I absolutely love reading.

I buy books all the time, even when I can’t afford them, because I always in search of something new to read and something new to inspire me.  I think I’ve read three books in the past two weeks: Attitude 101, The Phantom Tollbooth (great kid’s book by the way), Next Generation Leader, and Outliers.  Yesterday, I was about two seconds away from hitting the “one-click” BUY button on my Amazon Shopping Cart (another $100 worth of books) when I realized that:

• I don’t have 100 bucks to spend on books right now.
• I’ll probably read these books in a few days and then never read them again.
• I’m trying to de-clutter my life. I don’t have room for more books.  In fact, I’m trying to get RID of my stuff, not acquire more of it.

I’ve discovered some solutions for both reading new books while also getting rid of old ones.  Why am I trying to get rid of everything?  Life is simply much less stressful for me when it’s less cluttered.  I even wrote a post a year ago about how a clean desk and empty closet made me much happier.  If you’re looking for tips on a simpler, minimalist lifestyle, check out Zen Habits.  Leo writes a great blog about simply doing less, having less, and being more productive and happier.  Now, what can I do other than buy more books:

The Library – After a quick search, it turns out there’s a library between my house and work.  Who knew!  The last time I set foot inside one was back in college, and even then I don’t think I actually took out any books (it was the only place I could study without getting distracted).  Tomorrow after work I’ll be swinging by my local library and seeing what they have.  Of course, they won’t have all the new releases and every book I’m looking for, but I’m willing to sacrifice 100% selection satisfaction for saved money and saved space.

PaperbackSwap.com An interesting alternative that I discovered from The Simple Dollar.  You simply list nine books from your house that you wouldn’t mind loaning out (my guess is you have way more than that) and you get to borrow three books from their massive list in return.  As you read, swap, and return books you earn credits that you can use to borrow other books.  This service is free.  I’ll be checking here if my library turns out to be a dud.

Bookswim is pretty much a Netflix for books.  It requires a paid monthly subscription, but the selection is pretty vast.  You set up a queue of books, and then they send them to you as you finish and return previous ones.  My only concern with this is that the price is quite high considering sometimes I don’t get to read as much as I’d like and I’m stuck with a hefty monthly bill for not a lot of reading.  This is my least favorite option only because of the cost involved, but a great alternative for a heavy reader with some money to spend.

Now, what the heck do I do with all of my old books that I’ll never read again?

Ebay – I’d like to sell all my books on Ebay, as that would probably give me the most bang for my buck.  However, I don’t sell on there often, so I don’t have a good seller rating, and then I have to deal with packaging individual books and mailing them out.  Ugh.

Amazon Market Place – Similar to Ebay.  Apparently there’s pro-seller version that allows you to send them a box of stuff (books, cds, etc.) and they take care of all of that (more research required), but that costs money.

Sell back to a used book store – Because I’ve never done this, I don’t know what kind of margins I’ll get on my books.  I can’t imagine the return will be that good, but it will get the books out of my bookshelf, which might just be enough for me.

Tomorrow, I’m off to the library to get a library card.  This weekend, I’m going to sort my bookshelf into books I need to keep and books I’ll never look at again.  Do we have any other minimalist bookworms out there?   Any advice for selling old books as lucratively and easily as possible?

-Steve

Everybody has their good days and their bad days.  Even when you work at a fantastic company like Sixthman, sometimes you just don’t feel up to it.  Well, recently I had one of those days.  So, I decided to come up with a list of actions to keep the fun going:

1.  Make sure to yell at Joy from across the room.  (It doesn’t really matter what you say, just yell with her name in there at some point)

2.  Take a quick break to ride the razor scooter around the office, and feel the wind blowing in your hair.

3.  Let the office dog sit in your lap and cuddle while you answer the phone.

4.  Make sure you set up at least one dancing date aboard the Elvis Cruise with the guest calling from Scotland.

5.  See if you can talk someone into running to the closest ice cream parlor for a mid afternoon snack.

6. Send one sentence from Texts from Last Night on an IM to your immediate supervisor while she’s on the phone.

7.  Make a Fugazi channel at Pandora Radio to listen to between phone calls.

8.  Figure out which people in your office are comparable to the characters of The Office.

9.  Ring a large bell that can be heard throughout the office, even if for no reason at all.

10.  Probably the most important, when the owner of the company is sitting across from you, make sure you to procure some very silly faces at him (but only when he’s not looking).

Try all those things, and see if that doesn’t make you smile, if only for a moment.

In all seriousness, I’ve found that prioritizing helps lower the stress.  Also, make sure you work with people that have a good sense of humor (if that’s an option).  And lastly, I know there are some companies where if you’re not working 100% of the time, then they are not getting their money’s worth out of you.  But most of us know that is not true.  You have to break away from the grindstone in order to smell the roses.  Reward yourself for accomplishing things or finishing projects, and then see how much more you get done.

I can’t believe it took me this long to figure that out.  Now that I have, everyday is bound to have some sort of fun.  Especially, if I chose one of those 10 items as a reward (my favorite would probably have to be yelling at Joy).

-Lisa