Intro
The Book Exchange Club is a way for people to get others to read their favorite books. Almost everybody has a book that they want others to read, but I've noticed that nobody ever wants to read other people's recommendations. (Myself included. 
) The Book Exchange Club seeks to break this deadlock by introducing reciprocity via [collective gasp] contracts! Here's how it works. Everybody posts a list of the books they love and want others to read; then people contract to read each other's books. For instance, if I had Dragons in our Midst on my list, while someone else--say, Spirithunter--had The Named on her list, I could say, "I'll read The Named if you read Dragons in our Midst." If Spirithunter agrees, then we each go to the library or bookstore and read the series we agreed to read. Then, once we've both read both series, we can have lots of fun discussing them on the forums! 
That's the basic idea. There are also various logistics, caveats, and rules. These, however, belong in their own paragraphs.
How it works
There are two basic logistical parts here: making book lists and making contracts. Since both of these require input from you, there are two comment boxes below; the top one is for book list additions, the bottom for contracts and general discussion. The first is followed by a list of links to everyone's book list pages; the second is followed by a listing of current contracts.
Book list additions. You don't have to sign up for the Club per se; just post your list additions in this box and I'll start a list for you. Here's the format I expect from you:
- Title of book or series
- Author(s)
- (If series) Title of first book
- (If series) Number of books in series
- Genre
- Rating
- See also (optional)
"Genre" can be as broad as "fantasy" or as specific as "modern-day dragon fantasy/sci-fi with Arthurian elements"; it's really up to you, although I suspect you'll probably get more interest if you're specific. Just keep it rather short, all right? I don't want a paragraph of description.
My ideas on ratings are so complicated that they deserve their own section, to be found immediately following this one. 
Suffice it to say that I didn't think any of the extant rating systems were completely adequate for books, so I devised a peculiar conglomeration of them to suit my fancy.
For each book/series, I'll hunt it down on Amazon.com and post a link. You don't need to do that part. If there's other sites of interest, though (an official website, fansite, Wikipedia page, review, etc.), tell me and I'll put them in the "See also" section. 
If you have any questions about how to go about things, please consult my list. I'll probably be adding entries slowly, especially because I think I might have to re-read several books to decide on their ratings, so if an example for your specific question isn't there, you can ask me in the discussion box. Finally, please note that after I add your requests to your list, I will delete your comments from the comment box to avoid clutter. I don't see how this will cause any problems, but I wanted to warn you of it so you don't get too startled when it happens.
Contracts and general discussion. In the second comment box, you can hash out the details of contracts, pitch your books to others, inform your contract partner(s) of your progress on their book(s), or ask questions of me or anybody else. Please try to stay on-topic; if the discussion segués into something not related to books, there's a bunch of convenient forums that you can move it to. Also, please post here when you're done reading a contracted book, so I can update the contract list with that information. If you want to actually discuss books--perhaps ones that your partner just finished reading--head over to the forums, where I've created a new area for book discussion.
Rating system
As I said, I don't think any rating system I've seen thus far is quite adequate for books--or maybe I mean "not quite adequate for the kind of information I want to know before reading something." In any case, I've created my own system, an amalgam of the movie, TV, and computer game rating systems. Here it is in all its complicated glory.
Categories. These are the main four used as TV subratings: L for coarse language and swearing, S for sexual content, V for violence, and D for suggestive dialogue. I'm asking for a separate rating for each of these because some of us (myself included) have differing standards on each one. For instance, if I watch a PG-13 movie, it's almost certainly going to be one rated that way for violence. I just have a higher tolerance for PG-13 violence than for PG-13 other stuff. [shrug] So you'll need to give me an L rating, an S rating, a V rating, and a D rating. The rating system, then, is as follows:
Ratings. Since most of us are quite familiar with movie ratings, the four main ratings here are taken directly from that system: G, PG, PG-13, and R. However, since there is some stuff (the violence level in Warriors, say) that seems to float somewhere between PG and PG-13, I've adapted the E10+ computer game rating into an additional PG-10. You'll give me one of these for each category. For instance, if I were to rate the Warriors series as a whole, I'd probably put this:
LSVD: G, G, PG-10, G
On the other hand, the Maximum Ride series would look more like this:
LSVD: PG-13, PG-10, PG-13, PG
Now, as I said, some people are more sensitive to certain things than others, so there is going to be a fair amount of subjectivity in the ratings. I'm guessing that some Maximum Ride fans might disagree with the above assessment, for example. If you disagree with someone's rating of a book you have read, bring it up RESPECTFULLY in the contracts & discussion box. It's certainly possible to agree to disagree; there'll just be two listings of the same book with different ratings. That's okay. To a certain extent, these ratings are just people's opinion. Now, that doesn't mean you should rate something G just because you don't mind reading that sort of material; the ratings, after all, are for others' benefit, and I'd like you to be as objective as possible. If two people who disagree on ratings can come to a conclusion by mentioning specific examples, that would be good too. However, I want that comment box to stay at most PG in all categories. This means asterisked curse words if you have to argue about the language rating, for example, and a certain amount of vagueness on other topics. I'll let you know if you're getting too explicit.
Finally, about series. I realize, of course, that different books in a series really deserve different ratings, just as different episodes of a TV show get different ratings. But in the interest of space, I can't possibly list ratings for every book. Can you imagine doing that for Warriors? 
So here's what we'll do. If most of the content of the series is pretty uniform (as in the two I used for examples), just put ratings representative of the series as a whole. If, on the other hand, the ratings would vary widely from book to book, you may put a range instead of a single rating (V: PG to PG-13, for example). Actually, now that I think of it, Warriors might deserve that sort of rating after all. The difference between The Darkest Hour (think of Tigerstar's death) and Midnight (the first Warriors book where nobody actually dies) may be large enough to merit a ranged rating for the series.
If you think some aspect of a book deserves the equivalent of an NC-17, don't downgrade it to an R to make it fit in the rating system. Just don't post that book. I think too few of us are interested in that sort of material to warrant allowing it. 
Rules
Once both parties have agreed to a trade, each is honor-bound to read the other's book. However, there may arise situations where one person, after reading some of his/her assigned book, will REALLY not want to continue. This could be because the posted ratings were deceptively low, or it could be because what fascinates one person will bore another to tears. Normally, you are obligated to read the whole book; but if this happens to you, you do have a couple of options:
- You may request a change to a different book from your partner's list. Your partner may or may not agree to this.
- You may request a cancellation of contract. If your partner wishes to negotiate, you should negotiate, but if he/she is adamant that you must read that book, while you are adamant that you do not want to under any circumstances, I will step in as mediator. Generally, in this case, I will tend to side with the person who doesn't want to finish, especially if the reason is for matters of conscience. However, what I don't want to see is people saying, "I'll read book X if you read book Y," waiting until the other person has finished book Y, and then saying, "I don't want to read book X." The whole point of the Book Club is reciprocity. Contract cancellation should be used as a last resort, and issues of this sort should be addressed as soon as possible after they come up.
As far as series go, you're only required to read the first book. I figure that if it's not good enough to get you hooked by that point, there's no point in forcing you to read the rest.
Before you agree to read a book, make sure it's actually available to you. This could mean at a public library, owned by a friend, at the local bookstore (if you like to sit and read the book in the store, as I do), or on Amazon (if you're willing to buy the book sight unseen).
And now, enough of this dry reading! Let's get on to the exciting stuff!
Book list additions
Post here to add books to your list. Remember to use the specified format. If you leave something out, I won't post the entry until you give me that information.
Book lists
Disclaimer: With the exception of the books on my list, these books are not endorsed by me, nor have I read all of them, nor do I intend to read all of them, nor do I guarantee the accuracy of any ratings.
Note: The books within each list are alphabetized by the author's surname. This could be slightly confusing, as the authors are no longer listed surname-first, so keep it in mind.
Active contracts
Runningflame will read The Revenge of the Shadow King [FINISHED] in exchange for Strongheart reading Raising Dragons
Fruit Salad will read Twilight in exchange for Ivyheart reading Death Note: Another Note
Runningflame will read The Sight [FINISHED] in exchange for Jakko reading Watership Down
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