Cereal 4 Supper » books

Book Giveaway

jnanevans — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 13:44:31 +0000

I dropped off two boxes of books yesterday at the used bookstore Blue Plate Books. I have been meaning for years to stop by this store and finally made it, and I can’t believe what a gem I have been missing–super nice owner, clean, well organized store.

With the exception of buying books for the kids, I have definitely moved away from purchasing books in recent years, favoring the library. For Christmas, I bought E several early readers. I wish I had visited Blue Plate Books where I could have gotten virtually new books for a third of the price.

The owner took about half of the books, paying me $18.00. Not a huge amount of money but more than what they were doing for me on the shelf. The other half he will take to the library for its large book sale.

Most of the books were my college books from English literature and history. It was hard giving them away. Those books symbolize a happy time in my life and activities that I don’t do much of anymore (reading literature and intellectual conversation). I loved going to class and learning. As corny as it sounds though, I felt like it was time though to let the books back into the world, so they could bring someone else joy, leaving space on those shelves for something new in my life.

iPhoto vs Blurb

jnanevans — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 02:00:12 +0000

Instead of getting numerous prints made, I decided, about a year ago, to start making books for each year to document our family.

It’s a great way of decreasing clutter, and the cost is probably about the same after you factor in the price of prints and the album in which to put them.

I had to backtrack a bit, completing 2007, 2008, and 2009 this year. I used iPhoto (iPhoto 8, iLife ’09) for the first two and switched to Blurb for 2009.

I just got the 2009 book in the mail today, so I was anxious to see how the two books stacked up against each other.

You can see from below that the iPhoto book (on top) is a little bit bigger than the Blurb book.

iPhoto book (on top). Slightly smaller Blurb book on bottom

Blurb book with lustre finish

Software Usability

I found both pieces of software relatively easy to use although Blurb did not work very well at all on my PowerBook. It wasn’t until I upgraded to the MacBook Pro that it was usable.

Blurb has A LOT more layout options and flexibility. I especially liked the ability to customize any layout and save it as a template for later use. The page on the right in the bottom book is a custom layout. I switched the middle photo box for a text box.

Blurb book (on bottom) with custom layout

I should note, however, that iPhoto has a number of pre-determined themes, such as Travel and Family Album, that can be very effective in quickly creating a particular look and feel to a book. iPhoto also has a great map feature where you can insert a map page and then add pin points for places visited. To my knowledge, Blurb does not have anything comparable.

With all of the options comes an extended time to complete the book. I don’t have any firm numbers, but I know it took me considerably longer to compile the Blurb book than it did the iPhoto one–endless tweaking takes time.

Finished Product

Overall, I thought the finished products from the two companies were very comparable. The bindings in both seem strong. The paper quality is very similar, and the covers appear equally sturdy and well constructed.

Since the Blurb book is a bit smaller and I had more pages in it, the gutter was a bit bigger than in the iPhoto books, but the image quality was about the same in both.

I do think on the next Blurb book I will get the full image wrap, so the front cover image is printed directly on the hardcover. The iPhoto book came with both the image wrap and a dust jacket. I like the dust jacket because I put a little summary of the year on the inside flap, but the blank bookcover without the jacket is kinda blah. If anything ever happened to the dust jacket, I don’t have the title or year anywhere else in the book…something to remember for the next one.

iPhoto book (on top) with full image wrap

iPhoto book (on top). Similar dust jackets. Slightly different end paper.

Price

Blurb–Hardcover, dust jacket; standard landscape 10 x 8; 80 pages; premium paper; lustre finish

40.95 + 6.99 shipping = 47.94

—————————————-

iPhoto–Hardcover, dust jacket; standard landscape 11 x 8.5; 66 pages

75.53 + 3.78 tax + 7.99 shipping = 87.30

Summary

With a significant difference in price, yet a similar quality, I will be going with Blurb for the 2010 Family Album.

Selling Books

jnanevans — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 14:47:00 +0000

Update on original post of 8/21/09

I did sell a few books at the family yard sale, and the rest of those went to charity. I actually had about 60 set aside to go to Abebooks and Powells. I even went to the trouble to type in each of the ISBNs into both sites to see which one would pay the most.

Unfortunately, maternity leave ended before I actually got them boxed up and sent away. Today, after sitting out in the basement for over three months, I just took them to the Library’s book sale.

Part of me is sad to see them go; I enjoyed reading a lot of them, and they represent a different time in my life. Another part of me is glad to get them out of the house finally. Hopefully someone else will buy them and enjoy them.

Like any self-respecting, overeducated individual with two Master’s degrees, I have a lot of books.

I am ready to part with many of these books. The question then becomes, “what is the best way to do so?” Here are some of the options:

1. Yard Sale–The family yard sale is in a couple of weeks

Positive: Little preparation or research needed. Throw (gently place, of course) the books on a table marked $1.00.

Negative: Likely to get very little monetary return. Many books will likely not sell.

2. Half.com–A company owned by ebay

Positive: Much larger audience than our yard sale. Can set own price. Likely to get a little bit more than yard sale prices. Reimburses sellers for shipping costs.

Negative: Have to research market price. Must package and ship the books as they sell. If books don’t sell, I still have them in the house. Half.com charges a commission of a percentage of the selling price. 15% for the price range my books would be in ($0.75-$50.00)

3. Amazon.com–Similar to half.com. Amazon collects a commission of 6-15% of sale price, 0.99 per transaction, and a variable transaction fee ($1.35 for books)

4. Powells.com–They have a sell online feature. Type in the ISBN, and almost immediately a price is returned for what they will give you for the book. You can get the credit as cash paid via PayPal or as a credit in the Powells store. The store credit is twenty percent more than the cash option.

Positive: Powells pays for shipping. No pricing research required, no listing or packaging to different customers necessary. Make more than at a yard sale or library donation.

Negative: Make less per book than potentially with half.com and amazon.com.

5. Abebooks.com–very similar to Powells online buy book feature

6. Library Donation–The local library is having its annual book sale soon and is soliciting donations.

Positive: All I have to do is drop the books off at the library. Done deal. They are out of the house–all of them in one fell swoop.

Negative: No monetary return. Many of the books will likely not sell at the library sale, leaving the library trying to figure out what to do with them.

Conclusion: I know some people really get into listing things on ebay, amazon, etc., and I do not doubt there is money to be made if you are willing to put in the work. For me, right now in my life, I think I am going with the Powells/Abebooks option. At least I will get a little bit of money for the books. For those that Powells/Abebooks will not take, I may investigate whether ebay or amazon would be good options. Otherwise they are going in the yard sale. If not sold there, then on to the library.

Quite frankly, the whole textbook industry burns my ass. I pay $40 for a used book. I can sell it back for $5, and then the book store resells it for $35.

Millionaire Next Door

jnanevans — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 15:57:00 +0000

I just finished reading The Millionaire Next Door by Thomas J. Stanley, and William D. Danko. New York: Pocket Books, 1996. It was a quick read. Maybe because it is 13 years old now, I did not find anything too revolutionary in it.

In it they outline seven factors for millionaires:

They live well below their means

They allocate their time, energy, and money efficiently, in ways conductive to building wealth

They believe that financial independence is more important than displaying high social status

Their parents did not provide economic outpatient care

Their adult children are economically self-sufficient

They are proficient in targeting market opportunities

They chose the right profession

Side Hustle

jnanevans — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 13:29:00 +0000

On a regular basis, my brother-in-law and I come up with ideas to generate income outside of our regular jobs. The Frugal Dad gave our potential activities a name:

“A side hustle is a sort of part time job, but it typically involves you building something around your current trade.”

This also goes along the lines of “minding your own business” from Rich Dad Poor Dad.

OK, so what is my business? What is it that I know about, am interested in, have a unique contribution?

General Ideas

archives
preservation
organization
technology
motherhood
gluten free eating
beginning investor
travel in area with kids

More Specific Ideas

Consult with local businesses/individuals on preserving archives
Offer a service like This Young House with advice on preservation
Become a personal organizer
Work with churches to improve their websites/start new outreach like blogs/facebook/etc.
Blog about journey as a beginning investor
Develop a blog/site about places to visit in the area with kids. I actually think this idea has some merit. As far as I can tell there is not a consolidated site that has descriptions and reviews of places of interest–especially from a mother’s point of view. On the weekends, we say, “ok where should we go?” It is a real pain to visit all of the web sites of potential places, and it is difficult to find out relevant information or even come up with ideas. I would love to have reader-submitted reviews as well as my own. It could be tied to Flickr, Google Maps and all kinds of exciting things. Not sure about the income-generating part though???

My Life in France

jnanevans — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 13:16:00 +0000

I just finished Julia Child’s memoir, My Life in France.

Quick, interesting read. I was struck with how incredibly focused and driven she was.

These seem to be traits of other super successful people.

I am going to read a biography of Child next to see how it compares with the memoir.

Can’t Afford It

jnanevans — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 21:48:00 +0000

I recently read Rich Dad Poor Dad by Richard Kiyosaki.

One of the ideas that has stuck with me is the difference he talks about between “I can’t afford it” and “How can I afford it?”

The first is a statement that shuts down any thought process or creativity and puts one in the role of victim.

The second is a question that really opens up possibilities. It puts one in a position of control.

I have been experimenting with the two options. I REALLY want a new laptop ~$1500. This big ticket purchase is definitely not in the spend plan for the immediate future. Instead of saying, “I can’t afford it,” I have been saying “How can I afford it?” and have been brainstorming ways to come up with the $$. I haven’t come up with anything concrete yet, but I have a few ideas for generating the funds to purchase it.

Although I don’t have the laptop yet, this approach has been much more positive of an experience.