I have access to three large libraries, with interlibrary loan (ILL) access at two of them.  For the time being I also have a Netflix account.

But despite so many books, CDs, and DVDs available to me through these libraries, I still can’t borrow all the books I want to read, all the CDs I want to hear, and all the DVDs I want to watch.  And of course, because I’m borrowing these things (when they are available for borrowing), I can’t keep them beyond their due date, sometimes only in a couple of weeks, to use and review these materials at my leisure.

Grr!  Most of the materials I seek these days are (at least for my purposes) pedagogically useful, if not downright important.  Yes, yes, I can find most of them at bookstores, but the more I spend on buying books the less I can spend on materials or, you know, the mortgage and food.  And more than once I have bought a special book via the Internet ether that turned out to be not worth keeping.  Ouch.

So I was happy when I Internet-tripped onto PaperBack Swap.  It’s mean, it’s green, it’s cheap.  The books laying around the house and a stack of old books in my mom’s garage have turned into credits for books I want for myself or the Dynamic Duo.  I’ve already cashed some of the credits for oldies but goodies, like The Engine That Could (David liked it so much he wanted to sleep with it that night) and A.A. Milne’s poetry.

It works like this:  Post your books on Paperback Swap.  The previous link, by the way a referral link; I’m curious to know how many of you actually try this.  I’ll know because if you do, I’ll get a credit for a free swap.  Maybe my next book-hunting victory will be thanks to you.  The books you post can be hardbacks, paperbacks, whatever.  After you do this, make a wish list so that you can snag a book (automatically, even) when it’s available to the system.  Then check your e-mail every now and then.  Hopefully soon you’ll get a request for one of your books (shipped by you), or find one of your wish list books is available (shipped to you free via USPS Media Mail).  Not that hard, is it?

PaperBack Swap has two sister sites, SwapaCD and SwapaDVD.  The swap credits are interchangeable.  I’m letting much of my CD collection go.  Somebody who spends time wearing earplugs probably doesn’t need a big music collection.  And C&D rule the music selection in the car (for the happiness and peace, well worth it).  I’m trading my CDs away for credits that I can use for books or DVD’s.

Now excuse me, I have a book to track down . . .

Edited 10 March:  There’s another one out there just for books.  It seems to use the Amazon API.  The site is pretty slow and somehow not as fun as PaperBackSwap, and there (at the moment) isn’t a capability to swap other forms of media.  That said, if you’re a parent, homeschooler, or just like looking for books, it might be worth a try:  bookmooch.com.

Edited 10 March, after my first Mooch:  PBS lets you print media mail labels that you can just drop off at the post office.  BM presently doesn’t offer that ability.  PBS also lets you print delivery confirmation, so you know when books are in transit and when they have been delivered; BM doesn’t do that.  Your books can be mailed whenever, however.  You might get them next week, or next month, or never.  You can leave negative feedback, but as there are no real standards for mailing and receiving the book, you’ll probably only make the sender feel angry.  PBS has standards for the conditions of the books that are swapped (e.g., if you dog chewed it up, you can’t swap it), and BM doesn’t.  So PBS wins, hands-down.

In you, little flower, I see an orange.  A Valencia, according to the tag wrapped around your mother tree when I brought it home from Wabash.  Until then, I will be grateful for your beauty and scent.

1)  The suburbs can be scary:  Recently a couple of Cinco Ranch high school students wrote a satirical op-ed piece about students and families from other high schools using Cinco Ranch-area chain restaurants as hang-outs.  This past Friday the students from Cinco Ranch and the other area high schools apparently used Facebook to stage a protest Friday afternoon at a shopping center, driving around the parking lot and holding up signs.   The Montagues and Capulets held dueling bake sales at opposite ends of the parking lot.  Okay, I made that last bit up.

But little story, how many things art wrong with thee?  Let me count the ways:

A protest . . . from their vehicles . . . at a shopping center (of course, what else is there out there?) . . . in response to a high school op-ed piece . . . about hanging out at fast-food chain restaurants and stores (is SuperTarget really that cool?) . . . because certain people are apparently spending time and money outside of their subdivision.

Yow.

2)  I am really tired of being so tired.  Today after sleeping 8 hours overnight and a nap this afternoon, I had to hide under the covers before I even made dinner.  I stayed there until dark.  Not the worst thing in the world, but I would like to be able to better keep up with the other three people in this house.  But, no, needing a nap isn’t the worst thing in the world.

3)  The days are getting longer.  Summer is coming.  Drat.  Already the sun feels too harsh, downright mean despite my sunglasses.  With the sun too bright, even sounds seem too loud, and the whole world too big.  It’s only March but I miss the dark, quiet of winter.  But summer is coming, and good things with it, too.  I do love those warm, breezy evenings at the beach, and my garden is finally getting a little more sun.  Time to think about planting something along the back row, maybe wild Texas tomatoes.  Just gotta keep my sunglasses handy. 

4)  I discovered that at Land’s End I can buy a pair of boot-cut jeans in my size and specify the inseam (32″ for a nice, low break).  Hurray and huzzah, long-awaited victory for the not-quite-Tall-and-not-quite-Regular sizes!  They were on sale for $20.  After receiving my order yesterday and trying the jeans on this morning, I ordered another pair.

5)  Fun news on the cycling front:  Lance Armstrong and Alberto Contador are on the same cycling team, and this spring they’ll be racing against each other before the TdF.  They are both medical miracles, impressive even before their yellow jerseys.  Of course, Armstrong won the TdF a lucky seven times after surviving a nasty cancer that had metastasized to his brain and lungs.  In 2004, Contador suffered a seizure while racing after feeling ill for a few days.  His doctors found a cavernoma in his brain, and operated quickly to excise it.  When Contador woke up from the surgery, he quoted the proverb also favored by my mother and her parents:  “Where there’s a will, there’s a way.”*  Alberto Contador won the TdF in 2007. 

6)  C&D make me happy.  Even and sometimes especially the missy bits.  A little boy decided to roll his Silly Putty out flat with the rolling pin . . . on the carpet.  A “violin” is on a small wooden table.  The train track and David left a cow bell hanging on the cabinet door, hoping it would ring whenever I swung the door open.  He left his shoes in the kitchen, toes pointing out.  Yesterday he insisted that he had put them on correctly after putting them on toes pointing out.  We got out of the car, crossed the grocery parking lot and as we reached for our basket he shouted, “My shoes!  Backwards!”  A stuffed horse lays in my place in the bed, and I know tomorrow morning two little people are going to swim over and under the blankets to crowd into my spot with the horse and I.  Then after some squirming, and maybe a little giggling, we’ll sit up and call the work of sleep done.

7)  It’s much past bedtime and I’m tired enough that the words are smearing together on my screen.  I could have done this post earlier but I was busy lying in bed with a pillow over my head, now I’m up too late trying to do the things I should have done then.  (Does that sentence make sense?  Unfortunately, it’s too late to fix it.)  The night is quiet, save for the traffic and the noises inside the house, like the fridge and the tick-tock of the clock that C&D set and re-set whenever they fancy (it’s 2:23, says the clock).  I’m glad to have had some bit of peace, to be the more ready for sweet dreams.

Ever read something that you think about for days, even months later?  Those words visit and revisit, affirming the gladness of a day done well, and offering warm comfort when we need to stand against a mean wind. 

Here’s a quote I’ve had in mind almost daily since becoming acquainted with it earlier this year.  It’s not just about the bubbles some of us fill on the census forms, but the names we dash out in every signature:

The core of my identity was not in either description, Mexican or American, but in that little unassuming hyphen that connected the two terms. Even now, more than 150 years after my ancestors crossed from the Republic of Mexico into the United States of America, I was a reflection of the journey itself, a journey between those two worlds that I continue to make every single day of my life, whether or not anyone, including me, is even aware of it.

From “Indivisible Man” by Oscar Casares, Texas Monthly, February 2009.