Better World Books

I am blessed to be around readers.  People who love books.  We recommend authors to each other and sometimes there is the payoff of discovery – the discovery of something wonderful.  We tell each other what we like and what we believe others may like too.  We are fans of our libraries and funky used book stores and, on occasion we’ll wander through a Barns & Noble, which appears to be the only big brick and mortar book store left these days.  We have accounts on Amazon for our Kindle apps and e-readers.  We have access to e-books from other sources as well.  We read or we listen to stories.  We are fans.

Perhaps you too are such a fan?  If so then lend me your ears…

This week one of my reading friends asked me if I had heard of a website called Better World Books (http://www.betterworldbooks.com/).  She said that it was an online used bookstore where you could find great stuff cheap AND, she went on to tell me, “The best part is that for every book you buy – they donate a book somewhere else in the world.”  This is a great idea.  This is a great concept.  There are books who are looking for readers and there are people out there who don’t usually have access to books who, through this site, now have access to them – worldwide.  It’s easy to take a thing like literacy or being able to pick up a book from a library or bookstore for granted.  There are places and places not necessarily too far away where this is the norm and not the exception.  You can help shrink those barriers.

There are bins all over the place to donate your used books – see here: http://www.betterworldbooks.com/go/donate and if you don’t want to do that you can have labels sent to your domicile to mail them away yourself.  They even accept textbooks. 

So by getting books through Better World Books makes the world a better place.  It’s a win-win.  You get the books you’re looking for (really – it’s an exhaustive selection), promote literacy, and get books into the hands of people who wouldn’t have them otherwise.  That’s a good thing all the way around the horn.

Spread the love.  Let other readers know.  Here’s their Facebook page too: https://www.facebook.com/betterworldbooks.

Thank you, Gentle Reader.  Keep on readin’.

How to Revoke Your Library Card

I must preface this true tale, Gentle Reader.  It’s about a man and a library.  It’s about how his card was revoked and about his shame.  You see, I am that man.  I remember it like it was yesterday, because – well, it was yesterday.  Our story opens at the Vineland Library.  Here is what transpired…

“I owe a debt to society.” I said handing the librarian my card. “I’m a day late with, ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’.” 

BEEP! The card reader exclaimed.  “You do live in Vineland?” the librarian asked.

“My mailing address is in Vineland.” I said.

“Do you own property in the city of Vineland?” she asked. 

“Well, not anymore.” I said.  Then I considered the question and, wouldn’t you know, I had personally never owned property in the city of Vineland.  In my mind I heard my own voice say, Not anymore – REALLY?  What’s wrong with you?  Finding that I didn’t have a good answer I gave the librarian what must have appeared an odd smile.

“You can’t borrow from here if you do not live in Vineland.  If you want to borrow from here it will cost you $50.00.” she said.  Looking at my slack-jawed response she added, “You may be able to use the Cumberland County Library on 49 in Bridgeton.” 

“$50.00?”

“$50.00.”

I looked down at the book I was about to take out, Agatha Christie’s, ‘Curtain’.  “Well, it was fun while it lasted.” I said. “I’ll put this book back.”

“Yes, ok.” She said.

<<<>>> 

And that’s all she wrote.  I’m outta there!  Blackballed.  Shunned.  The fat lady has sung.  The swallows? They’ve all gone back to Capistrano.  “It’s over, Johnny.” – Colonel Trautman [First Blood / Rambo].  Fini.  Roll credits.  Cue up the “Sad Hulk” song for Bill Bixby as he walks away until next week’s episode.  BOOM.  Done.  Vagrants must move on.  No squatting.  You can read what you want but you can’t read it from here.

I get it.  I am now officially “that guy”.  The freeloader.  That guy who’s taking books out of the hands of the fine people of Vineland!  That guy who comes to your BBQ, eats all you burgers & weenies and leaves just after the empty desert plates hit the table!  THAT GUY who switches lanes without using his turn signal and zips into the parking spot that was undeniably yours!  Society’s burden & shame of the community at large!  Yeah, THAT GUY.      

Ah, the way we were...

For the record, it was never my intent to take advantage of the good people of Vineland or any of the librarians for that matter.  I returned to the Vineland Library due to convenience – it’s only 5 (maybe 6) miles from my house and about three quarters of a mile from where I work.  The Vineland Library issued me the card and ever since I have been using two libraries, Mays Landing and Vineland.  Mays Landing Library – a fine library by my reckoning, is 12 miles away from Rancho del Evil Chicken.

If you poke around this blog then you know already that I have a thing for stories.  I love them in whatever shape they come, their tellers & the keepers of them.  Libraries are lights in a community.  Without them the community is poorer, colder.  If you don’t have a library card – get one & use it often.  However, I would advise you to live in the same town.  If you don’t then things can get poorer and colder for you quite quickly.

See you at the library (the one in Mays Landing)!

Whom I'm Reading Now

“So who is your favorite author?”

I’ve been asked from time to time

I’d have to answer, “Whom I’m reading

Now,” the question is sublime

Perhaps it’s something scary

Tales filled with horror – woe

Perhaps something from Steven

King or Edgar Allan Poe

Or maybe something humorous

To pass away the hours

Some good Mark Twain or Christopher

Moore enchant me with their powers

Or maybe swords & sorcery

With a dragon perhaps or two

Some Tolkien or some R.E. Howard

A Hobbit / Barbarian brew

If I feel mysterious

There are few places that I go

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s nice but

Dame Christie steals the show

Perchance it’s something fantastic

My yen for worlds unseen

Neil Gaiman & J.K. Rowling work

They can truly set a scene

Perhaps a graphic novel?

With true sophistication

Then you want to find some

Alan Moore, he’s your destination

And then there’s science fiction

That just may do the trick

May I suggest some Arthur C. Clarke

Or even Phil K. Dick

And then there are the classics

Too many just to name

Bradbury, Verne, & Stevenson

Deserve their well-earned fame

There’s Hemingway & London

Voltaire to name some more

I can’t forget Kurt Vonnegut

Their voices all still roar

There are many to discover

So many yet to read

I have only scratched the surface

Librarians take heed!

So, ask me who’s my favorite?

Who can I disavow?

The answer is so plain to see

It’s whom I’m reading now.

Bogart's Books ~ My Favorite Bookstore in the Known Universe