Today our Featured Member of the Month is: T. who was our Member of the Month- September 2008
1. How long have you been a PBS member?
I’ve been a member since January of 2007. I jumped in feet first and never looked back. Trading books was just a part of the draw of PBS–the value of the friends I’ve made in the forums can never be measured and I am positive some will be lifelong friends.
2. How did you find PBS? How has PBS impacted your life. What does PBS mean to you?
A local woman posted about PBS on Craigslist. My interest was piqued, but I wasn’t sure if it was another crock of a site or a real gem. I found my answer pretty quickly. I ended up ordering from the original woman and we met in person. The book was a Nora Robert’s novel, and I didn’t care for it–but hey, I got free books just for signing up! When I became hooked, I seriously was hooked. I scoured thrift stores and garage sales looking for great deals on WL books to pass on to make credits. At the time it cost about $1.50 to send out a paperback, so it was really cost effective to buy books for a quarter and mail out. My to trade shelf was huge! Then, sometime down the line, my TBR became huge and my bookshelf kept getting smaller. I have so many books now (1000+) that I only get WL books now. This has changed my life. I’ve been the type of person who would read the cereal box if nothing was available. Now there is always something available!
3. Did you read as a child? What was your favorite book growing up? What book impacted you most as a child or young adult?
I was a reader for as long as I can remember. My parents and 5 siblings were not readers and still are not readers. My parents acquired a used set of encyclopedias when I was a grade schooler, including the Childcraft books that went along with them. I read every single volume of those encyclopedias. In 5th grade, during the class Christmas party, our teacher, Mrs. Springfield, gave every student a book. I was somewhat upset that all the other kids got these goofy funny books and I got a big honking paperback–Heidi. No pictures, just pages and pages of text. I ended up loving it and never shied away from a novel because of its size again.
Heidi wasn’t one of my favorites, though. As a child I have to say Black Beauty by Anna Sewell made the greatest impact on me. I grew up around horses here in Texas and couldn’t fathom how they were treated in the book. It was heartbreaking.
4. What is your favorite or most meaningful book read as an adult?
I’ve read quite a bit, both things I have chosen and things assigned when I was an undergraduate working on my BA in English. To ask me to pick one meaningful book that shaped my life is an impossible task for me. I think every book leaves a little bit of itself with the reader. Before I was a college student I would say Stephen King’s The Stand, a wonderful study of the struggle of individuals to align themselves with either good or evil. After graduation, I would have to say books that a real, gritty, and get at the reality of the human condition are my favorites. An example of this would be Toni Morrison’s Beloved. You can feel the emotion as the main character decides that it would be better to smash her infants head against the wall than let the slave handlers have their way with him. It is horrifying, but it is bare truth.
I have to throw in a line or two for Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club. It is more than a movie with Brad Pitt. Read the novel. This guy has a philosophy that amazes me with every reading. That’s what I love…the Wisdom of Chuck.
5. What are you reading now?
I’m reading several things at the moment. Fluff is The Hunger Games Trilogy. Nonfiction is Breakthrough!: How the 10 Greatest Discoveries in Medicine Saved Millions and Changed Our View of the World. And literature is When the Dead Dream by MariJo Moore.
PBS would not be what it is today without the people. We can pick up books anywhere. We can’t find friends like these anywhere.
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!
Tags: Club Member of the Month, Members
I love hearing about how people came to find PBS.