Better World Books

One of my favorite gift giving memories was the year I gave my husband a box set of The Lord of the Rings for Christmas. When he opened the gift he started laughing so hard tears started welling up in his eyes. You see he already owned the set.  In fact, I had taken it off his shelf and wrapped it up nicely with a bow just for him.  It was especially funny because he knew my family's tale about my brother Justin who around the age 9 or 10,  thought he could outsmart Christmas by simply wrapping books snatched from our shelves, and giving them to all his siblings. Funny, but no one liked their gifts that year. It does make a pretty good story to retell and laugh about after all these years though.

Now giving your loved ones their own used books is not a idea I recommend, but giving a used book from Better World Books is something I definitely recommend! Here are some of the reasons that Better World Books stands out from other booksellers:

 

When you buy a book, they donate a book.

You get free Shipping on every book.

A portion of the sales go towards literacy programs such as Room to Read and Books for Africa.

To use a phrase they've coined for themselves, they are "the bookstore with a soul."  Their business model is simple: seek out unwanted books for donation, and resell those books to reduce waste and promote literacy. 
Books can go from this,

To this,

It's a neat model.  You can read more and see a few videos about the book cycle here. 

I'm sold. I'm off to go pick out some books for my kids. We give books to them every year on Black Pete Day.  Can't wait to see some more faces like these from last year... 

Books are magic.