Posted by Jack Hanlon, CBO & Evangelist

Over at www.gawker.com, flagship of superhip internet empire: Gawker Media, they've posted an obituary sure to dishearten all of us English majors and nerds: the death of the semicolon.

Over at The Guardian they have posted a fabulous set of contrasting viewpoints
on the topic:

"I love a good semicolon, but this sounds like one of those Literature is Dead! Stories that The New York Times likes to run," he says. "I've never heard from a reader confused by one of my semicolons, and I don't remember ever throwing a book aside for being semicolon-free."

The late Kurt Vonnegut, meanwhile, takes the subtle approach and compares semicolons to cross-dressing she-males: "If you really want to hurt your parents, and you don't have the nerve to be a homosexual, the least you can do is go into the arts. But do not use semicolons," he has cautioned. "They are transvestite hermaphrodites, standing for absolutely nothing. All they do is show you've been to college."

Where do you stand on the topic?

By Christian Blue, Account Representative


From left to right: David Hoffman, Christian Blue, Chris Johnson, Walter Sears (center left), Tom Warth (center right), Jacob Fu, Pat Plonski and Dustin Holland.

I wanted to share a couple of highlights from the Library Division’s trip to Minneapolis to exhibit at the Public Library Association’s biannual conference.  We tend to measure our impact on literacy through books donated or revenue raised and no doubt, that’s important.  What was interesting about this week was the impact some of our key literacy partners had on us! 

The 1st day we spent almost entirely with Tom Warth and Pat Plonski, the Founder and Executive Director respectively of Books For Africa.  With their warehouse in St. Paul, we also had the good fortune of touring their facility later that evening.  For Tom and Pat to take their time that weekend with the Better World Books crew, made a big impression on me.  Two of the nicest guys you’ll ever meet and you know exactly where their hearts are in terms of ending the book famine in Africa.


BFA Headquarters

In keeping with our Non Profit Literacy Partner’s involvement in the conference, we kicked off the weekend by attending John Wood’s opening keynote address.  This really helped me understand more in depth the business model that Room to Read employs.  His speech clearly struck a chord with all who were in the room because the conference was buzzing all weekend with Room to Read’s cause.  John was gracious enough to mention Better World Books’ support for his mission and that resulted in a firestorm of visitors to our booth to find out how their library can utilize our Library Discards & Donations Program to benefit Room to Read.  Thanks John!

Thursday evening, after the exhibits closed, we were treated to the New Orleans Public Library’s Master Plan Party.  We started off at the swank digs of Meyer, Scherer & Rockcastle where we were given a taste of the vision and direction that the NOPL Foundation has taken in their efforts to ReBuild New Orleans Public Libraries.  As MS&R’s spokesman touched on, there is a deeper relevance that exists in an architect located at the start of the Mississippi River, providing services to the rebuilding effort down at the mouth.  It’s remarkable to think of it in that sense; the ability of one terrible event to engage a nation of people. People like Irvin Mayfield who sits on the board of NOPL’s Foundation and with a hot jazz trumpet and complementary band, encapsulates the rebirth of New Orleans.  Following the presentation at MS&R, the Better World Books crew had the unique opportunity to attend Irvin’s live performance that night.  He played a total of 3 nights in Minneapolis and all raised funding for the New Orleans Public Library.


Irvin Mayfield, Jazz Trumpeter

How about that!  A summary of highlights from Minneapolis and not one mention of the Mall of America!  Whoops!

Posted by Abby Rae LaCombe, Rocky Mountain Regional Director



So, a couple of weeks ago, the Better World Books list servs were on fire with reminders about Earth Hour (If you haven’t heard of it, Earth Hour started in Australia in 2007. 2.2 million people and 2100 businesses in Sydney decreased the town’s energy usage by 10.2% by turning off non-essential lights for one hour).  

I was revved for the newest of alternative holidays and had a bunch of folks were over to enjoy a nice candlelit dinner between 8-9, central time.  I turned out every light, unplugged each appliance, followed the instructions to a T.  I even unplugged things like unused phone chargers – no energy seepage allowed.  Once the house was dark and we were ready to go, it turned out that in my whole house – seriously the whole house -- there was only one candle.  Oops...  So, our candlelit dinner was the darkest candlelit dinner of my life.  Dark like “How far is the fork from my mouth?” dark.  Next year, I will have enough candles that folks walking past will think there is a raging fire inside my house.

Our participation stemmed from all the e-mails that circulated here at Better World Books (word of mouth is always the best form of promotion).  That got me wondering how many other folks participated this year.  I can’t find any real estimates of bodies involved, but I do know (from Earth Hour’s website) that in 2008, 38 countries participated in Earth Hour!  

Among these were both Canada and the US, and get this: 146 cities in 12 of the 13 Canadian provinces participated!  This then made me realize that since the Rocky Mountain Region was expanded to include Canada, I’ve communicated with so many generous, globally conscious students and bookstores that of course Canada would have rockstar representation.

So, my point: If Sydney can reduce energy usage by 10.2% in one hour, imagine the awesome results of having 38 countries involved!  Imagine the results of just the 146 cities in Canada!

There are 1000s of easy ways to help keep our planet green, but Earth Hour is a crazy easy way to support a greener globe. So, spread the word to your friends and family that Earth Hour 2009 starts at 8 p.m. local time in roughly 356 days.  While spreading the word, remind your loved-ones to buy some candles.

The Earth Hour website highlights some energy saving tips for your home/school/work life -- but our purchasing habits are another great place to make a difference!  All the books you buy from Betterworld.com are shipped to you carbon neutral and most of them are used; so buy a book, save some trees, reduce some carbon outputs – hooray!

Posted by Jack Hanlon, CBO & Evangelist


Tom Wolfe, A Man in Full

Hey readers, I was just checking out the New York Times when I saw that their feature "Reading Room" was tackling Tom Wolfe's great-text-cum-awful-movie, Bonfire of the Vanities.  "Reading Room" is an excellent discussion about a text.  In this case it begins with an hour long podcast with Wolfe, discussing everything from journalism to his thesis to his works and then moves forward with some really fascinating discussion about race and the book as a period piece (which I would say, and they would agree, that it is most certainly not).

Anyway, here's the beginning and here's the rest (N.B. like any blog, start at the bottom to sift through the lot).

Posted by Jack Hanlon, CBO & Evangelist



Check it out!

StoryTubes is here! From New York to California, kids in Grades 1-6 are talking up their favorite books. You can too!

Along with your parent or guardian, follow these simple steps:

--Make a 2-minute video about your favorite book;
--Upload the video to YouTube; and
--Come to this StoryTubes website and send in the link to your uploaded YouTube video using the online Contest Entry Form.

Beginning April 1, your video becomes part of a national contest!

Voting mania will then begin and happen each week in May! At the end of each week, one lucky contestant will win $500 in books. Their sponsoring organization (school, library or designated organization for home-schooled youth) will receive $1,000 in books.

Four  Video Categories:

Hair-Raising Tales
From or For the Heart
Of Heroes and Heroines
Facts, Fads and Phenoms

Tell the story about your favorite book today. When entering, please don’t use your last name in the video. Entries will be evaluated on creativity, content and performance.

OK kids and parents, "let's see the videotape!"

Posted by Jack Hanlon, CBO & Evangelist

I came across a pretty interesting article by Rachel Donadio in the New York Times this Sunday. Check out a bit of it: Some years ago, I was awakened early one morning by a phone call from a friend. She had just broken up with a boyfriend she still loved and was desperate to justify her decision. “Can you believe it!” she shouted into the phone. “He hadn’t even heard of Pushkin!”

We’ve all been there. Or some of us have. Anyone who cares about books has at some point confronted the Pushkin problem: when a missed — or misguided — literary reference makes it chillingly clear that a romance is going nowhere fast. At least since Dante’s Paolo and Francesca fell in love over tales of Lancelot, literary taste has been a good shorthand for gauging compatibility.

Reading this, (despite the overt and somewhat heavy handed Pushkin reference that flies in the face of Donadio's later quip a la Burroghs about the guy holding Beckett's "Proust") I was intrigued. We've all had relationships that went one way or the other and education and taste in books (and movies) has definitely been an issue in the early stages. I remember a girl I dated who was rather offended when I referred to Grisham as "beach worthy kitsch" and another who could never understand my lack of appreciation of the perfection of Austen's complete works.

Posted by Jack Hanlon, CBO & Evangelist

Check out this month's edition of our recurring feature, Worldfund's Student of the Month.  Worldfund is our Latin American non-profit literacy partner and we look to support them in any way we can as they support youths such as:




Dina!

Six-year-old Dina is a kindergarten student at Worldfund’s partner school in El Salvador, Mano Amiga San Antonio . A confident and friendly girl, Dina works hard in school and helps with chores at home.

Sadly, she already has experienced myriad hardships, including a life of poverty, abandonment by her father, and the death of her mother. Dina and her younger brother Oscar live with their elderly grandmother, Adela. Until recently, they lived in a house that was constructed with sticks and scrap materials and located in a community made up of small islands surrounded by raw sewage and trash.

In 2006, the school’s Director arranged for Dina to attend Mano Amiga San Antonio. Dina’s enrollment marked a turning point in the lives of everyone in her family. Dina’s brother Oscar is now a student at the school, and the Director facilitated the family’s move into a house in CIDECO (Centro Integral de Desarrollo Comunitario), a special community affiliated with the school that provides housing, medical care and access to literacy, hygiene and other classes that help families live with dignity and transition out of poverty. Adela, Dina and Oscar have benefited from the activities and classes, learning to eat with plates and utensils, and learning about personal hygiene, among other things.

The scholarship that Dina receives enables her to receive a high-quality education and she takes advantage of all that the school has to offer. Since Dina enrolled in the school, her attitude has improved significantly. She especially enjoys attending her pre-mathematics class and playing soccer with her friends.

The stark contrast between Dina’s life before and after enrolling in the school demonstrates the transformative effect that generous donations and high-quality education have on impoverished children’s lives.

Post swiped from the NCFL's hot new blog, "Literacy Now."

The good times just keep rolling! Here are some of the conference highlights from Monday:

• 
  David Murphy of Better World Books helped open the general session with thoughts about how Better World Books are working to .merge commerce and philanthropy in a way that will make the world a better place. One simple way to do that…shop BetterWorld.com to buy books from a company that balances profit, planet, and people.
• Marie Bradby shared the background and inspiration for her book, More Than Anything Else.
• The NCFL photo booth wrapped up with almost 70 groups visiting and having their pictures made. Keep an eye out for your picture in your local paper!

And we were honored with some great coverage in the local newspaper in Louisville. Click here to see the online version of Monday’s article in the Courier-Journal.

Photo gallery and comment over at the original post

Posted by F. Xavier Helgesen, Co-Founder

At Better World Books, we've built a business that is fundamentally based on the idea of reuse. With over 2 million customers choosing reused books over new, we have become an expert in finding new homes for old books. But why limit ourselves only to books? I sure can't find a good reason, so it is with great pride that today I announce the launch of Better World Blend Coffee!

All around the country, coffee shops buy and brew the world's finest coffee beans. But after only one brewing, all that coffee is thrown out, or at the very best, composted. Why turn perfectly good coffee into potting soil when people all around the country need a fair price on a good cup of joe? We will be launching a nationwide Coffee Drive to collect the country's coffee grounds. Once back in Mishawaka, the grounds will be carefully combined into Better World Blend - a blend of delicious coffee (only used once! many of our books have been used five or six times!).

Better World Blend will sell for a mere $1.99 per pound (you can pre-order here). Compare that to the $10 a pound that your local shop charges for gourmet beans. And no need to grind those beans! Just add hot water, and you have delicious coffee, ready to serve. Of course, each pound of Better World Blend will taste a bit different than the last, but hey, that's part of the charm.

Better World Blend will not only usually be delicious, but will have an important social mission. Our nation's under-tipped baristas are struggling to make ends meet. With each pound of  the Blend purchased, 38 cents in change will be dropped in a local tip jar of your choosing, allowing our nation's baristas to fully pursue their dreams of becoming graffiti artists and covering Jack Johnson songs at open mike nights.

Posted by Jack Hanlon, CBO & Evangelist

Psst... I've got a secret about Better World Books!

In the not so distant future, here are some things you can look forward to:

A Better World Books facebook fan page
A Better World Books facebook app to RSS the blog
And best of all... a prettier and 100000% more functional blog (including author bio's, recent post lists, recent comment updates, social bookmarking, Flickr streaming and more!)
Posts that include author interviews, contests, polls and a myriad of staff picks and new features!
Me being able to get some sleep instead of working on these supersweet updates (hooray!)

Posted by Abby Rae LaCombe, Rocky Mountain Regional Director

Niko [Tomlinson, Midwest Senior Director] and I got to meet up with Dustin [Holland, Head of Acquisitions] and LPTZ (the Library Division) yesterday to see John Wood speak here in Minneapolis. It was really awesome. John Wood is a FUNNY guy, and handsome as heck, and he started Room to Read – very cool cat. Very sincere cat. He really believes in the mission of RTR. He was discussing the ultimate dreams of the organization and said that anywhere there is illiteracy is where Room to Read eventually wants to be. They are planning to expand farther into Africa this year and eventually, who knows, perhaps the whole globe will have RTR schools and libraries available.

Anyhoo, he gave a bunch of new RTR numbers that I thought I’d pass on. I think a lot of this is available through their website, but why fish in a lake when you can aim in a barrel?* Exactly.

Read the rest of the article after the jump.