Monthly Archive for January, 2009
Since my list of places that provide new homes for your books was so popular, I thought we’d visit the protocol for book buying in bricks-and-mortar stores.
Passe, I know. But it happens to all of us.
Scoot’s Bookstore Tips
Is it just me, or does the police force in the US seem to be getting increasingly violent everywhere you look?
Last week, 17-year old Virginian was tasered in his own home by police after neighbors phoned in a domestic dispute.
I find it hard to believe that police cadets aren’t taught multiple ways to subdue a possible suspect. Aren’t weapons that can kill you meant to be a last response?
On New Year’s Eve, a twenty-three year old African-American was pulled from his vehicle in his family’s drive way in Texas. After his mother, who came outside to see what was going on, got shoved by an officer, the young man questioned the treatment of his mother. He was promptly shot by the officer.
Family members had difficulty believing a shooting at the home of the only black family on their Bellaire block was completely random. . .
Speculation aside, investigators and the family are trying to figure out why the officer stopped the men in the first place.
‘The vehicle turned out not to be stolen. Why they thought it was stolen and how they got a stolen report is something that is not clear yet. All that will be determined in the investigation,’ said Holloway.
The most heinous though took place on New Year’s Day. The recent shooting of a compliant Oscar Grant in Oakland has caused an uproar and a very public demand for justice.
A BART police officer shot the man at point blank range who was laying on the station platform, restrained by officers. Despite the confiscation of a number of cell phones of witnesses, several managed to make their way into the hands of local reporters covering the story. The officer in question refused to testify before Internal Affairs, resigning so that he could not be compelled to do so. The city’s citizenry await word of what charges, if any, will be filed.
Has police work become more treacherous in recent years that the police are running scared and shooting unarmed civilians? Does law enforcement seem more enticing to certain personalities? Have 8 years of shivving the Constitution left officers thinking they to can act with impunity?
I’m certainly not alone in being concerned.
A new study published this month in the Emergency Medicine Journal reports that roughly 98% of ER docs believe some of the patients delivered by police are victims of police brutality. But since there aren’t any laws requiring this sort of abuse to be reported, unlike parents assaulting their children, doctors look the other way.
That data was collected in 2002, so the nearly 2/3 of physicians that felt they saw at least 2 instance of police brutality a year. . . how many do you think they’re not reporting now?
One of my favorite reads of 2008 was the long ago book Anatomy of Love: A Natural History of Mating, Marriage, and Why We Stray by Helen Fisher.
In 2006 she gave a talk at the annual elitist TED conference about the biochemical and behavioral markers of romantic love, as well as gender differences. If you’re not likely to read the book, take 20 minutes of your day to watch the video.
Do the same rules apply to you?
I’m actually not sure how I stumbled across the webisode series Imaginary Bitches, but I’m glad that I did.
It’s a humorous take on the the modern day struggle to be a single lady when all your friends are in relationships. Lead singleton Eden creates two imaginary friends that fill the void left by her unavailable best friends. Hijinks and laughter ensue.
Here’s the Season 1 playlist.
photo by photocapy
I’m doing some tidying up of my unread book piles, pulling out titles that peaked my interest a few years ago, but that I’m no longer inclined to need. Given the rise of the used book market, it isn’t worth posting to half.com, when I’m likely to bring in $1 or less for most of the tomes I want to send on to their next home.
The next best thing to money is another book, which is why I list books in need of a good home at BookMooch. At BookMooch I earn points for each book I send to a fellow member. In turn, I get to use those points to mooch books from other users.
But like any retailer experiences, some books just aren’t flying off the shelves in your chosen location or demographic. Thus, I’ve been looking for alternative places to distribute books in need of new homes.
Your local library
The most obvious choice for donation is your local library, most of which will give you a receipt that you can probably use to write off the donation come tax time. Older books aren’t likely to go into circulation, but they may wind up being sold as part of the regular used book sale fundraising.
For those of you looking for more creative places to donate your used books, there are plenty of options.
Prisons
Looking to get rid of old college textbooks? Already solved that quarterlife crisis and don’t need those self-help books any more? Look no further than your local prison. While the rules vary from prison to prison, many accept a variety of educational and recreational reading materials, since their library budgets are limited.
We all know the resale value of college text books is limited since new editions with different pagination are constantly being issued. Here’s an opportunity to really pay it forward.
- Books Behind Bars provides information about what types of reading materials are accepted by prisons all around the country and to whom you should ship your donation
Prisons also gladly accept used fiction, particularly paperback since it’s easier to ship.
- Books to Prisoners is a volunteer organization that ships requested titles to individual prisoners nationwide. They send out close to 10,000 books a year are are always looking to replenish their stockpile.
Troops
People are still looking for ways to support the troops abroad. Shipping your collection of Stephen King paperbacks to deployed soldiers is one way to go.
Low-income kids
Basic literacy will forever be a key component of early childhood education. Unfortunately not all school libraries are well-stocked and not all families can afford to buy books for home. These groups try to put books in the hands of young learners throughout the country. So if you have gently used children’s titles to get out of the house, consider these two groups.
- Books First distributed more than 15,000 books to teachers and their classes in 2007, benefiting more than 2000 pupils.
- Project Nightlight reaches out to homeless children, providing “individual tote bags each filled with a security blanket, an age-appropriate book, and a stuffed animal to children (ages 0-10) in homeless shelters.” They are always looking for like new books to be included in their care packages; if you’re as obsessive about your books as I am about mine, most of them are like new.
When all else fails, Got Books? The group ensures no books winds up in a landfill. Some books they sell, donating half the proceeds to a variety of charities, and others they donate to schools.
graphic by jared
I’ve been thinking about the background research on that McKinsey study of Model Centered Leadership. Particularly the brief mention about how
men tend to build broader, shallower networks than women do and that the networks of men give them a wider range of resources for gaining knowledge and professional opportunities.
Given the very long arm of social networks, it seems as though the internet is helping to level the networking playing field for professional women. Women are definitely engaging online; for instance, 55% of FaceBook users are female.
How do the two relate? I read status updates on a regular basis indicating my friends and acquaintances are connecting with elementary school friends, long last college hall mates, former professors, etc.
Ten years ago, you had no way of keeping track of hundreds of tangential connections that you hold face or name recognition with, but little more. Now you can connect online with just about every person you meet in real time. . . not that you’d want to.
When you’re looking for a new job or a new house or a new boyfriend, your circle of connections has grown that much larger when you connect with people you liked from past chapters of your life, people you’d otherwise have lost touched with, if not for social networking.
Isn’t social networking allowing us all to build broad, shallow networks of acquaintances we can reach out to as needed? This natural evolution of the internet seems to be giving women the tools to be as competitive as men when it comes to networking.
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