Posted by Jack Hanlon, CBO & Evangelist

Check it out, Wake Up and Smell the Planet is exactly what it says: "The Non-pompous, Non-Preachy Grist Guide to Greening Your Day.  Like most things Grist the book values the balance of utility and humor making it less an on the soapbox indictment and more an on the bedstand read.  Great reviews from anyone who has read it and add one more from me.  Check it out at www.betterworld.com by clicking the cover.

Posted by Erin Gerber, Account Representative

I’ve been in love with reading most of my life.  My affection for the written word eventually translated into both a love of and career in libraries for most of my adult life.

Like most people who work in libraries, I love getting books into the hands  of those who enjoy reading as much as I do.  Better World Books allows me to do this on a much larger scale than ever before—not only are we helping to get books into the hands of those in search of a good read around the world, we’re helping our Literacy Partners generate funds to create a new wave of avid readers.

I feel especially lucky to be a part of this unique company because I’m well aware of the challenge libraries face when it comes to their discards and donations.  By offering libraries a socially and environmentally responsible outlet for their books that’s not only easy, effective, and free, I know we’re offering them a solution they can use! 

Posted by Jack Hanlon, CBO & Evangelist

I reported earlier about the Great American Word Challenge, a nationwide online contest that pit cities against one another to measure their greatness, not by the height of their skyscrapers, but by the depth of their vocabularies. Fresno received the highest cumulative average score and took the title and the prize: a Ubisoft donation of My Word Coach video games and Nintendo DS™ systems to a local family literacy center selected by the National Center for Family Literacy (NCFL). The beneficiary organization is the Fresno County Library Literacy Services Center, which provides free reading, writing, spelling, and math tutoring to Fresno County adults that cannot read or write English.

“The city of Fresno is always proud to support family literacy,” said Deputy Mayor Jeff Eben. “We are excited to have won the 'Great American Word Challenge' and thank all Fresno's residents who participated so successfully in this fun and creative Challenge.”

With thousands of contestants putting their vocabulary skills to the test since November 1, 2007, the “Great American Word Challenge” proved which American cities could walk the walk AND talk the talk:

-- In addition to Fresno, the following cities rounded out the top four positions:

-- Salisbury, Maryland (2nd place)

-- Mankato, Minnesota (3rd place)

-- Albuquerque, New Mexico (4th place)

-- Oakland, California (5th place)

-- Overall, the U.S. received a B- average grade on their vocabulary with a national average score of 167 out of 205 (81%)

-- And here's how long-time city rivals stacked up:

-- Oakland is the smartest Bay Area city, beating out San Francisco, Berkeley, and San Jose!

-- Despite preliminary results showing Brooklyn in the lead, at final count Manhattan is the highest-scoring New York City borough. The Bronx is the lowest-scoring borough. Here's how the boroughs stacked up against each other:

1. Manhattan

2. Queens

3. Brooklyn

4. Staten Island

5. The Bronx

-- Twin Cities? Not exactly. Minneapolis established itself as the more literate of the two, scoring 168 compared to St. Paul's 140.

-- Good (and smart) things come in small packages: Pasadena might be just an eighth the size of its sprawling neighbor, Los Angeles, but it's 16% smarter! Pasadena scored 178 compared to Los Angeles, which scored a mere 154. Article from Business Wire

Posted by Jack Hanlon, CBO & Evangelist

The Telegraph, a newspaper from our friends in the UK, had a listing of the Top 50 Children's Books today, and considering my undying love for Maurice Sendak and my Sylvester stuffed animal (a la Sylvester and the Magic Pebble) as well as the fact that I collected a Curious George book in each of the European countries I traveled to whilst abroad (let me tell you, Curious George: Panique aux la Chocalaterie is a laugh but doesn't touch Curious George Recibe una Medalla). Well you get the idea... The list after the jump. As usual check www.betterworld.com for (responsible) deals on these books!

Posted by Rudy Reyes Jr., Director

A friend and I hopped a train to Chicago last month to catch the Lyric’s performance of Verdi’s La Traviata. As we boarded the train, it was the usual aisle shuffle, weaving past newspapers, crossed legs, hand baggage, and the like. We noticed, across the aisle, a gentleman reading on a new e-reader. He looked relaxed, unfettered by large pages of the newspaper, and unburdened by turning pages. My friend asked an innocent question: “Isn’t this bad for companies like yours?” “

Posted by Jack Hanlon, CBO & Evangelist

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. After the jump (click the "Read More" button below the post) 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 at places like this:

-Amazonion Bilingual School
-International Community College, Guinea
-Kwane Nkruma High School, Guinea
-Nelson Mandela English Academy
-Mission U.E.P. Primary School, Guinea
-The Conakry Grammar School, Guinea
-Faith International School, Guinea
-International Refugee Committee School
-Princess Diana Memorial Refugee School
-Women of Jesus
-Conakry International School
-Sabu International School
-Trust International School
-Sierra International School
-Call of Hope Mission International

Posted by Jack Hanlon, CBO & Evangelist

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
forseeable 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!

Posted by Jack Hanlon, CBO & Evangelist

Over at Slate, one of my favorite online magazines, the audio book club took on Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat, Pray, Love.  Listen to the podcast.  This book is one that is much talked about from people arguing that it's an "original work excellently written in a real woman's voice" to people who see her writing as bordering on  "petty, conceited and fickle."

Decide for yourself at www.betterworld.com

Posted by Andy Warzon, Chief Technology Officer

Recently I had the opportunity to visit Liberia with others from Better World Books and Books for Africa. Liberia is a small country in West Africa that has been through horrific civil war for 14 years before finally re-establishing peace in 2003. Needless to say, just about every institution in the country is starting from zero, slowly building back up, and that includes their universities.

Cuttington University (map) is a rural 4-year university in Liberia. It is the oldest coed 4-year university in West Africa, considered by many to be the country’s most prestigious institution of higher education. It also happens to be quite close to the farm of Charles Taylor, the former president of Liberia who is currently on trial at the International Court of Justice in the Hague.

So here’s what I mean about “starting from zero”… four years ago, this prestigious university had no roofs on its buildings and no books in its library. The campus was ransacked during the wars… most of the books in the library were burned as fuel for fires.

Our group was able to meet with leaders from the university and hear their needs. Better World Books has committed to funding, through Books for Africa, the shipment of two 40-foot sea containers full of books (that’s 80,000 books) to Liberia for the country’s universities.

Cuttington is in dire need of books, so Liberia’s brightest minds can be educated to help pull this country out of war-ravaged poverty. I think I speak for everyone at Better World Books when I say that we’re honored to be helping Cuttington.

www.flickr.com

Posted by Jack Hanlon, CBO & Evangelist

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!

Posted by Jack Hanlon, CBO & Evangelist

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 did I mention they're loads cheaper? Ah, well in case I didn't...

By Walter Sears, Associate Director, Library Division

For those of you who care, and those of you who don’t, I am headed to Gainesville, FL for a relaxing weekend with my good friend and former colleague Patrick Kindregan.  For those of you who do not know Patrick, he was the second employee of Better World Books Library Division, and he played an integral role in making the Discards & Donations Program the invaluable program that it is today.  I would like to take this opportunity to ask all of you readers to post your favorite story about Patrick so that I may share them with him and his wife this weekend.  Here’s mine:

It took place at the Charleston Acquisition Conference in 2006.  We departed for Charleston, SC the morning the Conference began.  We had given ourselves plenty of time to make the 6 hour drive, leaving time for a lunch break so that we didn't eat all of the hors d’oeuvres during the Vendor Showcase.  We decided to stop at one of those local grocers to grab a fresh made sandwich and some water for the Conference.  Well, we all ordered our sandwiches, sat down to eat, and as Patrick bit into his sandwich…CRUNCH.  We looked at him as his facial expressions changed from confused to a painful grimace; he had bitten into a toothpick that was holding his sandwich together!  Once he collected himself, he looked at us, smiled, and to our surprise, he was missing half his front tooth!  We laughed hysterically at our colleague’s misfortune for a few minutes, and then continued laughing for the remainder of the afternoon as we realized that he would have to work the Vendor Showcase in this condition.  Needless to say, we made sure that every person that stopped to visit our table noticed Patrick’s dental disaster.  Fortunately (unfortunately), he was able to get his tooth fixed the next morning, but not without some goodhearted heckling throughout the evening.

Post your favorite story as a comment to this post and I will make sure that it is relived this weekend!

*Because Presidents Day is not the official name of the federal holiday, there is variation in how it is rendered.  Both Presidents Day and Presidents' Day are today common, and both are considered correct by dictionaries and usage manuals.

Posted by Jack Hanlon, CBO & Evangelist



At Ripon College in Wisconsin they're afraid of having to expand parking structures into their green space.  But rather than punish people who bring cars, their incentivizing the system: Any first-year who says they won't bring their car for the year gets a free Trek mountain bike with helmet and lock, a $400 value(!)

A la the AP:

"Friends, trustees and alumni donated about $60,000 to buy 200 bicycles to give away to an expected 300 incoming freshmen, said Cody Pinkston, a spokesman for the school.

Historically, about 100 freshman arrive without cars, so accepting the bike will be a "no-brainer" for them, he said.

'There is not a strong bicycle culture here with students. That is what we are trying to engender.'"

Posted by Jack Hanlon, CBO & Evangelist


Photo courtesy of the Guardian (guardian.co.uk)

Over at Treehugger there's an article about a town in the UK that switched from being a Coal plant village to a sustainable town, check it out:

"'We used to say 'where there's muck there's brass' but we'd had enough muck when mining came to an end,' says Stan Crawford, the former president of the National Union of Mineworkers in Nottinghamshire, who heads the group's remarkable creation, Sherwood Energy Village.

Looking out over wind turbines, ponds and modern offices angled to trap sunlight, he can now count 600 jobs on the site, as many as when Ollerton colliery finally closed in 1995.

'We knew two other things back then: that we wanted a diverse economy, after years of the pit for the men and the clothes factory for the women, and we didn't want anyone else imposing our future on us,' says Crawford.

The energy village also includes rainwater harvesting, and is currently the construction site for some 196 sustainable homes. The project has been so successful that it has won the Silver Jubilee Cup, the Royal Town Planning Institute's highest award."

It can be done, folks.  We can convert to more sustainable sources of energy, the question is, what are you doing to affect the change?

Posted by Jack Hanlon, CBO & Evangelist



Hope you're all getting cozy with your loved ones, but if you're like me then hopefully you're getting all cozy with a book and a cup of tea.  For the old school take on love try some Jane Austen or the (soon to be movie!) Love in the Time of Cholera (yes guys, it's an excellent book.  Seriously).

If you're looking for love with a twist try on the latest effort from the hilarious Christopher Moore: You Suck: A Love Story.

Do yourself a favor and read one less Hallmark card that sounds like it was written either by a 7 year old or by someone your age (but in 1950 maybe) and try on some actual literature.  You won't be disappointed.  After all, what girl wouldn't wilt under you leaving with her on the balcony as you say:

"'Good night, good night! Parting is such sweet sorrow,
That I shall say good night till it be morrow.' 
Oh wait, I left my keys, can you throw those down?"    (we can't all be perfect!)

Posted by Jack Hanlon, CBO & Evangelist

Literacy is a precious thing, and sometimes it would have really helped...

Posted by Jack Hanlon, CBO & Evangelist



Great news from the NCFL, I'll let them tell the story:

eHarlequin.com issues 2008 100,000 Book Challenge
Year-long event will benefit NCFL programs

eHarlequin.com has challenged its community members to read an astounding 100,000 books in one year in the 2008 eHarlequin.com 100,000 Book Challenge.  At the end of the year, Harlequin will make an unprecedented donation of an equivalent number of books to the National Center for Family Literacy (NCFL). The estimated retail value of a 100,000 book donation to NCFL by Harlequin Enterprises Ltd. is $700,000.

In addition to promoting literacy, the 2008 eHarlequin.com 100,000 Book Challenge encourages readers to discuss the titles they’ve read on the eHarlequin.com Web site in their own blogs.  Those participating in the challenge share their thoughts, reviews, opinions, recommendations and progress.  The 2008 eHarlequin.com 100,000 Book Challenge is taking place right now at eHarlequin.com. In one short week 350+ participants have accepted the 2008 100,000 Book Challenge and already read some 1,000+ books. Click here to find out more about the Book Challenge or how to participate.

Alright ladies, get reading!

Posted by Christian Blue, Account Representative

I began my career with Better World Books at ALA Midwinter ’07.  Without much in depth knowledge of our Library Discards & Donations Program I was thrown into the metaphorical library pool to sink or swim.  Having recently returned from ALA Midwinter ’08 and reflecting on a full year of transition, change and overwhelming progress, I am filled with pride with how well I’ve stayed afloat.  While I could go on and on about my own incredible competency (it’s review time so this forced arrogance is a result of having to justify ones existence or right to a pay increase, I’m not always like this), I can not ignore the amount of guidance, instruction, support and encouragement I have received from the stellar colleagues I have throughout the Better World Books family.   This blog entry is a thank you to all of you for allowing me to be part of this incredible mission.  I look forward to many more years at Better World Books!

Posted by Jack Hanlon, CBO & Evangelist



Yes, it's another music book.  Originally I picked up Frank Conroy's Body and Soul (possibly a nod to the awesome Benny Goodman song of the same name?) because he's an incredible author.  He penned Stop-Time, one of my favorite books of all time as a high-schooler and I'm re-reading it now, sitting on my bedroom table with my other favorite of all time, The Great Gatsby. 

Body and Soul is also the story of a child piano prodigy.  Unlike my last suggestions however, this one is not by a musician but rather cuilds the story and talks about music in a way that the musician can really feel and the casual reader can get an extremely unique view from.  If you read some of the reviews, both trained and non-musician say that the book looks into what the musician feels in a manner that few have ever seen in writing.

Quit reading this review and get the hardcover for $3.48 and free shipping (in the US).  Wow!  Did I mention it's carbon neutral shipping and money will go to our literacy partners?  But of course you know that already...

Posted by Jack Hanlon, CBO & Evangelist



Sure I showed you where you can check out how the presidential candidates feel about the environment but environmental change doesn't start with your vote, it starts with your home and work.  Try these facts on for size:

1. 17,000: the number of petrochemicals available for home use, only 30% of which have been tested for exposure to human health and the environment. 

2. 63: the number of synthetic chemical products found in the average American home, translating to roughly 10 gallons of harmful chemicals.

3. 100: the number of times higher that indoor air pollution levels can be above outdoor air pollution levels, according to US EPA estimates.

4. 275: the number of active ingredients in antimicrobials (those little hand cleansers like Purell) that the EPA classifies as pesticides because they are designed to kill microbes.

5. 5 billion: the number of pounds of chemicals that the institutional cleaning industry uses each year.

6. 23: the average gallons in chemicals (87 liters) that a janitor uses each year, 25% of which are hazardous.

Eye opening, right?  Check out this article at Treehugger for more information and what you can do to make changes in your green cleaning.  Considering last night I saw a Clorox commercial on ESPN for an all green cleaner (during that great Illinois v Indiana game) you can be certain that this isn't just a small industry anymore either.  Get on board!

Posted by Jack Hanlon, Web Content Administrator



What is a literate adult?  In the world of literacy statistics we hear tons of information thrown around about "proficient" abilities, "basic" abilities, etc... but what does it really mean to be proficient or basic as far as these tests?

Over at Educational Cyber Playground they did some research to figure out what exactly was going on.  In order to do this they went to the National Assessment of Adult Literacy at the National Center for Education Statistics. What they found was more interesting...

Posted by Silvia Sweidan, Northwest Regional Director

According to an article by Carol S., who is asking the simple question of, “How Big is Africa?”: Africa is about the same size as the US, China and Europe added together. It is the world's second largest continent, with 11,670,000 square miles constituting just over 20% of the earth's total landmass. Those statistics are critical in understanding Better World Books relationship and support to its largest literacy partner, Books for Africa!

In further exploring her questions, Carol views a map of Africa on Books for Africa’s website and finds a detailed map of Africa. (See below!) Then she discovers Better World Books, the largest supporter of Books for Africa’s projects--distributing textbooks to schools all over Africa. Books for Africa will be 20 years old this year and has sent 18 million books to schools and libraries all over the Continent. With the great support of Better World Books, Books for Africa will continue its incredible mission in supplementing and sustaining literacy in the second largest continent on earth!

Posted by Jack Hanlon, CBO & Evangelist

Exciting news about the NCFL from the Courier-Journal, in Louisville, KY:

The National Center for Family Literacy, based in Louisville, has named Deborah Hasson director of the Hispanic Learning Institute and co-director of Toyota Programs, which focus on serving Hispanic and other immigrant families. Hasson, the daughter of Argentine immigrants, formerly was an assistant professor and program coordinator at Florida State University.

Related: We talked about the NCFL's commitment to Hispanic Learning

Posted by Jack Hanlon, CBO & Evangelist

The New York Times reports that in Bush's latest budget:

The White House wants to eliminate spending for more than a dozen education programs, including Even Start, which promotes family literacy; grants to the states for classroom technology; Supplemental Education Opportunity Grants, for needy undergraduates; and a scholarship program named for the chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Robert C. Byrd, Democrat of West Virginia.

But Margaret Spellings, the secretary of education, said Friday that the president would request $1 billion for the Reading First program, to teach poor children to read by the third grade. Congress cut the program to $393 million this year after federal investigators found conflicts of interest, cronyism and bias in the awarding of grants.

Ms. Spellings said she hoped lawmakers would “see the error of their ways.”

Obviously it's hard to complain about $1 billion for the Reading First program, so kudos for that, White House (I still find this to be a strange--if effective-- synecdoche) but eliminating spending for Even Start and grants for undergrads is a lamentable decision, at best.

Posted by Jack Hanlon, CBO & Evangelist


Liberia, courtesy of Justus

Over at Adventures in Liberia, Justus talks about an event that you might be interested in:

Today I witnessed a marvellous ceremony which took place at Aquilla School in Paynesville. Visions in Action is helping supply a million books to schools, libraries, and other areas to promot literacy. They are also training teachers how to use a library system so that the books are not just locked in a room as a valuable 'trophy' and not used by the kids! The children marched into the school joyously singing where there were speakers from USAID Liberia, Books for Africa, and Better World Books as well as members of the Liberian Ministry of Education. It was exciting to see all the smiling faces on the children. I met with the founder of Visions in Action who I am going to sit down with and talk about possibly volunteering with them as they continue to distribute the million books to the 15 counties around Liberia. I met Justin (on betterworld.com team) and Andy (CIO) from Better World Books which is an online book seller like amazon.com but they donate some of the proceeds to purchase books for children who need them. So if you are going to buy a book check them out at www.betterworld.com.

Thanks Justus!  Keep up the good fight!

Full post

Posted by Jack Hanlon, CBO & Evangelist



Yup, you read that right.  CBO.  I'm the "Chief Blogging Officer."  I used to be in charge of the Northeast in the Campus Division but now I'm moving out to San Francisco to work at www.betterworld.com.  This means I'll be in charge of the blog (which will be totally different soon, including some features that I know you're going to like!) and new content on the www.betterworld.com website (which is also going to have a reopening and look amazing!).

Posted by Angela Williams, Account Representative



December 10, 2007 is the day I realized the true meaning of making a difference. That is the day I joined Better World Books.  As a neo-member of the Better World Books team, I am able to work hands-on and not only see but feel the impact and countless accomplishments Better World Books is continuously making throughout the world.

I am elated to work for a company that literally impacts everything it encounters. It’s amazing! Furthermore, working along side people who share the same values and zeal that I possess makes my job worth while. At the end of the day, I can honestly say that I know I have made a difference somewhere in the world. Funding literacy and caring for the environment are what we do best! I challenge you to make a difference! Go!