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Archive for January, 2010

Dear Librarian: Refund Credit, Book Reviews, No images,

Friday, January 29th, 2010

Dear Librarian-  I sent a book I shouldn’t have sent, I admit it. It had writing in it and I didn’t really pay attention to that when I posted it.  So the other member complained and I realized I hadn’t checked the book for writing before posting it!  I’ll be more careful next time and I won’t ever post another book that doesn’t meet the club criteria again.  I refunded her credit using the Give Refund button on the problem swap in my transaction archive, but she says I didn’t refund!  How can I prove that I did?  – Repentant in Rehoboth

Dear Hobey,

We’re glad to hear that you have learned the error of your ways. 🙂  You can tell this member that she can look in her Credit Registry (by clicking credits at the top of any page on the site) to see the credit you gave her.  And if you have to refund (or if someone refunds to you) in the future, this will be easier – an email will be sent when the Give Refund button is used, to tell the member that the refund was given.

For anyone reading who doesn’t know where the Give Refund button is – it is on the Request Details page on every completed outgoing transaction in your Transaction Archive.   Go to My Account > Transaction Archive  and click Request Details on any book you sent that was received (whether or not it was marked received with a problem).  You will see the Give Refund button at the top of the Request Details page.

Dear Librarian – I ran across a Book Review that was great.  The reviewer said EXACTLY what i think about the book.   Now I want to know what that reviewer thinks about other books.  But there’s no link on the review to show me that member’s other reviews.  Why not?  – Disappointed in Denver

Dear Denny,

If the link is not there it means that either (1) this member has not reviewed any other books or (2) the member has the option for “show other members my list of reviews” set to Private or Buddies Only in his or her privacy controls.

We know this is disappointing!  You should check his or her profile, if that is public, to see what books are on the Bookshelf and Wish List there, and check out your similarity index to this member.  You can invite him or her to be a Buddy, since you liked that review so much.  If she or he allows Buddies to see his or her review list, then you will have the “inside scoop”!

Dear Librarian – Something is seriously wrong with PBS when I try to get on from my work computer.  There aren’t any images and it’s just a bunch of text on white background.   It works fine from my computer at home.  What’s up and how do I fix it? – Officeworker in Orlando

Dear Lando,

Your office’s computer system must be set to block unfamiliar domains.  We have images stored in a number of places, and your work system must be refusing to let those domains be accessed to show you the site properly.  If it is OK for you to access PaperBackSwap from work, you should ask your IT person to unblock the following domains:

www.paperbackswap.com
secure.paperbackswap.com
a.pbsstatic.com
b.pbsstatic.com
ca.pbsstatic.com
cb.pbsstatic.com
cc.pbsstatic.com
yui.yahooapis.com
cd.pbsstatic.com

These are the domains that host the site’s images, among other things.  It is safe to allow access to these domains.

We add new subdomains when necessary to balance the workload across our servers, so this list can change over time, which is why accessing PBS from a very strict location such as a workplace or a school may pose difficulties intermittently.

We hope your boss is OK with letting you use the site during work hours, but if not, PaperBackSwap is always there for you when you get home!

COMING SOON:

  • Audio Author Interviews
  • More ways to find you your next favorite book!
  • Here are some more “new” themed books to browse…

New Moon Moon Bk 7All New PeopleI'm Not the New MeNew Day RisingA New LuNew GirlsBraveNew CardiffA New DayA New LeafThe New WomanAnnie's New Life

Member of the Month

Wednesday, January 27th, 2010


Cheryl G. (Poncer)

Cheryl is one of our terrific Tour Guide Leaders – she has helped a lot of members, new and experienced, navigate and use the site.  We get their grateful messages on a regular basis.  Even Tour Guides write in to let us know she is something special.  Just a taste of the comments we got:

“She helped me in Live Help with what I thought was an impossible problem.  She made it all very easy to understand.”

“She is helpful and very friendly. She makes being a Tour Guide fun!”

“I am lucky to have Cheryl assigned as my Tour Guide.  She is very patient and clear when I have a question.”

“Cheryl (poncer) helped me find my way through something I messed up…she helped me get things all fixed! I would still be trying to figure things out if she hadn’t been there.”

Cheryl, the people have spoken!  Thanks for doing so much behind the scenes to help other members enjoy the club.  You are our Member of the Month for January.  Congratulations!


If you have any nominations for Member of the Month,
submit them to us here.  Your nomination will not “expire”–anyone you nominate will have a chance at getting Member of the Month if enough nominations accumulate over time. Each month the person who has the most votes accumulated when the Newsletter goes to press gets to be Member of the Month and gets a newsletter mention and a nifty MoM icon to wear on profile and forum posts with pride.  So go for it! Tell us who’s helped you in the Forums, who’s been a great swapper, who in your opinion is a credit to PBS.  We are keeping a list of all the nominated members.  Who knows–one of them might be YOU!

PBS Local Book Club News

Tuesday, January 26th, 2010

Atlanta PBS Club Meetup and Bookswap

The Atlanta PBS Meetup and Bookswap in December was jampacked! Great fun was had by all.

Atlanta Book Club

Atlanta Book ClubAtlanta Book ClubAtlanta Book ClubAtlanta Book ClubAtlanta Book Club

New Local Chapter Leaders:

  • Angela C. – AngRoCamp – Oahu, Hawaii
  • Susan W. – suskaw123 – Seabrook, TX
  • Marianne M. – mariandy – Greenwood/South Indianapolis, IN
  • Theresa F. –  mackenzie10 – Manhattan (New York City), NY
  • Lisa P. – lisaparks – Laveen/South Mountain, AZ
  • Diane T. – dtsbestbooks – Bellevue/Woodinville/Bothell/Kirkland area of WA

If you want to be a Local Chapter Leader for PBS, you just need to have a PBS NIckname, a viewable public profile, and some organizational skills…check the Local Chapter Leaders Forum List of Official Chapters to see if your area already has a local Chapter.  If not, and you want to do this, just contact us.  There are no formal guidelines for being a Chapter Leader.  All of the information is in the Local Chapter Leader Discussion Forum topic.    If you are an official Chapter Leader and want us to include your upcoming meetup in the Newsletter, send in a message to us with the date, at least a week before the end of the preceding month.

Books for the New Year

Friday, January 22nd, 2010

Out with the old and in with the New! Try one of these books, available to request right now.



A New Song Father Tim, longtime Episcopal priest for Mitford (the ‘small town with the big heart’), retires.  He agrees to serve as interim minister of a small church on Whitecap Island, and new challenges and adventures await…  Whitecap has its own unforgettable characters.  In this fifth novel of the beloved series, fans old and new will discover that a trip to Mitford and Whitecap is twice as good for the soul. Christian Fiction/Contemporary Fiction


A New Attitude Marilee Abernathy’s life is a mess!  Everyone in Chickpea, South Carolina, knows of her husband’s affair with the town floozy. And when her dignified farewell goes awry, Marilee decides a better way to cope is a new attitude. Sexy neighbor Sam Brewer couldn’t agree more… Contemporary Romance




The New Father: A Dad’s Guide to the First Year Know a new dad or an about-to-be dad?  This is the closest thing to a “baby instruction manual” there is, addressing child development, juggling work and family, and much more. Illustrated with delightful cartoons that underscore the joys and challenges of parenting, The New Father: A Dad’s Guide to the First Year is an essential sourcebook for every dad. It’s might even give moms some fresh insights as well!  Parenting and Families.


The New Centurions The year is 1960. A class of new police recruits doesn’t have time to learn the ropes. The streets are burning with rage; before they can grow old on this job, they’ll have to fight for their lives.  A stunning, raw, and unforgettable depiction of life behind the thin blue line from ex-cop Joseph Wambaugh. Police Procedurals


2010: Odyssey Two No, it’s not “new”…but it’s timely! Nine years after the disastrous Discovery mission to Jupiter in 2001, a joint U.S.-Soviet expedition sets out to rendezvous with the spacecraft to search the memory banks of the mutinous computer HAL 9000 for clues to what went wrong . . . and what became of Commander Dave Bowman.  Science Fiction

News: PBS Gift Certificates, Daily Digest, Reviews

Thursday, January 21st, 2010

One for me, and one for you… If you gave  PBS Gift Certificates this holiday, don’t forget to tell the lucky recipients to enter your PBS Nickname (or the email address you use for your PBS account) when registering, so that you get your referral credit!  Referred accounts must be the first for the household to be eligible for referral credit, of course, and referral credit is granted when the new member has completed registration, including posting the first 10 books.

Are you in the loop? If you don’t get the Daily Digest, you may be missing out on books you would love to read!   The Daily Digest is a daily email that shows you the books posted during the previous day, in the genres you have selected.   We’ve upgraded the feature so that now, only currently-available books are shown to you by default (no more disappointment seeing books other people have already ordered by the time you get the email), and the new, easy-on-the-eyes format includes book descriptions. It’s a great way to start each day – browsing for books with your morning coffee.  Read more about the Daily Digest and subscribe today!

Be a person of influence. Every reader knows the thrill of reading a wonderful book, and wanting to share that feeling with other readers.  It’s easy to spread the news with the club by writing Book Reviews.  Take a few minutes and review a few books every day – review the books on your Bookshelf or Books I’ve Read list, or books you’ve read that you see while browsing your Daily Digest or Books Posted Today page.  Members tell us all the time how much book reviews help them decide whether or not to request a book.  And now, a list of your reviews is linked from any review you have written. So if you read a review you agree with, you should check out that member’s other reviews by clicking the “see all reviews by this member” link…it’s a terrific way to find your next great read!

Books for Schools donation program photos

Tuesday, January 19th, 2010

We got some photos from our first round of Books for Schools donation program. Here is Clear Creek Elementary showing us the delivery of the books you so generously donated credits to get for them! Clear Water Creek Elementary was just one of the lucky first round of donations.

What it's all about!

They’re thrilled with the books, and it looks like they had a lot of fun sorting through them. The school received more than a thousand books — some will go into their classrooms and library, and some will go home with students to keep.  From the first two rounds, member credit donations to the program got books for 25 needy schools. We’ll let the membership know when we’re ready for the third round of Books for Schools- stay tuned!  Read more about Books for Schools donation program.  See more photos of Clear Creek getting the books below: (click for a larger image)

books for schoolsbooks for schoolsbooks for schoolsbooks for schoolsbooks for schoolsbooks for schools

Dear Members: Decluttering in 2010

Monday, January 18th, 2010

Welcome to the brand new year, in a brand new decade!  Doesn’t it make you want to get things all spick-and-span and orderly, to start 2010 fresh?

We Americans are lucky – most of us have too much stuff.   It’s a good problem to have, really–and a good problem to solve.  De-cluttering experts recommend some general rules of thumb:

  • Handle every piece of paper that comes into your house only once.
  • Don’t bring anything home that you don’t have a place and purpose for.
  • For every new possession that enters your house, one must leave.

This can translate into some simple actions: have a recycling bin for paper near the place where you sort your mail when you bring it in the house; visualize where something will go (and what it will be used for) before you purchase it; and for every book you get, send one out!

It’s a great time to get organized, actually.  If the behavior of past years is any predictor, Wish List books are going to be pouring into the system for the next couple of months, as folks read their Christmas and Chanukah presents and post them.  You don’t want to miss your Wish List book because you don’t have credits.  So now’s the time to go through your book shelves/piles/mountains and post the books you will not read again (and that meet club criteria for swapping, of course).  Get them out of your house and into the next reader’s happy hands, and get credits for your upcoming PBS orders!
Those of you who are buried under snow, we wish you well!  Be careful if you have to drive, keep warm, and remember that a cup of hot chocolate and a good book can go a long way toward curing the winter blues. Don’t forget the marshmallows – life is too short to skimp on the marshmallows.

To all of our members: Let’s have a wonderful 2010!

Richard
and the PaperBackSwap Team