def.Tran·sum·er·ism [kuhn-soo-muh-riz-uhm] n.Transumers are consumers who would rather rent or pay for managed access to items/information rather than own them. (see TrendSpotting) BookSwim is proud to be a transumerist; a rental and product sharing advocate on the forefront of a revolution to transumerism.
I hope everyone had a great holiday weekend. I spent my days relaxing, eating leftovers and partaking in something I call “The Big Clean,” which is where I clean my house in preparation for Christmas/New Years (when my house gets unclean once again).
Keeping with the Monday Mayhem tradition, this is the final installment of All Roads Lead to BookSwim. I’m sure in a few weeks there will be new search terms to look at, but for now, this is all we have.
little girl wants her rent - Thank you, Will Ferrel. low carb casserole - Life’s short, eat carbs. Unless you are our founder, George, who has a gluten allergy. marijuana horticulture - I’m not sure you can rent consumables, or illegal substances… messy girls naked - If by girls you mean books, and by naked you mean without their dust jackets. Though our books keep their dust jackets on. moms sexy honk - Beep beep! Honk honk! news 12 buckwild - We goin’ get buckwild? pass pokemon platinum official strategy guide - BookSwim uses avid reader. It’s super-effective. rent a bitch - I met a dog breeder whose business card was ‘A stud for every bitch.’ rent a monkey for a day - Here, you can rent books as long as you want. rent a sharkskin suit - I think you’re looking for Avelle rent a vortex - Aunty M, Aunty M, it’s a twista! seven naked happy girls - It’s two better than 5! wacky questions and answers - Why’d the chicken cross the road? Potatoes. where did speak the book took place and time? - It be grammar lesson timez now? why columbus sailed east to the indies - To rent books from BookSwim?
I hope you’re all enjoying your days. Don’t forget to get gifts for those you love.
Do you have an idea for Monday Mayhem? Let us know.
You say grace before meals. All right. But I say grace before the concert and the opera, and grace before the play and pantomime, and grace before I open a book, and grace before sketching, painting, swimming, fencing, boxing, walking, playing, dancing and grace before I dip the pen in the ink.
–G. K. Chesterton
We talk a lot about the hassles of Thanksgiving– all that cooking and dishwashing, needing to tolerate Aunt Edna who keeps asking why you don’t have a job/life partner/child yet, concocting ways to keep Uncle Fred from asking Cousin Billy about the truck incident again.
So after enduring all that, just one thing we here at BookSwim want to say. This has been a rough year for many, and we’re grateful our once-small company can now celebrate its third Thanksgiving with you.
You have a few days off from work. Enjoy it! Here are a few ideas.
How about some light reading?– You’ll have BookSwim books to cuddle up with– and, if you’re surfing online, check out the newly reopened Literary Life blog for a laugh or two.
Stretch your brain while having fun– Have you seen our newly released word game Well Versed? Learn how to play in less than a minute and see if your vocabulary will take you to the High Scores table! Visit: http://www.bookswim.com/games/wellversed.html
Duck the Black Friday craze and enjoy painless gift shopping– In case you haven’t heard, we’re making it easier than ever to pass on the convenience of book rental. Check out our Holiday Gift Cards page where you can give a $10 eGift Card absolutely free to everyone you know.
Or, apply your $10 toward any eGift Card purchase– and receive a complimentary $50 Restaurant.com gift certificate free with a purchase of $50 or more!
Remember: life could be worse. We hope you enjoy your time away from work with your families. For the most important things, reading can wait!
Monday was a crazy day and our normal Monday Mayhem got a bit delayed. But, I wouldn’t want you to feel like me completely forgot you, so I’m making up for it by posting today. And we’ve got some good ones for you. generation t 108 ways to transform a t shirt - Is this a Bubba Gump shrimp reference? how can i meet amir blumenfeld - Who is Amir Blumenfeld? how many presidents have had syphilis? - A shockingly interesting answer. Not sure what it is, but I’m sure it’s shocking. how to rent clothes for men - Ew? hydrocodone 5mg/325mg dosage - We rent books. We don’t sell drugs. Have we not gotten that message out? im writing a novel about an italian falling in love with an irish - Sounds like a plan - when it’s done, let us know and we’ll add it to the catalog. invisible man ‘i am an invisible man. no, i am not a spook like those who haunted edgar allan poe means - Say that three times fast… iowa farm life in 1900 - I’m sure it wasn’t easy. is the current economic and political crisis actually prophesied in the bible? - For every event there were 99,999 crazy people predicting something else and one “sane” person who predicted things correctly. My bets are that one person was wrong about every other prediction they made. landlord tax writeoffs - BookSwim is not a tax writeoff. Sorry. lessons for too many toys - Did google read my Christmas list?
Most new moms don’t have time to buy books – let alone read them. This cool service allows you to read and return at leisure. Bonus: right now, the company is offering a $10 gift card to all new customers.
Buy It: Bookswim.com, $23.95 for 3 at-a-time book plan
America’s Only Hardcover and Bestseller Rental Club Offers paperbacks and hardcovers Netflix®-style directly to your house, now even faster and more affordable.
NEW YORK, NY — BookSwim (www.bookswim.com), America’s “Netflix-style” book rental club has launched a new rental plan that benefit subscribers and shape the growing rental industry’s future. The most dramatic new features, standard on all plans, include:
Price reduction to $9.95 monthly: The old $15 starter plan changed to become $9.95 for any book
“Exclusive at BookSwim”: BookSwim is the only rental club offering newly released novels and nonfiction bestsellers published in hardcover format.
UPS-integrated shipping: Speedier delivery, dramatically reducing outbound transit times to members’ homes at no additional cost.
“Our readers are happier that books now arrive so quickly. BookSwim’s new plans are a success because they’re so radically different,” states CTO Nick Ruffilo. “We no longer need to receive the return at our facility before the next is shipped. We took a risk and the result is turnaround time being cut in half. That’s huge! Something even Netflix or Blockbuster won’t offer!”
Ruffilo goes on to explain, “With a changeover to UPS Mail Innovations (www.ups-mi.com) for outbound shipping service, BookSwimmers in California, Washington, and Oregon are seeing the biggest gains — as much as a 60-70% time decrease round-trip. More time with books in your hands rather than in-transit, means the value BookSwimmers see increases significantly.”
Additionally, for $9.95, occasional or infrequent readers can now rent any book monthly for the low price of $9.95 with the inception of a 1-book-per-month plan.
Burke continues, “Think of BookSwim like a movie on opening night instead of waiting for the DVD. We’re the only membership club renting hardbacks – the format of choice for newly published books like next week’s releases ‘Moonwalk’ by Michael Jackson or ‘Nine Dragons’ by Michael Connelly, with the paperback versions maybe arriving a year later. Even today, we still continue to rent Malcolm Gladwell’s ‘Outliers’ exclusively, a year after its November 2008 publication date.”
Other added features of BookSwim’s new plans are:
“Keep My Book” discounts: Members can purchase rentals at up to 80% off retail prices
Printerless returns with package tracking: Printing return labels are no longer necessary. Books are returned in the supplied packaging, using a free postage-paid label with barcode to track returns.
“Top Book Guarantee”: Depending on plan size, one or two books in the rental pool can be selected to ship in a member’s next package, guaranteed.
“Add to the Demand”: Subscribers may add titles not found in the catalog through a write-in vote submission, which BookSwim purchases for those members when able to be rented.
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About BookSwim.com
Launched in May 2007, BookSwim (http://www.bookswim.com) is the first and only online paperback and
hardcover book rental library club, allowing subscribers to rent books with free return shipping and no due dates or late fees. With nationwide coverage, the book rental service offers hardcover new releases to paperback classics. BookSwim subscription plans start at $9.95 per month, with an option for members to purchase the books they love.
It’s November and the weather has taken a turn for the dreary. In an effort to help everyone become a little more cheerful, here’s a light-hearted romp through this week’s literary news:
Museum ‘of story and storytelling’ planned for Oxford
An online dream touches down from the internet to reality– namely, into Rochester House in Oxford, mere blocks away from Christ Church College where many scenes from the recent Harry Potter movies were filmed. “There must be something in the waters of the Isis that gets into the system of Oxford residents, magically causing them to think of and bring to life unforgettable characters and plots,” said Oxfordshire-based children’s author Mary Hoffman.
–Neil Gaiman continues to wreck the grade curve for other fantasy writers. How do we love Gaiman’s new Graveyard Book? From the Newbery medal to the Locus young adult award and the Hugo best novel prize, to the longlisted for the Carnegie medal and shortlist for the World Fantasy award, in quite a number of ways. Gaiman says he was pleasantly surprised, though “the trouble with saying that is that you always sound vaguely insincere – people assume that with each award the book wins, saying you are surprised is less and less plausible.”
With so many awards under his belt, I wonder if Gaiman will wander off to sweep other genre’s prizes. Do you think he’s liable to branch out (and you thought your supremacy was safe, best-selling authors everywhere!)?
Lately there has been huge buzz about the lack of women in some of the largest publications’ book lists. One example is Publishers Weekly’s Top Books of 2009 list which was completely devoid of women authors. This has sparked an interesting debate as well as a hot trending topic on twitter #fembook. BookSwim understands the importance of equal representation - and that doesn’t mean that there needs to be an even amount of men and women within any given book list, but that there is an equal vetting process. We took a look at our Top Favorited Authors page. This page is generated by the number of members we have that have selected an author as their favorite. One could call it a popularity contest in a way. As of writing this article, 7 of the top 10 authors are women.
#1 James Patterson
#2 Jodi Picoult
#3 Dean Koontz
#4 Stephanie Meyer
#5 Janet Evanovich
#6 Laurell K. Hamilton
#7 Nicholas Sparks
#8 Nora Roberts
#9 Jennifer Weiner
#10 Charlaine Harris
What are your thoughts on the top 10 “Most Favorited” authors?
Book lovers lament that “no one reads anymore,” but four websites are proving that millions of people worldwide do still crave the tangible tome — they’re just getting smarter about how they acquire them.
We’re not just talking about Google eBooks and Amazon Kindles here, we’re talking about real, book-smell-smelling books with a spine and the seriously active social communities who love and are willing to share them — both in review and in the pulp.
BookSwim.com
Like many a college student, recent grad, or otherwise cash-poor bookworm, George Burke has logged some serious hours lurking in Barnes & Noble cafes, reading book after book for free — and, luckily for him, that lead him and his co-founder to the idea for BookSwim. “Realizing the value of the books we’d burned through and that we didn’t pay a cent for them — and looking around the cafe at others reading books just to put them back — it struck us that THAT was the business plan we should start,” Burke said.
BookSwim launched in May of 2007 on a similar “Netflix” rental model, only for books instead of movies. Plans start at $9.95 per month, a “one book at a time” plan for occasional readers, and BookSwim also offers a de facto try-before-you-buy service, allowing members to purchase (at a discount) the books they’ve read and loved enough to own.
“We take care of all the shipping and the books arrive directly at your home, so there’s no need to pay for gas or postage,” Burke said. “I think most of our members are readers who wish they had more time, but because of everything that’s going on in their lives, they have a tough time justifying to themselves the time spent going to a library or bookstore. So they rely on BookSwim to rent most if not all of their reading material, whether classics or new releases, eliminating the need to schedule an extra trip around store hours. And if time is money, well, we practically make all of our readers millionaires.”
Buying secondhand or vintage gifts or acquiring things by swapping is soaring in popularity for some people — and is actually expected to increase this year, according to BrandWeek — so sites like BookSwim are trying unique approaches for luring in holiday shoppers, like “free $10 gift cards to friends and family.” For more information on their special offers and their partnership with Restaurant.com, check out BookSwim.com………
So, what are these book-loving startup-junkies reading?
………..”Six Pixels of Separation by Mitch Joel is a book my CTO Nick Ruffilo just handed to me. It’s about leveraging the interconnectedness between people to pass a message that will resonate with friends, and friends of friends, and so on. He won the book, coincidentally through one of the hundreds of GoodReads giveaways, which represents an effective viral distribution channel employed by this book. I thrive on books like this, so it shouldn’t take long to read… especially since he placed sticky notes on the important pages for me. :-)” ~ George Burke, founder of Bookswim.com
2009 Awards Gala Will Honor Region’s Top Innovators
SOMERSET, N.J. Nov. 16 /PRNewswire/ — The New Jersey Technology Council is gearing up to honor the most exciting technologists in the region at the 2009 NJTC Awards Gala set for tomorrow, Tuesday, Nov. 17, at the Palace at Somerset.
This annual black tie awards dinner is sure to attract the region’s most exciting innovators and thought-leaders. In fact, despite the sluggish economy, the NJTC reports an ever-expanding guest list. There is still time to register to attend this event, which is often called “the best networking gala of the year!” Visit www.njtc.org or call 856-787-9700. (Pre-registration is required. No walk-ins will be accepted.)
This annual event recognizes the “Best in Technology” companies as well as educational and technology support leaders. The gala honors companies, an educational institution and one individual for their commitment to innovation and the technology communities of New Jersey.
“This is my favorite event of the entire year because we are able to celebrate not only New Jersey’s best and brightest technology stars but we also take a moment to recognize the wondrous innovations that have been discovered right here in our own backyard,” said Maxine Ballen, president and CEO of the NJTC. “This is one party that is not to be missed!”
For the second year in a row, the NJTC will also recognize five “Companies to Watch.” These include: 3D Biotek, LLC, Agilence, Inc., BookSwim Corporation, Gotham Analytics, and iSpeech.
The NJTC Awards Gala is held annually to publicly recognize and celebrate some of New Jersey’s most successful companies and their commitment to growing innovation in New Jersey. The event is hosted by the NJTC with support from several key sponsors.
About the NJTC:
The New Jersey Technology Council is the state’s premier membership organization dedicated to supporting the technology sectors of New Jersey with networking, financing and educational events. Visit www.njtc.org for more information on the Council and details about the 2009 NJTC Awards Gala and the honorees. (Photos will be posted after the event.)
2009 Gala Award Honorees
Master Technology Company of the Year:
Pepco Energy Services
Private Company of the Year:
EKR Therapeutics
Public Company of the Year:
Virgin Mobile USA
Growth Company of the Year:
Finalists: DataPipe, EHS Technologies and Quantifi, Inc
Early Stage Company of the Year:
Finalists: IntegriChain, The Talk Market, Inc. and OnPath Technologies
Software/Information Technology Company of the Year:
Redvision, Inc.
Clean/Green Company of the Year:
Petra Solar, Inc.
Life Science Company of the Year:
PTC Therapeutics, Inc.
Electronics/Advanced Materials Company of the Year:
Hycrete, Inc.
John H. Martinson Technology Supporter Award:
Kathleen Coviello, NJ Economic Development Authority
Last week was our first installment of both Monday Mayhem and All Roads Lead to BookSwim. We have seen quite a few crazy things that brought in viewers and we’re going to continue that until we’ve run out of crazy things to tell you about. This past Friday was also Friday the 13th, so in light of that, I will be listing 13 new crazy search terms that led people to BookSwim.
blog 21 day cleanse freston - We have a blog, but does it need to be cleansed of freston? boarsex with woman - With safe-search on, we’re the 2nd result… for a book named Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex. boner slang bodypart - Willy? Wang? I couldn’t find our listing, but someone searched that and found us… book swim with the whales - Move aside, swimming with the dolphins, it’s BookSwimming with the whales! brain rules repeat to remember 30s 2 hrs - brain rules repeat to remember 30s 2 hrs, brain rules repeat to remember 30s 2 hrs… buffalo bills player paralyzed - Film at 11? cadaver studies 1800s - Wouldn’t want to confuse them with those done in the 1900s. can wine amplify spiritual focus - I don’t know but I’ll participate in the research. car does not exist - The beginning of that search term was… “Due to the economy…” chicka chicka boom boom - wikkidy wikkdy whack, yo! did mitty kill a terrorist - Mitty the Kitty was a Ditty! does anyone know of a place where you can rent books kind of like renting movies - :: Raises hand :: PICK ME! if you thought the notebook was a tearjerker, get out the hankies, pull up a chair, and get ready - I’m ready, now what?
Do you have a blog? Have you heard about us from a crazy search term? Let us know!
Our friends over at BookGasm recently put out a post of 5 sexy book covers of books that they have no intention of reading. As a quick response, we decided to add to that list and add one more book with a sexy cover/title that we here at BookSwim won’t be reading.
Old Tractors and the Men Who Love Them. Need we say more? This beauty has an ISBN of 0760301298 and can be purchased from Amazon for as little as $3.99 + shipping.
By now, students in the UK have accustomed themselves to writing essays that will be assessed and graded by a computer. But it seems the computer system toted by the Chartered Institute of Educational Assessors (CIEA) gives low marks to Churchill’s writing (needs to use fewer metaphors) and Ernest Hemingway’s (needs to write with more care and detail).
The cost of John Grisham’s Ford County, officially released Tuesday, moved up and down like stock market shares as rivals Amazon.com and Walmart.com extended, then rescinded, their high discounts for top-selling pre-orders.
Early in the day, Amazon was selling Grisham’s book of short stories for $9, the same price it had offered for Ford County before publication and a sign that Amazon was ready to continue the cost competition beyond the release date. Walmart.com was selling “Ford County” for $12 early Tuesday, then cut the price to the pre-order discount of $8.98.
Rick Riordan, the author of the million-selling “Percy Jackson” series about the Greek gods in modern times, has started “The Kane Chronicles,” in which Egyptian gods similarly make mischief, war, love, and other shenanigans in the modern age.
The Disney Book Group announced that the first installment, The Kane Chronicles, Book One: The Red Pyramid, comes out in May.
On his radio show and cable television programs, first on CNN Headline News and now on the Fox News Channel, Mr. Beck has enthusiastically endorsed dozens of novelists, a majority of them writing in the thriller genre. Mr. Beck, who now attracts 9 million weekly listeners on radio and 2.7 million daily viewers on television, often selects authors whose plots or characters reflect political stances that mirror his own. But he also promotes the work of authors who may disagree with many of his views.
Who’s more likely to influence your opinion to buy a book: Glenn Beck or Oprah?
Book marketing in the 80’s and 90’s was, for the big publishers, a somewhat standard ordeal. It started with sending out galleys and ARCs (Advanced Reader Copies) to book reviewers and magazine editors. Then traditional advertising spots were bought in the book sections of magazines/newspapers. Upon release, the author was sent around to talk shows and bookstores to talk about the book, all while displays were bought at major bookstores. While some publishers ventured out beyond that, those were the methods that worked - and why should someone do otherwise?
Well, along came the internet to shake up the advertising world. Between facebook, twitter, goodreads, LibraryThing, Shelfari, and book blogs, as well as a slew of other online media, publishers have been playing around with how to best utilize these new tools. One of the most recent trends is my topic for today: the Book Trailer.
A book trailer is almost exactly like a movie trailer - in fact, after watching quite a few of these, I was asking myself, “When is this movie coming out?” Below are a few examples of book trailers:
These are three examples but there are hundreds of these book trailers, drastically ranging in quality and length. Some of them take a humorous approach and talk more about the author, whereas others focus on the book itself.
The effectiveness of these book trailers is questionable at best. It becomes nearly impossible to draw a direct correlation of the increased (or decreased) sales of a book based off a book trailer. While a trailer that has 1,000,000 views may be considered a success when it comes to viewership, many forms of media just do not convert as well as others. That being said, trailers do open books up to a wider audience. With some claiming that the average internet user has an attention span of about nine seconds, book trailers with moving images and sounds better capture the interest of most web browsers. These trailers can reach many non-readers or occasional readers and bring better awareness.
Personally, I would prefer a sample chapter to get me interested in a book. Animation for me stimulates a different section of my brain and desires. I want to see the movie for Stephen King’s new novel (I’m sure they’ll make one) because of this trailer, not read the book. To me, the beauty of a book is that I get to use my imagination, and not be given the exact likeness of a character.
What are your thoughts on these book trailers? Do they make you want to read the book more? Does it give you desire for a movie version?
The other day I was going through my book shelf to add more books that I’ve read to my goodreads read shelf. I shocked myself at how quickly I got through it and started to think of books that I read and didn’t own. At first, I started to think about the journey that my books may have made - did I sell the book on half.com, had I borrowed it from someone? Was it part of a collection? Had it gotten lost somewhere. Being a concrete thinker who loves statistics, I decided to come up with a ratio - and this ratio is called the Shelf Ratio.
Like any good ratio, it comes with a few friends. I’ve decided to outline those ratios and explain what they might tell you about yourself:
The Shelf Ratio: The amount of books you own and have on shelves (lost or in boxes don’t count) divided by the number of books you’ve read. The Wanting Ratio: The amount of books you haven’t read and have on your shelf divided by the number of books you have on your shelf that you have read The Pack-Rat Ratio: The amount of books you do not plan on reading again that are on your shelves divided by the amount of books you do plan on reading again that are on your shelves. The Good-Friend Ratio: The amount of books you have lent out divided by the amount of books you are currently borrowing.
To share a bit about me, I will share with you my ratios:
My Shelf Ratio: 20%. I’m a big fan of borrowing/renting books. As well, most of the books I get, I don’t want to keep, so I resell.
My Wanting Ratio: 30%. This is very high, but mainly because I keep my shelf so slim.
My Pack-Rat Ratio: 20%. The only reason I hold onto a book is if I wish to read it or if I wish to give it to someone else.
My Good-Friend Ratio: Ignoring the books my wife has “lent” me to read, I’m on a 10:1 or 1000%. I am pretty quick to lend a book to a friend, but between my lack of time and my BookSwim membership, I tend not to need to borrow books.
What are your ratios?
Some milestones and what they mean:
Wanting Ratio > 50%: START READING!
Pack-Rat Ratio > 100%: Get rid of those excess books. Sell them, lend them to friends, that’s good books being wasted!
Good-Friend ratio < 50%: Read and return those books to your friends, and hand out your old books to friends as gifts!
In an effort to deliver more to our faithful readers, today I introduce you to two new features of the Literary Life: Monday Mayhem and All Roads Lead to BookSwim.
Monday Mayhem is going to be a weekly post every Monday which will highlight things that we find outrageous and enjoyable. All Roads Lead to BookSwim is a short series in which we will outline all of the crazy search terms that lead people to us.
Web search is part of our lives… so much so that the search giant Google has made its way into our lexicon as a verb meaning “look up.” You may not use it in your life, but chances are you’ve heard someone say: “I’ll google it,” or “Did you google your new boyfriend?” While many of us do very simple searches and search for common things such as “chocolate chip cookie recipe” and “book rental website” others search with a very different style. To those people, we now say thank you for providing us with some hilarious content. And now, without further ado, I bring you the first installment of “All Roads Lead to BookSwim.”
(all of the below were gathered from Google Analytics and are all search terms that resulted in a click to the BookSwim.com website)
rakhi - Rakhi is an Indian festival of brothers and sisters. What’s most interesting is that quite a few people came in with this search. big ass girl - I was afraid to repeat this search in google to see where BookSwim actually resulted. To my surprise, we’re on the 2nd page of results, with few adult sites ahead of us. enough to impress a king - You’re dang right we are! big ass black girls - I’m starting to see a trend… police field operations 7th edition - I swear, I didn’t do anything illegal! rent capitalism - At first, I thought: “Duh.” Then I thought, “Irony?” Then I was like: “Ohhh…” unknown naked girls - BookSwim is not an adult website. Google may be confused? antics meaning - Despite the many dictionaries ahead of us in the search results, someone decided to try to search for the definition amongst one of our book descriptions. are you a kid looking for special opportunities? - Oooo. Pick me! Pick me! ass instead of rent - This sentence is amazing. Ass could refer to a donkey or the rear end of a human. Rent could refer to that annoying monthly bill for the dwelling in which you live or for the act of renting - such as what Netflix and BookSwim do for DVDs and books (respectively). Donkey instead of your apartment bill? Human backside instead of Transumerism?
Have you found us through some crazy method? What was the craziest search term that someone used to find your blog/website? Let us know!
Monday was a crazy day and our normal Monday Mayhem got a bit delayed. But, I wouldn’t want you to feel like me completely forgot you, so I’m making up for it by posting today. And we’ve got some good ones for you.
