What is Social Capital? And why should you care?

Because Social Capital is changing the way you shop. It empowers you to change the world for the better through the purchases you already make.

Imagine this: You are taking a class in college. Your professor says you must read a certain book and write a paper about it. The first action you take is to buy that book.

You can buy the book from a number of stores. Book businesses solve that for you.

But what if you also want your book purchase to make a difference? What if you want to buy a pre-loved book because you care for Mother Earth? What if you want to buy a book that helps someone else learn how to read?

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*Note* The below blog post is a guest blog from our Facebook friend Kathrin. This content does not necessarily reflect the views of Better World Books (as our lawyers make sure we say). We love having guest bloggers and invite you to email 11@betterworldbooks.com if you are interested in covering a book or topic on the BWB Blog. Thank you, Kathrin!

On June 17th I embarked on my summer internship adventure with ThinkImpact! The Washington D.C. based organization and its Innovation Institute sends college students to villages in rural Kenya and South Africa to build social enterprises. As an MBA student with a focus on sustainable management (Presidio Graduate School) I’m very interested in using social enterprise as a catalyst for development and social change.

When I heard that ThinkImpact was looking for advisers to support their students during the program I immediately applied. I was accepted as an advisor for the South Africa side and started my journey with training in Washington D.C. After that I met my student team in Chicago at Northwestern University. This year ThinkImpact collaborated with Northwestern and their Global Engagement Summit Institute.

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*Note* The below blog post is a guest blog from our friend Twitter friend Pixie. This content does not necessarily reflect the views of Better World Books (as our lawyers make sure we say). We love having guest bloggers and invite you to email 11@betterworldbooks.com if you are interested in covering a book or topic on the BWB Blog. Thank you, Pixie!I started purchasing books from Better World Books when I found out that each purchase helps fund libraries and literary projects.  Several weeks ago, I decided to donate the books I read for an entire month back to Better World Books as well.  My goal was to donate 20 books at the end of the month, from cozy mysteries (like Steamed by Jessica Park and Susan Conant) to Wendy Smith’s Give a Little, which shows how small donations create huge change.

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Confused about how the U.S. unemployment rate is getting better but the S&P just downgraded the U.S. credit rating? Wondering what politics has to do with the global economy? Wish you better understood the stock markets and the safest place to put your well-earned money? We hear ya! Here are some book suggestions that should help you through this mad money time. We also welcome your suggestions for great financial books in the comments below…

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*Note* The below blog post is a guest blog from our Facebook friend Kris. This content does not necessarily reflect the views of Better World Books (as our lawyers make sure we say). We love having guest bloggers and invite you to email 11@betterworldbooks.com if you are interested in covering a book or topic on the BWB Blog. Thank you, Kris!When I saw the Facebook post from Better World Books asking for favorite lines from books, the opening lines from Cry, The Beloved Country by Alan Paton sprang to mind immediately. Considering that in over fifty years of reading I’ve read thousands of books, and that I’ve read many books with memorable lines, I was almost surprised by this choice. There are so many books (including that one) that I consider my ‘favorites,’ all of which have quotable lines – I couldn’t go wrong with any of them! But, truly, these opening lines made such an impact on me when I read them that I really must say that they are my most memorable.

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Journal entries by Catarina Gutierrez, a Regional Manager at BWB.Now that I have returned from my amazing trip to Peru and Chile, I have had some time to reflect on what this trip has meant to me and what I’ve learned.

I have been to Peru before when I was 10 or 11 years old but really didn’t understand the importance of traveling and being exposed to so many cultures at such a young age. My mother’s family is from Peru and I now feel a deeper connection to an incredibly rich, spiritual, and strong culture. 

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Can one teacher launch a revolution? Luis Soriano did just that in rural Colombia.

Check out this film trailer to learn more of Luis’s story…

Do you have your own inspirational story of a reading revolution? We’d love to hear it!