I mentioned Eco-Libris in my post Blog Action Day: Publishing and the Environment.

Raz Godelnik of Eco-Libris recently e-mailed me about the new collaboration of Eco-Libris with BookMooch, a leading book-swapping site.

BookMooch is an international online community for exchanging used books, created by John Buckman. It has more than 500,000 members who exchange books for free, using a simple points system - every time you give someone a book, you earn a point and can get with it any book you want from anyone else at BookMooch.

Eco-Libris is a green business that works with book readers as well as with publishers, writers, bookstores and other organizations in the book publishing industry to balance out the paper used for printing books by planting trees. Within six months of operation, Eco-Libris already balanced out 10,000 books.

Eco-Libris and BookMooch are partnering now to offer the BookMooch community a special green option - BookMooch members can earn points by planting trees with Eco-Libris. For every 10 books they balance out, they receive a free BookMooch point they can then use to mooch a book for free. They also receive an Eco-Libris sticker made of recycled paper for every book they balance out, saying ‘One tree planted for this book’, which they can display on their books’ sleeves.

This collaboration lets eco-conscious BookMoochers who love reading, but also care about the environment, to go green and make their reading more sustainable.

Although we authors would love for everyone to buy our books, I appreciate the environmental benefit to sharing books. Balancing out books by planting trees is a good way to offset the environmental impact of publishing. Now these two concepts are combined in this new initiative.

Technorati Tags: Eco-Libris, BookMooch, environment

I saw this on Diana Brandmeyer’s blog and had to share it.

Technorati Tags: life of a writer

Imagine not being able to read. Reading brings me so much pleasure, it’s hard to imagine life without books and reading.

Yet, according to the National Right to Read Foundation, quoted on Education Portal:

• 42 million American adults can’t read at all; 50 million read at only fourth or fifth grade levels.
• The number of functionally illiterate adults increases by approximately 2.25 million each year.
• 20 percent of all graduating high school seniors are functionally illiterate.

My good friend, Beverly Hart, who has been involved in literacy in San Antonio, Texas, for more than twenty years, is soliciting donations of books for students in literacy programs.

The organization that I am with teaches adults to read. We have 17 classes in a number of churches all over town. Each class averages 22 people. The teachers (all volunteers) have decided to challenge our new readers to read books!

The challenge is for students to read one book each month. They must not only read the book, but also write a report on it! This is a tremendous step for so many. We want our learners to not only be able to read but also have the comprehension skills they need to advance in their jobs and their lives.

We are not asking the students to return the books. Many have never owned a book, and we would like for them to be able to keep them should they choose. I am sure that many will be returned for recycling to others; however, we still need lots of books!

I am writing today to ask for donations of books…any kind…for all ages…paperbacks, hard bound, whatever you have laying around that you have finished and would like to donate. This is going to be an ongoing book drive….so as you read and collect books you no longer want, please consider giving them to our learners. ALSO, please tell your family, friends and neighbors about this and maybe you can get books from them as well. It will be so much appreciated.

If you are anywhere near San Antonio and would like to donate some of the books overflowing your bookshelves, e-mail me so I can put you in contact with Beverly.

If it’s not feasible for you to donate to Beverly’s program, consider donating books to a literacy organization in your area.

Give the gift of reading by donating books for new readers.

Technorati Tags: literacy, books, reading

One Laptop per Child (OLPC) is a nonprofit organization with the vision to

provide a means for learning, self-expression, and exploration to the nearly two billion children of the developing world with little or no access to education.

The means for learning, self-expression, and exploration for children in the developing world is a $200 laptop computer.

Most of the nearly two–billion children in the developing world are inadequately educated, or receive no education at all. One in three does not complete the fifth grade. …

OLPC is not, at heart, a technology program, nor is the XO a product in any conventional sense of the word. OLPC is a non-profit organization providing a means to an end—an end that sees children in even the most remote regions of the globe being given the opportunity to tap into their own potential, to be exposed to a whole world of ideas, and to contribute to a more productive and saner world community.

Between November 12 and November 26, you can (if you live in the US or Canada) give one and get one. For $399 ($200 of which is tax deductible as a charitable contribution), you will donate a laptop to a child in Afghanistan, Cambodia, Haiti or Rwanda and receive a laptop to give to a child in your life. Donors in the US also receive one year of free Hot Spot access from TMobile for the laptop.

Other than this special offer, these laptops will not be available to the general public. The XO laptop is specially designed for children - a keyboard that fits small hands, durable construction to stand up to extreme conditions and rough handling, and special programs for childhood learning. Capabilities include still and video photography, game playing, voice recording, e-book reading, and Web browsing. The laptops are also equipped with wireless networking and the ability to detect and connect to neighboring XOs.

A $200 specially-designed laptop can help a child learn and improve her life. As these children grow into adults, they will be better equipped to help developing countries develop.

Technorati Tags: One Laptop per Child, OLPC

If you think the world is moving too fast, watch this …

Shift Happens

Thanks to a recent post at One Step Forward, I’ve discovered Free Rice.

The site offers a vocabulary quiz, requiring you to click on one of four definitions for the word given. The degree of difficulty of the words you are asked is determined by your answers. If you miss an answer, you are given words at the next lower level of difficulty. If you get three right answers in a row, you move to the next level of difficulty. This is a fun and innovative way to increase your vocabulary.

But there’s an added benefit: for every right answer you give, Free Rice will donate 10 grains of rice to the UN World Food Program. Ten grains doesn’t sound like much, but if thousands of people participate, the amount of rice grows rapidly. Free Rice started October 7th and has already donated nearly 300 million grains of rice. The rice is paid for by advertisers on the site.

The Hunger Site has been online since 1999 and has raised more than 500 million cups of food. The donations go to Mercy Corps and America’s Second Harvest. All you have to do to donate a cup of food is to click on a link, and advertisers contribute the cost of the food. On the same site, you can click to donate for other causes: breast cancer, children’s health, literacy (a favorite of mine as a writer and reader), rainforest, and animal rescue.

Several years ago, I wrote an article - How to Be a Philanthropist with No Money and Only Ten Minutes a Day - about click-to-give Web sites. Many sites have come and gone through the years, but this advice from that article is still sound:

As with offline charities, you need to do a little research to determine which charitable sites to frequent. First, you want to be sure the money is going to a cause and an organization you support. The button may say “click to help children” or “click to fight cancer,” but you may have delve a little deeper to find exactly which organizations receive the funds. The best sites include detailed information about each organization that receives support, so take a few minutes the first time you visit to ensure that you agree with the group’s philosophy.

With Free Rice , you can help feed the hungry, have some fun, and increase your own vocabulary - surely worth a few minutes of your time.

Technorati Tags: Free Rice, charity Web sites, vocabulary

Stephen Hopson recently posted a powerful video on his blog Adversity University. Read what Stephen has to say about the video or just watch it below. I guarantee you will be touched, inspired, and motivated by Stephen’s story and his tribute to the teacher who changed his life.

Stephen reminds me of one of my clients. Richard Turner, aka The Cheat, has been called “the greatest card mechanic in the world.” He amazes audiences around the world with his feats - and often they don’t even realize he is totally blind! You can be amazed and inspired by watching a short video about Richard.

Richard wasn’t satisfied with being a world-renowned performer, an in-demand motivational speaker, a Black Belt in karate, and the recipient of a list of honors and awards as long as your arm. So he decided to become a writer. You can read a sample of his novel Re-Deal: A Miss Guided Adventure, for which he is currently seeking publication, on his Web site.

Thank you, Stephen and Richard, for inspiring us all.

Technorati Tags: inspiration, motivation, Stephen Hopson, Richard Turner

Several weeks ago, I was named a Blue Ribbon Blogger by the Blog Fairy. “The Blog Fairy is now the Queen of Angels,” in the words of a tribute to Francesca Faerie at Binding Ink.

We grieve the loss, but we also celebrate the life and loving spirit of the Fairy, who sprinkled her magic fairy dust on 70 Blue Ribbon Bloggers.

Her daughter will carry on as Blog Fairy II. Blessings, Gracie Belle, for continuing to spread light and love across the blogosphere.

Technorati Tags: Blog Fairy, Blue Ribbon Bloggers