About a year ago, Somerville’s Mark Anderson decided to inventory every book he owned. After cataloguing more than 200 of them, he had a thought: "I was curious to see if people would borrow books from, like, just a random guy."

So he posted the list on his Web site and undertook to ship his own books to anyone who requested them, anywhere in the United States and Canada, at his own expense. Anderson received about only 10 requests in the first few months, but in the ensuing year, more than 350 people, from Brookline to Salt Lake City, have set up online accounts with his site, Booklend. The newly redesigned site has received more than 30 inquiries in the past two days.

With roughly 300 titles, from Great Expectations (currently in Alpharetta, Georgia) to Roger Angell’s A Pitcher’s Story (Sandpoint, Idaho), Anderson’s collection is hardly comparable to the BPL’s, but its diversity is impressive. A goodly number of the books are currently checked out, being leafed through in such disparate locations as Montreal (Russell Banks’s Affliction) and Washington, DC (Philip Roth’s Portnoy’s Complaint). Relatively untouched is a collection of the books of Latin verse Anderson studied in college. ("Nobody’s gonna read those," he admits sheepishly.)

Lately, strangers have been donating books to the cause — a trend Anderson welcomes as long as the charitable-minded demur from the temptation to palm off yellowing, dog-eared paperbacks by V.C. Andrews and Dean Koontz. Next week, Anderson plans to add a hundred or so more titles, bought with his own money.

To say Anderson has created a borrower’s market is an understatement. Not only can the books be kept as long as the customer deems necessary, but Anderson pays to ship the books out and includes a prepaid envelope for the book’s return. So, with nothing to lose, have customers been diligent about returning his books? "For the most part people have been pretty trustworthy," he says. But he adds that a few books have been gone for as long as nine months: "I’m sure there are some that I’ll never see again."

Is it worth the expenditure? "It’s all done book-rate, so it’s pretty cheap," Anderson says. "Although this month I am gonna spend a lot of money. I’m mailing 60 today and 50 tomorrow. But in general, I’d say it probably costs no more that $1000 a year."

But a grand per year is nothing to sneeze at for a 26-year-old employee-benefits-insurance broker.

"It is sort of a crazy idea," Anderson concedes. "But I like this notion of trust. I trust them to send the books back. They trust that I won’t do anything wacky with the personal information they send me." Moreover, he says, "For me, the satisfaction is like being in hundreds of little tiny book clubs. There’s absolutely no financial incentive, but it’s certainly been fun, and the response has been overwhelmingly positive."

Although he’s "pretty sure the marriage proposals have all been jokes," Anderson is equally puzzled that some people take the time to write e-mails "just to tell me how crazy I am."

But the naysayers don’t faze him.

"I look at it as a hobby," he says. "Sure, it’s waste of money. But aren’t all hobbies a waste of money? At least I didn’t buy a sports car."

But ... wouldn’t you rather have a sports car?

"Nope."

Visit Booklend at www.booklend.net. If you’d like to donate books, send them to Box 766, Concord, MA 01742.