Guess who landed some serious used-bookstore booty this weekend.

Me!

I won't bore you with a comprehensive list of my 20-odd new titles, but here are a few highlights:

Trickster's Queen: This is the second book in one of Tamora Pierce's newest series. I already had the first book (thanks to a little service that will be described further presently), so I was excited to find this one for cheap, since they're quite popular (and therefore harder to find and more expensive).

Unleashed: A book of poetry written by poets who, if not famous, are at least published, from the point of view of their dogs. This book includes a poem that a professor at the UO mentioned and I had been looking for for ages (but couldn't find since I didn't know the title or the author.) It's particularly useful right now, since I spent the last day of the quarter having my eighth-graders write letters from their pets. So this will be a nice transition into poetry (and also showing them that such an exercise is not just something you do in English class. Real authors have fun with these kinds of projects too. :)

The Norton book of 100 Years of Poetry for Children: I have a certain eighth-grader who keeps asking me for poetry books, and since most of my poetry requires some skill...or maybe guidance to read (I hate saying that, but there you are)--we're talking Whitman, Barrett Browning, Tennyson, Plath, etc--I've had trouble finding her enough books to keep her happy. This edition features plenty of classic poets (like those mentioned above), but in manageable doses, and works its way from romantic to contemporary fairly seamlessly.

A book of poetry by various women poets from Sappho to Rich AND a book of Billy Collins' poems (I forget the exact titles): Yes, poetry was a theme in this trip, but this new bookstore just had such a fabulous poetry selection that I couldn't resist (unlike Barnes and dumb Noble, who when I asked for "poetry for young adults" showed me to Shel Silverstein. Bleh.)

A new Moomintroll book: from an old series by a Finnish guy that I recently discovered and find hilarious and very odd and completely charming. I especially like the Snork Maiden.

Several adventure-type stories geared towards boys like Brian's Winter, since I'm facing up to the sad fact that my library is rather geared towards girls. Funny, that.

Ok, although in this case, my new books were acquired at your standard used bookstore and Goodwill, I would like to introduce you to a fabulous, amazing, supercalifragilisticexpialidocious website, where I've been getting many of my new books. It's called Paperback Swap Dot Com and it's brilliant. Especially if, like me, you're always looking for a way to find cheap books.

Basically, the way it works is this: you register on the site and enter at least nine books that you own but are willing to get rid of. In exchange, you get three free credits to begin trading. With those three credits, you can search their ENTIRE database of thousands of books and order any three books your heart desires. They get shipped to you completely free. Then, whenever anyone orders one of your books (from the nine you entered), you get sent an email. You go to Paperbackswap.com and print off a mailing label that has, already printed on it, your name and address, the name and address your shipping to, and the calculated postage for the size of the book (usually $1.59 for your standard quality paperback). You wrap up the book with the mailing label, stick on some stamps, and away it goes. And you get another credit to order another book.

Magnifique, is it not? So, so easy. I've gotten 21 books through the site and traded 18 books that I didn't want. (Also, if you're pretty savvy about what is hot, you can pick up books for cheap at Goodwill and garage sales and get much more expensive and rare books in return. Like, I traded away a copy of My Sister's Keeper by Picoult and got that new writing book by Margaret Atwood.) I've found probably 75% of the books that I'm looking for on the site. Usually if a book is circling the book groups, it's hard to find, but you can always put a missing book on your Wish List and if one appears on the site, they'll email you. I'm telling you, this site is a goldmine. One caution is that it does require a bit of a commitment, since once you enter your nine books, they're entered. If anyone ever orders them, you're still responsible to send them, even if you haven't been on the site for months, or whatever.

So, there you go. A little something from me to you. Merry Christmas.

Labels: books

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Tuesday, November 07, 2006

Finally, some class on this blog