Today our featured Member of the Month is Cozette M. (CozSnShine)
who was named our member of the month in December 2007
How long have you been a PBS member?
Seems like forever in some ways. How does one make so many friends, play so many games, swap so many books and have so many discussions in just 1,200 days or so?? Signed up on Feb. 05, 2007. Don’t add up those days, I’m sure my math is spot on!
How did you find PBS?
I read an article about PBS in some magazine, wrote down the name and promptly forgot about it. A few months later I came across the name again and here I am!
How has PBS impacted your life?
Wow! that is quite the question. I guess it would be an overstatement to say that PBS has become my life, but at times it feels that way. I’ve said before that PBS is more than about books, it’s about community. I’ve found so many new authors and books I’d never pick up, before, in a million years. But I’ve also found so many FRIENDS, who I’d never have interacted with if it were not for PBS. People who do not think like me, who were not raised like me, who I wouldn’t have any reason to meet in real life. But I come on PBS and here they are, the good and the bad, the caring and the UNcaring, the sensitive and the hard, the liberal and the conservative, the happy and the sad. Those who interact with you and those who react to you. People, people, people who make up the fabric of PBS and therefore, the fabric of my life.
What does PBS mean to you?
Paper back swap, what does it mean to you??? Good question. It means I have a ready supply of both books and friends. It means that I have support when I need it. It means that when your loved one dies, there are hundreds that crowd around to surround you with love. You may never see their faces but you always see their souls.
It means that in the middle of the night, when your heart is aching there is somewhere to go, somewhere to place your thoughts. SomeONE who will hear you.
It means that I have a safe place to ask questions. A place where I don’t expect everyone to agree with my ideas but where the majority will at least respect them. It means that I can read and digest thoughts and ideas that are so foreign to mine that they shock me, and yet I can also value them.
Did you read as a child?
I was one of nine children, growing up on a farm in Kentucky. We didn’t have much but we always had something to read. I don’t remember my parents buying books when I was a child. But we always had magazines and newspapers and books from our school.
Once when I was sick, my brother brought home my new health book, from my teacher. When I went back to grade school a few days later the first thing my teacher said is, “I imagine you’ve read all of this already?” She was right – I read it from cover to cover.
What was your favorite book growing up?
I’m not sure I had one. Between the time I started junior high until I graduated, I read almost every book in our high school library. I devoured them, sometimes so fast that I didn’t retain all the wonderfulness in them. I remember going through a phase where I was reading about American heroes. Our library has a set of books about them and I read them for weeks and weeks.
What is your favorite or most meaningful book read as an adult?
That seems to change as my taste change. Certainly one of the most meaningful books I’ve ever read is Banker To the Poor Micro-lending and the Battle Against World Poverty. It completely changed my definition of poverty and changed my perceptions about it.
The Help, recently read, is one of my favorites. Wonderful book with great insight into a world I grew up knowing 
about.
In Love and War by Sybil and Jim Stockdale will always have meaning for me as that introduced me to a world of POW’s that I knew little about. I knew this couple in the later years of their lives but read the book long before then.
What are you reading now?
I normally only read one book at a time but seem to have several going right now.
I’m deep into Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand. Not an easy read, but one with a lot of insight and meaning.
I’m also reading a Christian fiction book written in 1946. It is interesting how the genre has changed over the years. Not My Will by Francena H Arnold.
Just finished Silver Girl by Elin Hilderbrand, a great summer read.
Just finished Medals, Flags and Memories by John and Stacey Holley. This is the true story of the death of their son in
Iraq and their fight to have the fallen soldiers brought home with honor. Recently meet this couple and they touched me deeply.
PBS is a source of so much for so many. I watch and see how people love Lester and Marilyn, how they support Abbey and her girls and how they cheer others on and it just touches a deep cord in me. It still gives me strength today as it did on the day my husband died.
We never know where the words we throw out there will land and what good or harm they might do. On PBS they do a whole lot more good than harm. If this was just another book swap, I’d probably be long gone. But it’s a community of many, each of which is important and is loved by someone.
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!
MOM MOM MOM MOM MOM MOM MOM MOM MOM MOM MOM MOM MOM
Tags: Club Member of the Month, Members
Nice blog Cozi!
Thank Hunter. I didn’t even know it was here until I checked the blog tonight.
Cozi, you really speak to the depth of the Swap experience, far beyond the simple exchange of printed materials. It’s something with which I’m familiar, and yet never fails to surprise, amaze, astound, or inspire. There are sure to be members who aren’t aware of how much PBS can mean to some of us. Thank you for opening up and sharing your insights and experiences, and showing just how much more the Swap has to offer!