I love to follow Everyday Reading for her book suggestions and ideas for other book lovers. One of my favorite posts of hers was about a Book Swap Party. I absolutely fell in love with the idea and was thrilled to host one with our neighborhood ladies. This event was years ago, but I’m finally ready to share the details with all of you. Here’s everything you need to know about how we pulled it off so you can coordinate one of your own!

I never like to miss a moment for an invitation! I made a quick digital invite using the Word Swag app and a vintage library card background. Once we had our group of attendees, I sent instructions to choose a book they enjoyed reading, wrap it, and stick a description on the front that describes the book without giving away the title or author.

When guests arrived, they added their book to the table on picture ledges that helped display the descriptions. As people continued to arrive, get drinks and mingle, they also checked out the wrapped books on display to gauge what they might be interested in.

The Book Swap itself was run similar to a white elephant gift exchange. I made a bookmark for each guest with their name on it, pulling inspiration from a book-themed wedding and they were easy enough to make and laminate myself. All those went into a basket and were pulled out one by one. When a guest’s name was called, they could either choose a new book to unwrap or they could steal a previously unwrapped book. Each book could be stolen a maximum of three times before it was locked with its forever owner.

Once everyone had a book, I compiled a list of all the titles to send out to the group. Here are the books we had at our Book Swap:

Tattoos on the Heart
All the Light we Cannot See
One for the Money
Flowers in the Attic
The Paris Wife
My Grandfather Would have Shot Me
The Last Lecture
The Gown
Heads You Win
The Nightingale

I had to throw a game into the mix so we completed a “Bookish Trivia” quiz I compiled from various internet sources. The winner was gifted a copy of the lovely Anne Bogel’s I'd Rather be Reading book.

In the end it was one of my favorite girls’ nights ever with our crew. We still had the opportunity to sip cocktails and catch up while also sharing books that are close to hearts. The idea was such a hit that we held a virtual book swap during covid lockdowns but this time for cookbooks! The opportunities are endless to specifically choose genres or themes to run with and we’re already excited for our next book swap party!