Green is good!

I was commenting on a post from When all is said … and I had an idea. Not necessarily an original idea, but it’s the first time it popped into my brain so I’m calling it my idea.

You see, I read a lot.

Not only do I read a lot but I buy a lot of books, mostly from Amazon.com. As a result I pretty much always have a stack of empty cardboard shipping boxes piled up in a corner, sometimes in my home office (mostly), sometimes in the kitchen (at the moment).

My idea is that Amazon should provide a reusable shipping carton that we can swap back and forth.

They could send me my monthly fix of books (aka, my regular order) in the reusable plastic carton then I could fold it down and return it empty just in time for the next month’s shipment.

Just think of all the cardboard, and the trees, that would be saved.

Even better, Amazon could provide the cartons printed on the inside with the “postage paid business reply” stuff needed so when returned to them empty it wouldn’t cost me a penny. But would they just up their shipping charges or the cost of books? Maybe, or maybe not. Anyway, the failing Postal Service could also benefit because they’d be getting paid for the mailing costs going both ways. Which is one more than they’re getting paid for at the moment.

Amazon would save tons of money because they wouldn’t have to keep buying loads of cardboard boxes. They would have to keep buying the reusable plastic cartons, though, because, let’s face it, even plastic wears out eventually. But, not as often as cardboard!

They wouldn’t have to send my books in my carton either. They could just send them in any old reusable plastic carton from anybody’s last book order. I mean, why would they want to have to keep up with which carton belongs to which customer?

The cartons would be printed on one side with the Amazon logo and a place to slap a shipping label. The other side could have the standard business reply mailer stuff. You know, the bar code, etc.

Now, if I could just figure out how to make reusable packing tape.

Hmmm …

Only 40% of American households can recycle food and beverage cartons (greenerideal.com)
Move Greener, Save Green (virtual-strategy.com)
Larry the Answer Guy: Many things recyclable in Abilene, but Styrofoam is not (reporternews.com)

The Booker Award

Posted by goodoldgirl

A hearty, though belated, thanks to fellow blogger, Gail, at The Jotter’s Joint, for nominating my blog. If you’re not familiar with her blog, check it out. I know you’ll be glad you did.

On to the rules …

Accepting this award includes:

Nominate other blogs, at least 5 but as many as 10 if you like. Be sure to let them know they’ve been nominated.
Post the Booker Award image.
Share your top 5 books of all time.

Blogs I nominate:

The Canary Review – A great blog about books.

Nonsense to Momsense – Funny. Funny. Funny.

Magic in Little Things – Touches my heart.

A Minimalist’s Bookshelf – Words about words. Love it.

Kristen Lamb’s Blog – Lots to be learned from this savvy blogger.

Post the award image.

It’s up there on the right. Can’t miss it.

List my top 5 books of all time.

That’s a tough one. I read like it’s required for breathing but here goes …

Atlas Shrugged, by Ayn Rand: You either love Rand’s epic novel or you hate it and all it and it’s author ever stood for. Me? I thoroughly enjoyed the read. I first read it as an impressionable eighteen year old and thought it was the greatest book ever written. I grew up, however, and realized that, for me, it’s just an entertaining story about interesting people. Still love to read it, though.

The Stand, by Steven King: This novel scared the bejeezus out of me. A truly excellent read. If you haven’t read it, then buy it, borrow it, or even snitch it, but read it. Soon.

This Perfect Day, by Ira Levin: Levin delivers the goods in this book. Very, very interesting read. Try it. It’s nothing like Rosemary’s Baby.

The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien: My first introduction to fantasy. Can’t wait for the movie to come out. If it’s half as good as the book, it will be excellent.

The Crystal Cave, by Mary Stewart: Arthur. Merlin. A quest. What more could you want in a great book? It’s a trilogy so be sure to read the other two books as well … The Hollow Hills and The Last Enchantment.

🙂

Karma – It’s a Wicked Thing!

Posted by goodoldgirl

Sitting here thinking about what to blog about.

I already milked my cataract surgery for all it’s worth so time to move on to something at least halfway interesting that doesn’t include body parts or involve a book review but can’t think of a thing.

Nope, not a thing.

Don’t you just hate when that happens?

You sit in front of the keyboard with your fingers desperate to type but there’s absolutely nothing floating around in your pea brain that’s fit to share with the rest of the world. At times like these, you suffer for your art in a way that only the truly devoted can understand. All you want to do is tap, tap, tap on those keys but not a thing pops into your head.

Blog writing 101

A friend gave me a book a few years ago about how writers should get out of bed every morning and just write. It doesn’t matter what you write. What matters is the physical act of writing. It’s supposed to get the juices flowing and the ideas churning and finally, when you least expect it, brilliance flies from your fingertips right to your keyboard and the great American novel is born. (LOL!)

I can’t remember the name of the book but I vaguely recall it was something along the lines of The Art of Writing, or maybe something sorta like that. Anyway, the gist of it was that if you want to be a writer, you have to be intentional about it. You can’t just sit down and start typing gibberish. (What?)

Carrying on …

I would share with you the actual title of that book except that I must have given it away (maybe to Goodwill) because I sure can’t find it on any of my bookshelves and I just wasted a good five minutes searching for it. I did come across a couple of other reads, however, that you might find interesting.

The first is What Is Karma? by Paul Brunton. It caught my eye as I was scanning the shelves because I’m pretty sure tonight’s writer’s block is really just payback for giving away that other book.

The second is Calendar Humanity’s Epic Struggle to Determine a True and Accurate Year by David Ewing Duncan. This is a fascinating little book and I highly recommend it to anyone interested in learning about how we got to where we are today. Seriously, it’s a page-turner. (And, no, I’m not being sarcastic. Promise!)

When all else fails …

I spent another 5 minutes scanning Amazon.com for a title about writing that looked familiar but no luck. Did you know there are about a gazillion books out there that explain writing everything from books to screenplays?

I did come across a couple of interesting titles that might be worth taking a peek at, for example: