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

Show Us Some Love, Facebook Edition

Posted by admin on 06.24.2008 at 1:01 pm

Here are some highlights from the posts on our Facebook Fan Page:

Belkis in Venezuela: I have (been) buying books from them for more than three years and i love them, not only because i benefit from the prices and variety of books, also i am helping along with the environment and the most important i am supporting the causes they support, especially books for my brothers and sisters in Africa. I am so happy to find everything that makes me happy in one place.

Angela at IUPUI: I just got some books I ordered from Better World Books; they arrived in a timely fashion, were in good shape, were very reasonably priced, and best of all, they were shipped in an eco-friendly way without all that extra packaging and some of the funds went towards good literacy-promoting causes. Considering I’m a librarian (a librarian in training, actually), I couldn’t ask for a better place from which to buy books!

Madzia in Poland: I love, love, love BetterWorld. I can buy cheap books that are hard to find elsewhere- most of the sources for my master’s thesis came from Better World. And I am very glad to know that I don’t have to worry about the carbon footprint, that my money helps charity, and that I save books from becoming landfill. Long live Better World!

Dor in Israel: Better World books made it possible for me to order books online and not have to pay double just for shipping, you people rock!

Patti at Harding: Amazing selection and great service! I ordered 17 books and received them exactly as ordered just a week later.

Gerry in New Zealand: Def some good prices. Seems like an all around good choice

but perhaps Scott in L.A. says it best:

Reading is golden.I love your website.

Have your say » | Tagged Show Us Some Love

Hippie 2.0?

Posted by admin on 06.10.2008 at 1:43 pm

News source Profy.com has an article by editor Cyndy Aleo-Carreira about us, entitled: Hippie 2.0: Better World Books Is Proving You Can Make Money Being Green:

There are those who would assume that running a business that keeps old textbooks out of landfills, takes those books and sells them at a low price, and then buys carbon credits to offset emissions that result from shipping those books is actually a charity. How could a company ever make money by trying to do good things for the environment? Better World Books is out to prove those doubters wrong.

Have your say » | Tagged Show Us Some Love, press, profy.com, social entrepreneurship

Show Us Some Love, Comment Edition

Posted by admin on 05.30.2008 at 9:23 am

Check out some of the latest comments on the blog:

On A Prolific Trip of Epic Proportions 5
MGD says: “It is great to see those young children reading. They appear to enjoy doing that. Keep the good job guys.”

On Show Us Some Love, Finnish Edition
Sanntu says: “Hi! Nice site! I don’t know how you manage to have such low international shipping prices AND do some charity as well but I’ll be sure to buy something… soon.

So, I’m Finnish and might be able to help you out. The whole article is maybe a tad longish to translate completely (at least now, it’s 3 a.m.) and doesn’t seem to be online anyway.

But here’s what the caption says, roughly:
“$Millions to promoting literacy: ‘Way back in school I used to dream about a company whose operations were inseparably connected with charity,’ says Xavier Hegelsen.

All in all it seems like a positive story and if there’s something more you’d like to know, do ask.”

On Chicago, Navy Pier, Game Time!
Kristin says: “I had never heard of you before and I am so happy I came across your book store at the Chicago Green Festival! Thanks for coming out to our town!”

On Show Us Some Love, May 12 Edition
Cathy says: “My first encounter with BetterWorld was with a book I bought on Amazon. No more Amazon for me now that I have found this great site.”

Well Cathy, I’m not going to complain.

Have your say » | Tagged Show Us Some Love, blog, Show Us Some Love

Show Us Some Love, Finnish Edition

Posted by admin on 05.23.2008 at 10:36 am

Maybe you’re a better man than I, but I can’t read Finnish. I know what you’re thinking, “Jack, in your studies at Holy Cross you never got through Hurskas Kurjuus by Sillinpaa? Shame, shame!” I know, believe me.

However, if you have Finnish under control maybe you can tell us what this awesome full page pull out says in KD or as they know it “Kristillisdemokraattinen viikkolehti” (yes, that is the title of the newspaper… seriously). So far on the site I’ve ascertained that “Etusivu = homepage” and “Arkisto = archive.”

If you can find it, in the March 30th edition we got some awesome press (I think…):
“Lukutaidon edistamiseen jo mlijoonia dollareita: Haaveilen jo koulussa yrityksesta, jonka toimintaan liittyisi erottamattomasti hyvantekevaisyys, sanoo Xavier Hegelsen.”

Hey… I recognize something there!

[Update, I think "Haku" is search but I have yet to find the article in the archives... I'll keep you posted!]

[Update 2: This is an interview with Xavier! Scandanavia loves its own!]

For more press about Better World Books go HERE.

Have your say » | Tagged Show Us Some Love, The Man Behind the Curtain, interview, Xavier Helgesen

Show Us Some Love, May 12 Edition

Posted by admin on 05.12.2008 at 2:11 pm

Here are links of some of the latest love from the last two weeks for Better World Books!

- Best Green Blog post re: The upcoming Chicago Green Festival
“Better World Books and Green Festival are partnering to offer $5 off Green Festival admission to attendees who bring in 3 or more books. Your donated books will be sold on BetterWorld.com to help fund girls’ scholarships in developing countries in Asia through Room to Read. www.roomtoread.org…”

-Hippo Press post re: De-cluttering
“The Nashua Public Library works with www.betterworld.com. Their blog (which recently had an entry about clutter which conveniently lists several books about de-cluttering at blogs.nashualibrary.org/reference/)”

- Southern Vibrations post re: Learning Spanish
“My trip to Spain is in August. Here’s how I’m learning the language: …Fifth, I bought the Dos Mundos textbook from Betterworld.com for less than $10 and have been studying that a lot.”

- Sub Ratio post re: Amazon Unlinked
“I was aware of the issue regarding smaller publishers that Halden refers to before his post and this, coupled with the poor customer service I have received from them of late has meant Amazon are no longer my first port of call when buying books… recommended sites of purchase:
- The book’s publisher (where applicable)
- Abe – This is a really good online marketplace of 2nd hand retailers searchable by bookseller location.
- Better World Books – I have purchased through these a number of times

- Syerubi re: Adorable Af(f)ordable
“Um.. so, I know some people ’round these parts are big book fans! I was just searching through Howard County Library’s website and found this place that donates a lot of money to them: https://www.betterworld.com/index.aspx

They seem like a reputable company, and the shipping’s free, and they claim that you’re helping education/the environment/the kidz who can’t read good when you buy from them. Ugh, who wants to do that? So, I ordered a book! Yay for helping!”

- Rollins Rundown re: Better World Books
“Last week I ordered some used books from BetterWorld Books. Basically, they sell used and new books and the profits go to fund literacy programs around the world. I bought 5 board books for the tykes and 4 books for me, all for $3.48 a book. Yep, I got 9 books for less than 35 bucks. AND, shipping within the US is FREE — including APO addresses. Otherwise, worldwide it’s about $3 a book…

I love this site!”

Have your say » | Tagged Show Us Some Love

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

Show Us Some Love: Random Blog Edition

Posted by admin on 02.18.2008 at 11:12 am

Yup, more love for www.betterworld.com. By mistake I entered www.betterworld.com into my google search instead of the web address bar and tripped on this blog.

“Sharing this from an RFF (Readers for the Future) posting by David Glen Anderson, repeated below. Sounds like a website worth supporting. I like the idea of books supporting good causes, and I like to see second hand books move on to new lives. (The book Dave talks about below isn’t Righteous Anger)

‘Before I left to attend Life, the Universe and Everything, I ordered one of the Golden Duck candidates from BetterWorld.com (http://www.BetterWorld.com/) Fund literacy, care for the environment, and get a fair price on the books you want. 2 Million Used Books. Free shipping in the USA, $2.97 worldwide This book was not available new.

The book is in transit. I went to their website. For less than $30 I found about 8 books that I needed to fill in some holes. Some are exlibrary copies but when I cannot find certain books in my local bookstore exlibrary works. BetterWorld lists libraries et al that benefit by my purchase.

Dave Anderson’

([Dave]‘s into all kinds of good books and good ways to make them mean as much as they can in the world.)”

Nice!

Have your say » | Tagged Show Us Some Love, blog, Show Us Some Love

Show Us Some Love: “Why I Love Books” Edition

Posted by admin on 02.18.2008 at 8:51 am

Check out this blog entry that I heard about in the ether.

Apparently the writer bought some books from us at www.betterworld.com and has this to say about that:

I’ve been reading Christopher Buckley for the past month now.

1. No Way to Treat a First Lady
2. Thank You for Smoking
3. The White House Mess
4. Florence of Arabia
5. Wry Martinis

I’m on book #4 right now and I was so thrilled to find this:

It’s Christopher Buckley’s autograph~!

… now Johann and I have to change our names to Kerry and Susan. ^_^

My favorite is still No Way to Treat a First Lady. Florence of Arabia is really funny. ^_^

We also got a copy of Irving Stone’s Passions of the Mind — his take on Sigmund Freud.

We received a library copy and it still has the old library record. ^_^

I like that my books have a story. ^_^

So what have we learned? Used books have a story (that’s more than the one cleared by an editor) and sometimes a surprise. And did I mention they’re loads cheaper? Ah, well in case I didn’t…

Have your say » | Tagged Show Us Some Love, books, florence of arabia, Show Us Some Love

Show Us Some Love: UAE 7 Edition

Posted by admin on 08.13.2007 at 8:01 am

Check this testimonial about Better World, our website for book sales, all the way from the United Arab Emirates! :

This website is a paradise for bargain hunters on books. The people managing this site come across as being very ethical: they sell at ridiculously low prices, especially older editions of textbooks, they stun you with an incredible shipping cost of USD 2.95 per book for international orders and also fund literacy with your purchases. I have lost count of the number of books I’ve ordered from them. Orders unfailingly arrive in 2 weeks to United Arab Emirates and the books are in the same condition as stated in the website. If they said there was a CD, you will get a usable CD with the book! As testimony to my good experience with Better World, I ended up buying a lot more books than I otherwise would have. I will put my hand on my heart and say this is a site any booklover should checkout before hitting the ‘Place Your Order’ button at amazon.com or Barnes and Noble. You may never know what you are missing till you have visited Better World.