11 September 2001

Five years ago, I was living in Casablanca, Morocco. A British friend of mine called and started babbling about how the twin towers were hit and there were planes blowing up and it was like a movie but it was real. I had no idea what she was talking about, and since she was always a bit high-strung, I didn’t pay her too much mind. In addition, I lived down the street from a pair of 30-story office buildings call the “Twin Center,” so when I glanced out the window and saw that they were fine, I was even more confused. So I logged on to the internet and, well, you know the rest.

Where were you and how did you find out?

PaperBackSwap

Now here is an idea whose time has come: PaperBackSwap is an online used book store, where you can trade the books you don’t want for the ones you do. There are no membership or per-book fees – you just list your books, wait for someone to order one, mail it,* and earn a book credit, which you then use to order a book for free.

*The USPS media rate is $1.59 for a typical paperback, which is much cheaper than the 3.50 shipping charge for used books at Amazon.

� Previous Page Next Page �