Paperbackswap.com

Not sure how many of you are big readers, but I found a cool website that you should check out if you are. I read about it at www.thesimpledollar.com and it's called www.paperbackswap.com.

Basically what you do is sign up for a free account and then post 10 books you have that you don't really read anymore. Posting is very simple, you just have to punch in the ISBN number. Once you've posted 10 books you get 2 free credits, each good for a book. Then you can search through the catalog of over 3,000,000 books and order them. When you order, the person on the other end mails you the book free of charge and it is yours to keep. The trade off is that when someone requests one of your books you do the same, paying for the postage it costs to send. When a person requests one of your books, you get a credit to request another book. It's as easy as that!

I read a LOT and am often disappointed when the library doesn't have what I'm looking for. This is a great source to find what I'm looking for, and best of all, I can choose to keep the book if I want.

The X and Y of Buy

If you make your living as a sales person, or have ever interacted with a person of the opposite sex, I would highly suggest “The X and Y of Buy.”

I was a little hesitant to start reading this book, though I’m not sure why. Once I started, I couldn’t put it down and finished it in 2 days. As a person who has struggled to make an independent living at which sales is the heart, I found Elizabeth Pace’s insight extremely valuable.

Most people understand that there are intrinsic differences between males and females, but very few have been able to understand the reasoning behind these differences. Pace sorts out the facts in a very neat fashion and details them in a way that is understandable and interesting. Not only will I use her advice in my day-to-day sales work, but her insights will be invaluable when it comes to personal dealings and my life as a husband.

There were many times during the book where it felt as if Pace had taken instances directly from my married life and explained why both my wife and I acted as we did. When I gave the book to my wife to read (who finished it in less than 24 hours and later gave a presentation based on what she read to her networking group) she felt the same and we found ourselves laughing out loud on many occasions.

I would suggest taking notes while reading this book, as there are a lot of facts and tips crammed into its 200 pages. As for myself, I plan on reading it again very shortly, this time with a highlighter. I also plan to put this book on my bookshelf and return to it several times over. The advice really is that good.

Bravery

Sorry I haven't posted for a while. Things have been very busy on this end. I've actually got 4 blogs in the works, one that I'll get up in the next day or two reviewing a book I just read. The others, as soon as I get motivated, on the following topics.

Stupid Things I said in my late teens and early 20s.

Remembering the passion of your "first love" (not about relationships!!!)

Art or/of Money?

For this morning though, I thought I'd share this video I just watched. I think I'm a little emotional in the morning, especially considering this video almost made me cry. It's just that we don't see enough good news these days. Everything seems to be negative and scary and controversial. I want to start a news channel that only has good news. That way when people are feeling down about the world or themselves, they can flip over the channel and see that there are still some good things going on in the world. 

I'm a sucker for bravery. I've said in the past "I would jump at the chance to die a hero," which could probably be filed under one of the above blogs that I'll be writing shortly. In a sense though, it's true. It's likely we meet heroes everyday. People that feed and clothe the hungry and give homes to orphans and love the loveless. As much as I admire these people and strive to be one, the adventurous side of my heart watches with envy when others put their life on the line and put their courage to the test. I'd like to think I'd be able to stand up to the challenge and have the guts to do something heroic. Until that time comes though, I'll just have to admire people like the ones in this video.