Sunday’s Brokelyn Book Swap: Dos and Don’ts

Sure, football is underway this weekend, but the real big game in town is for the nerds: The Brooklyn Book Festival, Sunday’s bibliophiliac, star-studded fete of novelists, humorists, journalists and all things printed and bound. In the spirit of the free fest, join us at The Great Brokelyn Book Swap, a free event that can actually help you read new releases by those authors. Not sure what we mean? Here’s a handy guide of Dos and Don’ts so we’re not swapping  200 books about tattooed Swedish girls.

First, the details: The Great Brokelyn Book Swap will be from 4 pm-6pm on Sunday at People’s Republic of Brooklyn at 247 Smith Street (close to the festival action).

How it Works: Bring up to five books, and take someone else’s in return. The idea is to trade around those sought-after (but often pricey) newish releases you keep meaning to read (or share with others).
The Drink Specials: PRB is offering generous drink deals for our literary libations: $10 Coors Light pitchers, $15 premium pitchers and $1 off well drinks

BOOK SWAP DOS AND DON’TS

DO: Bring recent bestsellers, Booker Prize winners, New York Times notable books from last year, hardcover new releases or buzzy reissues.
DON’T:  The box of books you found on the street with a dubious “no bedbugs” sign; the stack of tween fiction you just happened to have lying around; your high school copy of The Crucible so marked over with pink highlighter it glows in the dark.

DO: Richard Yates, the new novel from 20-something provocateur Tao Lin.
DON’T: A musty old book by Yeats that you think is pronounced “Yeets.”

DO: C, the new thriller from Tom McCarthy.
DON’T: Chicken Soup for the Soul: Christmas Cheer edition

DO: Bring Pulitzer Prize winning books.
DON’T: Bring books you won for cashing in skeeball tickets at Coney Island.

DO: The Politician, a reporter’s inside look at the rise of a Southern political star in 2008.
DON’T: Primary Colors, a reporter’s inside look at the rise of a Southern politician in 1992.

DO: Point Omega the latest from Don DeLillo.
DON’T: Point Break: The Novelization.

DO: Hollywood, Charles Bukowski’s movie industry satire/thinly veiled autobiography.
DON’T: Mommywood, in which Tori Spelling worries about the size of her newborn son’s nose for 300 pages.

DO: Imperial Bedrooms, Brett Easton Ellis’s sequel to his classic Less Than Zero.
ACTUALLY DON’T: Imperial Bedrooms, because it probably isn’t very good.

DO: I Drink For a Reason, the best-seller by Brooklyn Book Festival alum David Cross.
DON’T: Carlos Mencia — Sharing the American Dream: Overcoming Adversity.