Today is Take Your Child to a Bookstore Day!

Today is Take Your Child to a Bookstore Day. GalleyCat reports that founded by novelist Jenny Milchman, the new tradition urges parents to pass along the joy of bookstore shopping to the next generation. What a great idea a great idea, right?

Here are more details about this day from Take Your Child to a Bookstore Day's website:

Take Your Child to a Bookstore Day began when my children were little and I was going to story time at bookstores nearly every week. Did all children know the pleasure of spending time in a bookstore? I wondered. Of being drawn into a magic world for a while, then being left to choose treasures on the shelf? I wanted to begin a holiday that would expose as many kids as possible to this joy.

But Take Your Child to a Bookstore Day quickly became bigger than one mother and her children. Bloggers and book lovers took it viral across the web, carried posters into bookstores, and welcomed me and my family to local bookstores when we traveled cross country last summer.

Now we are busily adding stores, helping support celebrations on the Day, and leading people to the wonderful places we have found. In the future, Take Your Child to a Bookstore may offer grants for children who can't visit a bookstore on their own, or perhaps there will be internships for kids who want one day to own a bookstore. Because the sky is the limit when there is a book!

I'm going to take my kid to Strand Bookstore, which is not just a great indie bookstore, but also partners with Eco-Libris to offer customers to plant a tree for every book they buy at Strand.

Which bookstore will you go to with your kid to? Have a look at the Day's Bookstores page to see a map of the almost 150 bookstores participating in Take Your Child to a Bookstore Day!

For more information visit Take Your Child to a Bookstore Day's website.


Photo credit: Take Your Child to a Bookstore Day's website

Enjoy this day,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Promoting green reading!

Eco-Libris special gift offer for the holidays: trees + book stickers + holiday greeting card

We would like to remind you about special offer for the holidays: trees + stickers + beautiful holiday greeting card.

It's very simple - plant trees to green the books your loved ones read. We will send them a beautiful holiday card and Eco-Libris stickers to display on their books' sleeves. Just change the shipping address on the PayPal payment page to the address of the gift receiver (or send us a separate email to info@ecolibris.net with the details) and we will take care of the rest!

The holiday greeting cards we send are made by Doodle Greetings (see picture above). Not only these cards come with a beautiful design, but they are also eco-friendly - printed on 100% post-consumer recycled paper and are made chlorine-free and acid free. This is a good fit with Eco-Libris stickers, which are also made of recycled paper!

This is also very affordable gift offer, starting from $6.50 for 5 trees/stickers and a holiday gift card! $25, for example, will get you 25 trees, 25 stickers and a beautiful holiday gift card. Interested? go to our holiday gift page.

Last but not least, if you buy books this year as gifts for family and friends (and maybe even yourself), we have some ideas on how to make your gift more sustainable. Check out our 10 recommendations on how to green your book gift this holiday season.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Promoting green reading!

10 ideas on how to green your book gift this holiday season

A book is always a great gift. If you look for an affordable and unique gift to buy this holiday season for family and friends, a book is always a great choice (an interesting one of course..). If you also want to make it a green gift, we have some ideas for you how to make your gift more sustainable.

Here are 10 ideas how to green your book gift this holiday season:

1. Buy from your local independent bookstore (if you can't walk or bike there, purchase online)

2. Another option: Buy books at Better World Books, a unique social enterprise and a certified B Corporation!

3. If you choose to go to a bookstore, use a reusable shopping bag, or even buy one there and add it to your book. Also, look for bookstores where you can print books instantly using their Espresso Book Machine

4. Buy from publishers who have established environmental policies.

5. If you're an avid reader or you're buying for one, buy an e-reader or ebooks if you or the person you're buying for already has one (one e-reader is usually enough..)

6. Buy children's books from passionate green publishers

7. Buy books on a green topic.

8. Buy an audiobook (if you can download it it's even better!)

9. Buy from authors and publishers that work with Eco-Libris to green their books.

10. Plant trees for your books with Eco-Libris and add our stickers and a beautiful holiday gift card made of recycled paper.

Have fun!

Image Credit: wilbertss, Flickr Creative Commons

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Plant a Tree for Every Book You Read!

10 recommendations on green ebooks for Cyber Monday

We're back with another ten recommendations on green ebooks, and today we have a list of 10 green ebooks for Cyber Monday. If you want to take advantage of the discounts bookstores will probably provide tomorrow for online purchases, one of these great ebooks on green topics can be a good fit for you.

The links of these ebooks are to Amazon.com, but you can also find them in electronic formats suitable for other e-readers and they're also available in other bookstores. This is also the place to disclose that we're taking part in Amazon's affiliate program, so if you do use these links to purchase one of these ebooks we receive a small percentage of it. We hope you don't mind!

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

1. But Will the Planet Notice?: How Smart Economics Can Save the World by Gernot Wagner

2. Endless Appetites: How the Commodities Casino Creates Hunger and Unrest (Bloomberg) byAlan Bjerga

3. The Future of Value: How Sustainability Creates Value Through Competitive Differentiation by Eric Lowitt

4. Guerrilla Marketing Goes Green: Winning Strategies to Improve Your Profits and Your Planet by Jay Conrad Levinson and Shel Horowitz

5. Boiling Point by K.L. Dionne

6. Fair Food: Growing a Healthy, Sustainable Food System for All by Oran B. Hesterman

7. Plastic: A Toxic Love Story by Susan Freinkel

8. Confessions of a Radical Industrialist: Profits, People, Purpose--Doing Business by Respecting the Earth by Robin White and Ray Anderson

9. EcoChi: Designing the Human Experience by Debra Duneier

10. The Art of Eating In: How I Learned to Stop Spending and Love the Stove by Cathy Erway

More lists of recommended green ebooks can be found on our recommended green ebooks page.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Plant a Tree for Every Book You Read!

Two new children's books, Herbie and the Tune and A is for Asking, go green with Eco-Libris!

We are happy to announce a new collaboration with our partner, the Australian publishers Pick-a-Woo Woo, on not one but two great new green children's books that was just released: Herbie and the Tune and A is for Asking.

100 trees are planted with Eco-Libris for each of these children's books. As you can see in the picture above, our logo is also added to the book's cover.

These books are green books, not just because of the trees planted for it, but also because of the story they tell and the messages they send to the readers.

Here are more details about Herbie and the Tune:
Deep within every moment, there is pure joy. Set in a heavenly airport, this lovely allegory finds Herbie preparing for his flight to earth. What follows is the wonderful discovery that the tune (pure joy), can still be heard in the physical world. With thanks to the gentle guidance of the pilot, Herbie learns how to listen out for the tune.

Age range: Read Together 4-9 yrs/Read Alone 6-9 yrs

Author: Bradley Kyle
Born in Melbourne, Australia, Brad has travelled the world extensively, fuelling his thirst for knowledge beyond these shores and this life as we know it. He lived in London for more than five years where he wrote a number of unpublished children's stories, eventually returning to Sydney for another three years.

Though an accountant by trade, Brad has always been a writer by nature, and his published works are the inevitable result. He credits his major turning point in both his writing career and life to an 800 kilometer walk across Spain in 2007. It was in every way, a life-changing pilgrimage. His primary hope is that his words bring inspiration and evolution to the reader, whether old or young.

He now lives in Melbourne with his beautiful wife Ruth, only moments away from the house of his childhood.

Copies of the book are available for purchase on Amazon.

Here are more details about A is for Asking:
Join Angel (Love), Fairy (Light) & Pixie (Laughter) on a small Australian farm as they gather key spiritual words to help the children with their vision board project. With thought provoking rhyme and wonderful heart warming illustrations encouraging young children & adults alike to experience the benefits of creating a positive spiritually enhanced mindset through the spoken & unspoken word. Your thoughts and the words you choose to use every minute of every hour of every day, create your attitude & actions which creates your reality. Enjoy your journey.

Age range: 3-9 yrs

Author: Wendy Neilson
Wendy has been working with words for most of her life, sharing her thoughts as a poet. While training to be a lifecoach, Wendy realised there were many key words associated with gaining a positive enlightened mindset. This realisation has developed into a spiritual alphabet book that she wishes she had access to when she was a child. She is now 53 years of age with 4 children and 2 grandchildren and hopes that her first book will help people, young & old to evaluate their lives and make the changes within themselves to create a life that makes their heart sing, every day in every way.

Copies of the book are available for purchase on Amazon.

About Pick-a-WooWoo Publishing: Based in Western Australia, Pick-a-Woo Woo Publishers are publishers of Mind Body Spirit books for children. Their inspirational books are designed to help children connect with their intuition and inner guidance, develop their awareness skills and enhance their Mind, Body, Spirit connection.

Other Pick-a-Woo-Woo titles that go green with Eco-Libris:

The Boy Who Was Born To Love Frogs
Angel Steps
Ocean's Calling
KC the Conscious Came

Archie Angel to the Rescue
The Star who Lost her Sparkle
The Elf that Flew

More information on these books and other titles published by Pick-a-Woo Woo can be found on their website - http://www.pickawoowoo.com

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Plant a tree for every book you read!

10 ways to green your Black Friday

If you don't think you can make it today and avoid shopping, here are 10 things you can do to green your Black Friday:

1. Unless you can walk to the store, it's usually greener to buy online.

2. Buy locally. For example, buy at your local favorite independent bookstore.

3. Don't buy from retailers that opened their stores at midnight - they just don't deserve your trust and money.

4. Try to look for products that can help you make your lifestyle greener, like an e-reader.

5. Buy only valuable products. Don't be one of those people who are being persuaded to spend money they don’t have, on things they don’t need, to create impressions that won’t last, on people they don’t care about (Tim Jackson, ‘Prosperity without Growth’)

6. Add to your decision-making process environmental and social elements. Look for items that are made from recycled or organic materials, fair trade certified, energy efficient (check for the ENERGY STAR logo), FSC-certified and so on.

7. Use the GoodGuide to choose greener options.

8. Look for green and cool ideas on Kickstarter, like the classic Windowfarm.

9. Prefer products that it's possible and easy to recycle when you you won't want them anymore, and believe me this day will come.

10. Do it quickly and spend the rest of the days with your loved ones - it's much more important and fun!

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Plant a tree for every book you read!

Penguin suspends ebook library lending

AP reported earlier today that Penguin Group has suspended making e-editions of new books available to libraries and won't allow libraries to loan any e-books for Amazon.com's Kindle e-readers and tablets.

Why? "We have always placed a high value on the role that libraries can play in connecting our authors with our readers," the publisher announced in a statement Monday according to AP. "However, due to new concerns about the security of our digital editions, we find it necessary to delay the availability of our new titles in the digital format while we resolve these concerns with our business partners."

You could only wonder if this is really the issue here or it's actually about revenues, or more specifically lost revenues Penguin is worried about. Somehow I got the feeling that a financial arrangement will sort this out, not an extra safeguard on Penguin's digital editions.

More updates on ebook lending can be found on our ebook lending page.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Plant a tree for every book you read!