My Summer Reading with Jennifer Taylor of GreetQ

This week it's on our series My Summer Reading we have a dear guest from Seattle - Jennifer Taylor, the owner of GreetQ.

GreetQ offers a unique service: shoppers can buy paper greeting cards online, add a personal message, then schedule the cards to be sent on a specific date. GreetQ then mails the personalized card to the recipient on behalf of their customers on that specific date. The scheduled cards, which can be scheduled for up to one year in advance, are queued online in the customer’s “card-queue.”

GreetQ is collaborating with Eco-Libris to plant a tree for every 10 greeting cards purchased through the GreetQ.com's website.

Hi Jennifer, what are you reading now?
It's Not How Good You Are, It’s How Good You Want to Be: The World's Best Selling Book - I believe the target audience for this book is graphic designers and marketers. However it works as a sort of self-help book for creative types of all sorts, serving as cheerleader with the intention of convincing readers that they can accomplish the impossible. It's a brief read and I've actually completed it already but plan to carry it around in my summer tote, referring back to its more epiphanic sections all season.

What I’m planning to read + recommendations:
Points of View: An Anthology of Short Stories by Moffett and Mcelheny - The short story format is perfect for librophiles when on summer days everyone's pressuring you to put down the book and pick up a Frisbee. You can get your literary fix in 50 pages or less while still enjoying long sunny days.

I've been a long-time fan of this genre ever since it was introduced to me by one of its top purveyors, my college professor, who's also a brilliant prize-winning short story writer, Josip Novakovich. And although his work is still one of my favorites, I often find myself longing for the classics like Updike & Capote. Which is exactly why the "Points of View" anthology, loaned to me by a friend, is right up my literary alley. I have a lot of anthologies but this is the best collection I've seen thus far. And it includes one of my all time faves: The Lottery by Shirley Jackson.

The Bedside Baccalaureate - It's full title, "The Bedside Baccalaureate: A Handy Daily Cerebral Primer to Fill in the Gaps, Refresh Your Knowledge & Impress Yourself & Other Intellectuals," sounds a bit pretentious but you'll be thankful you bought it when at your 4th of July BBQ someone asks "Hey, who wrote the 1st draft of the Declaration of Independence again?"

Okay, maybe that won't happen but you'll feel great when by the end of the summer you've filled in all of those pesky knowledge gaps. And like the short-story anthology, the information in this book is given in brief, summer-sized bites on topics ranging from Environmental Science to Art History to Philosophy.

1984 - This is a must-read that I've passed over for far too long. Described as one of the best works of modern fiction of all time, I've decided to finally give it a go this summer.

Bitter is the New Black : Confessions of a Condescending, Egomaniacal, Self-Centered Smartass, Or, Why You Should Never Carry A Prada Bag to the Unemployment Office - Again, a book with a very long title but as intended, it certainly caught my attention. I'm not usually a fan of "chick-lit" but how can one pass up a read with a title like this? I may have to make a fake "War and Peace" bookcover to read it however. After all, this is Seattle.

What is your favorite place to read in the summer?

I don’t abandon my beloved coffee shops during the summer. They really are the perfect place to read year-round.

There aren’t enough coffee shops with outdoor seating here but the next best thing is shops with lots of natural sunlight and plenty of big windows. Like the Seattle’s Best Coffee shop across the street from Pike Place Market whose large storefront windows swing open. Or Zoka which also has huge windows, lots of wood paneling, big comfy leather chairs and sort of resembles a library. In the fall, you’d be hard pressed to find a seat, but come summer when all of the college students have headed home, it’s the perfect place to park with a book for an hour or two.

Thanks Jennifer!

More information on GreetQ can be found at http://www.greetq.com/

So far on My Summer Reading series:

Christian Valentiner of the Norwegian publisher Flux

Avrim Topel, co-author of 'My Green Beginnings'

Tania Hershman, author of 'The White Road and Other Stories'

Elisabeth Baines, author of the upcoming book 'Too Many Magpie'

Erica Caldwell of the bookstore Present Tense

Sue Schrader of the bookstore Sources of Hope

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: promoting green publishing

Planet Earth Gets Well is partnering with Earth Day Network in a new green contest for children

We have a great partnership with Madeline Kaplan, author of "Planet Earth Gets Wel". Madeline is planting a tree with us for every copy her wonderful children's book and is adding our sticker to the books sold.

Last April the book was involved in a program of the Chicago Bulls to promote green in a local school (you can see pictures from the Bull's event here), and today we're proud to report on a new environmental partnership of "Planet Earth Gets Well".

The book, which addresses environmental concerns in a child-friendly format, is partnering with Earth Day Network to promote the 2010 Student Climate Change Solutions Contest in schools across the country commencing August 1, 2009 and concluding on October 23, 2009. Two winners will be announced on November 2, 2009.

Targeted to children ages 4-9, a sector of the market where there is a void in materials which promote environmental awareness, the book will serve as the centerpiece of the contest helping Earth Day Network expand its reach to new audience members in preparation for the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, to be celebrated in April 2010. “As we approach the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, we are excited to share these educational opportunities with our younger audience to engage them in climate change solutions,” explains Brenna Holzhauer, Education Coordinator at Earth Day Network.

The 2010 Student Climate Change Solutions Contest will encourage teachers in grades K-4 to read Planet Earth Gets Well with their students and to utilize a related lesson plan to introduce age-appropriate concepts surrounding climate change. The book will be offered at a discount to teachers by visiting http://www.planetearthgetswell.com/ and lesson plans will be available for free download from the Earth Day Network’s Educators’ Network at http://www.earthday.net/node/12. There will also be a back-to-school poster contest for students aimed at resolving climate change which will be tied to the Earth Day 2010 theme, “The Green Generation™.”

Selected by the Earth Day Network’s Education Department, the two winners of the 2010 Student Climate Change Solutions Contest will be celebrated as exemplary members of The Green Generation™. The winning students will also receive a prize package including a signed copy of Planet Earth Gets Well, a t-shirt, a poster and a copy of the Planet Earth DVD set as well as an autographed Earth Day poster for the teacher’s classroom.

Winners will be announced through the Earth Day Network’s education page in the Earth Day Network’s Educators’ Network newsletter and on the Planet Earth Gets Well website (http://www.planetearthgetswell.com/), Facebook page and on Twitter (@planetearthwell). The winning students will receive a prize package including a signed copy of Planet Earth Gets Well, a t-shirt, a poster and a copy of the Planet Earth DVD set as well as an autographed Earth Day poster for the teacher’s classroom.

Planet Earth Gets Well is based on the author Madeline Kaplan’s understanding that future generations must be prepared to preserve their planet and its resources. Full-color illustrations garnish every other page of this creative metaphor in which Planet Earth has a fever—global warming—and to make him healthy again, his human friends must listen to the advice of Earth’s mother. Ms. Kaplan says that, “The relationship between the health of the planet and the people that live on it is clearly demonstrated for young readers, promoting this awareness as part of their earliest understanding of the world in which they live. I am extremely pleased to partner with Earth Day Network to further promote this awareness.”

Kudos to Madeline Kaplan and the Earth Day Network! This is great news and we're proud to be part of such an important educational initiative. We will keep you posted on the contest and in the meantime you're welcome to visit the book's website at and the Earth Day Network's website at http://www.earthday.net/.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris
www.ecolibris.net

Be a patriot and recycle - a special guest column for the 4th of July

Today Eco-Libris blog is happy to bring you a a special guest column of our friends at RecycleBank for the upcoming holiday. It presents you with an easy and important way to show your love for your country and not only on the 4th of July, but actually every day!

Recycling…as American as Apple Pie

What is patriotic? Fighting for one’s country is patriotic, flag-waving is patriotic, singing “The Star-Spangled Banner” is patriotic. Now, let’s think outside the bin (sorry, recycling humor) to something you do everyday. That’s right. Every time you reduce, reuse and recycle you’re celebrating your love for your country.

During World War II citizens were urged to recycle (or “salvage”) metal, rubber, paper and even kitchen fat to help in the war effort. Today’s soldiers don’t need recycled steel for guns, salvaged kitchen fat for explosives or scrap paper for packaging, but recycling is still patriotic.

By recycling, we show our love for our country by protecting our nation’s resources, reducing our dependence on the resources of other countries and boosting our economy.

Here’s how:

-Recycling plastic reduces the need for virgin plastic. Of course, virgin plastic isn’t a natural resource, but the petroleum used to make it is. In fact, approximately 4% of our annual oil consumption is used to make plastics. By recycling more plastic we reduce the need for the production of virgin plastic and that reduces our dependence on foreign oil.

-Manufacturing products using recycled materials instead of virgin materials requires a lot less energy. Making an aluminum can from recycled aluminum requires 95% less energy than making an aluminum can from virgin aluminum. In 2003, we reduced our oil usage by more than 15 million barrels by recycling 54 billion aluminum cans.

-Of course, oil isn’t our only source of energy. Recycling materials also reduces our need for coal—and that protects those purple mountains majesty.

-Using less energy also saves money. Saving money improves the national economy, but the recycling industry has given the national economy a real boost by creating over a million jobs. In fact, a recent report by the Pew Charitable Trusts found that jobs in conservation and pollution mitigation (including the recycling industry) make up 65% of the United States’ clean energy economy.

-Recycling reduces the amount of solid waste we need to dump in landfills, which in turn, reduces the need for landfills. By protecting our land from being “filled” with garbage, we’re helping to keep America beautiful.

-Recycling paper protects our forests by reducing the need for trees to produce paper. Recycling cars and other objects made of steel and iron reduces the amount of iron ore we must mine and recycling aluminum reduces the amount of aluminum we have to pull out of the ground.

There you have it. You love your country. You just have a different way of showing it. Now, gather your friends and family and enjoy your 4^th of July barbecue. Don’t forget to grab your recycled (and recyclable) plates (http://www.preserveproducts.com/products/tableware.html) and your recycled American flag (http://online-clothing-catalog.com/archives/238).

How you combine free book swapping with generating more income to authors? "Mooch Before You Buy" may be the answer!

Our friends at BookMooch are conducting a very interesting experience that could generate a new model into the book world.

The concept behind the new "Mooch Before You Buy" program is actually very simple as John Buckman, the founder of BookMooch, explains on BookMooch blog:

"An author freely gives away copies of their book through BookMooch. Once you’ve read the book, if you:

* didn’t like it: relist it on BookMooch and send it to someone else.

* liked it, but want to give it away: consider a small donation to thank the author.

* want to keep it: give the author a larger gift, about the price you’d pay for the book new in a bookstore. "

The goal Buckman explains is to encourage authors to publish books in this “Mooch Economy”, as an alternative to the traditional publishing industry route.

I think this can be a great win-win model, adding another important layer to the swapping system - compensation of authors, who so far didn't receive any proceeds after the first sale of the book, no matter how many times their book was swapped and read afterwards. We had the chance to learn a little bit about this issue from a guest post we had on our blog of author Justine Locke who addresses a similar problem with sales of used books.

In all swapping provides many other indirect benefits for authors such as exposure to new readers, which will be translated in some cases to reviews on Amazon and in other cases to purchases of other books of the author when the reader wants to read more of the author's work. But again I'm sure some authors would still find it unsatisfying in terms of compensation for their hard work, and that's the missing part this new model can provide.

We're living in a digital era, where free content becomes more and more popular, or as Chris Anderson, the author of the upcoming book "Free: The Future of a Radical Price" defined it:"In the digital marketplace, the most effective price is no price at all". We see creators constantly looking for new models that adopt to these changes and still provide them with fair compensation for their work.

Taking that in mind, it will be interesting to follow the BookMooch new model and see how well it manages to make both readers and authors happy. We hope it will generate great success because as we said before the concept of book swapping is very eco-friendly, making the most out of every printed copy, and hence communities such as BookMooch are a great example of sustainable reading.

The first book on the "Mooch Before You Buy" program is “A Cat May Look at a King“ of author and moocher Ramsay Wood, who had provided BookMooch with 32 new copies of his book. “A Cat May Look at a King“ is a beautifully full color illustrated set of ancient stories featuring cats, retold by Ramsay.

And last but not least, I would like to mention our ongoing partnership with BookMooch to offer Green Mooching, a special incentive to BookMoochers to balance out their books, and to Eco-Libris fans to start mooching some books. For every 10 books you balance out you will receive a free BookMooch point you can then use to mooch a book online for free.

So if you don't have a BookMooch account yet go get one :)

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris
www.ecolibris.net

And we have a winner on "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Green Building and Remodeling" giveaway!

Following our review of "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Green Building and Remodeling" last week, we had a give away of our review copy. We asked you to share with us what you do at home to lower your energy costs and/or use water more efficiently.

We got great replies with many great ideas that only show how many things can be done at home with not too much trouble to save energy and money.

And we have a winner!

Our winner is the reader ethnically ambiguous who wrote the following:

We recycle our raining water to water our garden & lawn, we uplug all non-essential electrical items in our household, as appliances burn out in our house we replace with only energy star rates appliances, in the winter we cover all windows with a layer of plastic and flannel to make sure we are keeping the house as warm as possible, we just bought a water efficent toilet and water savers on all faucets & showerheads...

Congrats to the winner! You will receive a copy of the book and we'll also plant a tree for it. Thank you also to all the other participants!

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: promoting green printing

Green printing tip #4 - What does FSC Certified mean? is it enough?

Today we continue our series of green printing tips, where we bring you in collaboration with Greg Barber, an experienced eco-friendly printer.

Last week we discussed various emblems that it's important to use to demonstrate the fact you're using green printing practices. Today Greg's tip is referring to one of these main emblems - the FSC certification.

What does FSC Certified mean? is it enough?

Tip #4
FSC stands for Forest Stewardship Council. This council certifies that the paper mills are following strict procedures in managing their forests.

The FSC wants to make sure the forests are managed properly and that new trees can grow and that the forests are not depleted. To have a printing job be FSC certified, several very important procedures must be followed.

1. The Chain of Custody must be followed.
The printer needs a document from the paper merchant that proves that the paper bought is FSC certified. The delivery receipt must be sent to the Forest Stewardship Council for final verification.

2. The printer Must Be FSC certified.
Not many printers have gone through this process. It costs at least $5000.00 and there are very strict procedures that must be checked out to see if the printer is being environmental in their printing.

3. The PDF of the print job , along with the Chain Of Custody signed
A receipt with the name of the printer must be sent to the FSC.

4. The FSC will check the documents and then email back the code # that must be printed in the correct position next to the FSC emblem.























My final approval to this procedure: I like FSC and I also like that other emblems are printed, next to the FSC emblem. FSC is for managing the forests. It does not mean that the paper is recycled or chlorine free.

I like to see that the paper is also 100% PCW and 100% PCF and that the Energy used to make the paper is Green E certified. FSC can be for non environmental paper, and FSC can be for minimum recycled paper, and FSC can be for the maximum recycled paper. I like the maximum recycled paper. Then, I am sure your job is totally environmentally sound!


If you have any further questions following our tips, or you have a specific question you want us to address, please email us to info@ecolibris.net.

More links:

Green Printing Tip #3 - how you make sure everyone knows you're using green printing practices

Green Printing Tip #2 - how you can make money while printing on 100% recycled paper

Green Printing Tip #1 - go for a digital job

You can also find further valuable information on Greg Barber Company's website - http://www.gregbarberco.com.

All the tips are archived and saved on http://www.ecolibris.net/greentips.asp (part of our green printing tools & resources page).

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris
www.ecolibris.net

Monday's green books series: The Cul-De-Sac Syndrome

Once a big house in the suburb was an indicator of success in America. It was part of the American Dream. Today it is transforming from an asset to a liability and becomes a nightmare for so many.

The book we're reviewing today is looking into this dream, the crisis that now seemed so inevitable and a new sustainable dream that should replace it.

Our book today is:

The Cul-De-Sac Syndrome: Turning Around the Unsustainable American Dream

Author: John F. Wasik

John Wasik has won 18 journalism awards, including several from the National Press Club, for consumer and business journalism. His Merchant of Power was praised by Studs Terkel and well reviewed by the New York Times. Wasik is a financial columnist for Bloomberg News and the author of 11 other book s. He has appeared on such national media as NBC, NPR, and PBS.

Publisher: Bloomberg Press

Published on: June 2009

What this book is about? (from the the book's Amazon webpage)
An incisive look at the consequences of today's costly and damaging suburban lifestyle, this new book exposes the economic, cultural, environmental, and health problems underlying life in suburbia. John Wasik provides powerful insights into how the U.S. suburban lifestyle became unsustainable and what can be done to salvage it.

Wasik's observations are firmly grounded in exclusive on-the-ground research, interviews with thought leaders, and the latest studies and statistics. He exposes the untold truths about home ownership: green isn't always so green, life isn't cheaper after accounting for gas, water, and taxes, and modern suburban living isn't so idyllic considering the toll it takes on our health.

Wasik's trenchant analysis adds a new dimension to an important topic, with exclusive research and analysis that debunks the many myths of suburban living, while exploring innovative solutions being developed in cities and suburbs across the country.

Why you should get it?
If you live in suburbia and less and less feel that you're living the American dream, this is the book for you. Not only that this book raises the right questions, it also provide you with some of the answers.

There are some books that are discussing green housing alternatives, some more conventional and some are less, but they're mostly focusing on the environmental-economic link from an efficiency point of view. This book is unique in its much more diverse inter-disciplinary approach, as it masterly presents the connection between the economy, environment, sustainable development and the American way of life.

And of course there's the focus on the housing bubble, or as the book calls it "one of the most devastating housing recessions since the 1930s". This is the first book that I see which is connecting all the dots, economic, cultural and environmental, with regard to this significant financial blowup that is still going on.

Wasik does a great job in both describing the problem and offering various solutions. I like the fact that he keeps the discussion as practical as possible with many examples that makes this book much more than a theoretical manifesto - it is a description of a dream that once was admired by everyone and its demise. Moreover, it's a description of a new dream, a sustainable one that can shape the future of the U.S. and creates a whole new American dream.

What others say about the book:
"John Wasik's The Cul-de-Sac Syndrome offers enough to chew on for three sets of teeth, enough to digest for three stomachs, and the alerts the mind faster than an approaching siren." -Ralph Nader, Consumer advocate

"Get ready for a totally original look at the American dream. Wasik delivers the first truly multidisciplinary examination—using planning, law, architecture, and history to focus on working solutions that can keep the dream alive. This is a winner!" — Paul B. Farrell, JD, PhD. Columnist, MarketWatch.com and author of The Millionaire Code

"This excellent book takes a ground-level look at the causes of our housing crisis and offers a myriad of ideas on reinventing the concepts of home and community.” —Ilyce R. Glink, syndicated real estate columnist, author of 100 Questions Every First-Time Home Buyer Should Ask

If you're looking for other interesting green-themed books, you are invited to check out our green books page on our website's green resources section.

More related links:

Interview with the the author, John Wasik

Podcast of the author on Blog Talk Radio

The author's website

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: promoting green printing