Earth Day 2011 Campaign - 41 Reasons to Plant a Tree for Your Book: Reason no. 21

We continue with our Earth Day campaign - 41 Reasons to Plant a Tree for Your Book, where we share with you 41 reasons provided by readers in celebration of the upcoming 41st anniversary of Earth Day!

With more than 180,000 trees planted so far on behalf of readers, authors and publishers working with Eco-Libris, it's no surprise that we think planting trees to green up books is a great idea.. But we also want to hear what readers think about it and why they believe planting trees for their books is a good idea.

So for 41 days until Earth Day, we publish here the 41 best replies we receive, one reply a day. All replies are gathered and presented on the Earth Day 2011page.

Reason no. 21:

The reason that trees should be planted for my book "Planet Earth Gets Well" is because Planet Earth wants very much to have his forests heal and become green again. There is an illustration in the book on Page 11 that shows what happens to forests that have been destroyed by pollution and deforestation. There is nothing that would make Planet Earth happier than to have his forests become lush and green again! - Madeline Kaplan, author of the children's book Planet Earth Gets Well.

Thank you Madeline for sharing with us your thoughts on planting trees for your book!

We want to mention again the great prizes we give away on this campaign, courtesy of our partners. Winners can choose their prize from a great list of gifts including audiobooks from Simon & Schuster Audio (such as The Half Life by Jennifer Weiner, Left Neglected by Lisa Genova and Essence of Happiness by the Dalai Lama) and great books, like Planet Home by Jeffrey Hollender, Spit That Out! by Paige Wolf and The Healthy Home by Dave Wentz and Dr. Myron Wentz. You can see the full list of the prizes on the campaign's page.

Every day we'll give further details on one of the prizes. Today we present you with the book I Unleash Your Full Potential by James Rick.

Unleash Your Full Potential by James Rick - "Unleash Your Full Potential" is the newest book in the "Full Potential" book series, which is the product of James Rick's quest to take thousands of hours of research and distill it into clear, concise, immediately useful information. What began as a desire to have more good days than bad days, and a curiosity about dreams and meditation, evolved into thousands of hours of research and experimentation in the areas of personal development, philosophy, biology, physics, psychology, evolution, religion and spirituality, naturally altered states of consciousness, entrepreneurship, economics, and politics. The broad scope of James' experience and study gives him a unique perspective not usually found in other forms of literature or presentation.

We still have some spots available so please send us your reply to info@ecolibris.net. We look forward to hearing from you.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Promoting sustainable reading!

Earth Day 2011 - 41 Reasons to Plant a Tree for Your Book: Reason no. 20

We continue with our Earth Day campaign - 41 Reasons to Plant a Tree for Your Book, where we share with you 41 reasons provided by readers in celebration of the upcoming 41st anniversary of Earth Day!

With more than 180,000 trees planted so far on behalf of readers, authors and publishers working with Eco-Libris, it's no surprise that we think planting trees to green up books is a great idea.. But we also want to hear what readers think about it and why they believe planting trees for their books is a good idea.

So for 41 days until Earth Day, we publish here the 41 best replies we receive, one reply a day. All replies are gathered and presented on the Earth Day 2011page.

Reason no. 20:
Planting a tree for books I buy helps assure that I begin to close the loop on my activities. Trees provide space for ecosystems and preserving biodiversity, prevent soil erosion, absorb carbon, and provide us with shade and beauty. Since products we consume do not generally include the costs of environmental and social impacts, until corporations begin to be accountable for these impacts, we have the responsibility to help assure that we as citizens account for what we purchase. Eco-Libris allows me to do this for books I purchase. - Tom

Thank you Tom for sharing with us your thoughts on planting trees for your books!

Tom, just like all the other readers whose replies we'll publish, is winning one of the great prizes we give away on this campaign, courtesy of our partners. Winners can choose their prize from a great list of gifts including audiobooks from Simon & Schuster Audio (such as The Half Life by Jennifer Weiner, Left Neglected by Lisa Genova and Essence of Happiness by the Dalai Lama) and great books, like Planet Home by Jeffrey Hollender, Spit That Out! by Paige Wolf and The Healthy Home by Dave Wentz and Dr. Myron Wentz. You can see the full list of the prizes on the campaign's page.

Every day we'll give further details on one of the prizes. Today we present you with the book I Can Save the Earth by Alison Inches.

I Can Save the Earth by Alison Inches - A new "green" series!: Little Green Books will educate children on what they can do to be more eco-friendly. The books in this line will be made from recycled materials, and the storylines will cover subjects such as improving the environment, learning about endangered animals, recycling, and much more.

Meet Max the Little Monster. He is a cute, furry green monster who is an environmental nightmare. Among other things, he leaves on all the lights, keeps his computer plugged in, blasts the TV, hoards his old toys and uses so much toilet paper it clogs the toilet until finally, his excessive ways cause a power outage. With no TV to watch, computer to play on, video games to play with, Max finds there is a whole big world outside that he can make a difference in the environment.

Kids can follow Max the Little Green Monster's journey to environmental awareness and learn tips on how they can become little green monsters themselves. A kid-friendly glossary of terms is included in the back of the book.

This 8x8 paperback is perfect bound and will be printed on 100% post-consumer waste recycled paper with soy-ink. The paper is FSC certified.

We still have some spots available so please send us your reply to info@ecolibris.net. We look forward to hearing from you.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Promoting sustainable reading!

Earth Day Campaign - 41 Reasons to Plant a Tree for Your Book: Reason no. 19

We continue with our Earth Day campaign - 41 Reasons to Plant a Tree for Your Book, where we share with you 41 reasons provided by readers in celebration of the upcoming 41st anniversary of Earth Day!

With more than 180,000 trees planted so far on behalf of readers, authors and publishers working with Eco-Libris, it's no surprise that we think planting trees to green up books is a great idea.. But we also want to hear what readers think about it and why they believe planting trees for their books is a good idea.

So for 41 days until Earth Day, we publish here the 41 best replies we receive, one reply a day. All replies are gathered and presented on the Earth Day 2011page.

Reason no. 19:
Quite simple – to try to make up for some of the environmental impact we make when producing printed books - Marie Halkjær, Founder and Publisher at Clockwise, a Danish publishing company.

Thank you Marie for sharing with us your thoughts on planting trees for your books!

We want to mention again the great prizes we give away on this campaign, courtesy of our partners. Winners can choose their prize from a great list of gifts including audiobooks from Simon & Schuster Audio (such as The Half Life by Jennifer Weiner, Left Neglected by Lisa Genova and Essence of Happiness by the Dalai Lama) and great books, like Planet Home by Jeffrey Hollender, Spit That Out! by Paige Wolf and The Healthy Home by Dave Wentz and Dr. Myron Wentz. You can see the full list of the prizes on the campaign's page.

Every day we'll give further details on one of the prizes. Today we present you with the book This is Our World by Emily Sollinger.

This is Our World by Emily Sollinger - Join the fun on this interactive journey while learning to clean the air, reduce pollution, recycle, and more. Nine double-sided puzzle pieces are included in this book so kids can create two different puzzles!

We still have some spots available so please send us your reply to info@ecolibris.net. We look forward to hearing from you.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Promoting sustainable reading!

Barnes & Noble Bankruptcy Index: The stock is finally going up but B&N continues to go down

Unfortunately we still don't have any good news. This week our B&N bankruptcy index is showing bankruptcy is getting closer even though it made some gains at the stock market. Just a short reminder - As Borders filed for bankruptcy, we look at Barnes & Noble, the nation's largest book chain to see if they will follow Borders and also go into bankruptcy and if so, when exactly.

To do it more analytically we launched few weeks ago a new B&N Bankruptcy Index, which is based on 10 parameters, which receive a grade between 1-10 (1 - worst grade, 10 - best grade). Hence we receive a 0-100 point index scale, which we divide into several ranges as follows:

90-100: B&N is in an excellent shape. Couldn't be better!
80-89: B&N is doing great. Bankruptcy is no longer a real threat.
70-79: B&N could do better and has to be cautious of bankruptcy.
60-69: B&N doesn't look too good and bankruptcy is becoming a more realistic threat.
50-59: Bankruptcy is a clear and present danger.
49 and less: Red alert! Bankruptcy is just around the corner and is likely to happen within a short time frame.

We will check the B&N Bankruptcy Index every Thursday, updating each one of the parameters included in the index and will analyze the trend. You can follow the weekly changes in the index from the day it was launched on the Barnes and Noble Bankruptcy Index page on our website.

So here's our update for this week (in brackets is last week's grade):

1. Confidence of the stock market in B&N
This parameter will look at the performance of the B&N stock (symbol: BKS) in the last week. The performance of B&N's stock is an indication of the confidence the market has in the ability of B&N to maintain a viable business.

So let's look at last week's figures:

3/23: $9.10
3/30: $9.75
Change: +7.1%

As you can see, B&N's stock finally stopped falling down and went up 7.1%. Just for comparison, Amazon went up 8.5% last week and the S&P500 Index also gained 2.4%.

Still, some analysts like NakedValue suggested investors to wait for a better opportunity, which means he doesn't think we saw the bottom yet:

Not much has gone right for Barnes & Noble (BKS) shareholders recently so maybe we should celebrate the recent strong move in the stock price. But while I believe there is upside to the stock price at these levels, I would urge others to wait for a better opportunity to initiate or add to their positions.

Here's a technical analysis published yesterday by ABR-Seven Summits Research:

Barnes and Noble (NYSE:BKS) closed Tuesday's bullish trading session at $9.72. In the past year, the stock has hit a 52-week low of $8.75 and 52-week high of $24.47. Barnes and Noble stock has been showing support around $9.27 and resistance in the $10.11 range. Technical indicators for the stock are Bearish and S&P gives BKS a neutral 3 STARS (out of 5) hold rating.

For a hedged play on this stock, look at the Oct '11 $9.00 covered call for a net debit in the $8.12 area. That is also the break-even stock price for this trade. This covered call has a duration of 206 days, provides 16.46% downside protection and an assigned return rate of 10.84% for an annualized return rate of 19.20% (for comparison purposes only). Barnes and Noble does not pay dividends at this time.

So even though B&N has a relatively strong week on the market, we're still cautious and wait for another week to see if the stock keeps going up or falls down again. This week's grade for this parameter stays the same: 4.5 (4.5)

2. What analysts say on B&N

Morgan Stanley analyst Scott Devitt raised his price target on Amazon from $205 to $225 — one of the highest targets on Wall Street for the stock, which has jumped more than 10% in value over the past two weeks, but remains below its all-time peak above the $191 mark from mid-January.

“We believe the market is underestimating the positive share shift from specialty retail to Amazon,” Devitt wrote in his report. In particular, he predicted that traditional retailers in both the books and electronics segments are likely to continue losing sales to the company.

Troubles at book sellers Borders Group Inc., which filed for bankruptcy protection last month and is closing 200 underperforming stores, and Barnes & Noble Inc. present a $6.7 billion opportunity for Amazon in this business, he wrote.

(MarketWatch, March 30)

As you can see, the negative sentiment is continuing this week, and therefore our grade is going down by half a point: 5.5 (6)

3. New strategy to regain sales in the brick and mortar stores
Just like Borders, B&N still doesn't have yet a clear and comprehensive strategy that will transform their brick and mortar stores from a liability back to an asset. This week's grade stays the same: 4 (4)

4. What B&N is saying about itself
No updates here. This week's grade for this parameter stays the same: 6 (6)

5. Steps B&N is taking
As part of its effort to expand the offerings on its Nook Color e-reader, B&N also announced its April More In Store content, which will allow customers to connect to free in-store WiFi service and access exclusive essays, short stories and more. This week's grade stays the same: 6 (6)

6. Competitors
This parameter will mainly look into Borders and how its problems affect B&N. This week the main news was on Borders' plan to hand out $8.3 million in bonuses, which I believe makes many customers (and employees) angry and disappointed. I think this week's news is providing an opportunity for B&N to show they're different and treat their stakeholders better than Borders, but they still need to act first and show they take advantage of this opportunity, so in the meantime, our grade stays the same: 5 (5)

7. Financial strength
Couple of weeks ago Barnes & Noble published the results for the third quarter. One interesting detail I learned this week from NakedValue was that B&N has a "flexible lease schedule, unlike Borders which was largely driven to bankruptcy because more than 70% of their store leases expired after 2017."

Other than that we don't have any updates this week and our grade stays the same: 7 (7)

8. Strength of the digital business
Barnes & Noble announced it is expanding Nook Color content with more books, magazines and children's books.

“With more than two million digital titles to browse, download and enjoy in seconds, NOOK Color customers repeatedly tell us how much they appreciate the ability to virtually turn the page on their favorite monthly, dive into a bestseller, and bring story time to life for their children – all using one device. And as always, Barnes & Noble will keep making NOOK Color better with new titles and featured enhancements for the best-in-class reading,” said Jamie Iannone, President of Digital Products for Barnes & Noble, in a written statement.

This week's grade stays the same: 8 (8)

9. Sense of urgency
It looks like B&N still think they have time and are not worried at all, or at least not worried enough to begin doing something with their brick and mortar stores (again, we don't believe more toys in the stores and extra room for the Nook is a winning strategy). If we can learn something from the Borders' case, it's how fast things go bad when your reach a certain tipping point of financial distress or distrust of your stakeholders (consumers or publishers for example). This week's grade stays the same: 5.5 (5.5)

10. General feeling
This parameter will be an indication of our impression of all the materials read and analyzed for this index. Our feeling this week is that things are still not looking too good for B&N. This week's grade stays the same: 5.5 (5.5)

This week's Barnes & Noble Bankruptcy Index: 57 points (57.5)

As you can see, this week's index is set at 57 points, which means B&N is getting deeper into the 50-59 zone: Bankruptcy is a clear and present danger. It's still not the red zone but it means that bankruptcy is getting closer and is becoming a real threat to B&N. See you next Thursday.

To view the weekly changes in the index visit Barnes and Noble Bankruptcy Index on our website.

You can find more resources on the future of bookstores on our website at www.ecolibris.net/bookstores_future.asp

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Working to green the book industry!

Earth Day 2011 - 41 Reasons to Plant a Tree for Your Book: Reason no. 18

This reason was supposed to go online yesterday but due to technical problems it's on today, as we continue with our Earth Day campaign - 41 Reasons to Plant a Tree for Your Book, where we share with you 41 reasons provided by readers in celebration of the upcoming 41st anniversary of Earth Day!

With more than 180,000 trees planted so far on behalf of readers, authors and publishers working with Eco-Libris, it's no surprise that we think planting trees to green up books is a great idea.. But we also want to hear what readers think about it and why they believe planting trees for their books is a good idea.

So for 41 days until Earth Day, we publish here the 41 best replies we receive, one reply a day. All replies are gathered and presented on the Earth Day 2011page.

Reason no. 18:
We should all plant a tree for our book because most people still enjoy the feeling of an actual page turning book in their hands. If we don't replenish and keep creating new books, we'll run out of this precious resource - Susan Newman (who also designed the campaign's logo!)

Thank you Susan for sharing with us your thoughts on planting trees for your books!

Susan, just like all the other readers whose replies we'll publish, is winning one of the great 41 prizes we give away on this campaign, courtesy of our partners. Winners can choose their prize from a great list of gifts including audiobooks from Simon & Schuster Audio (such as The Half Life by Jennifer Weiner, Left Neglected by Lisa Genova and Essence of Happiness by the Dalai Lama) and great books, like Planet Home by Jeffrey Hollender, Spit That Out! by Paige Wolf, Menu Dating by Tristan Coopersmith and The Healthy Home by Dave Wentz and Dr. Myron Wentz. You can see the full list of the prizes on the campaign's page.

Every day we'll give further details on one of the prizes. Today we present you with the book Easy to Be Green by Ellie O'Ryan, which is part of Simon & Schuster's Little Green Books.

Easy to Be Green by Ellie O'Ryan - Everyone's talking about the environment these days, especially kids. But what can kids do? A lot! This book is filled with cool coloring pages, Earth-saving tips, fun facts, and easy activities kids can do to help the environment. It's just what kids need to be green all by themselves!

This coloring and activity book will be printed on 100% post-consumer waste recycled paper with soy-ink. The paper is FSC certified.

We still have some spots available so please send us your reply to info@ecolibris.net. We look forward to hearing from you.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Promoting sustainable reading!

Looking for great green ebooks? Here's our weekly list of 10 recommended green ebooks!

We write here extensively on the ongoing dilemma of how green e-books are. Even though we believe e-reading can get greener, we can't ignore the growing popularity of ebooks (and you know I am fond of my Kindle..) and we want to help those of you who look to read interesting ebooks on green topics.

Therefore, we started last week a weekly series of 10 recommendations on green ebooks that we either read or read about on Treehugger, Grist and other websites we follow. Most of them are new and were either released in the last month or two or about to be released (but already available as ebooks).

The links of these ebooks are to Amazon.com and I apologize in advance to all the Nook, iPad, Kobo and Sony Reader owners. I hope you can easily find an ebook you'll like on other ebookstores. This is also the place to disclose that we're taking part in Amazon's affiliate program and therefore will receive a small percentage of every purchase made using these links. We hope you don't mind!

A new list is posted here every Wednesday and you can find all the lists published so far on our recommended green ebooks webpage.

Without further ado, here's this week's list of 10 recommended green e-books:

1. Climate Capitalism: Capitalism in the Age of Climate Change by Hunter Lovins and Boyd Cohen - Hill and Wang (April 12, 2011)

2. Converting To An Energy Efficient Home: A Guide For Beginners by Randall Graham - Amazon Kindle Services (March 21, 2011)

3. The Young Activist's Guide to Building a Green Movement and Changing the Worldby Sharon Smith - Ten Speed Press (February 22, 2011)

4. The Best Place for Garbage by Sandra Weise - WiR Press (March 20, 2011)

5. The City Homesteader: Self-Sufficiency on Any Square Footage by Scott Meyer - Running Press (April 26, 2011)

6. Retrofitting Suburbia, Updated Edition: Urban Design Solutions for Redesigning Suburbs by Ellen Dunham-Jones and June Williamson - Wiley (March 23, 2011)

7. Surviving the Apocalypse in the Suburbs: The Thrivalist's Guide to Life Without Oil by Wendy Brown- New Society Publishers (April 1, 2011)

8. Powering the Dream: The History and Promise of Green Technology by Alexis Madrigal - Da Capo Press (March 29, 2011)

9. Guide To Organic Gardening - Make Your Own Vegetable Garden by Juanita Ringer - Amazon Digital Services (March 2011)

10. Feeding Your Family in a Fried Economy (Unshackled UnChef) by Denise Hansen - KioMio, LLC; 1 edition (March 9, 2011)

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Promoting sustainable reading!

Earth Day 2011 - 41 Reasons to Plant a Tree for Your Book: Reason no. 17

We continue with our Earth Day campaign - 41 Reasons to Plant a Tree for Your Book, where we share with you 41 reasons provided by readers in celebration of the upcoming 41st anniversary of Earth Day!

With more than 180,000 trees planted so far on behalf of readers, authors and publishers working with Eco-Libris, it's no surprise that we think planting trees to green up books is a great idea.. But we also want to hear what readers think about it and why they believe planting trees for their books is a good idea.

So for 41 days until Earth Day, we publish here the 41 best replies we receive, one reply a day. All replies are gathered and presented on the Earth Day 2011page.

Reason no. 17:
Cynics call books dead trees. Planting a tree for every book brings the book back to life, several times over. It closes the loop of the publishing cycle by replenishing its principal resource. Optimists say, "Books can be live trees." - Peter Korchnak, Founder and CEO, GoodBookery and co-editor of The Portland Bottom Line: Practices for Your Small Business from America's Hotbed of Sustainability

Thank you Peter for sharing with us your thoughts on planting trees for your books!

We want to mention again the great prizes we give away on this campaign, courtesy of our partners. Winners can choose their prize from a great list of gifts including audiobooks from Simon & Schuster Audio (such as The Half Life by Jennifer Weiner, Left Neglected by Lisa Genova and Essence of Happiness by the Dalai Lama) and great books, like Planet Home by Jeffrey Hollender, Spit That Out! by Paige Wolf, Menu Dating by Tristan Coopersmith and The Healthy Home by Dave Wentz and Dr. Myron Wentz. You can see the full list of the prizes on the campaign's page.

Every day we'll give further details on one of the prizes. Today we present you with the book Knitting Green: Conversations and Planet Friendly Projects by Ann Budd.

Knitting Green: Conversations and Planet Friendly Projects by Ann Budd - Detailing a wide range of perspectives and approaches to environmental issues, this unique crafting manual offers ideas for knitting conscientiously. Leading figures of the industry, from designers to yarn company executives, share their methods for integrating green principles into their work and lives—selecting organic products, facilitating an alternative to chemical detergent, recycling old projects, reducing disposable plastic bags, and creating pieces that provide warmth and save on energy.

Inventive and timely, this practical guidebook explains answers to important questions such as What makes a yarn organic? and Are natural dyes safer than chemical dyes? Providing 22 clever designs for earth-friendly garments, accessories, gifts, and home furnishings, craft enthusiasts of all skill levels will enjoy projects that balance the altruism of saving the planet with the joyful benefits of their favorite hobby.

We still have some spots available so please send us your reply to info@ecolibris.net. We look forward to hearing from you.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Promoting sustainable reading!