Ode to PBS

I really like books… Whether I’m reading them aloud to my kids, casually thumbing through a new prospect at an old bookstore, browsing the aisles of my local library, intensely studying some subject or just sitting in a room surrounded by their company as they adorn their shelves, books comfort me. Thus, I tend to both inadvertently and purposely collect them.

Many years ago I was much more frivolous with my shelf space… twaddle and trifle abounded. I was a crazy woman at any and all library sales that I happened upon, whereas now- um, OKAY, I’m still a crazy lady at those, albeit a bit more composed! But at least I go with a list, and skip over more than I bring home, without regrets! Yes, as our collection of  quality literature and classic children’s books has grown over the years and all of our book shelves are in turn overflowing, I’ve found myself shopping for books with a much more discerning eye, and now actually even turning down books that were offered to me for free from time to time.

As I’ve learned what books we love, and have added various treasures and classics to our home library over the years, I have even… brace yourself… found myself simultaneously weeding out books to actually get rid of! Yeah, have had to make room for the new ones, the ones worth keeping. But I digress, that is another post for another day… What I’m getting at is wanting to share with you one of my favorite, favorite resources for getting those books off your wish list for really cheap, as well as for getting rid of all of those other books that you don’t really need or even want anymore. Enter PaperBackSwap!!

Yeah, I’m sure that many of you are now nodding your heads, knowing full well from your own experience what a wonderful tool this service can be… But some of you may not even know about it yet, or maybe you’ve heard of it and thought “What a hassle.” or “How good can it really be?” or even searched for a book and didn’t find it right then so you never pursued it further. Then just maybe, this post is for you!

I have an extensive wish list of books that I’ve compiled over the years from various sources, the ones that I’m always on the look out for, mostly for my kids to read in their upcoming homeschool years, but also plenty for my own personal education as well. Chances are, you do as well. Am I right? Need I even ask this crowd? That’s why we homeschool, right? So we can always justify buying more books and then sit around and read them (with or without the kids) – daily!

So I thought that I’d just share with you some of my own experience with this wonderful company. I’ve been a book swappin’ member for over three years now. In that time I’ve received 132 books and I’ve mailed out 89 to other PBS members. According to PBS, I’ve saved $598.50 over the last three years.

It’s a fairly simple program to use, once you get the gist of the process. I’ve always followed the company’s suggestions on packaging  books, wrapping them in a protective layer of saran wrap and then folding and taping a make-shift envelope around them with the two sheets of paper that the mailing information you need is printed out on, including pre-printed postage (if you like) and the shipping address. Therefore, I’ve managed to keep my costs minimal; just the price of postage, be it the media mail rate or first class, depending upon the size of the book. The website calculates which is cheaper for you with each book, according to its dimensions, and then gives you various mailing options.

The website is very well laid out, and every time that I’ve had a question of problem (only twice), it’s been dealt with promptly. I could go on and on with all kinds of details about how the program works, but basicly for every book that you mail to someone else, you get a “credit” which you can then turn around and use to “request” a book that someone else has posted to the system that you want. You find these either by searching by title, author, ISBN, etc. or by keeping a running wish list (which I do) so that if a book that you’re looking for isn’t currently available, eventually when that book is posted by another member, you will be notified. This is especially necessary for those great literature reads on most of the various curricula lists. I’ve gone from #30+ in line waiting for a book on my list, to receiving notice that it was finally available and receiving it in the mail (OH happy day!)… and let me tell you, I’ve gotten some real gems from just waiting!

Everything that you need to know is all there on their site. Also, I would definitely recommend that you include in your setting any special “Requester Conditions” that you might have for the books you want to receive. A couple of years ago I received a book that wreaked so bad of nicotine smoke that we were gagging before we even opened the package. Obviously, we had to trash it, and my credit was restored to me after I complained. One other problem book I had was water damaged and the binding falling apart- just not worth keeping, nor up to PBS’s written standards. Again, my credit was returned. But those are the only instances I’ve had that weren’t great! That’s when I took the time to write in my own requester conditions, which you’re welcome to use as well.

Please do not send me any books that have been in a smoking environment and smell of smoke. Not interested in books that do not meet PaperBackSwap’s standards (such as water damaged pages/covers, tears on their pages/covers or binding falling apart). Normal wear and obvious usage is of course acceptable and to be expected. Thank you so much!

The whole family has made note of how new the condition of every book we’ve been getting has been lately! It’s just such a treat to have our mail peppered with new books so regularly. There have been quite a few times that a book from my wish list that I really wanted has come up available (you’re notified via email when it does) and I didn’t have a credit. PBS does offer you the option of purchasing credits for just this reason, which I’ve done numerous times. Other times, if it’s been a book we ended up checking out from the library and decided we didn’t really need to own, or I just didn’t feel like spending the few bucks on, I’ve just passed and the book in turn went to the next person in line with it on their wish list. It’s a really cleverly orchestrated, smooth running system!

Would you believe that I’ve collected beautiful editions of most of the D’Aulaire books via PBS over the years? Yep, along with some harder to find OOP books as well! Just for fun (and so that I can tell someone who will appreciated it!),  I’ll share with you some of the titles we’ve received recently, most of which I had sitting on my wish list for quite some time. The last book we received came yesterday, and we’re so loving it! It’s one from my “living math” books wish list. A Beginner’s Guide to Constructing the Universe: Mathematical Archetypes of Nature, Art, and Science :: Michael S. Schneider

The last ten books we received before that were:

• Complete Jewish Bible : An English Version of the Tanakh (Old Testament) and B’Rit Hadashah (New Testament)
• Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business
• Walking the Bible (children’s edition) : An Illustrated Journey for Kids Through the Greatest Stories Ever Told
• Making Thirteen Colonies (A History of Us, No 2)
• Joan of Arc :: Mark Twain
• War, Peace, and All That Jazz/Book 9 (A History of Us)
• Sketches of Jewish Social Life :: Alfred Edersheim
• How Should We Then Live? The Rise and Decline of Western Thought and Culture :: Francis A. Schaeffer
• Celebrate! Stories Of The Jewish Holiday by Gilda Berger
• The Laurel’s Kitchen Bread Book : A Guide to Whole-Grain Breadmaking :: Laurel Robertson, Carol Flinders, Bronwen Godfrey

If you’d really love to acquire some new books, and have a few lying around that you wouldn’t mind parting with, then I encourage you to join PBS and get started making your own wishlist!

• How to Swap Your Books
• PBS Member Testimonials

A room without books is like a body without a soul.

Cicero, (Attributed)
Roman author, orator, & politician (106 BC – 43 BC)

Embracing the adventure,