Julie Gumm - Author

How a book-lover saves money

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I LOVE, love, love to read. I have for as long as I can remember. I have vivid memories of going to the public library and coming home with stacks of books.

Like most of my life, I tend to do reading at double-speed. I can usually get through a 300 page novel in about 5-6 hours.

It’s a blessing and a curse.

It rocks because I can get a lot more reading in.

On the other hand there are certain authors that I know once I start one of their books, my head will not be hitting the pillow until it’s done. Karen Kingsbury is one. Francine Rivers would be another except for her books are sometimes 600 pages so I have to cry “uncle” and give them 2 days.

Like Monday, I downloaded Karen’s new book “Learning” on my Kindle app before I took the girls to music lessons. Got an hour of reading done then. Came home – work, dinner (during which I read since the kids were watching a movie), clean up, kids to bed and then read….until 2:15 a.m. It was 1 a.m. before I even realized the time and at that point I knew I was too close to the end to put it down.

If you’re like me, and you love to read, I thought I’d share some of my best money-saving tips for book-lovers.

1. The library – this should go without saying. These day,s if there’s a certain book I want I can get online, request it to be sent to the nearest branch and they notify me when it’s there waiting for me. The downside is you have to be organized and keep track of due dates. I try to enter them on my calendar as soon as I get home with an email reminder a couple days before.

2. Thrift stores – they are a treasure trove of used books and are usually a buck or two at the most. Some stores have “Buy 5, get 1 free” and a lot of thrift stores have one day a month where everything is 50% off. Garage sales are good too although the selection is usually much smaller. The catch is, don’t buy it unless you know you’re going to read it. Even at $1, it’s wasted money if you don’t read it.

3. Paperbackswap.com – Someone told me about this site a few years ago. Create a free account, then gather all your books you no longer need and post them. It’s super quick using the ISBN. When someone wants one of your books you get notified and have a link to print a mailing label for them. You pay the postage to send the book media mail (usually $2.40-$3.25). When they get online and mark it received, you get a credit. With your credits you can go and request books from other users. All the books are 1 credit so it’s simple. You can also buy credits but that’s not quite as cost-efficient. Honestly I prefer e-books now (less clutter) but I still use this site for the kids (especially as rewards) and the occasional book that I want to read and know I can pass on or repost.

4. Booksneeze.com – If you have a blog and like to write reviews of the books you read, check out Booksneeze. They have certain titles available that they will send you for free in exchange for an honest review on your blog. There is a limit to how many they will send you until you’ve reviewed the ones you have.  There are quite a few Christian books and they now have some e-books.

5. Amazon free e-books – Amazon always has ebooks available for free (see the list in the right column). It’s an ever-changing list and I try to check it once a week. It’s hit or miss. There’s always a few classics on there, inevitably some sort of vampire book, and at least a couple smutty romance novels that I skip over. But I have also hit the jackpot with Christian chick lit and downloaded a dozen or more books in a week. I’ve gotten stuff from Gary Smalley, Francine Rivers, Karen Kingsbury, etc. If you have an RSS Reader add this feed to your list (www.amazon.com/gp/rss/top-free/digital-text/154606011) PLUS Amazon has now added a Kindle lending option (not on all books) so you can take advantage of this with sites like BookLending.com

6.  Buy used online – Of course there’s site like half.com and Amazon’s used book listing as well.

Of course there is also the good old fashioned “pass it around” option – trade books with friends.

Do you have any great tips for not spending a lot of money on books?

Together for Adoption Conference comes to Phoenix

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Since it’s a bazillion degrees outside (okay, maybe just 113), I’m trying to keep my mind off the heat by thinking about the fun and exciting things happening this fall. A major one is the annual Together for Adoption Conference being held HERE in Phoenix, October 21-22nd. Yay!

First, just to clear it up, this is NOT just about what most people think of when they hear the word “adoption”. It’s about the gospel and what it says about God as our Redeemer and adoptive father. It’s about how we answer the call to care for the orphan (and that can take MANY different forms). It’s about facing fears and overcoming them with knowledge.

And it’s about people. One of the most incredible things about these gatherings is the people. It’s electrifying to be in a building with over a thousand like-minded people who want to make a difference in the global orphan crisis.

I’ll be live blogging the conference as one of their featured bloggers, conducting my breakout on Creative Fundraising for Your Adoption, and attending as many great breakout sessions as I can.

Hopefully I’ll also be catching up with some online peeps. Looking forward to connecting again with some of the amazing women I got to meet and hang with last year – Kristen, Jody, Jamie, Angel…Mary are you coming? I hope some of my readers are there – if you plan on coming let me know so we can be sure to meet.

If you’re beginning to hear the cry of the orphan but just aren’t sure where you fit in, come and ask God to show you his place for you in this battle.

My post about last year’s T4A Conference:

When short-term memory loss is a good thing

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Today is the last day of a 16-day stint single-parenting the four kids while Mark has been in Africa. This trip was a bit longer than most, as he was actually doing two separate team trips scheduled back to back.  Not quite the longest he’s been gone, but close.

I don’t mind it too much. It helps that the kids are older and pretty independent. Working from home helps of course too.

But inevitably toward the end, the patience starts to wear thin (despite having an awesome 30 hours to myself this weekend while the kids were all at grandparents).

Last week the kids were going to the cheap summer kids movie with the church kids group. I had a conference call, so I planned to work from the Starbucks right there. So I bought their tickets and then I set about setting up the snack situation and giving them the appropriate money. We have the Harkins T-shirt and two Harkins cups. That gives us the $1 large popcorn (w/ free refill) and two $1 drinks. I knew the kids may not want to sit right together so I came prepared with an extra ziploc bag. I told them to get the large popcorn and then pour half of it in the ziploc. The girls could have one bag, the boys the other.

Then commenced the arguing over who got the “official” movie theatre bag and who had to use the Ziploc?

Seriously?

SERIOUSLY!

We’re going to argue over WHICH bag we get?

Because, you know, it dramatically alters the taste of the popcorn, right?

And I lost it.

I threatened to take them all home if they were going to argue over popcorn bags. And not in a quiet voice. Not in an extremely LOUD voice either, but in a definite “don’t mess w/ mama” voice.

They hastily settled that situation (the girls said they’d take the Ziploc) and they were on their way.

And for the next two hours I felt bad that I had totally lost my cool with them. Not that the argument wasn’t silly, but I knew I had over-reacted.

So when I picked them up and we all got in the van, I ate humble pie and told them I was very sorry for getting frustrated with them earlier and yelling at them and asked for their forgiveness.

They all looked at me, puzzled.

“When?”

“What are you talking about?”

Um, the popcorn bag thing guys.

“Oh,” piped up Noah. “I don’t really remember that.”

Neither did the others. But they forgave me anyways.

And this mom said a little thank you prayer for short-term memory loss and grace.