Eco-Libris green holiday guide: Green gifts for book lovers under $25

If you're looking for holiday gifts for people who are avid readers that will be both eco-friendly and affordable (let's say no more than $25), we've got some great ideas for you!

No, this is not your usual guide with recommendations on "green" books like we used to have in the last couple of years (if you want some ideas for such books check our green books campaign), but rather a holiday guide with some creative idea we thought were worth recommending on. To make sure your gift will be fully appreciated, we divided it to 10 types of book lovers and we hope it will help you in finding your perfect gift!

Last but not list, as you will see, most of these gifts are provided by friends and partners of Eco-Libris so we might not be very objective, but at the same time we know these bookstores, publishers and companies very well, so we feel very confident to recommend on their products. And so without further ado, here's our green holiday guide to book lovers:

1. For the book lovers who like shopping

Strand's tote bag designed by Adrian Tomine (Strand Bookstore, $12.95)

Strand Bookstore is a great independent bookstore and is famous not only for its outstanding variety of books but also in their artists series totes, providing some great options for people who want to do shopping with something more than just the regular doll reusable shopping bag.

More about this shopping bag: The Strand is breaking new ground with the latest tote bag in our artist series, which is designed by famed graphic novelist Adrian Tomine. He's drawn us the many faces of Strand customers, and there are different people depicted on each side of the bag. Plus, our oval logo has been replaced by a multi-hued staggered-lettered STRAND mixed among the faces. Maybe the coolest bag we've ever done!

2. For the book lovers who will appreciate something different

Pachyderm Paper Book (Mr. Ellie Pooh, $15)

And what can be more different than a beautiful paper book made of elephant poo?

More about this paper book: These elephant dung paper journals have a kraft colored poo paper inside with covers that vary in color and design. Each notebook is embellished with authentic kitle bark binding. Elephants love eating kitle bark. They are 6" x 7.5" with ~60 pages. The items are 100% handmade 50% elephant poo, 50% post consumer. The paper in each book is naturally textured and acid free. These elephant dung paper books are great gift items for the elephant lover as well as the journal collector. Great for the little ones too. Quite sturdy.

3. For the book lovers who like to take notes

Recycled Notebook (Modern Paper Goods, $3.99)

Yes, some book lovers like to take notes, whether it's a shopping list to the next visit in their local bookstore or just some thoughts they have while reading a good book. This notebook is a really beautiful and useful gift, and you have many more magnificent designs of notebooks made of recycled paper to choose from. Here's more about this notebook: Everyone's all abuzz about the lush new note

books by talented artist Fiona Richards. Made with 100% recycled paper & printed with soy inks, they are environmentally friendly & perfect for any task: whether you use them to take notes in the office or for to-do lists, Cartolina's trademark vivid palette & intricate designs will brighten your day. Each notebook contains approximately 30 unlined pages; the outer cover is made of a slightly rigid, uncoated coverstock. Its construction makes it resilient for long-term use, yet light enough to tote around in a small purse.

4. For book lovers who like to get books in the library but are too lazy to get there

1-Month membership at BookSwim (BookSwim, $0)

BookSwim is America's most-gifted book rental service, delivers UNLIMITED books "Netflix®-style" by mail with no due dates, no late fees, and free shipping both ways! Now they offer a free 1-month trial for 3 Books In Circulation Unlimited! Send back 2 books, hold 1 book. Receive 2 more Unlimited rentals! This is a great gift at zero costs (after the free month, the monthly fee is $23.95 for this plan) and it also includes free shipping. Could it get any better?

5. For book lovers who are happy to share good books to other readers

Starter Kit for 25 Books (BookCrossing, $14.95)

BookCrossing.com is a great place for book lovers. BookCrossing, according to wikipedia, is defined as "the practice of leaving a book in a public place to be picked up and read by others, who then do likewise." The term is derived from bookcrossing.com, a free online book club which began in order to encourage the practice, aiming to connect people through books.There are currently 898,299 BookCrossers and 6,699,448 books travelling throughout 132 countries!

More about this kit: It includes 25 bookplates, sticky notes, officially official stickers and bookmarks - everything you need to get 25 books tagged and noticed! Perfect for newbies. Economical for all. Each Release Kit contains 2 3/4 x 5 1/2 inch Bookplate Labels, 3 x 4 inch International Sticky Notes, 2 x 7 inch Bookmarks for 25 books and 25 Official BookCrossing Stickers. All products are in English unless otherwise specified. Substitution products in other languages may be requested in the 'Comments' section of the order. Order extra - they make great gifts!

6. For the book lovers who prefers to choose his gift by themselves

Holiday Reindeer Gift Card (Indigo Books & Music, $25)

Gift card is always a great option as it enables the gift reciever to choose whatever they want to buy, so you can't really go wrong. Almost any book retailer has such gift cards, but Indigo is the only one that actually provides information online and though in-store kiosk that allows consumers to make informed decisions about where the paper content of their book comes from.

Rudolph comes to life (with a little 3D magic) in this unique gift card! And watch as his metallic red nose shines with the holiday spirit. This $25 gift card can be used to buy books, CDs, DVDs and much more in any Indigo, Chapters, Coles or World’s …+ read moreRudolph comes to life (with a little 3D magic) in this unique gift card! And watch as his metallic red nose shines with the holiday spirit. This $25 gift card can be used to buy books, CDs, DVDs and much more in any Indigo, Chapters, Coles or World’s Biggest Bookstore across Canada or online at chapters.indigo.ca. When you order a gift card it will be shipped in a note card which can be personalized during checkout. You can also send an Electronic Gift Certificate in the same value via email.

7. For the book lovers that use the Kindle

Belkin Grip Kindle Sleeve (Fits 6" Display), Perfect Plum (Belkin, $24.99)

As we mentioned earlier, we believe that among e-readers (not including iPad) Amazon's Kindle is the greenest option. Now, if you want to make it even greener, this cool sleeve is a great gift, as it will help to keep the Kindle safe and operational for a long time and hence reduce the chances it will be replaced and thrown away any time soon.

More about the Kindle sleeve: Featuring a Perfect Plum color scheme, Belkin's Grip Sleeve (Fits 6" Display, Latest Generation Kindle) is designed to protect your Amazon latest generation Kindle, so you can safely take it with you wherever you go. The Grip Sleeve offers a sleek, contemporary style and a custom fit with a secure zipper closure. Made of durable neoprene and silicone, the sleeve also has a soft lining that helps to protect your device from scratches.

8. For book lovers that would enjoy helping a new (animated e-) book created

Supporting the creating of TERMINALLY ILLIN': World's Awesomest Cancer Comic Book! (Kickstarter, $20)

Kickstarter is a great website that provides you the opportunity to help funding creative projects from the worlds of music, film, art, technology, design, food, publishing and other creative fields that needs this funding. This is not about investment or lending. Project creators keep 100% ownership and control over their work. Instead, they offer products and experiences that are unique to each project. In this case, Kaylin Marie and Jon Solo ask you to be a part in helping them bring an amazing illustrated story to life! Slightly cynical, slightly irreverent, and REALLY hilarious, "Terminally Illin" is a candid look into the life of a young adult battling cancer, but with a psychedelic-sci-fi twist! It's more than a comic book: It's provocative, educational, entertaining, and totally original.

Here, the added value is more social than environmental (besides being able to support a project of a young artist) - For every comic book sold, they will give one to a cancer patient. They are looking to raise $8,500. They already got $1,340 and 46 days to get the rest. $20 pledge will give the person you're giving this gift the following: a custom BUTTON, MAGNET, or STICKER. *PLUS* they'll email you a PDF file of the entire comic book that you can read from any electronic device and AUTOGRAPHED COMIC BOOK, with your name published on our thank you page! And just remember that if he won't raise all the money, you will get your money back.



9. For book lovers who are interested in reducing their footprint (and like to laugh)

Jeff Garlin's audiobook: My Footprint: Carrying the Weight of the World (Simon & Schuster Audio, CD- $22.79, download - $7.49)

How can anyone not like Jeff Garlin? He is a really funny guy and if you watch Curb Your Enthusiasm you know what I'm talking about. But besides being a comedian, he's also a serious guy and in August 2008 he decided to set up an impressive goal: Reducing both his physical and carbon footprint. His journey is documented in an audiobook released by Simon & Simon Audio: My Footprint: Carrying the Weight of the World.

Now this is the time to say something about the audiobook format. I believe 'My Footprint' is one of the cases where the advantages of hearing a story in this format are so obvious. Garlin is telling the story (he's reading it to Leonard Nimoy by the way) and as a comedian he knows to tell a story. Listening to this audiobook, I found myself laughing again and again, and I had this magical feeling I'm attending one of Garlin's comedy sets at the Comedy Store in West Hollywood.

One more word about audiobooks - we believe they represent one of the options to read books sustainably, especially when you download them - an option that represents right now about 21% of all sales (the rest are CDs). Here you can both purchase it as a CD ($22.79) or download it ($7.49).


10. For book lovers who will be happy to get some trees planted on their behalf

Balancing out 10 books by planting 10 trees + 10 stickers + beautiful holiday greeting card (Eco-Libris, $11.50)

Yes, this is a sort of self-promotion, but we thought it's also a nice option of an affordable eco-friendly gift, so why not mentioning it in our own guide?

So here's our holiday gift offer for you: Plant trees to balance out 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! If you're buying books as gifts, you can also add the stickers and the card, making it a great green gift.

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, which is the maximum cost of the gifts on this guide will get you 25 trees and stickers with the beautiful holiday gift card. Interested? go to our holidays gift page and check it out.

If you have more ideas, please feel free to comment and share them with us!

Happy Holidays,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Promoting sustainable reading!

5 reasons why independent bookstores shouldn't count too much on Google Editions

Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that Google "is in the final stages of launching its long-awaited e-book retailing venture, Google Editions, a move that could shake up the way digital books are sold" (more details in the video at the bottom).

According to the New York Times, "Google Editions will allow users to buy e-books from Google or from the Web sites of independent bookstores, which have yet to find a way to compete with Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Apple on the electronic front."

The American Booksellers Association (ABA) reported that more than 200 independent booksellers could sign up. It looks like booksellers are happy about this new option that for many of them wasn't available until now. It's a great addition to independent bookstores, but we believe independent bookstores shouldn't cont too much on Google Editions. Here's why:

1. Competition with Google and other sellers - According to the WSJ, "users will be able to buy books directly from Google or from multiple online retailers—including independent bookstores". It makes sense that most ebook buyers will just google the title they want to purchase and then go to the first result they receive on their search or the cheapest one. None of these will probably be independent bookstores. This sort of competition with Google itself and other sellers with more internet and SEO expertise means that most traffic to the independent stores' websites will be from their own loyal customers.

2. Google has no real incentive to support sales in Independent stores - Google is making more money of each sale made directly from Google, as they need to share the revenue with the bookstores if the purchase is made through their website. Therefore, Google doesn't have a real incentive to support sales in the stores and won't help them to win more sales as it will be eventually on Google's account.

3. It won't help their brick and mortar sales - Google Editions may provide them with some more income, but still far from compensating for the continuing decline in sales at the stores. It doesn't provide customers with any incentive to go to the stores and therefore doesn't help the owners in figuring out how to transform the stores from a liability back into an asset.

Save Now

4. Amazon will fight back - The main threat here is to established retailers like Amazon that will surely fight back to keep its customers at Amazon.com. And when the fight is between Google, with no experience whatsoever in online retailing and the independent bookstores on its side and Amazon, maybe the most successful online retailer, I'm not sure if I'd put my money on Google.

5. It's too small to stop the bleeding - Cathy Langer, the lead book buyer for the Tattered Cover bookstores in Denver, told Julie Bosman of the New York Times she had been waiting for the introduction of Google Editions with "great anticipation." “I always say that indies need to be players in all parts of the game, so this is going to be great to bring us into the e-book game in a reasonable, affordable way,” she said. “We would like to make a little money off of it. But we have got to stop the bleeding.” She's right - the Google Editions is no more than a small bandage given the relatively small market share (yet) of ebooks and the small chance this platform will bring new customers to the store. For the independent bookstores, the search after the right bandage is still far from an end.

Google's long-awaited Google Editions online bookstore appears closer to coming online. Rex Crum talks with Amir Efrati of the Wall Street Journal about what Google's entry means for the online book market.

For more information on Google Editions see the WSJ video with Rex Crum talks with Amir Efrati of the Wall Street Journal about what Google's entry means for the online book market:

More related articles:

Is there a future for Barnes & Noble and Borders bookstores? Is it a green one?, Eco-Libris Blog

Can monetary incentives + local benefits generate a brighter future for independent bookstores?, Eco-Libris Blog

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: Promoting sustainable reading!

What 7 percent of the owners of Amazon Kindle are doing with their Kindle?

An interesting survey was published yesterday showing how the e-Reader market has essentially become a two horse race between the Amazon Kindle and the Apple iPad.

ChangeWave’s latest survey of more than 2,800 consumers found that the Amazon Kindle (47%; down 15-pts) is hanging on to a rapidly diminishing lead over the Apple iPad (32%; up 16-pts) among current e-Reader owners. However, the iPad’s share of the overall market has doubled since the last time ChangeWave surveyed e-Reader owners in August.

One of the interesting questions in the survey was 'Which of the following types of content do you currently read with your eBook Reader?' As you can see from the graph below with the results, only 76% of iPad owners read e-books with it. This is not a big surprise as only 10 days ago media and publishing market forecast firm Simba Information has estimated about 35% of iPad owners haven't used the devices to read e-books, based on the preliminary findings from a nationwide survey of over 1,800 respondents.

It just makes me wonder if we are really comparing here apples with apples or the iPad is actually an orange and shouldn't be compared with the Kindle, Nook and the rest of the e-readers.

What's even more interesting is the Kindle's reply with 93% reporting they read ebooks with their Kindle.

So I was wondering what the other 7% are doing with their Kindle? Is it just newspapers and magazines they read or they just have it but don't really like it? Any ideas?

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

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

3,000 trees will be planted in Africa for the Swedish edition of Muhammad Yunus' new book 'Building Social Business'

We are happy to announce on our latest collaboration with the Swedish publisher BookHouse Editions. We have the privilege of collaborating on a special book of a special author - 3,000 trees will be planted to balance out the Swedish edition of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus' latest book: 'Building Social Business: The New Kind of Capitalism That Serves Humanity's Most Pressing Needs'.

The Swedish edition of 'Building Social Business' (In Swedish it is 'Socialt företagande') is released today by BookHouse Editions and can be purchased on their website. 3,000 trees will be planted with Eco-Libris in Malawi, Africa by our planting partner, RIPPLE Africa, on behalf of the publisher to balance out this edition. Inside the book you can also find our logo and details on our vision and operations.

This is the second book of Prof. Yunus we're collaborating on with BookHouse Editions. In 2008 we balanced out the Swedish edition of his book 'Creating a World Without Poverty: Social Business and the Future of Capitalism'.

What's the book about? (from the Yunus Centre's website):

This third book by Professor Yunus, following Banker to the Poor and Creating a World Without Poverty, is dedicated solely towards the concept of social business, its implementation, and its maintenance. Social business is an innovative business model which promotes the idea of doing business in order to address a social problem, and not to maximize profit. As the title suggests, this complement to traditional capitalism truly can serve humanity’s most pressing needs, especially poverty. Each and every social business creates employment, good working conditions, and of course, addresses a specific social ill such as lack of education, healthcare, and good nutrition.

In simple terms, a social business is a non-loss, non-dividend company dedicated entirely to achieve a social goal. In social business, the investor gets his investment money back over time, but never receives dividend beyond that amount. The Grameen Bank is a prime example of social business, with the Grameen borrowers themselves being its shareholders!

Building Social Business consists of case studies, anecdotes, and solid advice from Professor Yunus himself. This “Social Business Manual” is a must read for anyone who wants to use his or her creativity to make a positive impact in their neighborhood, town, country, and world.

About the author (from the Nobel Prize website): Professor Muhammad Yunus established the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh in 1983, fueled by the belief that credit is a fundamental human right. His objective was to help poor people escape from poverty by providing loans on terms suitable to them and by teaching them a few sound financial principles so they could help themselves.

From Dr. Yunus' personal loan of small amounts of money to destitute basketweavers in Bangladesh in the mid-70s, the Grameen Bank has advanced to the forefront of a burgeoning world movement toward eradicating poverty through microlending. Replicas of the Grameen Bank model operate in more than 100 countries worldwide.

Born in 1940 in the seaport city of Chittagong, Professor Yunus studied at Dhaka University in Bangladesh, then received a Fulbright scholarship to study economics at Vanderbilt University. He received his Ph.D. in economics from Vanderbilt in 1969 and the following year became an assistant professor of economics at Middle Tennessee State University. Returning to Bangladesh, Yunus headed the economics department at Chittagong University.

From 1993 to 1995, Professor Yunus was a member of the International Advisory Group for the Fourth World Conference on Women, a post to which he was appointed by the UN secretary general. He has served on the Global Commission of Women's Health, the Advisory Council for Sustainable Economic Development and the UN Expert Group on Women and Finance.

This is a very interesting book on a fascinating subject that is relevant more than ever - the social business model and its potential to harness the entrepreneurial spirit to address poverty, hunger, and disease. Certainly worth reading, and if you can't read Swedish, you can check out the English version of the book published by Public Affairs.

In this video you can see Muhammad Yunus talking with Tina Brown of the Daily Beast about his book:

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

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

What are you buying this holiday season: a paper book or an e-book?

No matter what choice you make (although if you choose e-books we recommend to check out post on which e-reader is the greenest one), we would like to offer you to green up your gift with Eco-Libris!

Yes, Eco-Libris has a special offer for you: Plant trees to balance out 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!

If you're buying books as gifts, you can also add the stickers and the card, making it a great green gift (And if you're looking for an idea for a "green" book, you can find plenty of ideas on our green books campaign).

The holiday greeting cards we send are made by Doodle Greetings (see picture abvoe). 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. Sounds like 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 card!
Interested? go to our holidays gift page and check it out.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Promoting green reading!

Award finalist for Mind Body Spirit Children's Book published by our Aussie partner Pick-a-WooWoo!

We just got great news from our partner, the Australian publisher Pick-a-WooWoo, announcing that their book KC the Conscious Camel was a finalist in the Mind Body Spirit Category for Children - 2010 Best Books, USA Book News Awards.

Kudos to Pick-a-WooWoo! KC the CONSCIOUS CAMEL is a story of being conscious of your own emotions and of employing spirituality and personal power to be the best that you can be. It even shows the children how to do this through meditating.

Eco-Libris is collaborating with Pic-a-WooWoo to plant trees for most their recent titles. 625 trees for were planted for KC the Conscious Camel.

Here's some more information about the book:

When K.C.'s dear friend, Sticky the Pig, is ridiculed by the class bully, Ginger the Red Fox, for an unfortunate mud puddle incident, KC shares with Sticky the tools to owning an emotion and then moving beyond it. KC demonstrates the need for acting instead of reacting. Throughout the day, the precocious camel points out opportunities for he and his friends to tune in to their inner peace, joy, and unconditional love. KC shows them how to stay connected to these productive and positive emotions through meditation.

KC and his classmates ultimately demonstrate to their teacher and to each other that they are capable of complex spiritual evolution...and a harmonious day on the playground!

Author: Suzanne McRae
Illustrator: Alexander Mortimer

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

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Promoting sustainable reading!

Which e-reader is the greenest one - Kobo, Sony, Nook or the Kindle? An holiday gift buyer's guide

Black Friday is a good time to get to the second part in our analysis of purchasing an e-reader as a gift this holiday season. In the first part we discussed the question in which cases it can be considered an eco-friendly gift. Today we try to determine which e-reader is the greenest one.

We compared 4 popular e-readers - Amazon Kindle Wireless, Barnes & Noble Nook Wi-Fi, Kobo Wireless and Sony Reader Pocket Edition. As you can see we didn't include the iPad, as even after the discounts Apple is offering now, it costs $458, which I guess makes it less likely that it will become a popular gift. The other 4 e-readers cost $100-$150, which is a more reasonable pricing for a gift.

One obstacle we had is the lack of information. Unfortunately, the only company that publishes a detailed environmental report on its eReader is Apple. Therefore some important information that can change the results is still missing and we hope it will be available soon. We believe it is the responsibility of the companies selling these e-readers not just to provide quality products, but also to be more transparent and provide customers with information on the e-readers' environmental and social impacts.

We compared the characteristics of the 4 e-readers in 11 categories. Each e-reader that won a category got 1 point. In couple of categories there were more than one winner (for example, recycling) and then each of them received one point. So without further due let's go to the results:

Kindle - 4 points for winning the categories of battery life, ability of user to replace the battery, memory (storage) and recycling.

Sony - 4 points for winning the categories of weight, ability of user to replace the battery, availability of book lending from libraries and recycling.

Kobo - 3 points for winning the categories of ability of user to replace the battery, availability of book lending from libraries and toxins.

Nook - 2 points for winning the categories of capability to loan ebooks to friends and availability of book lending from libraries.

So technically the Kindle and Sony Reader share the first place, but among the two, the Kindle has better results as the 2 points Sony Reader got for ability of user to replace the battery and availability of book lending from libraries do not actually have any environmental impacts (they are more socially-oriented, which is also important, but at the same time do not have any influence on the footprint of the device).

The full comparison can be found at http://www.ecolibris.net/holidayguide.asp

So the bottom line is this: We still know too little on the environmental impact of e-readers, but from what we do know, if you went through the test we offered last week and still thinks e-reader would be a good fit for the person you want to buy it to, then from a green point of view the Kindle is your best choice.

More resources on the e-Books vs. physical books environmental debate can be found on our website at www.ecolibris.net/ebooks.asp.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Promoting Sustainable Reading!