Get to know your neighbours in the Netherlands through books
By Mina Solanki
In October 2017, a small team of book lovers from Iceland, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands and Bulgaria, based in Amsterdam, set up BookNomads. BookNomads is a website which gives you the chance to get to know your neighbours a little better and get your bookworm on, all through sharing books.
Borrow books from your neighbours
Sharing books with your neighbours is easy. All you have to do is login to BookNomads with your Facebook or Google+ account, pick your neighbourhood and start sharing your books or send a request to borrow a book from people in your area. BookNomads is free and the website is completely in English. This way, everyone can join in.
To share a book, all you have to do is add the title or ISBN number and it will pop up on screen and you can then click “add”. People in the area can now see that you are willing to lend out this book and they can send you a borrowing request. It is up to you to agree on the period of time that you would like to lend out your book and the place where you will hand it over, this doesn't have to be your house.
Your address will neither be shared on the website, nor with the book owner who you have requested a book from. Only your email address or phone number will be shared if you have made a request to borrow a book, so that the owner can get in touch with you.
Why share books?
Although you probably shouldn't share all of your books, as wear and tear is inevitable, the team hopes that the love of reading will bring people together and save books from being stuck on a shelf.
Will you be sharing your books?
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Completed her Master's degree at the University of Groningen and worked as a translator before joining IamExpat. She loves to read and has a particular interest in Greek mythology. In addition to this, she is an avid rower.Read more