own too.

The Goal: Meet Fellow Book Worms + Swap Books

Photos from the Circle of Friends x Celebrity Memoir Book Club Book Swap

The Invitations:

Paperless post has some cute book themed invites, I’m partial to this one.

Include the fundamentals (who, what, where, when) but also plan in advance the style of the swap you want to host (more on that below) and therefore how many books you want each guest to bring based on format + space.

We asked guests to bring at least 1 book but no more than 5, we were expecting around 40 people and 100-200 books seemed liked plenty of books to ensure guests went home with at least two books they were excited about and any left over would be donated or dropped off in lending libraries.

We opted for books of all categories but I think it would be fun to have a genre-specific themed swap too!

Making Connections:

Chances are if you get a bunch of readers into a room, they will naturally talk about books. As we were blending our two communities, we wanted an ice breaker to get the conversations going. Guests were asked to fill out a name tag with their name + their most recent book read. This small detail led to the feeling of #booktok irl.

You could also use another book themed conversation starter or you might be swapping with your friends and just want to know more about their reading habits.

Conversation starters:

Your most recent next
Next on your Libby holds list
Your favorite book
Best book turned movie (or worst!)
Favorite literary character
Book that changed your life
Favorite book from childhood
Book you started and never finished - and why?

How to Swap:

Depending on the group size there are a handful of ways to coordinate the swap.

White Elephant

This would work best with a smaller group where everyone only brings 1 book. You have likely received a candle at a holiday white elephant exchange before but if not here are the rules.

Open Swap Organized By Genres

To accommodate a bigger group and over 100 books we set up different sections of genres and guests could freely mingle and swap, taking and leaving books as they pleased. We trusted that everyone would be respectful and take a few and leave a few- we were right.

We used old library book cards to write out categories and then let guests decide where they felt their book fit best, here are similar cards.

Here is the list of categories we came up with but you could get really creative with your own:

Short Stories
Cozy Mysteries
Feeling the Fantasy
Read by the Fireplace
Golden Oldies (Classics)
Time Traveling
Books That You Can’t Put Down
Next Beach Read
Edge of Your Seat Thrillers
Romance
CMBC Picks
Circle of Friends Picks

A Surprise Swap

I am also inspired by the surprise element of having guests wrap their books in butcher paper and write a descriptor that might draw someone in, only potential problem is you might end up with a book you already read.

An informal swap

Rather than planning a formal event, next time you’re getting together with friends, suggest everyone brings a book they finished reading and want to pass on.

At a dinner last month with girlfriends, after bowls of spicy noodles, we each shared a book we had read and knew someone else at the table would enjoy. I brought We Will Be Jaguars, my favorite read of 2024, and left with Good Material and the Ina Garten memoir.

The Details:

My two event motos are “the more the merrier” and “the details are not the details.” The second a quote from Charles Eames about how the details are what make the bigger picture in design, I think it applies to bringing an event together too.

For a gathering where we knew not everyone would be able to individually share why they were passing along a book, we created custom library-like cards for notes From One Worm to Another. Guests shared their impressions of their books which then can become a bookmark and token for the next reader.

Some of the books that were swapped and the notes from one worm to another

I’m still using a branded bookmark from a Margaux book swap (where I snagged Wives Like Us)- even more clever is their book club, Foot Notes.

Here are some of my favorite reads (that I took photos of) in 2024, I set a goal of 36 books for 2025 and looking for recommendations- I would love if you comment what you’re currently reading.