Today our Featured Member of the Month is: Geri (geejay). Geri was named MoM in November 2010.

My name is Geri. I’ve been with PBS since September 2008. I’m a MoM, TG, BDA and BIA. MoM is Member of the Month. That’s something very special to me since other members voted for me to have that honor. TG is Tour Guide. People write with questions and problems they have a PBS. Most are new members and just need a bit of help over a bump in the road. BDA and BIA mean Book Data Approver and Book Image Approver. That’s looking at edits and images that have been submitted by members and saying yeah, good job or oh, no that needs to be fixed and then fixing it. Those two things are earned positions. You actually take a test to become a Tour Guide. I wasn’t sure I’d pass but did with no trouble. A proud day for me!

I actually stumbled on to PBS when I was looking at my book recommendations on Amazon. Someone was singing the praises of PBS there, I found the site and never looked back. When I joined I had almost 1,000 books on the shelves to read! I’m different than most members in that I’ve managed to get rid of about half the books I had. The majority of folks bemoan the fact that they have more books than ever. Now, instead of buying a new series, an author I’ve never read before I ‘ll order the first book in the series and if I like it keep going. Don’t like it, no problem someone at PBS will want the book. Maybe not today but eventually. And I don’t have a series of books that I’m sorry I bought.

My reading days began when my aunt taught me to read around two years old. I remember reading the newspaper when FDR died. At that time there weren’t many children’s books available. I did read comic books. Donald Duck and Little Lulu were my favorites with a host of others. Then a library was opened within walking distance of our house! Oh the joy! Oh the wonder the first time I ever went to the main Detroit Public Library. At the time you walked in the door and saw shelves and shelves, stacks and stacks of books, floors of books!

When I was in grade school I read every book in the library from aardvark to zoology. I loved the biographies and history! I regretted not living during the Revolutionary War. I was ready to fight for freedom. Never thinking about taking a bath of course.

Currently I’m reading Laced by Carol Higgins Clark, Kingsbridge Plot by Maan Meyer. Embers by Laura Bickle and rereading The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie. I’m reading that on my Kindle. Something new for me.

We have a Kindle discussion forum on PBS and even have a way to trade a book with other members of the PBS Kindle group.

The great thing about PBS is that if you have a book preference be it hardcover, paperback, audio or eBook you can find something here!

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!

Today our Featured Member of the Month is: Hunter S. (Hunter1)
Hunter was named our MoM for February 2009

It was December 2005 and I was moving and a friend was helping. When I told her I was going to donate most of my fiction books or other books I no longer needed, she wanted them. She told me about PBS and I told her to take the books so she could post them. After I was settled into my new home, I still had too many books. So I called my friend to ask about PBS and she explained how it worked and also told me she was having a great time playing in the swaps. So really, I joined PBS because the games sounded like fun and I wanted to join and play in the same games as my friend.

During the summer of 2006, the Diva Swap was started and I joined. It was great fun and when the hostess left, I took it over in 2007. The Diva members became such an important part of my life. I had made some best friends on PBS and we had never even met! Then in 2007/08 I became a Tour Guide. I wanted to give something back to the organization that had given me so much, so I took the test, passed it and started helping other members. But what I didn’t realize at the time was what an incredible group I had joined. The Tour Guides on PBS are fabulous and I’ve made even more friends. Since then, I’ve become a Tour Guide Leader, assisting other TG’s in helping members.

Over the years I have been fortunate enough to meet some of my fellow Divas and some of my fellow TG’s and I’ve been thrilled. I look forward to meeting many more.

I cannot imagine not having PBS in my life. It has given me so much more than I could ever describe or ever return. But it does prove the old saying, “What goes around, comes around.” The more I give to PBS, the more I receive.

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!

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!

Today our Featured Member of the Month is: Cathy W. (Firefly). Cathy was named Member of the Month in May, 2010.

I have been a member of PBS since January of 2006. I don’t remember how I found out about PBS. That is one of life’s great mysteries, I guess. PBS has introduced me to so many new authors and new people. And after a recent major financial life change, PBS means that I can still get books to read that my library does not have!

I read all the time as a child. I don’t remember ever not having a book or more around. My parents read to me before I could read myself. They also kept reading to me after I started to read – books that were above my reading level, but that I would still enjoy. I have fond memories of my dad reading “Paddington Bear“.

My current top book is “An Instance of the Fingerpost” by Iain Pears. I don’t have much knowledge of the church or state of England in the 1600s, but that did not detract from my enjoyment of this book. I enjoy a good mystery. Pears did a wonderful job of portraying each ‘author’ in a different voice, and gave you a glimpse of who they were. Each version of the tale built upon the last and brought to light how easy it is to think you know something, when really, you missed the boat, so to speak. It is one of a very few books that I intend to re-read!

Right now, I am reading “The Little Prince” by Antoine De Saint-Exupery. I originally read this in high school, in French. I am enjoying it again, this time in English. I do wonder though…does this count as rereading it? 🙂

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!