I don't buy it

Via Fiction Bitch (and intermediate links), I found this from Jeanette Winterson, on the subject of book-swapping:

Of course I want people to read my books, but I also want people to buy my books. I am not exactly sure why it is all right to expect writers to work for free, or why the swap it site is seen as such a great idea because a guy was 'moaning about how much he spent on books', and realised that other people must feel similarly hard done by.

I have every sympathy for writers, and I even know where a few such people live, but gimme a break. The writer isn't God. What'll be next? You shouldn't give away that garment you don't like? Don't help your neighbour; better she should have to pay for whatever it is she needs. Winterson knows this in fact, going on to explain that she lends books to her friends and buys from second-hand bookshops. But she, it seems, is thereby contributing to 'the passion for books'. Quite so. Swap away, book-swappers.