Blind Chance: David Faucheux's Audio Web Log
Tuesday, November 09, 2004
Suzanne Beecher's DearReader.com: How you can sample books via email
From DearReader.com's "About Page": "I started my book clubs for the busiest people in the world, my employees, stay-at-home moms. The only books they had time to read were children's books, so I started including parts of books in the email that I sent them each morning."Soon they were thanking me for getting them back into reading. They were leaving their TV's off at night and discussing books with their husbands. One employee admitted she would sneak over to her computer late at night to see if I had sent the next installment early.
"Now I have over 3,000 libraries, businesses, county governments, public schools and websites offering our book clubs to their members. I work with over eighty book publishers. People as far away as Moscow and China are reading with us.
"Sign up for my free service and every day I'll email you part of a chapter from a book. The emails take about 5 minutes to read. After I've sent you two or three chapters from a book, I'll start a new book. Before you know it, you'll be in the reading groove.
"Encourage your friends to sign up too, by forwarding your daily read to them. It's a great way to stay in touch with your friends. Together we can change the world, one chapter-a-day."
Life of luxury
Today, I read a book, A Quaker Book of Wisdom: Life Lessons in Simplicity, Service, and Common Sense, by Robert Lawrence Smith. It spoke to one's living a life of service and commitment to others, to a greater good and to one's conscience. Then tonight I flipped on the TV and was assailed by a show that reminded me of "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous."I observed that the program was a shopping list of high priced bling and a roll call of the celebrities who bought it. There was the engagement ring, 10-carat diamond solitaire, that ran Mike Douglas about $3 million. I learned that membership in one of The Donald's country clubs ran $300,000 per year. A pain management specialist and his male lover spent over $26,000 to fly their dog to Florida for a dog birthday party. I learned that the highest paid sitcom star makes $1.8 million an episode. (Now, I know why everybody loves Raymond!)
I was informed that Britney won the title Shopping Queen against rival Christina. Britney and her mom are known to enter a boutique on trendy Robertson Blvd and if they see a style of shoe they like, buy it in every color the store has. They can drop $60,000 in an hour. Wow!
Needless to say, this show and that book proved quite a jarring juxtaposition. I had hoped the show might comment on how some of these phenoms made their loot. To me it is the making of the loot that is the interesting story. Anyone can spend money; well, I know I could.
Sunday, November 07, 2004
