Show Us Some Love - Better World Books Blog - Book Reviews, Author Interviews, Community Outreach & more

Funds Raised for Global Literacy:

$10,184,799.20

Books Re-Used or Recycled:

63,271,794

You Don’t Have to Be Bill Gates to Make a Massive Impact. These College Kids Just Did!

Posted by Erin on 01.16.2012 at 9:13 am

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

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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.

1 Comment » | Tagged Company News, Impact, Our Partners, Show Us Some Love, Social Enterprise

Show Us Some Love: Techcrunch

Posted by admin on 01.08.2009 at 2:48 pm

Techcrunch just gave us a major shout-out about our December numbers.

An excerpt:

Better World doesn’t charge any shipping fees for shipments within the US (and only $3.97 worldwide), and every order gets shipped carbon neutral with offsets from Carbonfund.org. Unlike traditional for-profit companies, Better World Books adds a social component to everything it does as a commercial venture. So far, the company has converted more than 16.4 million donated books into $5 million in funding for literacy and education.

Have your say » | Tagged Show Us Some Love

Show Us Some Love: Twitter Edition

Posted by admin on 12.03.2008 at 12:47 pm

Check out our support over at Twitter here and here.

My favorites:
-Thx for sharing http://www.betterworld.com site..Shipping is great for me here in Pakistan, with amazon shipin is so costly here

-i like this company’s mission anyway, but if you’re out of usa and want lots of books, shipping way cheap: http://www.betterworld.com/

-In place of Amazon every book I link to from my site will be at BetterWorld Books: http://www.betterworld.com/

- Buying books at BetterWorld.com. Free shipping (USA), low prices; each purchase fights illiteracy: http://www.betterworld.com/

-I like using Better World Books- the business concept is just so cool and they are rethinking how a triple bottom line company works

-Donate textbooks to Better World books. Hope my immunology and physiology texts find a good home.

Have your say » | Tagged Show Us Some Love, don't believe me? ask them!, twitter

Show Us Some Love: Scotland Edition

Posted by admin on 10.22.2008 at 11:52 am

Over at business.scotsman.com there’s a glowing report of recently opened Better World UK.

Check it out:

A US-BASED online bookseller which gives a proportion of its turnover to literacy charities has launched its first overseas subsidiary in Scotland.Better World Books (BWB), which was set up in 2001 by a trio of IT graduates in Indiana, has opened a warehouse in Dunfermline and claims it is aiming to become a serious rival to Amazon on both sides of the Atlantic. (continue reading)

2 Comments » | Tagged Show Us Some Love, better world books UK, press, scotland

Invisible Children and Better World Books Team Up for “World’s Biggest Book Drive”

Posted by Jack on 10.21.2008 at 10:12 am

ATLANTA, GA – This fall, media-based non-profit Invisible Children will connect students to the overwhelming crisis in Africa in a totally new way – with a documentary told from the perspective of high school students. GO, the first of its kind, is the story of a group of students that traveled into the heart of Africa’s longest-running war. At the end of the 35-minute film, which is being screened in over 1,000 locations in the U.S. and Canada, viewers will be compelled to become a part of the story’s end by getting involved with Invisible Children’s Schools for Schools program.

The international organization created the revolutionary fundraising program in 2006 in response to the need for quality schools in northern Uganda – schools that have been destroyed by displacement, rebel occupation and lack of funding due to the 22-year war. Schools for Schools uses an innovative online social community to help students see where their money is going and connect to different projects, fundraising ideas, and supporters. Within its first year, students rallied together and raised over $3 million.
Read more…

Have your say » | Tagged Impact, Our Partners, Show Us Some Love, africa, Impact, invisible children, Our Partners, the world's biggest book drive, uganda

Show Us Some Love: It’s All Greek to Me Edition

Posted by admin on 10.21.2008 at 9:41 am

Greek Media: Politis loves Better World Books

1 Comment » | Tagged Show Us Some Love, Greece, Politis, press, Show Us Some Love

Show Us Some Love, Library Edition

Posted by admin on 09.16.2008 at 2:29 pm

Library Journal, the most respected of periodicals about the business of libraries just posted an article on LibraryJournal.com called “Green Weeding: promoting eco-friendly options for library discards.” Within the article, check out the following:

…and Better World Books (whose Dustin Holland was a 2007 LJ Mover & Shaker) are two of today’s most popular discard solutions. Both help libraries make the most of the marketing principles of the long tail, as coined by Wired magazine’s Chris Anderson, wherein obscure titles are able to find a larger audience owing to the efficiencies of e-commerce.

…contributors to Better World Books are pleased with the results. “The Brooklyn Public Library sees a real value in this relationship and has been more than happy with the revenues it generates,” over $155,000 since 2005, says Barbara Genco, director of collection development. Western Kentucky University Libraries, Bowling Green, succeeded in building a $200 Alibris credit over a two-year period. Southwestern University earned $300 with Better World Books during the 2006–07 academic year.

Thanks, Library Journal! We do our best to bring libraries the best value while providing a much needed service.

Have your say » | Tagged Show Us Some Love, book drive, green for all, library, library journal, press

Show Us Some Love, Chilean Edition

Posted by admin on 08.25.2008 at 9:44 pm

Check out this latest bit of press about Better World Books’ own, Jaime Knabet. Mind you that if you can’t read Spanish then you may need to find a bilingual friend (Jaime is from Chile and this article is from the “New York Times” level paper in Santiago). That being said, it’s great to get some cool press abroad and it’s also great to see Jaime get some press as the man is flat out talented. If you’ve ever seen us live at the Green Festivals you’ve seen his tables built of books and various architectural pursuits, and if you’ve bought a book from us you’re indebted to his commitment to crazy new ideas and progress, so now enjoy reading a bit about him.

Jaime is 33, moving back to Chile (we’re all wiping away the tears, seriously), he’s an architect by trade but a warehouse manager by day and, sorry ladies, he’s happily married to his lovely wife Pia (who also works at Better World Books and is a total business rockstar) and has two kids, Victoria and Benjamin (who are obviously training to become book nerds at BWB as well).

Congrats, Jaime!

Have your say » | Tagged Show Us Some Love, argentina, chile, press, Show Us Some Love

Green Daily Hearts Better World Books

Posted by admin on 07.31.2008 at 5:34 pm

Over at Green Daily, your blog source for all things environmental and awesome, they’re showing some love Amanda Miller, a far better writer than I am, scribes: to Better World Books.

While we’ve spotlighted green book sources before, I do believe that Better World Books might be the only place you’ll be shopping in the future.

Here’s what makes them so great, and my new top pick for book buying:

All books sold help fund high-impact literacy projects around the world.
Not only do they sell new books, but they collect and sell donated books as well. Not only is this a great way to reduce/reuse/recycle, it also has helped to generate $4.5 million in funding for literacy and education. So far, over 6,000 tons of books have avoided landfills.
To date, Better World Books has donated over 1 million books to literacy programs.
Every order is shipped carbon neutral, using offsets from Carbonfund.org.
The company was started by college students who knew first-hand about the importance of passing on textbooks, literacy and business with a social conscience.

Ah, that feels good… like a warm towel after a shower. Head over to Green Daily for great tips on how to greenify your life, a little bit at a time, and a sweet “Top Ten Green Kids’ Books” list that I’m way jealous I didn’t think of first.

Have your say » | Tagged Show Us Some Love, books, children's books, green daily, press

Show Us Some Love, Facebook Edition (2)

Posted by admin on 07.29.2008 at 12:53 pm

We’ve already done a “Show Us Some Love” segment, but Facebook just keeps coming up with more good ones.

Here are some highlights from the (latest) posts on our Facebook Fan Page: (currently with 1300 fans!!!)

Rose from Singapore: Bye Amazon

Ambassador Tom Amolo: I am an eclectic reader, this is home.

Reika from Australia: Great job! I found old books from my teenage years which I missed. Being so far away from the US, I couldn’t get my hands on all the books I want at such a cheap shipping rate. You’ve really solved my problem on that! Thanks!

James from (my beloved) Ireland: Great job guys I just picked up two books for cheaper from you than from a bookshop in Ireland! Keep it up!

Randy and Sharon: Amazing! Im a phenomenal book addict and just discovered the joys of shopping online! lol… Looks to me that BetterWorld Books will be my new fave site!!!

And Chris from Dupage captures it neatly: I’ve contributed to the past to non-profit organizations, but nowadays I just can’t afford it. I feel like I am indirectly actually doing something for the common good just buying books from BetterWorld. And free shipping!! Awesome!