Better World Books hits CAMEX

Posted by admin on 02.29.2008 at 6:03 pm

Niko and I are in San Antonio, TX attending a variety of educational sessions at CAMEX 2008 and celebrating warm weather (come check us out at booth 1145, next to Publisher’s Row!  Massive floorplan here).  I was in a session discussing textbook rental programs and a question arose regarding what to do with the books when they are no longer applicable to the class.  What was the resounding answer (I promise I didn’t say it first!)?  “Better World Books!”  All I could do was sit back and glow with pride (and scheme how to get in to the totally sweet Jansport party this year…)

Have your say » | Tagged Uncategorized, CAMEX, conferences

Green Reading

Posted by Jack on 02.27.2008 at 1:48 pm

Check it out, Wake Up and Smell the Planet is exactly what it says: “The Non-pompous, Non-Preachy Grist Guide to Greening Your Day.  Like most things Grist the book values the balance of utility and humor making it less an on the soapbox indictment and more an on the bedstand read.  Great reviews from anyone who has read it and add one more from me.  Check it out at www.betterworld.com by clicking the cover.

Have your say » | Tagged Book Reviews, book reviews, green for all, grist

Newbie Account Representative- Erin Gerber!

Posted by admin on 02.25.2008 at 2:46 pm

I’ve been in love with reading most of my life. My affection for the written word eventually translated into both a love of and career in libraries for most of my adult life.

Like most people who work in libraries, I love getting books into the hands  of those who enjoy reading as much as I do. Better World Books allows me to do this on a much larger scale than ever before—not only are we helping to get books into the hands of those in search of a good read around the world, we’re helping our Literacy Partners generate funds to create a new wave of avid readers.

I feel especially lucky to be a part of this unique company because I’m well aware of the challenge libraries face when it comes to their discards and donations. By offering libraries a socially and environmentally responsible outlet for their books that’s not only easy, effective, and free, I know we’re offering them a solution they can use!

Have your say » | Tagged Uncategorized, erin, new employees

Great American Word Challenge Winner!

Posted by admin on 02.25.2008 at 8:26 am

I reported earlier about the Great American Word Challenge, a nationwide online contest that pit cities against one another to measure their greatness, not by the height of their skyscrapers, but by the depth of their vocabularies. Fresno received the highest cumulative average score and took the title and the prize: a Ubisoft donation of My Word Coach video games and Nintendo DS™ systems to a local family literacy center selected by the National Center for Family Literacy (NCFL). The beneficiary organization is the Fresno County Library Literacy Services Center, which provides free reading, writing, spelling, and math tutoring to Fresno County adults that cannot read or write English.

“The city of Fresno is always proud to support family literacy,” said Deputy Mayor Jeff Eben. “We are excited to have won the ‘Great American Word Challenge’ and thank all Fresno’s residents who participated so successfully in this fun and creative Challenge.”

The Great American Word Challenge proved which American cities could walk the walk AND talk the talk:

— In addition to Fresno, the following cities rounded out the top four positions:

— Salisbury, Maryland (2nd place)

— Mankato, Minnesota (3rd place)

— Albuquerque, New Mexico (4th place)

— Oakland, California (5th place)

— Overall, the U.S. received a B- average grade on their vocabulary with a national average score of 167 out of 205 (81%)

— And here’s how long-time city rivals stacked up:

— Oakland is the smartest Bay Area city, beating out San Francisco, Berkeley, and San Jose!

— Despite preliminary results showing Brooklyn in the lead, at final count Manhattan is the highest-scoring New York City borough. The Bronx is the lowest-scoring borough. Here’s how the boroughs stacked up against each other:

1. Manhattan

2. Queens

3. Brooklyn

4. Staten Island

5. The Bronx

— Twin Cities? Not exactly. Minneapolis established itself as the more literate of the two, scoring 168 compared to St. Paul’s 140.

— Good (and smart) things come in small packages: Pasadena might be just an eighth the size of its sprawling neighbor, Los Angeles, but it’s 16% smarter! Pasadena scored 178 compared to Los Angeles, which scored a mere 154. Article from Business Wire

Have your say » | Tagged Uncategorized, Great American Word Challenge, literacy, press

Top 50 Children’s Books

Posted by admin on 02.22.2008 at 10:15 am

The Telegraph, a newspaper from our friends in the UK, had a listing of the “Top 50 Children’s Books” today, and considering my undying love for Maurice Sendak and my Sylvester stuffed animal (a la Sylvester and the Magic Pebble) as well as the fact that I collected a Curious George book in each of the European countries I traveled to whilst abroad (let me tell you, Curious George: Panique aux la Chocalaterie is a laugh but doesn’t touch Curious George Recibe una Medalla).  Well you get the idea… The list below.  As usual check www.Betterworld.com for (responsible) deals on these books!

The top 50 children’s books

1 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, C S Lewis

2 The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Eric Carle

3 Famous Five series, Enid Blyton

4 Winnie the Pooh, AA Milne

5 The BFG, Roald Dahl

6 Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, J K Rowling

7 The Faraway Tree, Enid Blyton

8 The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame

9 Alice in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll

10 The Gruffalo, Julia Donaldson

11 The Tales of Peter Rabbit, Beatrix Potter

12 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl

13 Matilda, Roald Dahl

14 The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett

15 The Cat in the Hat, Dr Suess

16 The Twits, Roald Dahl

17 Mr Men, Roger Hargreaves

18 A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens

19 The Malory Towers Series, Enid Blyton

20 Peter Pan, J M Barrie

21 The Railway Children, E. Nesbit

22 Hans Christian Fairy Tales, H C Andersen

23 The Wizard of Oz, L. Frank Baum

24 The Witches, Roald Dahl

25 Stig of the Dump, Clive King

26 The Wishing Chair, Enid Blyton

27 Dear Zoo, Rod Campbell

28 The Tiger Who Came to Tea, Judith Kerr

29 Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Jan Brett

30 James and the Giant Peach, Roald Dahl

31 A Bear Called Paddington, Michael Bond

32 Black Beauty, Anna Sewell

33 Where the Wild Things Are, Maurice Sendak

34 Aesop’s Fables, Jerry Pinkney

35 The Borrowers, Mary Norton

36 Just So Stories, Rudyard Kipling

37 Meg and Mog, Jan Pienkowski

38 Mrs Pepperpot, Alf Proyson

39 We’re Going on a Bear Hunt, Michael Rosen

40 The Gruffalo’s Child, Julia Donaldson

41 Room on a Broom, Julia Donaldson

42 The Worst Witch, Jill Murphy

43 Miffy, Dick Bruna

44 The Little Prince, Antoine De Saint-Exupery

45 Flat Stanley, Jeff Brown

46 The Snail and the Whale, Julia Donaldson

47 Ten Little Ladybirds, Melanie Gerth

48 Six Dinners Sid, Inga Moore

49 The St. Clares Series, Enid Blyton

50 Captain Underpants, Dav Pilke

(The survey was carried out by Booktrust, an independent charity set up in 1921 to encourage people of all ages to read.)

Have your say » | Tagged Uncategorized, book lists, children's books

The e-Book Side Show

Posted by Rudy on 02.21.2008 at 12:35 pm

A friend and I hopped a train to Chicago last month to catch the Lyric’s performance of Verdi’s La Traviata. As we boarded the train, it was the usual aisle shuffle, weaving past newspapers, crossed legs, hand baggage, and the like. We noticed, across the aisle, a gentleman reading on a new e-reader. He looked relaxed, unfettered by large pages of the newspaper, and unburdened by turning pages. My friend asked an innocent question: “Isn’t this bad for companies like yours?”

I’m a book lover (alias: hoarder; scientific name: bibliophile). I enjoy looking at books: holding them, flipping pages, separating un-cut periodical pages, etc. I am hard pressed to read anything on the screen. I find it so difficult to have any kind of interaction with a screen. Anything sent to me in this way is printed out at first opportunity (on the back of scrap paper, of course).

In some ways, the work that I do at Better World Books suits me perfectly. I get to hold some of the gems that all of you send to us each day: a first edition Roll, Jordan, Roll; a second printing Bell Jar; an autographed, first edition Zane Grey. The list goes on. I wonder how much a signed, “first download” copy of J.K. Rowling’s latest is going for these days?

So, no, e-readers are not bad for companies like ours. In fact, perhaps they might even help us out. Recent chatter has suggested that Google’s book scanning project has increased demand for paper copies of books by a measurable amount. It would seem that folks have more access to and awareness of books that they would like to have: to hold, to read, to treasure. I’d say the same will likely come of the e-reader: how else can one feel the same sense of accomplishment other than by turning pages?

No, physical books will never be replaced. Libraries, bookstores, and living rooms; they will always be a place where humanity can go to explore the thoughts of others as well as their own.

When my friend and I finally reached the opera house, we were exhausted. Waiting for the overture, I thought aloud: “I suppose that we could have purchased a recording from iTunes or gone to one of The Met’s Hi-Def Broadcasts and saved ourselves the trip here.” As we heard Violetta’s opening lines, performed that night by Renee Fleming, that idea seemed to fade into the distance. It was definitely worth the trip.

(Above: Geraldine Farrar as Violetta in La Traviata.)

Have your say » | Tagged Antiquarian Ramblings, antiquarian, ARC, e-books, Rudy Reyes Jr.

Show Us Some Love: Republic of Guinea Edition

Posted by admin on 02.21.2008 at 9:40 am

As the resident evangelist and blogger I take whatever opportunity I can to talk about the great things that we do here at Better World Books.  Considering the amount of positive emails I get, this is a relatively easy task, however sometimes, it gets even easier.  Check out these letters from the Republic of Guinea written to Books for Africa from schools and missions expressing their gratitude.  Through our book donations and funding and support, Better World Books is proud to be a part of a group that creates impact like this:

Have your say » | Tagged Impact, Our Partners, Show Us Some Love, africa, books for africa, Impact, Our Partners, Republic of Guinea

Thank You from Prison Book Program

Posted by admin on 02.21.2008 at 8:55 am

The Prison Book Program is a partner you may not hear that much about but it’s an important one for us and one that Better World Books is truly proud to work with.  Whether it’s us having organized the biggest book drive in Boston this fall (involving me and some co-workers spending two days locked in a Church sorting books) for their benefit or now more recently, shipping them 19 cartons (~23 books in each carton, ~440 total copies) of paperback dictionaries, we do whatever we can to help a most worth cause.

From Pam at PBP:

Thanks again for arranging to get those 19 cartons of paperback
dictionaries to Prison Book Program.  These will be an incredible help
to us — approximately half of the requests from prisoners are for a
dictionary, and normally we have to purchase them in bulk.  This
shipment will keep us up to our ears in dictionaries for the foreseeable future!

As always, we value the partnership with Better World Books, and take
every opportunity to sing your praises from the rooftops!

Best regards,
Pam and the whole PBP gang

Here to help, Pam!

Have your say » | Tagged Impact, Our Partners, Show Us Some Love, Impact, Our Partners, prison book program

Listen: Eat, Pray, Love

Posted by admin on 02.20.2008 at 9:45 am

Over at Slate, one of my favorite online magazines, the audio book club took on Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love.  Listen to the podcast.  This book is one that is much talked about from people arguing that it’s an “original work excellently written in a real woman’s voice” to people who see her writing as bordering on  “petty, conceited and fickle.”

Decide for yourself at www.betterworld.com

Have your say » | Tagged Book Reviews, book reviews, eat pray love, elizabeth gilbert, slate

Cuttington University in Liberia: Starting from Zero

Posted by Andy on 02.18.2008 at 9:38 pm

Recently I had the opportunity to visit Liberia with others from Better World Books and Books for Africa . Liberia is a small country in West Africa that has been through horrific civil war for 14 years before finally re-establishing peace in 2003. Needless to say, just about every institution in the country is starting from zero, slowly building back up, and that includes their universities.

Cuttington University (map) is a rural 4-year university in Liberia . It is the oldest coed 4-year university in West Africa , considered by many to be the country’s most prestigious institution of higher education. It also happens to be quite close to the farm of Charles Taylor, the former president of Liberia who is currently on trial at the International Court of Justice in the Hague .

So here’s what I mean about “starting from zero”… four years ago, this prestigious university had no roofs on its buildings and no books in its library. The campus was ransacked during the wars… most of the books in the library were burned as fuel for fires.

Our group was able to meet with leaders from the university and hear their needs. Better World Books has committed to funding, through Books for Africa, the shipment of two 40-foot sea containers full of books (that’s 80,000 books) to Liberia for the country’s universities.

Cuttington is in dire need of books, so Liberia ’s brightest minds can be educated to help pull this country out of war-ravaged poverty. I think I speak for everyone at Better World Books when I say that we’re honored to be helping Cuttington.

www.flickr.com

6 Comments » | Tagged Impact, Our Partners, andy warzon, Better World Books in the field, books for africa, cuttington university, Impact, liberia, Our Partners