April Book Swap

When?
Saturday - April 7, 2007, 3 PM

Where?
Panera Bread
2650 Mowry Avenue
Fremont, CA 94536
(510) 742-1200

Bring five books and we'll swap away!

March Book Swap

It came, it went, I got:

Flowers for Algernon - Daniel Keyes
Catch Me If You Can - Frank Abagnale
My Antonia - Willa Cather
Dumbing Down Our Kids - Charles Sykes
The Last Templar - Raymond Khoury

That's what I acquired from this month's book swap. It's hard to gauge people's interests in particular genres so I try to bring a selection. I'm happiest when a book of mine ends up in every swapper's take-home pile. I was delighted with my swaps this time around as I've been wanting to read Flowers for Algernon for quite awhile and now I will.

Between the five books I figured I pulled a pretty good selection of fun books, thought provoking books, and one that I might have never read except it was described as one swapper's "favorite book of all time." To put that label on something must make it pretty exceptional -- in some way -- right?
-from jonyang.org-

February Meeting

When?
Saturday - Feb 3, 2007, 3 PM

Where?
Panera Bread
2650 Mowry Avenue
Fremont, CA 94536
(510) 742-1200

Bring five books and we'll swap away!

Craigslist Ad

Moved: December to January

This month's inagural meeting -- scheduled for December 23rd, Saturday at 3pm -- I forgot at the time that Christmas would be right around the corner. So perhaps it would make more sense to push the first meeting to the third week of January. I can go ahead and set up a solid date/time/location for that instead -- the December meeting date was haphazardly chosen anyway.

I figure the minimum number of book swappers we should aim for at each meeting is about 5. Right now I have about 15 people interested in the group so far so that's great.

So please, email me directly (no spam from me, I promise) and unless there is much crying and heartbreak, I'll plan to set up a meeting in January.

Happy holidays all, thanks.

Book Swap: Begins Now!

Love to read books but hate to buy them (at full price or otherwise)? How about a book swap? Details to be worked out later but I imagine it would work like this:

People bring in a set number of books (say, 5) then we can put them all on a table and take turns "drafting" a book. It should be a quick and easy way to exchange books with fellow readers. Don't worry, it won't be like middle school. The uncoordinated and frail-looking books won't feel bad about being picked last.

Of course, a trip to the library would also be sufficient, but there's nothing like browsing through other people's (dirty) books is there? Don't be afraid to reveal that one night stand you had with such-and-such a novel; nobody will judge you!

We could have mini-book conversations and recommendations right on the spot. They say a book loses 30% of its value as soon as you crack the binding -- or was that cars? Let's find out shall we?

I'm in the Fremont area and would like to host a (monthly) event somewhere close to here. Bring your friends, bring your family, but more importantly, bring your books. Thanks all!

Email me, or leave a comment below with contact info, and if there's enough interest, off we go!

-- Jon

[specific meetup date/time to be determined]

Reply to: event-244282901@craigslist.org

http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sby/eve/244282901.html

The Polysyllabic Spree

I'm sure not a lot of people know about this book, The Polysyllabic Spree (Complete Hardcover version), but if you love to read, this is a must buy. Nick Hornby (author of "High Fidelity," among other books) has a monthly column in The Believer magazine where he muses about the books that he's read that month. Sometimes the columns fling off into weird and wacky directions but for the most part, what Hornby does is to give readers an inside look on how one (very literate) person goes through the world of books.

His columns always begin with a list of books bought that month and then a list of the books finished. It's fabulous.

The book is seriously amazing to read through. I can't do enough justice to it with such a poorly written review. Just go pick it up -- alternately, we could swap for it. Highly recommended.

Apparently there's a sequel: Housekeeping vs Dirt.