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Archive for the ‘Newsletter’ Category

Newsletter Contest – Winner of #3, and Challenge #4

Friday, January 21st, 2011

If you recall, the challenge for Contest #3 was to answer questions about Christmas in literature.  The questions were:

(1) Who found a stolen jewel hidden in Christmas dinner? This one had two answers: Colonel Lacey (in The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding, by Agathie Christie) and Peterson’s wife (in The Blue Carbuncle by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle).  We also accepted Hercule Poirot or Sherlock Holmes.

(2) Who got a dress with stylish sleeves for a special Christmas present? Most of you knew that this was Anne Shirley, in Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery.

(3) What bestselling humorist wrote about Dutch Christmas traditions in his fifth book of humor essays? Some of you stumbled here – this was David Sedaris (his essay “Six to Eight Black Men”).

(4) What classic Irish novella set at Christmastime ends with the main character standing and watching the snow falling? As some of you  pointed out, we stumbled here- the character was not standing, but lying down at the end of the story.  It was “The Dead” by James Joyce.

And the lucky winner, chosen at random from the correct answers, is…Elizabeth B. (Cattriona)! She gets 10 Book Credits.  Happy reading, Beth!

This month’s Challenge: Identify the following character in literature.

I am a character in a fictional book.  The book’s story takes place when I am a teenager.  My full first name is a French word (though I am not French) and my nickname sounds Greek. The book is primarily about my time at sea for nearly a year under unusual circumstances. Rumors of plagiarism surfaced after the book won a prize.  A movie based on the book is being made right now.  Who am I?

Each member may submit one entry.  Your guess can be sent in a Personal Message to Gamester. (Please note: guesses sent in by any other means – email, feedback, 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

Newsletter Contest #2 – Thanks Are in Order!

Wednesday, November 10th, 2010

The Challenge: Put the following 5 books from the current Top 50 list of wished-for books in descending order of the number of copies posted and swapped in the month of September, 2010.  Arrange them by MOST copies swapped in September to LEAST copies swapped in September.   Then take a moment to give thanks for all of the booklovers here, who share their wonderful books with each other every day!

A. Omnivore’s Dilemma – B. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest – C.The Help – D. House Rules E. Dead in the Family

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

Each member may submit one guess.  Guesses can be sent in a Personal Message to Gamester. (Please note: guesses sent in by any other means – email, feedback, blog comments, 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.

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

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

PBS News – Widget for your Blog, Save on Textbooks, Newsletter

Thursday, August 12th, 2010

Show your true colors. Check out the new PaperBackSwap widget, that you can customize and display on your blog.  You can adjust not only the color but also the size and shape; you can choose which list to display and whether or not to show title/author along with the cover image…it’s very snazzy!

School Daze. Yes, it’s almost that time again!  It’s not too late to try to save some $$ on textbooks.   If you know what books your children will need for the next year, get them here. And don’t forget to post your books from last year, to pass along to others.  Be sure to check the Book Condition Criteria to be sure your books meet the minimum requirements – if there’s writing/underlining/highlighting in the books you’ll need consent from the requestor before mailing.  (Remember, writing/underlining/highlighting are not permitted in non-textbooks.)  For those who have started school already, it’s not too early to get a jump on the spring semester!

Easy on the Eyes. The member homepage is getting a makeover … drop by this week to see the sleek new look and layout, and the new features we think you’ll enjoy.

Timed-release Newsletter: Sending this NewsWire puts a strain on our servers, which can slow down the site.  For that reason the Newsletter will go out slowly over several days.  So if you hear that someone else hasn’t gotten her Newsletter and you have, just reassure her that hers is on the way.  We hope this takes the load off the servers so that the site will continue to run smoothly even while a Newsletter is going out.

PBS News: Story Time with Soldiers, Author Pages, PBS Market,

Tuesday, May 18th, 2010

We are really amazed and proud at the response to the  Story Time with Soldiers drive! You all really stepped up to provide books for the United Through Reading military donation program that provides pre-deployment DVDs of soldiers reading storybooks to their children.  We hit our goals for donated money and credits, and we heard the most heartwarming responses from you…

“The idea of deployed service personnel reading to their children warms even the coldest heart. I love these programs. It’s little enough to donate 10 credits to keep the program running. Good job, team. Keep up these outreach programs.” – Betty A.

“I just wanted to say how wonderful it is that PBS is supporting a program like Story Time with Soldiers!

My brother-in-law is currently on his 3rd deployment to Iraq, leaving behind my sister and 2 small boys, ages 4 & 1. Before he left, he had my sister video tape him reading books to the boys. Those boys have watched that video just about every day since he left 6 months ago. And when he came home for his 2-week mid-deployment leave, those boys had no trouble bonding with their dad because they had seen him reading to them every single day since he left. Even though my sister and brother-in-law did their video on their own, this is still my personal proof that this is a very important program.

Thanks to PBS for supporting our troops AND their families!!” – Yvonne G.

Thanks, Betty and Yvonne!  We too love this program, and we’re so touched at how you all have reached out to these families.  You can read more about the program here.  Thanks again for giving!

We’ve spruced up the author bibliography pages. If you click the author name on any listing you will now see the book images of the currently-available books by that author, and every book version is shown.  It used to be just a list, but members wanted more detail.  We hope this helps you keep up with your favorite author, or stock up on an author you just discovered.

Shopaholics take note! Love browsing the PBS Market ? Hate it when you get interrupted and your cart is empty when you log back in?  Now your cart will remember the items you have added, even if you log out; they’ll be waiting for you when you come back.   If you haven’t visited the PBS Market lately, be sure to stop by – new books are added every hour.

Timed-release Newsletter: Sending this NewsWire puts a strain on our servers, which can slow down the site.  We are trying something new this month – the Newsletter will go out slowly over several days.  So if you hear that someone else hasn’t gotten her Newsletter and you have, just reassure her that hers is on the way.  We hope this takes the load off the servers so that the site will continue to run smoothly even while a Newsletter is going out.

PBS News: MSN top 100, Shop Amazon, Gracious Granny Memorial

Wednesday, April 28th, 2010

MSN.com thinks we’re tops! Not to brag or anything, but… PaperBackSwap made MSN.com’s top 100 most useful sites on the internet! MSN.com reporter Liz Pulliam Weston compiled her list of “top sites for finding deals and freebies, the best advice for tackling financial problems and tools to make your life simpler and easier.”  We agree that swapping is an easy, economical and green way to get books (and DVDs and CDs).   See the whole list.

Shop at Amazon?  We’ll hook you up. At the top of every page on the site now this familiar icon is there to remind you that any of your Amazon purchases will support PBS if you start on our site and get to Amazon that way.  If you are going over to Amazon to shop, just click the link at the top of the PaperBackSwap page, and support the club with any Amazon purchase you make (excluding e-books).  If you start at PBS and put items into your cart, they will “count” if and when you eventually buy them.   So start your shopping trip with us; every little bit helps!

Gracious is the word! Thanks to all of you who have donated to the Gracious-Granny memorial.   We all miss LeAnne, who was one of our wonderful Tour Guide Assistant Coordinators.  The family of LeAnne has chosen the recipient of the books – a very rural small school in Shamrock, Texas.  If you haven’t donated yet, be sure to drop by the page!  You can also check out the new photos of LeAnne and her family, and leave well-wishes for the family, there.