A Grand Finale

I recently used up the 150 or so credits I had on paperbackswap. They has accumulated at a time when I was clearing out a lot of accumulated books. Over a year ago I decided I had more credits than I would every use so I started donating books to a local library and slowly started using credits. I got books that supported courses I was taking on Coursera or books for family/friends. But so much of my reading has moved to digital platforms that I was using the credits very slowly.

When paperbackswap decided to charge a small fee for swaps, I decided to use the bulk of my credits before the charge went into effect. About 50 credits were used for books for family. The other 100 were primarily in x categories:

• Nature related reference books (identification primarily)
• Audubon series on Wildlife Refuges (for vacation planning)
• Big Island of Hawaii books (to support a vacation we are planning)
• Coffee table books (lots of pictures)

What a treat to get all those packages in the mail within such a short period of time! Our mailbox frequently could not hold all that arrived on the peak days. Unwrapping the padded envelopes and boxes was like a recurring Christmas morning.

Now I am working my way through the giant pile. It is wonderful to have such beautiful books in the ‘to read’ pile. Some of the books I’ll keep for reference after I read them but more than half are going elsewhere. About 15 of them have already been passed along to other people.

This grand finale is pleasurable on a number of levels…good reads (choosing them, having then in a pile to choose from, reading them), giving then to others, and building up my reference library for Master Naturalist work.