Pass the Book

Sunday Salon Test

2008-09-28T12:28:00.001-04:00

Test

Announcement: A Change to Email Subscriptions

2006-03-29T23:29:00.000-05:00

I've been using the web application bloglet for email subscriptions on Pass the Book, but it's been unreliable. Today I decided to switch my bloglet subscriptions over to a new app, FeedBlitz. People who've subscribed to bloglet need do *nothing* for this change to take effect. The subsciptions will automatically transfer over. You should receive two copies of this message--one sent via bloglet and one via FeedBlitz--but after this all blog posts will be delivered only via FeedBlitz. I'm just doubling up this time so you'll know what hit you.

Of course, if there are any problems with all of this, we'll all know soon enough, but I expect the transition to be smooth.

Pass the Book has a makeover

2005-09-19T18:06:00.000-04:00

Pass the Book! has a new look. If you're reading this by RSS or email, make sure you stop by the page to see it.

I'll also note here that it's getting very close to Buy a Friend a Book (BAFAB) Week (starting October 1st). Stop by buyafriendabook.com and see what books this BAFAB Week's guest author, Gayle Brandeis, is recommending.

New Site: Buy a Friend a Book!

2005-06-30T10:59:00.000-04:00

I've been laboring away for some days now on a new site that's meant to, well, revolutionize your gift-giving habits, promote book sales, promote reading, and improve your friendships. No small task! Check it out for yourself: buyafriendabook.com. But hurry! BAFAB Week is upon us!

The Rule of Four Scores a New Home

2004-12-08T22:13:00.000-05:00

I have passed my first book! I handed The Rule of Four off to friend Laura today. I'm afraid my reader comments at the back were not as clever as those Gypsi put in her passed book, but I swear I did my best.

Woohoo!

2004-11-27T13:56:00.000-05:00

I got my first PASS THE BOOK book, Carl Hiaasen's Skinny Dip. Thanks, Gypsi! It looks great. And thanks for the birthday card!

By the way, I sent off the book you ordered, if you will, today.

Blog Business

2004-11-27T11:21:00.000-05:00

No Need to Click Here - I'm just claiming my feed at Feedster

Gypsi, here. . .

2004-11-26T21:28:00.000-05:00

A bit late (as usual), but at least I finally showed up! Despite the fact that Deb has the first POST offering a Pass the Book book, let it be known that I actually passed the first book!

Skinny Dip, after being read by me and my husband--with our proper notations, comments and all the things we were supposed to do being done--was put in the mail to Deb late last week. Of course, it's not gotten there yet, but the fact remains that I am the First Passer! Horrah for me.

Ahem.

Anyway. . .despite Deb's kind title of co-creator, it really more her idea than mine. She did all the hard work, and a fine job she did too! You go, Deb! I'm proud to be a part of such a neat idea. I liked the idea of bookcrossing.com, but wanted my book loaning to be on a more personal level. I think Pass the Book hits it just right. Possibly getting one back in the future, and seeing though whose hands it was passed is an exciting idea.

I, too, have a review site (though not as well established as Deb's). It is currently in transit, but will be found here (blueampersand.com) once all the re-arranging is complete. Thanks to the holidays, I'm even more behind that I usually am and that's why there is currently only one review at that site. Give me a day or two, and I'll be more organized, will have all my prior reviews moved over and will also have a few books to be offered for passing posted here.

In the meantime, go read, read, READ!

Her Year of Meats

2004-11-24T21:05:00.000-05:00

See the comments section to my Rule of Four post for an offer from Gwyneth for a copy of My Year of Meats by Ruth Ozeki. Lest you be fearful of accepting a book from her, know that Gwyneth is a geologist and that she has been known to cook. She also likes children, or at least seems to like my children, which is all that really matters. And she was a good sport when....

You see, we became hooked on Joey Pots & Pans marinara sauce. The stuff is expensive, but it's so good you can eat it straight out of the jar, as if it were a very tasty gazpacho. Say, we said to each other, this stuff is so good we could serve it to guests! (We don't get a lot of company, you see.) Say, we said. We should serve this to guests! We could pretend it's gazpacho. But who...? And then there was a triumphant shout: Gwyneth! We'll invite her over.

So, Gwyneth came over, and I poured the tomato sauce in secret and we all had bowls of Joey's Pots & Pans served as if it were cold soup. Gwyneth finished her bowl and claimed to have liked it. She agreed to a second serving. It was when I retrieved the jar of sauce from the refrigerator and began to pour it straight into her bowl at the table that we could no longer contain ourselves.

Ah, the merriment. So that's why you should ask Gwyneth for her book. She's put up with a lot.

The Rule of Four

2004-11-19T13:22:00.000-05:00

Would anyone among my real- or cyber-life acquaintances care to read a PASS THE BOOK copy of the literary thriller The Rule of Four, by Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason? I reviewed it at book-blog reviews here. I was disappointed with it primarily because I didn't think the plot credible. (I gave it 2.5 out of 5 stars.) But Publisher's Weekly was impressed: "Comparisons to The Da Vinci Code are inevitable, but Caldwell and Thomason's book is the more cerebral-and better written-of the two: think Dan Brown by way of Donna Tartt and Umberto Eco." Read it and see what you think.

Introductory Post

2004-11-18T09:14:00.000-05:00

A word about what all this is. Gypsi, my co-blogger, and I--who are both of us avid readers buried under stacks of books-- together came up with the idea of passing our books around as a way of getting more than one read out of them. We might have just traded books back and forth but it seemed more fun to devise a means of spreading our books even further. Readers may be aware of bookcrossing.com, a very nicely designed and very popular site which facilitates just this sort of thing. Bookcrossers release their books into the wild--leaving them on park benches and cafe tables, that sort of thing--in the hope that a new reader will pick up the book and benefit from it and, importantly, log into the bookcrossing site to record their find. I've released a couple of books in this way, but on both occasions I never heard from the books again. Which was disheartening. I wanted to start a reading chain among friends, with books passed to people one could be sure would pass the book on in turn and who would make a note of their time with the book in a READER LIST.

Importantly, I also intend for this whole book passing business to be a means of spreading word of mouth about good books. I urge people who read and enjoy PASS THE BOOK books to talk them up afterwards, to post reviews of them online, to perhaps buy them as gifts. Authors need to eat too.

Anyway, that's the idea. This, obviously, is the associated blog. I'm not entirely sure how the blog will come to be used over time. At present what I'm imagining is that Gypsi and I will use it to comment on the books we're passing on or the books we've received, and that we'll use it to offer books to each other and to the people in our reading chain--friends and family we've mentioned PASS THE BOOK too. These people can respond in the comments sections and request the books on offer. But Gypsi can speak in her own post to her views for the blog.

Finally, the blog is for people we don't know. You can print out the PASS THE BOOK directions and start your own reading chains. If you do, let us know, again via the comments section, and tell us how things are working out for you.