Here’s a top 10 Tuesday list that should be very helpful in your book-browsing endeavors. Check out these BWB fan favorite authors to find your next great read.

1. Terry Pratchett
Co-Author of “Good Omens” with the number two pick. Pratchett also wrote “Unseen Academicals,” “The Wee Free Men,” “The Color Magic,” and many other novels.

2. Neil Gaiman
Co-Author of “Good Omens” with the number one pick. Gaiman also wrote “The Graveyard Book,” “American Gods,” and “Neverwhere” to name a few.

3. Kurt Vonnegut
Most famous for his anti-war book “Slaughterhouse-five,” Vonnegut also wrote a satirical commentary on modern man, “Cat’s Cradle,” and “Breakfast of Champions,” examining fiction as truth, as well as “Welcome to the Monkey House,” full of his short stories… plus many more.

Read more…

Our partners at the National Center for Family Literacy (NCFL)  have partnered with the Dollar General Literacy Foundationto teach families the value of financial responsibility through “A Day at Dollar General: Learn While Shopping.” The interactive online game recreates the experience of shopping in a real store and encourages children to learn while shopping.By expanding the definition of literacy to include smart financial habits, NCFL and the Dollar General Literacy Foundation are teaching children to make informed spending decisions that will help them reach their goals.

“A Day at Dollar General: Learn While Shopping” is tailored to families and children, providing them with a fun and interactive game that teaches good spending habits.

Read more…

Guest post from our Twitter friend Hannah Giles

Organic Manifesto by Maria Rodale is a deceptively thin book, chock full of imperative information about not only the environment, but more importantly, public health. Her perspective is far-reaching; her grandfather, J.I. Rodale, was one of the first advocates of modern organic agriculture, so it is no surprise that Rodale has written such a thorough book on what “going organic” really means.

Read more…

Six year old Daniela’s face never used to be clean. Her eyes seemed vacant and she rarely uttered a word. She only ever sketched single colored empty bubbles with the crayons and paper they gave her. Daniela had trouble concentrating and often sought refuge in “no puedo” (“I can’t do it”). When there were group activities she would wander off alone. Daniela spent her days wandering the streets of Quito, Ecaudor. She had no way to discover her own imagination and free her mind to the endless opportunities six-year-olds around the world should be granted. Daniela did not even have one book, let alone a chance to learn the fundamental skill of reading.
Read more…

“I have always depended on the kindness of strangers” Tennessee Williams once said.In that spirit, one of my favorite ways to spend a sunny day is by walking around local neighborhoods and taking photos of strangers.

I ask them for permission, of course, and will only take their photo if they are willing to share their face and their story with the world.

Read more…

This is the season when most of the world is focused more on giving than receiving, on blessing or helping those who cannot help themselves.  In an excerpt from our book What Difference Do It Make, I’d like to share a story that hopefully will bless you, the reader of this blog,  about serving without judging.

After Denver and I struck up our unlikely friendship at the mission, we had a bargain.  I was going to show him how to get along with the country-club set, and he was going to show me how to get along in the ‘hood.  When Deborah first dragged me down to serve at the mission, my biggest worry was catching a disease or some kind of creepy-crawly infestation.  But after a while, my heart toward the homeless softened up to the point where I actually started going out into the streets with Denver to reach out to the homeless. Read more…

I am so impressed with the most “liked” resolutions our Facebook fans shared. Not that I was expecting tons of people to encourage going to the gym and eating less candy over doing good in our world, but nonetheless, I am pleased to share this list with you.

1. Listen more, talk less.

2. Less time on the iPad, more time interfacing with a real book!

3. Now that I’ve moved closer to a city, I plan to volunteer again for an adult literacy program.4. My goal is to read at least 50 books in 2012, not including college textbooks. I’m going to donate books to places and people in need and get more of my friends and family to read. Every gift I give in 2012 will be a book!

5. To manage our energy consumption more responsibly and efficiently!

6. Read the Bible in one year. Increase my volunteer work.

7. Buy more organic foods, eat less processed stuff!

8. Never buy a nook or a kindle.

9. Self sufficiency, survival and faith in good over evil.

10. Start reading poetry!

11. Read more books this year!

12. To be more active.

What is your New Year’s resolution? Hope this inspires some meaningful ideas to spur in your head and heart!

We asked our Facebook and Twitter
fans what books they are most looking forward to reading this new year, here are the most popular answers.

10. The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand

9. Homer’s The Odyssey

8. 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami

7. J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit6. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

5. The Help by Kathryn Stockett

4. A Memory of Light by Robert Jordan

3. M is for Magic by Neil Gaiman

2. Jane Goodall’s In the Shadow of Man

1. Heaven is for Real by Todd Burpo

What did you do with your college textbooks when you graduated college?

I sold mine at the University of Virginia Bookstore and took the fresh cash to a cute boutique for a new dress and to Harris Teeter for a bottle of cheap champagne to celebrate.

Too bad I had not yet become aware of Better World Books. I sure hope I would have sold, or even given, my books to them. I still could have used the extra cash on silly splendors but others, who could barely dream of a shiny new dress or enjoying a bottle of bubbley, would greatly benefit too.

Here’s just a glimpse of what our student partners have been able to support in 2011 with their used textbooks:

Many students’ efforts on campus generated funding for Books For Africa. Books For Africa recently shipped its 25 millionth book to Africa, and was given a Charity Navigator 4 star rating for the 5th consecutive year, which means you can feel well assured that the funding and books raised by our wonderful book-drivers are being put to great use.

Others chose to support Room To Read through their campus book drives. Room to Read recently distributed their 10 millionth book, and they have opened more than 12,000 libraries and 1,500 schools to date. They’re currently opening libraries in South Asia and Africa at a rate of 6 per day. If you have not yet read the story of how Room To Read got started, it’s very inspiring and available here. Two lucky, passionate, hard-working college book drive leaders will win the trip of a lifetime this summer to come with Better World Books and Room To Read to visit their projects in the developing world!

With Worldfund’s 10th Anniversary quickly approaching, they have already invested more than $12 million in Latin America, with a focus on intensive training programs for public school teachers. Worldfund is currently impacting 340,000 children every year with their teacher training efforts in Mexico and Brazil. The top-generating book drive leaders from last school year were awarded a trip with Better World Books and Worldfund to South America this summer. Check out their life-changing experience in this video.

Read more…

In American politics, electoral future is oftentimes illuminated by electoral past.

With the 2012 presidential election season now in full swing, President Barack Obama faces two paths, each symbolized by one of his recent Democratic predecessors.

The happy outcome for Obama would be to emulate President Harry Truman, who won one of the most remarkable electoral upsets in American history when he defeated New York Gov. Thomas Dewey in 1948. Zachary Karabell ably describes the campaign in his book, The Last Campaign: How Harry Truman Won the 1948 Election, and he reminds us that Truman did not just have to defeat Dewey; he also was challenged in the South by “Dixiecrat” candidate Strom Thurmond — who ran as a protest candidate after Truman and the Democratic Party embraced civil rights — and Progressive Party nominee and former Vice President Henry Wallace, who ran to Truman’s left. Indeed, throughout the year Obama has been trying to adopt a harder tone with congressional Republicans, much like Truman did in assailing the “Do-Nothing Congress.”

Read more…