Swaptree.com

I was recommended swaptree as a great alternative to paperbackswap, so I decided to give it a try.  I have to say that I don’t think its quite a right fit for me, but I can see why people love it.

It’s a pretty simple concept.  You make a straight trade with another member.  No counting credits, no sending out all your books without anything coming in.  It’s like this:  Members make lists of things they’re offering for trade, and lists of things they want.  Then, when two members make a match (I’ll give you my High School Musical DVD for your hardcover of Breaking Dawn…) they exchange information and mail each other their items.  If you’re not sure what you want for your Kingdom Hearts game, you can browse the list of things people are offering.  As you browse the list, you say “Oh!  The Labrynth on DVD.  I love David Bowie!  I want that!”  See?  Easy.

This system is much better than paperbackswap for people who want to barter a greater variety of items.  It also helps that the things you want are much less likely to be taken, since only people who meet the offerer’s trade requirements may claim it.

The reason this system doesn’t work very well for me is because of my binding snobbery.  For example, I am trying to collect Hardcover versions of my Harry Potter books.  However, even though I only listed hardcover ISBNs in my wishlist, my offers come sometimes without information about the bindings, or saying they’re paperback.  And since the ISBN number doesn’t show up in swap requests, I can’t be sure I’m not just being offered a  paperback of HP and the OOP.  Furthermore, I can’t seem to find any way to contact the offerer to ask.  So, I have let at least two trades go because I don’t want to waste a trade on a book I don’t want.

I have recently traded away a book for a dvd, which was a great trade for me.  The only part that makes me nervous about the trade is that I have no idea if the person I sent my book to actually received it.  You report when an item doesn’t arrive, but as far as I can tell, you can’t mark it mailed or received.

Also, as a side note- if you do use both swaptree and paperbackswap, keep in mind that you will have to keep track of your books on both sites.  If you swap out a book on swaptree, make sure to take it off your pbs list, too- and vice versa.  That can get to be a bit of a pain, but its worth the effort if you have your heart set on shaking up your bookshelf.

All in all, swaptree is definitely a great site for  people looking to swap dvds, cds and games, and for those book traders who aren’t picky like me about which binding they get.  I’ve pulled books from my “i want” list, and am just hoping someone is looking to trade a season of Gilmore Girls for my copy of The Princess Diaries.   And I’m just trying to ignore that nagging feeling that the book I mailed is lost out there in postal service limbo.

snopes.com

Every once in a while, I get one of those emails.  You know the ones. Bill Gates will pay you for forwarding an email.  Robbers are using perfume to entice and knock out victims in parking lots.  Sign this petition or your children will be forced to pray to Paris Hilton in school. (okay, so I made that last one up, but you get the idea.)  So, is it true?  Will you actually get paid to click your mouse a couple times?  Is it safe to go to the mall again?  That’s where Snopes.com comes in.  It is a great resource to let you know if that dangerous computer virus actually exists, or if gang members really do shoot the people who flash their brights at them for not having headlights on.  When the people at Snopes learn about an urban legend, they research it until they can either confirm its authenticity (yes, burglars have been known to check obituaries so they can rob people who are away at funerals)  or debunk it (believe it or not, men don’t think about sex every seven seconds.)   It’s very useful, yes.  However, its also very entertaining.  for example, did you know there is an urban legend about someone taking a dress off a corpse just before burial, then returning it to the store.  Then, when it’s next owner wears it, the embalming fluids leach into her skin and kill her,  Obviously not true, but still- quite a story.
Navigating the site is quite easy.  You can search by keywords “hook,” “car,” and “door” gets you…well, I’m sure you’ve heard that particular urban legend before.  or, if you’re just looking for laughs, you can browse in one of their forty plus topic groups.  For example, under “Old wives’ tales,” you’ll learn that gum does not, in fact, take seven years to pass through your system. (and in case you’re wondering, your face will not stick like that.  And I didn’t even need Snopes for that one!)
They also have a newsletter that you can subscribe to, a community forum for talking about urban legends and more with other fans of the site, and a nifty randomizer.  You click on it, and they will randomly select an urban legend article for you to read.
The site is definitely worth a peek, particularly if you (like me) want those bulk emails to stop.  I have become synonymous with email debunking in my family, to the point that when my aunts hear rumors (“does Barack Obama really refuse to say the Pledge of Allegiance?”)  they come to me for my Snopes-like wisdom. (“no, he doesn’t.  This rumor was based on…..”)

Happy rumor-hunting!

“It’s great to learn, ‘Cuz knowledge is power!” -Schoolhouse Rock

Paperbackswap.com

I would never get away with my new book snobbishness (I’m now purging my house of mass market paperbacks) if it weren’t for paperbackswap.com. Its the perfect place to unload those dry classics you read in college, and replace them with something jucier. Or drier, if that’s your thing. It’s where you can take that great European travel book and replace it with What To Expect When You’re Expecting. Or trade the how-to-make-a-million-overnight book with a living-on-a-shoestring guide. You get the picture.

The process is simple. Once you have registered on paperbackswap, you gather up the books you no longer want, and post them to the system, using the ISBN number (which can be found on the back cover or with all the publishing info on one of the first pages). Then, when someone wants your book, a request is sent to your email. You can either accept or reject their request, depending on if you can actually find the book, and if it meets their conditions). You mail the book to their address at your cost. Then when they receive the book, they mark it and you get one credit toward a book request of your own, which someone else mails to you on their dime. simple, right?

Of course, some books are more popular than others. You may post your copy of The Da Vinci Code, but it gets put in back of the list of all posted Da Vinci Code books with your ISBN. And since the DaVinci code is SO five years ago, it may not be requested for a long time. Conversely, just try to get your hands on a copy of Breaking Dawn (the 4th Twilight book.) There are nearly 1,000 people waiting for it right now.

So, what’s the benefit of paperbackswap over, say, the book section of a thrift store? Well, paperback swap is like taking the book section of all the thrift stores in your state and putting them together into one. Minus the old National Geographics and 1970′s Encyclopedias. Also, besides books (hardcover and paperback) for all ages, paperbackswap offers audiobooks for 2 credits each. Considering how rare used audio books are, that is a great deal.

Paperbackswap is entirely free to use. You can pay for certain features, like having the postage printed right on the wrapper, or extra book credits, but the typical user doesn’t pay for anything except shipping their books out to other members. Beyond the basic book-swapping, PBS has a great community with lots of stuff to do and see. You can make lists of books you’ve read, suggest books to friends, rate and review books, use your ratings to find something else you might like, visit the forum, play games, read things written by other members, swap recipes…. basically, it’s the go-to site for librophiles like me.

if you sign up, add me (hookedonmonix)to your buddy list. I look forward to seeing you there!

Confession: I am a book snob. Sort of.

So the other day, I’m staring at my bookshelf, deciding which book to re-read, and something just feels…wrong.  Like, a nice middle-aged suburban couple are standing against the wall at a Fall Out Boy show. Except, replace Fall Out Boy with something edgier.  There, that’s it.  So, I’m looking at the books and wondering.  I’m singing the sesame street song “three of these things belong together, three of these things are kind of the same…”  And it hits me.  The Name of the Wind, The Lovely Bones,  American Gods… they’re all great books, except you wouldn’t know it because they’re *gasp* mass market paperbacks.  I know-  who cares, right?  Apparently, I do.

In case the the term mass market paperback is a foreign one to you, let me explain.  You know the racks of paperbacks at the grocery store?  At the airport?  The small books- that either have a shirtless Fabio embracing a swooning maiden, or have the fancy scrawling gold lettering- or both.  Those.  The books that, when I’m book shopping at a thrift store, I don’t even glance at because I assume they’re terrible.

So what do I do with this incongruence?  Simple.  I rush over to the computer with the mass market paperbacks in hand and I start making requests on paperbackswap.com.  I put in a request for a replacement copy of each, except in a trade paperback or hardcover or anything other than the ones in my hand.

Then, to top it off, I start to get a little particular about my Harry Potter books.  I have paperbacks of the first six, hardcover of the seventh.  “well, that’s not very symmetrical” I say to myself and put in a request for hardcovers of the first six.  A while back, I gave away the first book in the Midnighters series, and now I want it back to fill out the set.  Unfortunately, I can’t find one with a matching cover.

What I want is for my bookshelf to look…intentional.  Not like a haphazard hodgepodge of books scraped from the bottoms of many odd barrels, but like a book collection.  In my natural disaster of a home, I want one little corner of stuff that looks like I actually meant for it to be there.

So there it is: my version of being a book snob in two parts.  I no longer want to litter my shelf with mass market paperbacks, and I have decided to try and create a cohesive and attractive book collection.  It could be worse, right?

The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

First, I have to admit that my tastes run a little out of line with the typical mom.  Sure, I may have been instrumental in ushering in the Twilight craze among local moms, but generally speaking…  well, lets just say that I’ve never read a word of Jodi Picoult or Nora Roberts, and I don’t really intend to.  I am a lover of young adult fiction, of fantasy, and admittedly some “chick lit” (I loved The Lovely Bones)

That being said, I just finished reading The Name of the Wind, and I loved it.  It is the story of how a brilliant young boy thrived in the face of adversity, and grew to be an epic hero.

I have to admit that I didn’t like the main character, Kvothe very much at first.  I thought he was arrogant and smug as he recounted his intellectual prowess.  But as the story progresses, and life crushes in on him, you begin to see the man he becomes, when being a clever little boy is no longer enough.

The Name of the Wind is the first (an only published, so far)  book in a promising new series by author Patrick Rothfuss of Wisconsin.  I found it thorough and brilliantly crafted,much like the Harry Potter novels.  Only The Name of the Wind is meatier, designed for adult readers who are looking forsomething more substantial to gnaw on.  If you are any sort of fantasy fan (note that my fantasy fandom doesn’t stray past J.R.R. Tolkein, C.S. Lewis, Neil Gaiman and J.K. Rowling) I think you will thoroughly enjoy this book.

Moms Who Read

At any given moment there is a mom somewhere curled up on the couch with a good book (Twilight, anyone?).  Her dishes pile up in the sink, errands wait to be done, and the kids are playing…or fighting…in the other room.  She looks up to tell them to behave, then buries her nose back into the book.  Is there a more productive way for her to spend her time?  Sure.  Could her kids and house benefit from a bigger piece of her attention?  Naturally.  Is she being a bad mom?  Absolutely not.  She is instead widening her eyes, broadening her horizons, feeding her heart and brain.  She’s taking the time to regroup, she’s pacifying that part of her that is tired of being mom.  She’s stretching the muscles of her imagination.  She’s relaxing.  She’s remembering old feelings or creating compassion for those yet unfelt.  She’s being woman first, wife and mom second, if just for a while.  And the icing on the cake is that she’s also teaching her children without even trying.  She’s teaching them that people- even moms- have their own things to do.  Their own time to fill, their own lives to lead.  She’s teaching them that sometimes its okay to set the world aside and take care of yourself.  And she’s teaching them that a little stack of papers bound together holds something magical inside.

So today, instead of phase 2 in my spring cleaning marathon, I’m going to grab a blanket and a snack, and spend a few hours this afternoon curled up with a good book.

photo credit: shaycam

Confession: I am a pajama mama

When you’re out at the grocery store and you see a woman wandering around in the middle of the afternoon in pajama pants and a pony tail, it’s probably me.  If I could find them, I’d probably wear my slippers too.  Believe it or not, I used to be edgy.  My clothes used to make a statement.  They still do, actually; they just say it much differently.  And I hate to admit it, but I actually feel good about that.  I never gave it much thought until a friend of mine said that one of her pet peeves is when people wear pajama pants out in public.  I almost held my tongue, embarrassed to confess I was one of “those” people.  But then I squared my shoulders and outed myself.  I confessed that sometimes when I change out of my pajamas, I just change into new ones.  That I have different pajama pants for different situations (like, I almost never wear my fleece pants in the afternoon, and my pink candy cane ones are perfect for a late night video run.)  That I like feeling lazy.

When I walk out my door in my cupid pajama pants and a bandana over my head, I am telling the world that I don’t care what they think, that comfort trumps cool, and that a mom’s work is never done.  Some days that isn’t true.  Sometimes I do my hair and makeup, put on daytime clothes and tell the world that I can still do it, that cool can trump comfort if I want it to, and that I’m more than just a tired mom.  Those days feel good.  I like being that version of me.  But I will no longer be embarrassed of the days I’d rather be a pajama mama.  After all, I only have so much time before my kids won’t let me get away with it anymore.