Writers: Enter BookSwim's 2009 NaNoWriMo Competition
Now announcing BookSwim's 2009 NaNoWriMo Competition. Submit your NaNoWriMo novel and have a chance to see your novel in BookSwim's catalog! Send in your work or nominate a friend's.
Give the Gift of Green
Gift giving in an economic crisis? Fear not. Green gifts to the rescue!
In your next issue, why not provide students with “A Guide to Green Gift Giving”? Here are a few ideas to get you started…
… * The BookSwim alternative. Rather than giving another paper-wasting subscription to a 200 page magazine, why not give a subscription to BookSwim? For a monthly fee, subscribers get access to a huge online library of paperback books, shipped for free in 100% recycled bags. Save gas by not driving to the library, and feel good knowing once you’ve read a book and shipped it back, more and more people can do the same.
Eco-friendly ways to give gifts and save yourself a little green while you’re at it? Happy Holidays!
The nominations are coming in for your favorite holiday books. We’re running on sort of an extended month for this first one, since we started mid-November, so you get some extra time to share your two cents.
Where’d we leave off last week? Where’d we leave off? Oh yeah: I’ve got something to say! Nothing terribly important, though.
So I’m taking a little bit of a break from The Omnivore’s Dilemma since I’m at a good breaking point with maybe another hundred pages to go. I do that sometimes. I just take a break if a book is taking forever, because I’ll enjoy it more when I come back to it after a week.
I’ve taken the opportunity to get started on the new David Sedaris book, When You Are Engulfed in Flames. It’s really good. Though why should that surprise me? Sedaris is, after all, one of my favorite writers. I’ve already read most of his other titles, including Barrel Fever, Naked, Me Talk Pretty One Day and most of Holidays on Ice (which I make it a point to only work on during the month of December…so I’ll likely finish it this year).
Sedaris writes short stories and essays, a medium that I particularly enjoy reading because of the sense of accomplishment I feel each time I finish one, rather than the daunting task of an entire novel. In fact, short story is really the only medium of fiction that I wholly enjoy. Aside from that, non-fiction is really up my alley (though my favorite book, to this day, is still Douglas Adams’ classic sci-fi novel, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy).
But it’s not just a sense of accomplishment; it’s also encouraging. I mean, as soon as I’ve finished one short story, the next one is right there waiting for me, and I read this last one fast enough that the next one shouldn’t take me too long either. As such, I tend to tear through collections of short stories, like Sedaris’, rather quickly.
However, it should be noted that, at around the three quarters mark, I start slowing down and then take some time off before finishing the whole book. But hey, that’ll be a great excuse to get back to The Omnivore’s Dilemma. And the circle of life is complete.
Who here doesn’t like a good dystopia story? I read Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World last night in a four-hour reading binge, figuring the whole time I’d stop at the end of the chapter.
I loved 1984, as much as someone can love such a terrifying novel, and expected more of the same from this dystopia story that was written fifteen years prior to Orwell’s. As a work of philosophy and ideas, it’s fascinating just to read what the new world is like—how people are conditioned from conception for their intended social castes, how embryos of would-be manual laborers are starved of oxygen to prevent full physical and mental development. As a work of fiction, though, the book annoyed the heck out of me. Huxley’s characters are largely unsympathetic, even the protagonist of the second half of the book, the Savage, whom Huxley treats like a mouthpiece for his views. “But I don’t want comfort,” the character says at one point, decrying society’s happy pills, values of empty entertainment, and uniformity. “I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness. I want sin.” I thought: ah, shut up, you melodramatic plot device.
But this version of the future, if not as well-written, is more plausible than the one shown in 1984. In Orwell’s world, the government controlled the people through social conditioning and fear to love Big Brother and hate their country’s enemies, whoever they were at that moment. In Huxley’s, society has conditioned itself from the lowest ranks up and there is no longer one authority controlling the new world’s agenda: everyone from children to international Controllers believes that the goal of life is only comfort and fun, and in doing so, destroys society’s ability to pursue greater meaning.
Which thought terrifies you more: a totalitarian government watching your every move or a culture of hedonism, where the answer to every problem is taking happy pills?
Any review involving a door marked DOOM gets an A+ in my book. Here’s is a review of Scott Smith’s The Ruins written by Tanya of Vero Beach, Florida. Thanks for the review, Tanya!
“Just finished this book. I give it an “A-” Here are my thoughts:
Reading Scott Smith is like having a rope tied firmly round your middle, as you’re pulled on protesting tiptoes toward a door marked DOOM. The horror is in plain sight; there is no doubt things will end badly — the signs are everywhere. In Smith’s 1993 clockwork-perfect debut, A Simple Plan, hundreds of crows guard the crash site of a loot-filled plane. In The Ruins, Smith’s first novel since, six partying vacationers leave their Cancun hotel to explore an archaeological dig in the jungle. It’s meant to be a lark, but the day trip is immediately ruffled by small, unsettling events: The group ends up sharing a truck ride with a vicious little dog ; the pathway to the site is illogically camouflaged; the Mayans whose village rests near the site pointedly ignore them, as if willing away a car crash.
Smith is a master of the ”if only” scenario, that most foolish and pungent form of regret: Here, a series of triggers, innocent or avoidable, ultimately traps the hapless twentysomethings on the ruins’ sun-blasted hillside, an ominously beautiful place covered entirely by vines pocked with blood-red flowers. It becomes apparent that they are meant to die up there; a malevolent organism is stalking them, a being sentient enough to plot.
But this is no Crichton-esque thriller — readers who demand careful scientific, biological explanations in their storytelling will, in fact, be infuriated. Smith’s forte is the psychological realm. Strong and passive personalities play their roles with frightening predictability: Eagle Scout Jeff throws himself into survival mode while childish Stacy daydreams and Amy, Jeff’s pessimistic girlfriend, pouts. Neither of these female characters is nearly as compelling as Simple Plan’s murderously pragmatic Sarah, but then Smith’s interest here lies in group dynamics. The vacationers aren’t just physically trapped on a cursed hillside, they’re mentally trapped in the roles they’ve played all their lives, and the resulting actions and reactions (particularly the yo-yo between assertive Jeff and heel-dragging Amy) are as dangerous as the flesh-craving being that surrounds them.
At its heart, The Ruins is an old-fashioned horror story (Ben Stiller’s company has snapped up the movie rights), and it’s the invasive, intuitive killer that provides the ice-water dread. Indeed, when one character becomes convinced the thing has gotten inside of him, the book’s most nauseating, unsettling scenes are unleashed. It’s Thomas Harris meets Poe in a decidedly timely story: Smith has tapped into our anxieties about global warming, lethal weather, supergerms — our collective fear that nature is finally battling back — and given us a decidedly organic nightmare.
I loved it–can’t wait for the movie. :)”
Think you can match or surpass this review? We peruse the book reviews every week for gems– just review the books you’ve read as usual, and we’ll pick the best one of the lot!
Online Book Rental Company Continues its Growth as it Enters Acclaimed Business Incubator Program
NEWARK, NJ — BookSwim.com (http://www.bookswim.com/), America’s first and only online service that rents paperback and hardcover books (Netflix-style), has been accepted into the New Jersey Institute of Technology’s (NJIT) Enterprise Development Center (http://www.njit-edc.org). As part of this incubator program, BookSwim.com has moved their headquarters from Aberdeen, New Jersey, to NJIT’s Newark campus.
BookSwim’s acceptance into the NJIT incubator program is the result of the company’s continuing growth, as it is working to become the definitive Web service for renting books. Originally started as an idea between two book lovers, George Burke and his business partner Shamoon Siddiqui, BookSwim was founded after they realized that most people at the local bookstore wanted to stay and read books, but not necessarily purchase them. Since mailing out their first book in March of 2007, BookSwim has sent over 100,000 books.
“We are thrilled to have been accepted to this program which is completely dedicated to the growth and success of New Jersey technology start-ups like BookSwim,” said George Burke, founder and chairman of BookSwim.com. “With our new home at NJIT’s incubator, we will grow our business to reach our goals to put more books in people’s hands and to have 1,000,000 books rented through BookSwim by 2010.”
“The NJIT Enterprise Development Center gives new technology companies the opportunity to develop resources and expand their vision in an environment that aides them every step of the way,” said Jerry Creighton, Sr., executive director, NJIT Enterprise Development Center. “We are happy to have BookSwim join the program as a means to assist this growing company.”
About BookSwim.com
BookSwim (www.bookswim.com), launched in May 2007, is the first and only online paperback and hardcover book rental library club, allowing subscribers to rent books with free shipping both ways, and no due dates or late fees. The site provides book rental service nationwide, offering hardcover new releases to paperback classics, and bestsellers to children’s books. BookSwim subscription plans start at $9.95 per month and allow as many as 11 books borrowed at a time, with an option for members to purchase the books they love.
About NJIT Enterprise Development Center
Since 1988, NJIT’s Enterprise Development Center has enabled inventors to move innovative products out of the laboratory and into the marketplace. A high-tech business incubator housed in two of Newark buildings, the Center provides office and lab space, financial help, business and technical services, and the shared expertise of the center’s managers. The Center is open to for-profit enterprises, operating fewer than four years and that offer new technologies. The companies must have a business plan, and show evidence that they will be likely to benefit from the three-year tenancies available. The Center has graduated more than 75 companies.
NJIT, New Jersey’s science and technology university, at the edge in knowledge, enrolls more than 8,000 students in bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees in 92 degree programs offered by six colleges: Newark College of Engineering, New Jersey School of Architecture, College of Science and Liberal Arts, School of Management, Albert Dorman Honors College and College of Computing Sciences. NJIT is renowned for expertise in architecture, applied mathematics, wireless communications and networking, solar physics, advanced engineered particulate materials, nanotechnology, neural engineering and e-learning. In 2006, Princeton Review named NJIT among the nation’s top 25 campuses for technology and top 150 for best value. U.S. News & World Report’s 2007 Annual Guide to America’s Best Colleges ranked NJIT in the top tier of national research universities.
Long before there was Netflix there was Books on Tape, a wonderful service for readers that supplied a huge selection of books for a monthly rental fee, but it went out of the rental business a few years ago, leaving a huge gap for those of us who like to “read” in the car or while we’re doing household chores, or who just enjoy the sound of being read to by skilled professional voices. I, for one, have missed them.
Now, though, there is BookSwim, an online service that rents paperback and hardcover books. Like Netflix, the service allows you to keep the books for as long as you like with no late fees. Once you return it, the next book is on its way to you, with free shipping in 100% recycled bags both ways. The site is also offering digital gift cards starting at $9.95 per month. For every one of these sold, BookSwim will plant a tree to offset the environmental impact of producing paper for books. Check out the site and the selections.
Most of us have used a subscription service in our lifetime. Cable TV, magazines, and movies are usually purchased in monthly installments. I recently took a look at three subscription services that were a bit off the beaten path: MagHound, BabyPlays, and BookSwim. But are they a good deal?
If you’ve ever considered convenience or variety to be valuable, you may find these services to be especially enticing. I haven’t used these services personally, so I can’t vouch for the quality of customer service or the integrity of the products shown. What I can tell you is my experience in purchasing these items traditionally, the cost involved in the subscription plans, and how they could possibly affect your bottom line.
Book rental subscriptions via BookSwim – I’ve heard a bunch of good stuff regarding this book rental service. In a nutshell, you check out books much like movies, sending them back when you’re done and getting new ones when they’re available. The plans cost the following prices for an unlimited number of exchanges per month:
3 at a time for $9.95 the first month (then $19.98 a month thereafter)
5 at a time for $12.45 the first month (then $24.97 a month thereafter)
7 at a time for $14.94 the first month (then $29.96 a month thereafter)
9 at a time for $17.44 the first month (then $34.95 a month thereafter)
11 at a time for $19.93 the first month (then $39.94 a month thereafter)
*There’s also a 2 at a time plan for $14.99 a month (not including a first month at a discount, but why would anyone get this rotten deal?
The pricing on this service will cost you between $1.81 and $3.31 per book, per month (not including the atrocious 2 at a time deal) THE FIRST MONTH ONLY (then prices go up. If you can handle having your books shipped via USPS media mail (which can take between 4 and 14 days to arrive), you may get one or two new books per rotation. Here’s the big IF in the matter: Because BookSwim makes you mail back books in bunches (anywhere from 2 to 4 at a time), it may limit your ability to exchange books quickly. If you can get just one exchange per book per month for the first month, it decreases your book cost to between $.90 and $1.65 per book.
Bottom Line: If you have a well-stocked library close by, and you enjoy making the walk/drive/ride, this isn’t a necessary service. Those in remote locations or who fear library late fees, however, might find BookSwim to be an angel from heaven. This is a service that will fair best for the well-read or the homebound. Traditional library geeks might want to save their money.
Children are often much more imaginative than adults. This can lead to horrible things like nightmares, but in books their inventiveness often keeps them alive where adults have failed; especially in coming-of-age novels. The Book of Lost Things manages this idea exceptionally well.
In this story, David has recently lost his mother and longs to have her back. He’s also gained a younger sibling and a step-mother whom he in uninterested in. He copes by escaping into books, a medium his late mother had often praised. As he delves deeper into this story-world the lines between reality and fiction blur and David believe himself to be entering a new world. Here he encounters new dangers that threaten the family he resents.
As David becomes more involved in trying to survive as well as protect his friends in this world and his family in the next, he begins to grow up. With astounding rapidity he must face his own fears, learn to solve problems and finally is left to fend for himself. His ingenuity often saves him while he learns the rules of things. It’s sad that as we learn the rules we often forget to be inventive, which is why I believe coming-of-age novels are so popular. They allow us to experience the best of both worlds.
This novel follows the normal template without being overly trite or entirely predictable. The author’s own inventiveness and word choice bring the story to life in a way that most books fall short of. Connolly does not pull any punches in telling his story, death and depravity are not hidden from the young boy yet nothing is obscene, just realistic. This book receives my whole hearted recommendation.
There’s a new Janet Evanovich coming out next summer, and you want it, too. And the newest Omar Tyree, and the latest Eric Jerome Dickey, and this really cool business book you heard Malcolm Gladwell wrote, the Willie Nelson western, the new Nicholas Sparks, that new Zane book (hoo wee!) and about three dozen other books that you’re dying to read.
But at $20 to $30 bucks a crack to buy them and a waiting list a block long at the library, you know it’s going to be awhile before you get read to any of those books.
Sigh.
Yeah, I’m there, too. So many books, so little time, right? Which is why I was interested when I got an email from this new service called BookSwim.
You know how Netflix works, right? Pay a fee, order a movie, get it, watch it, send it back, get another. BookSwim works along those same lines.
I checked out the website (www.BookSwim.com). If you’re a slower, casual reader, you can get 3 books at a time for $9.95 a month, which is less than half the price of the average hard-cover book, even with the discount card that the Big Chains want you to carry. If you consider that you get three books for that price, it’s a HUGE savings. Even more, if you get six books (three at a time, twice) a month.
The programs (and prices) go up from there. Romance readers and oater lovers who can whip through a book in a day can get more books at a time for a higher fee, and the books will come to your door.
Advantage #1: as with those movie rental websites, you can keep a book as long as you want. There’s no “due date” (like at the library), and nobody asking for their books back (like, when you borrow from friends). If you can’t bear to part with the book, you can buy it (presumably, at a discount) and keep it forever and ever.
Which leads me to advantage #2: you don’t have to keep books forever and ever. If you’re a big reader, you know how much hassle it can be to get rid of that which you’ve finished reading, particularly paperbacks that are past their prime. You know how hard it is to store books. With BookSwim.com, all you do it drop them in the mail when you’re done reading them. And the postage is free, both ways.
Although I didn’t sign up myself, this looks promising, especially for voracious, hungry readers with slim budgets. Many recent best-sellers are on the website, which should mean they’ll be getting brand-new books as they come out. It is to hope that they’ll have enough copies to go around when a book is wildly popular (”Twilight”, anyone?) My only complaint right now is that there is a lack of the off-beat in their choices, but as the site gets popular, that’s bound to change.
I’m optimistic about BookSwim. I like the idea. It’s a great way to try new authors, risk-free; an excellent Earth-friendly way of getting books you want to read without killing another tree; a good way to become uber-literate on a budget; and at a price that’s not all wet.
This week, on The Literary Life, with Chip and Eric, we debate the great conundrums of our time, including but not limited to “Who the heck are Chip and Eric?*”, “What books are they reading?”, “Why is that thing on the back of neck still getting bigger?” and “Who would win in a fight: Tom Sawyer or Huck Finn?” (thing-on-the-back-of-my-neck question not included…*also, we kind of, sort of, accidentally edited out Chip talking about who he is around here, so we’ll give that a whirl again next week - it’s kind of a learning curve around here, folks).
Listen to your new favorite podcast, The Literary Life at BookSwim.com online:
or download The Literary Life to play on your iPod or other audio device. (right click link and select “save target as” - or option click for Mac Computers)
The first Silly Survey gets posted tomorrow, so keep your eyeballs peeled (ewwwwwww).
Best podcast ever? Worst? Something you specifically want us to talk about next week? Let us know, below.
If you aren’t sure which books to give that avid reader on your gift list this holiday season, how about considering every title she could name?
BookSwim, an online book rental and delivery service, offers gift subscriptions that can help expand the amount of reading you can give, without running up a big tab or cluttering up someone’s home with another stack of books.
The Web site, www.bookswim.com, lets readers order books and have them delivered right to their door for a set fee each month. Modeled on the online movie rental company Netflix, the subscription service sends from three to 11 books at a time to its customers, who can keep them for as long as they like with no late fees. When finished with at least two books, the reader sends them back to BookSwim in a prepaid return bag that’s included with every shipment.
BookSwim offers four membership levels, with prices ranging from $19.98 per month for their “light reader” three-at-a-time plan to $39.94 per month for the “voracious reader” 11-at-a-time plan. Their most popular plan, which allows users to have up to seven books at a time, costs $29.96 per month, with a $1.50 per month discount for a full year paid in advance. The company offers a half-price discount to new members for the first month.
The Newark, N.J., company, started in May 2007 and shipped its 100,000th book in early October, marketing director Eric Ginsberg said.
BookSwim has customers from New York City to Alaska, and Ginsberg said it appeals to city dwellers who like the convenience of having the books delivered and to rural residents with little access to public libraries or major bookstores. “We thought when we started the service, we would get a lot more rural than urban, but what we got was a good mix,” Ginsberg said. “People want conveniences, they want things to come to them.”
Readers who decide they can’t part with a book also have the opportunity to buy it from BookSwim, with the price calculated based on the age of the book and the number of times it has been lent out, Ginsberg said. He said about one-third of the books sent out are new.
If you’re considering giving a gift, you can buy a trial membership for a specific plan for as short as one month. A trial may be best suited for a family of readers on your shopping list because three books at $19.98 a month may be too steep for many readers. The company doesn’t offer a one-book rental plan because it’s more cost-efficient to ship multiple books.
This article appeared on page D - 3 of the San Francisco Chronicle
Here’s how it works: Readers order books online and receive them through the mail. They can choose among plans that would allow them to receive from three to 11 books at a time. These books can be kept for as long as the reader likes with no late fees……
Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving when shoppers descend upon early opening stores, kicks off the traditional start of the holiday shopping season next week.
Or maybe you prefer Cyber Monday, after Thanksgiving, when online bargain hunters elbow their way onto shopping Web sites.
Either way, promotions for computers, mobile phones and other devices likely will vie for your attention.
Well, how about something a little different? Here are a few practical, and not-so-practical, unique tech gift ideas…..
…..BookSwim
Why it’s cool: National online service that rents paperback and hardcover books without the need to purchase. It also offers digital gift cards.
