Each month BookBrowse offers free books to our US-resident members (including free shipping) with the understanding that the recipients will do their best to write a short review within about six weeks of receiving the book for "First Impressions" books. Or, participate in a discussion if it's a "Book Club" pick - discussions are open for at least six weeks so members can drop in at their convenience, but early participation is much appreciated.
We know that life sometimes has a habit of getting in the way of our best intentions, so if something prevents a member from being able to read a book in the time frame, there is always the option to opt out - reading should be fun, not a chore! With that said, the offers are almost always oversubscribed so we ask that members only request books that they are genuinely interested in, and they think they have time to read and review or discuss in a reasonably timely fashion.
This page has two sections - the first section displays books to read and discuss in BookBrowse's Book Club. Below that are books to read and review for First Impressions. Some members enjoy both reviewing and discussing books, but some are only interested in one or the other. If you are a member and are only interested in reviewing books, please only pick books from the First Impressions section. Likewise, if you are only interested in discussing books, please only pick books from the Book Club section.
Members who take part relatively regularly tend to receive about 3-4 free books a year. We do our best to allocate copies as fairly as we can, assigning books primarily on the length of time since a member was last assigned one. For example, if John and Jane both request Book A and John was last sent a book four months ago, while Jane was sent one three months ago, John has priority. Sometimes we will have a lot of copies of a particular book and relatively few requests and are able to assign books to members more frequently than average. Sometimes the opposite is the case.
There's no need to rush to request a book - the chance of being selected are the same whether applying in the first minute or the last. Members assigned to a particular book are sent an email within 2 days of the offer closing, and should receive a printed copy of the book in the mail within about three weeks.
The books sent for First Impressions are usually advance reading copies (ARCs). These are paperback editions produced some months ahead of publication. Sometimes the book will have its finished cover image, sometimes a temporary one, and sometimes just a plain jacket. As ARCs are produced before the final round of editing and proofreading they will sometimes include small errors that will be corrected in the final version. In some cases they maybe missing the finishing touches - for example, depending on the type of book, it might be missing photos, an index or author's note.
The books sent for the Book Club are usually finished copies, either hardcovers, or paperbacks. Occasionally they are ARCs - in which case please refer to the paragraph above.
Still Got Questions:
First Impressions FAQ
BookBrowse Book Club FAQ
