Tech Geek

Thanks to the Florida-Bahamas Synod Resource Center, I discovered a new way to buy (and sell) books online. For a reason that's not entirely clear to me, although it may have something to do with having taken a youth group from Alaska on a servant event there, I am on the FBS electronic mailing list. I could remove myself, but I find these little enjoyable tidbits from their newsletters, so I've just stayed on.

The most recent newsletter that I received (see it yourself at http://www.fbsynod.com/newsletters/resourcecenter/oct09.html) contained this tidbit under the heading, Green Idea of the Month.

Next time you want to buy a book, instead of going to Amazon.com, what about trying Better World Books? Better World Books is a for-profit social enterprise that collects used books and sells them online to raise money for literacy initiatives worldwide. They have over 6 million used and new titles with free shipping in the U.S. What’s more, used books are cheaper for you, and when you buy used, you save books from landfill and conserve resources. To find out more and to order your next book go to www.betterworldbooks.com

This struck me as an interesting idea. I know that I have many books that I've read and am not likely to read again or even refer to again. But they are the kinds of books that are not likely to be at my local public library. So I buy them from a jungle-ish bookstore online, read them once, and keep them on my shelves forever because I've paid for them and I'm not going to just throw them out! They claim to have raised over $7 million for global literacy and saved almost 30 million books from being thrown into landfills. You can see the list of literacy partners that Better World Books works with at http://www.betterworldbooks.com/info.aspx?f=partners.

They both buy and sell books, so if you have books that there is a used market for, you can enter in the ISBN numbers and they'll give you a price quote. Even if they aren't willing to pay for your books, if you are sending three or more books, they'll pick up the shipping. Just for fun, I entered my set of 4 Lutheran Handbook books into the system, but they aren't paying anything for them. They did all show up with the proper covers!

The next time I'm looking for a book or cleaning out my office, I'm going to be sure and visit this site and reduce the environmental impact of my book collection!

There are similar programs available for electronics and gadgets. http://planetgreen.discovery.com/tech-transport/ecycling-guide.html has a list of buyback, takeback, and recycling options available for your old electronics and computers.