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Dear Members

Tuesday, January 18th, 2011

Well, you just never know who you are going to run into or where!  Recently I was attending an Atlanta Falcons Monday night football game.  I had just parked my car and there was a large group tailgating in the next spot.  They were in a lively mood so I stopped to say “Hello,” and we started talking.

They were chatting about books, which was a little odd, right before a football game. So I then asked if they had ever heard of PaperBackSwap? They all started laughing and saying that they were just talking about our club!   Well, imagine their surprise when I told them that I was the Founder of PBS. One of them (at right in the picture below) mentioned that he was in graduate school at Georgia State and commented that he had “saved tons of money swapping books”.

Richard and Jacob.  (Thanks to Jacob for the photo.)

It was a great to run into this group of bookswappers out of the blue like that, and a real shot in the arm to know that our club is helping this young man with his studies. Best of luck to Jacob and all our PBS students out there!

Speaking from snowy Atlanta – this new year is full of surprises!  We hope all of your surprises are good ones.

Stay safe and warm,
Richard and
The PaperBackSwap Team

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Dear Members, Happy Holidays!

Thursday, December 9th, 2010

As I go about the days getting ready for Christmas, I find that I am not quite done with Thanksgiving! I am still counting my blessings.  First, I am thankful for my family and friends.  I am also thankful for the community here at PBS; it really is a wonderful place for all of us to come and visit, share and build relationships around a common bond in reading.  I am grateful for all of our volunteers, who improve the club experience for everyone else, every day.

It has been humbling to witness the club’s response to our Books for Kids drive.  The letter from Carmel Elementary describing how much the kids want books was heartbreaking: “I see our students come to the library searching for just the right book every single day (some several times a day)…” Our members did not let us down –  we reached our goal of 30,000 books for needy kids!  The schools are thrilled.  One kindergarten teacher told us, “Every day the children and I would turn on the computer and watch the number of credits rise…Your love of books and reading is going to help the children in my school enjoy some great books this holiday season.” To all those who donated, congratulations for a job well done!

I am thankful for all of our members.  Whether you’ve been with us a day or the whole six (!) years, you make PBS a tremendous place where we can all share in the joys of reading, life, and community.  The club stretches from east coast to west coast, from the Dakotas to Puerto Rico, and out to far-flung corners of America like Guam and the US Virgin Islands.  Military members serving overseas often can’t find books in English where they are stationed – so the ones that arrive from PBS members are precious.  We are strangers made into a family by books.  It’s a magical thing.

So whether you are celebrating Chanukah, Hijra, Solstice, Kwanzaa or Christmas this month, we wish you all the very best this holiday season!

Richard and

The PaperBackSwap Team

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Books for Schools 2010 – Book Donations

Tuesday, November 16th, 2010

Thanks + Giving = Books for Kids!

Dear Members,

We are very pleased to announce Books for Schools 2010, where your unused book credits can make all the difference in a child’s life!

Many of you remember last year’s holiday school book drive.  It was a huge success; we got thousands of books to elementary schools who needed them.  The kids were thrilled (see the pictures above), and we were so proud of our membership’s response.  It even made the local news in some places!  Because of your enthusiasm, we were able to help far more schools than we had ever expected.

We’ve set an ambitious goal this time–25,000+ books for deserving schools all over the country.  All of the selected schools have a high percentage of students receiving a free or reduced-fee lunch.  These kids are eager for books, but their school libraries’ funds have been cut, and many of the students have never owned a book.  Making it possible for them to be able to borrow books from the classroom, or to have books of their own to read at home, would be a wonderful way to give the gift of reading to a child this holiday season.

For each credit you donate, PaperBackSwap will provide a brand new book to one of these schools!   The books will be used in the classrooms, and/or given to the students to keep.   Once a school has reached its goal of donated credits, PaperBackSwap will ship all of the books to the school, for free. Read more about how the program works.

Please go to the Donations page to see our first three schools filled with students who would love to receive a book from you.  And, from the kids:

Happy Thanksgiving and all the best for the holidays!
Warm regards,
Richard & The PaperBackSwap Team

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Dear Members; PBS Market Madness, Winner of October NewsWire Contest

Monday, November 8th, 2010

Getting ready for Thanksgiving, everyone?  Football, food and friends…what a great day!  Yes, there’s a lot of work to get ready, but we shouldn’t forget to take time for fun.  In that spirit, we not only have a new PBS NewsWire contest for you, but we also have created a new feature – Market Madness!  During Market Madness, every book you purchase in the PBS Market gets you a chance to win free book credits in a weekly drawing.  Read the details in NEWS below.

But first, the winner of the October contest!  If you recall, the challenge was to order six Stephen King books according to how many times each was swapped here at PBS, from most-swapped to least-swapped.  The books were Firestarter, Misery, Duma Key, The Stand, Cujo and Carrie.  The correct order was The Stand, Duma Key, Carrie, Misery, Firestarter and Cujo.  We had many near-misses, but only a few totally correct answers.  From those correct answers we chose one lucky winner…drumroll, please…Catherine L. ! 10 free book credits have been deposited into her account.   Congratulations to Catherine, and our thanks to everyone who played.

Remember that in between all the shopping/cooking/cleaning of the month, there’s always time for a good book!

We hope you all have a very happy Thanksgiving,

Richard and
The PaperBackSwap Team

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Dear Members: Stephen King October Newsletter Challenge

Monday, October 18th, 2010

That snap in the air, the leaves falling all around, the days getting shorter…these all tell us that it’s October again.  The trees are turning red and gold and orange; pumpkins are appearing on doorsteps wearing scary or goofy faces.  Even if you don’t celebrate Hallowe’en, the spirit of October is playful.  So we’ve decided to introduce a new feature to the Newsletter – a game!  And – insert maniacal cackle here – Google won’t help you with this one.

>>>>>> The prize is 10 Book Credits! <<<<<<

The Challenge: Order the following Stephen King books according to how many times they have been swapped here at PBS.  That means all versions of each title (but not books with multiple stories in them), and most swaps (not copies – one copy can go through multiple swaps) – put them in order from most-swapped to least-swapped at PBS.

FirestarterMiseryDuma KeyThe StandCujoCarrie
A. Firestarter B. Misery C. Duma Key D. The Stand E. Cujo F. Carrie

Each member may submit one guess.  Guesses must be sent in a Personal Message to Gamester. (Please note: guesses sent in by any other means – email, feedback, comments on the blog, PM to any account but Gamester- will not count and will be discarded.) The winner will be chosen randomly from all of the correct answers submitted by the time the next Newsletter goes to press, and the winner will be announced in the next Newsletter.

Happy October to everyone;  we hope your month is all treats, no tricks!

Richard
and the PaperBackSwap Team

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Dear Members

Tuesday, September 21st, 2010

Ah, September.   What a terrific month.  Hot days are behind us, cold days are ahead of us, and the days right now are beautiful – worth waiting the whole year for!  It’s a time for new beginnings: School starts again, football starts again, for some the calendar starts again (happy Rosh Hashanah to our Jewish members!).   Why not take stock of your bookshelves and ask yourself that penetrating question: Will I ever read this book again? Are you keeping books just to keep them?  Have they become things to dust? Is it time to pass some of them along to new readers?

We confess: we’re not trying to cure you of your clutter-mania; we just want to help get you your next great read. After all, if you post some of your books here, it will make room for new ones!  And with millions of  “New to you” books available for 1 credit from other members, thousands of new remaindered books and brand-new Super Sellers in the Market available for a pittance, you’re sure to find something you want at PaperBackSwap.

Whatever this month means to you, we hope you set aside a little time for yourself, and for that most wonderful of indulgences…a good book!

Richard and
The PaperBackSwap Team

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Dear Members

Wednesday, August 11th, 2010

During the Dog Days of summer, a reader’s fancy naturally turns to…cool new features for the club!  We’re very happy with the Book Lists and the changes to the Profile page – you have told us how much you liked these and we love seeing the new lists that you create!  We hope everyone gets around to making a profile and creating some Lists.  It’s a great way to find out about books you might be interested in, and it’s fun to contribute to collaborative lists.   You can read all about using the Book Lists by clicking the What’s New link at the top of the site.

We have another feature to announce that is so hot it’s cool! We have found a great new way to get you the books you want – brand new releases, available here, at outrageous savings.   Yes, we said Brand. New. Releases.  You know, those books from your favorite authors… the ones that you put on your Wish List months before they come out, and then splurge on because you just can’t wait …yes, those books!  It’s just another way the club has found to get you your next great read, for less.   More titles will be added frequently. So don’t forget to check the top sliding display in the Market for the current Super Sellers being offered.  They will knock your socks off … if you’re crazy enough to be wearing socks in this weather, that is. 🙂

Stay cool,
Richard and
The PaperBackSwap Team

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