Monday, October 26, 2009

Kay - Living My Five

After a much-needed long weekend, it's back to the real world. Time to report in on my Five!

Pay it forward in ways that are meaningful to me

I have been on a MAJOR buying spree this year when it comes to books. At last count, I was nearing 100 books purchased in 2009 alone! The interesting thing about buying books is that, to me, I'm paying it forward in two ways. First, I'm supporting the publishing industry (and my fellow authors) by purchasing their lovely books. With the first annual National Bookstore Day rapidly approaching, I'm already making my list of books that I still want to buy.

You know about National Bookstore Day, right? It's a national event sponsored by Publishers Weekly to encourage people to support their local bookstores. What's not to love? If you're starting to think about holiday gift giving (if that's something you do), think books. Mysteries, romance, thrillers, cookbooks, biographies, health books, picture books, and SO much more. There's truly something for everyone!

As for me? On Saturday, November 7th, I'll be heading out to my local bookstores to support this great event and getting a jump on my holiday shopping. Last year I bought more than 20 books for people on my list. Do you think I can outdo that this year? I'm going to try!

The second part of paying it forward with my book buying is that every time I bring a new book in, I'm reminded that there is no more room on my bookshelves. So I've begun to cull my book collection, looking for interesting ways to let those books bless other people. Some of them will go to my local library so other people can enjoy them for free. Some of them will go to Goodwill so people can add to their collections even if they're on a tight budget (or they can purchase them for the kids in their lives--I take care of my books, so they're all in excellent condition).

And some of the books will go to a lovely middle school teacher in an impoverished inner-city school district in Texas. She is trying so hard to expose her kids to books. Many of her students are told regularly that they should leave school and get a job instead of finishing middle school. Once I finish pulling out all the books I have, I'm going to select the best of the best and send them off to Texas. I can't wait to ship them off.

So that's how I've been living my Five. What about you? What kinds of neat things have you been doing to Live Your Five?


Posted by Kay Cassidy at 11:43 AM
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7 comments:

  1. I love this! I'm big on buying books for gifts too, and will def have to get out and shop for books on this day!
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  2. That's a wonderful way to approach book buying, Kay. Considering the three boxes of to-be-read books I just unpacked, I definitely did my part to support the industry this year.
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  3. Kay, this is awesome. I think paying your book buying forward is a really excellent way to approach what (to me!) occasionally seems like wasteful spending. After all, I could just go to the library, right? But donating books on and supporting my industry is much more practical and useful than that library guilt - thanks for bringing that home to me!
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  4. Alyson & Tera - Thanks so much, you guys! I'm so glad PW is sponsoring National Bookstore Day. Yet one more way to pay it forward with books. :-)
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  5. Hi Karen! It does seem like wasteful spending sometimes, doesn't it? I feel the same way. But then I figure, most things could probably be chalked up to wasteful spending if I really stopped and thought about them. :-)

    I used to have tons of books on my keeper shelves until I had a conversation with my editor recently where she asked if I reread books. The reality is, I almost never do. I have certain books that I keep as an author because they're shining examples of some particular writing skill that I aspire to work on. But I rarely reread a book for pleasure. It was very freeing to realize that and helped make my bookshelf culling easier.
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  6. Hiya I have an opportunity to highlight a few places that are looking for books as part of Buy Books for the Holidays http://ow.ly/zGj7 which is trying to encourage people to, well buy books as presents over the holiday season. They're also looking to encourage people to buy books or donate money to literacy charities and since I know of a few places that could do with some donors I get to write a post for them. I'd love to include the Texas project. You sent me the address so I could donate myself - do you think it would be ok if I put the address out there for others to see, or do you have an email address I could put up so people could contact her about donating?
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  7. Jodie - I just realized I never responded her after I emailed you! LOL Thanks so much for the sweet offer. The email I sent gives more details on this. :-)
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