What was the last great book you had the pleasure of reading? Was it a romance novel or good mystery? Then again, maybe that new age Tom Brown stuff is right up your alley. A lot of folks are getting into those enigmatic puzzle plots these days. It’s just plain intriguing. Regardless of where your reading interests lie, you can always get a recap of what’s considered the top ten best seller books. The “New York Times” rates this stuff all the time. They can give you the latest scoop on which novels to check out and which ones to avoid. After all, this is heavy duty entertainment we’re talking about here. A good book is practically incomparable. I know I could use a few more in my life.

I haven’t read much lately. Well, that’s not exactly true. I’ve been busy most of the time and I use my spare reading time to go through Gavin De Becker’s book on safety. It may not be on the best seller books list, but it’s a wonderful source of useful knowledge. And no, not all knowledge is very useful. This particular book, “Protecting the Gift,” elaborates on crime and violence. Particularly against children and women. This is THE book to own in you have kids. Like I said, it’s rich with valuable information. And better yet, it’s true.

There are a number of real stories throughout the text. Sure, some may make you cry and some may make your heart drop, but they’re reality nonetheless. It’s crucial for us all to stay in touch with reality. This gives us better defenses against it’s harshness and cruel side. To live in the dark will only make you a victim. Anyway, this book, “Protecting the Gift,” is a great way to learn more about the dangers of the world and yourself. It’s not meant to make you worry. It’s meant to make you aware and not waste time worrying. Because if you’re wasting time worrying, then you’re not paying attention to what’s really going on.

You’d better believe that most people are interested in the top ten list. They want to know what best seller books receive the most raves. These are the ones they’ll probably use their spare time to read. I, on the other hand, am not interested in best seller books. It all depends on the topic, not the popularity or hype.

Some of the best mystery books I have read are those I read when I was a kid.  My first exposure to the genre came by way of the set of Nancy Drew mystery books that Mom got for me through a school driven book buying club.  I couldn’t get enough of the series, “Message in a Haunted Mansion”, “Secret of the Scarlet Hand” and “Danger on Deception Island”.  I would stay up all night, not so much afraid to turn the light out, but concerned the details of the stories would change while I was asleep or that I would miss something I should read before daybreak.

As a teen, I moved from the basic mystery books and started in the mystery horror tales, including the fictional and true crime based works.  These books did keep me awake out of fear or terror and did also keep me reading until I finished.  I needed to get the closure with such enthralling, gut griping, spine curdling stories as those in “The Mephisto Waltz”, “The Amityville Horror” and even “The Exorcist”.

More devoted mystery books readers will swear by the Agatha Christie series or will recommend the more modern Sue Grafton novels.  Similarly, others will speak highly of Mary Higgins Clark’s books or books by Jonathan Kellerman.  I, too, would add that detective series and true crime books are as exciting and incite as much fingernail chewing as the best mystery books.  Especially, for example, those by John Sanderford, the brilliant Stephen King and even a few of the master of “junk” novels, Sydney Sheldon.

And mystery book sellers and aficionados will add the hottest new authors to the list, contemporary mystery writers such as Martin O’Brian, Craig Johnson, and Melissa Swaim, Janet Evanovich, and Martha Grimes.  Who are revered at such sites as MurderbytheBook.com, an independent bookseller who appreciates good literature.

The mystery books genre is wide ranging, so true bibliophiles will allow for suspense, thriller and other evocative works to be put on the mystery books list.  It all depends, of course, on how much you read, what you prefer and how much Mwoohahhah you can tolerate.

Being a certified bookkeeper is probably one of the most important and widely used positions in the business world. As many people may already know, there is no requirement that you need to be certified if you want to work as a bookkeeper. Being a certified bookkeeper does come with it’s advantages though. By being certified, it proves that you can handle the books for any company with many employees. It also ensures an employer that your work meets the highest national standards out there.

There are steps that have to be taken to become a certified bookkeeper. This keeps some people from pursuing the title. If you obtain the title, although not necessary, it can take you a long way in your career and help to land you jobs that are in high demand. To become a certified bookkeeper, you need to pass three separate tests and agree to a code of ethics by signing them. Another qualification factor in obtaining the title is having at least two years of previous work experience.

If you notice, there is no requirement to the type of education you have, so essentially anyone with the knowledge it takes to be a bookkeeper can become a certified bookkeeper. In other words someone who has no college education but has 15 years of work experience as a bookkeeper can still take the tests, sign the code of ethics and become a certified bookkeeper. Just like someone who was educated in college to do the job.

Although working in the bookkeeping field does not require you to be a certified bookkeeper, there are certainly some advantages to having the title. First and foremost, potential compensation for your work can be greatly increased a lot faster than a bookkeeper that is not certified. A certified bookkeeper is usually also the one at the top of the list for advancement opportunities within a company and is generally trusted more than a bookkeeper who is not certified.

At the end of the day it comes down to who is most qualified for a working position as a bookkeeper, but you can bet that if competition is between a bookkeeper who is not certified and one who is, the certified bookkeeper will probably get the job. That isn’t to say a certified bookkeeper will always get the job with no doubts, it just means they certainly have more of a chance to land the job than someone without the credentials to back themselves up.

Most of us have groups of friends that we’d like to see more often, but we just don’t get a chance to get together as much as we’d like to.  Though it may sound strange, most people need or want some sort of an excuse to get together, from planning an event to having dinner together.  One great way to get together with friends is to host a book club, where a group of friends gets together to discuss a book they’ve all read.

Book clubs aren’t the stodgy, dry gatherings that they’re sometimes stereotyped to be.  Often it’s the highlight of the month for lots of people.  Book clubs are especially good for groups of friends who either love to read or want to read more, since it encourages people to at least finish one book between each meeting.  Which, for most clubs, is around once a month.  Though it may sound silly, some of the best book club meetings are those where the book is hardly discussed.  This varies some from club to club.  In some book clubs the book is the primary and sometimes sole source of discussion.  While in other book clubs the book itself is only a way to get people together to have a good time.

It’s always nice to have some book club recommendations, especially if it you’re hosting a book club for the first time.  The fact of the matter is that there are a lot of books out there and it’s tough to know what sort of book to pick for the book club.  One of the best book club recommendations is to let each member of the book club pick a book one month until everyone’s had a chance to choose.  This allows the club to sample from the literary tastes of all of the members and often results in exposing members to a wider variety of literature than they would read if they were on their own or if one member chose all of the books.  If you’re just kicking off the club, you may want a few books to start off with to get things going.

One of the best book club recommendations I’ve heard is to choose books that are relatively easy to read and most importantly somewhat provocative.  The first criterion comes from the fact that if a book is tough to read, there’s a good chance people won’t finish enough of the book to talk about it.  Granted, the best book club recommendations will depend on the people in your book club, but most clubs do best with contemporary novels.  The discussion about the book won’t be very interesting if the material is relatively cut-and-dried.  Try to find topics that are either brand new or provocative and applicable to contemporary issues.

I don’t mean to be a bookstore snob, but buying used books was something many of us were doing before buying used books was cool.  That is, buying used books was once a habit that was a well kept secret of college students and bibliophiles.  They knew the visit to a used book shop would be much cheaper and would result in a pleasant experience.  Maybe with wine, coffee, some unobtrusive music.  A community cat or pup lolling about in the sweet dark corners of the lovely historical smell of heavy wood shelving and decades of ink and paper and thread.

Then buying used books became more difficult and more frustrating a task, as the big chains shoved the little independents aside.  So buying used books has become in one sense more of a challenge and in another sense an almost equally pleasurable.  We can now go online for new and used books.  I for one am delighted, for buying books online means saving time, still saving money.  For reclusive folks like myself, saving social interaction with noisy, neglectful people out there saves one’s sanity.

Let me clarify.  I go to XXX (well known, top selling bookstore in the city) brick and mortar store, which also has an online bookstore, but I am in a hurry.  I have driven in rain and insane traffic, have limited time and have a definite title.  I walk into the brightly lit store and head for the periodicals, seeking a magazine published in the UK.  Seven people are in the aisle I need to access.  Three are LAYING on the floor reading magazines they will not buy, but will instead gunk up with their fingerprints, wrinkle with their greedy paws and stain with their snot.  The other four are standing around, one on a cell phone and others scratching bugs out of their hair, giggling over nudies or just &$$#93%# standing…IN MY WAY.  When did a store become a place to hang out, groom in, furtively steal FREE reading pleasures from and impede actual shoppers with integrity in?  And further, where are the used books????

I hate the physical bookstore now and go with only the online bookstores.  Such vendors offer the same items they offer if they keep a physical sibling site, but also offer hard to find, hard to get at in the land store and hard to remember titles, usually used.  I probably do not have to name the said bookstores, the big popular ones, any more than I had to name the one with all the losers, slackers and nut cases.  If you need the best places for buying used books online, here are my favorites.

Powells.com- One of the world’s largest bookstores.  A city block long and stories high, when you go to the actual store in Oregon, which I wouldn’t mind doing.  They hand you a MAP…the store is so big and so full of millions of books.

e-Bay.com – Look for a title, using the search engine at e-Bay.  Or check out my favorite online bookstores, where vendors as far away as the UK ship within only a few days!  These folks are Dadoak1bookshop (dadoak1).

GreenAppleBooks.com – My favorite used and new bookstore in the Bay Area.  The antithesis of the nightmare chain bookstore I refer to above and therefore a true pleasure as a physical shop, but equally helpful, easy to access and affordable online bookstore, too.

Word Power - word-power.co.uk/about_us A completely independent online bookstore, receiving no state or other funding to advertise or sell, so check them out!

When I was a child I had a book of Bible stories written especially for young children. One of my favorite stories was about Moses and his encounter with the burning bush in the wilderness.  As I remember it, Moses had been hiding out in the wilderness after killing an Egyptian whom he found beating upon one of the Israelite people. Moses let his anger get the better of him and he hit the Egyptian causing to him to die. Then Moses became a wanted man and he took off to hide in the wilds of the wilderness.

While he was hiding out, he came across the burning bush. Moses had never seen such a strange sight, the bush was on fire but it wasn’t being consumed by the flames.  So he crept a little closer to get a better look. Upon approaching he heard a loud voice and received his commission from God to lead the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt and into the Promised Land.  Upon receiving his commission, Moses left the wilderness, returning to Egypt. The commission he had received upon his encounter with the burning bush, required that he approach Pharaoh and demand that the let God’s chosen people go.

Pharaoh was very uncooperative and his obstinate attitude resulted in ten plagues being brought upon the land of Egypt. As the plagues became increasingly harsh, God’s people were protected, while the Egyptians suffered.  Finally, Pharaoh relented when his own son was struck dead. Moses was able to carry out the instructions that he received from the voice issuing from the burning bush. The Israelites were freed from Egyptian bondage and allowed to leave the land.

Pharaoh soon came to change his mind once again. He set off in hot pursuit of the Israelites with war chariots and horses. It seemed that the Israelites would be trapped with the Red Sea on one side of them and the Egyptians barring their way to escape on the other. God parted the waters of the Red Sea, allowing the Israelites to pass through on dry land. There were millions of Israelites crossing through that sea bed, and yet, every single one of them crossed to safety. The Egyptians and Pharaoh lost their lives when God allowed the waters to come crashing down upon them in their pursuit of the Israelites.  Moses served as leader of the Israelites until his death, continuing in carrying out the commission he received all those years before during his encounter with the burning bush in the wilderness.

One of the things I always hear about the Internet is that there are hundreds of different ways to make money online.  The Internet is a medium that is particularly suited to entrepreneurs and people who have the ability to recognize a consumer or business need and quickly move in to fill that need.  It’s pretty easy to see how people like that could make boatloads of money, but I don’t fit that particular profile.  In all honesty, I don’t have that “killer instinct” or possess a great deal of creativity, so I was worried that solid money making opportunities would just pass me by.  Then I heard about how to market e-books with resale rights and I think I finally discovered my niche.

People are constantly in need of information.  They want to learn how to do things, but they don’t want to spend a lot of time on research and fact checking.  Instead, they are more than willing to pay for the information, especially if it can be provided instantly and reliably.  There will always be a healthy demand for accurate information and that’s precisely why e-books with resale rights are such attractive products to marketers.  These types of books will always have an audience, and I can sell them over and over again without ever running out of products of having to pay additional fees.

Electronic books are usually short manuals or guides that tell people how to do something.  In fact, a significant number of these manuals contain the words “how to” in the title.  How to Sell Your Home in Less Than a Month, How to Build an Online Retail Business, How to Create a Website in an Hour, etc.  The text is very straightforward and doesn’t contain the usual fluff can be found in traditional books produced by large publishing houses.  I could immediately see how that kind of information would be valuable to people, so I figured that purchasing and marketing e-books with resale rights could prove to be a lucrative venture.

You might be asking yourself why I would buy and sell other people’s books instead of marketing my own.  Well, there are several reasons for that.  First, I don’t really have any expertise in a marketable subject matter.  Second, I neither have the time nor the know how to sit down and compose an entire book by myself.  Third, a lot of electronic book authors are known and trusted in their fields, which makes a great selling point.  Overall, it’s just far more convenient to purchase e-books with resale rights than to come up with something on my own.

If a non-creative person like me can achieve financial success primarily through marketing e-books with resale rights, then so can you.  If you own a website, you already have an excellent marketing tool at your disposal.  All you have to do is purchase some e-books with resale rights and then make an order page on your site.  Then you can deliver the books to customers via a download on your website, through e-mail, or on a CD-ROM sent through the postal service.  Even if you don’t have a website, you can still profit from e-books with resale rights.  You’ll just have to find other ways to market your books, such as auctions or online bookstores.

It’s true that everyone can make money on the Internet.  All you have to do is find a product that people want and that you can gain access to.  E-books with resale rights might be just the thing you’re looking for in order to break into online marketing, so check out some titles today.

I am a very avid reader. I have a voracious appetite for books. There are currently several thousand dollars worth of books waiting to be purchased and read, on my current reading list. I don’t always have enough spare cash to stock up on copious amounts of books to my heart’s content. So, I’ve had to find alternative ways to feed my addiction - ways that don’t require as much money or any, if I work it right!

First, I tried joining book clubs. I was a sucker for every offer out there, luring me to join and receive as many as six books for 99 cents each! Of course, I never bothered to read the small print explaining my end of the bargain and quickly found myself the receiver of piles of mail and bills for hundreds of dollars of unpurchased books. It was a disaster!

Right around that time, I discovered a used book store right next door to my work. I was in heaven! This book store stocked many of the latest titles and they were well priced and in very decent condition. And from time to time, I would find a box of books at the front door that were being offered to a good home at no cost! This was great. But as with anything, you eventually find the downside, I found that the owner of the book store was pretty unfair when it came to trading in your own gently read books. Even books I’d bought at that very story and read only once, would then be rejected when I tried to use them as trade ins. It got to the point where the proprietor would turn up his nose at pretty much any book that wasn’t in absolutely mint condition, regardless of the title or author. I became disgruntled and stopped going to that store altogether.

Recently I’ve discovered a wonderful online resource called Title Trader. It’s simply fantastic and there is no cost involved in becoming a member or in receiving books from other members. Title Trader allows you to post an inventory of your own collection of books, videos, movies and games for other members to browse and choose from. You can create a wish list to allow other members know what items you’re looking for, and when their added you will be notified of their availability. The beauty of the service is that you can request and receive countless books and other items at absolutely no cost. You will only have to pay for postage when you send a request to another member from  your inventory.

Out of all the resources I’ve found to help build my book collection and to keep up with my voracious appetite, Title Trader has definitely been the best ever! Copious amounts of books, many new titles and best of all - there’s no cost involved!

One of the first things you have to let go of when watching Blade Runner is the temptation to compare the movie with the book, “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep”? By the number one SF writer of all time, Philip K. Dick.  Yes, the mechanical pets are absent, but a monologue discussing the absence of real animals in the future does appear in the film.  Yes, the ending is different, but the medium of printed word and published work is very different than the film medium, so time lapses, character development, etc., will be necessarily altered in the latter.  But Blade Runner also features some fine casting, decent special effects, and a complex storyline and premise that does justice to Dick’s writing style and genius mind.

The Hollywood shunned Sean Young fits perfectly in her stoic human role as Rachael - hmmm, interesting biblical allusion?.  Harrison Ford is convincing, just smoky voiced enough and of course dynamic enough as the bounty hunter seeking out the hiding replicants.  Daryll Hannah as Pris is quite interesting, as is her makeup and costuming.  A replicant ballerina, now that’s a first.

The sound track is absolutely stunning, utterly scintillating.  Vangelis matches the opening drama by the wailing wet woozy sounds of the sax.  It brings in the drums and consistently expresses in Blues and Jazz ensembles that are romantic and surreal at once the epic, daunting, and depressing bleakness of the reality of the future as Dick has depicted it.  Blade Runner is often categorized in the cyberpunk genre set as it is in 2019 Los Angeles.  Featuring the futuristic cyber-technology of cloning, hyped up surveillance tools and hyper advanced investigative strategies, carried out by the Harrison Ford character, blade Runner Deckard.

The film is visually dark and metaphysically, psychically dreary.   And the premise is true to the novel, with it’s emphasis on the preciousness of human and other life versus the futuristic and technological displacement we face.  While I am reticent about suggesting this, as I typically insist you read the book that precedes the film.  If the comparison thing is going to interfere with your experience of one of the best SF films of all time, don’t read “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep”? First.  But DO read it.  You will be amazed, after watching Blade Runner, at the depth of detail of the future mindset, mentality and morality.

For a long time, if you wanted to publish a book there were only two ways to go about getting it published.  The first was the traditional route.  You would pitch your idea to a publishing house and if they liked the idea they’d publish the book, taking on the financial risk of putting out the book in return for a big share of the profits.  You, the author, would get a small royalty off of the cover price of each book.  Unfortunately, since there were so many authors and so few publishers, it became tough to convince a publishing house that your book would make money.  Then along came the vanity press.  If you published your book through a vanity press you would essentially hire out a printing press and get them to publish a run of your book, say 1,000 copies.  You would take on the financial burden of the printing and in return you would get any and all profits from the sale of the books.  The downside, other than the high initial cost, was that you had to do all of your own publicity and sales, so many people who went the vanity press route lost a lot of money.

Now there is a new option in the world of publishing.  The print on demand book publisher.  Print on demand publishing takes advantage of digital printing presses which don’t take a great deal of time to setup and reformat when changing from printing one book to another.  I published my first book through a print on demand publisher and was quite pleased with the results.  The way it works is that you pay a small setup fee, usually in the neighborhood of $100-$200.  In return, the printer sets your formatted word document into a pdf file in order for you to proofread it.  You then send in your cover design and the proofs, and in four to six weeks they’ll send you your first book.  From then on, the print on demand publisher doesn’t print any more books until someone orders them, reducing the need for 1,000 books sitting around as overhead.  You, the author, can order books at a reduced rate, or your buyers can order your book directly through the publisher or through amazon.com or bn.com.  Any royalties coming from those sales are then saved in your personal account.

For a fee the print on demand publisher will work to promote your book, but for the most part promotion is on your shoulders.  When all of the dust settled I probably made around $1,000 on my book.  What are the odds? Making it a pretty decent investment.  It was also nice to see my name in print without jumping through all of the hoops of trying to convince traditional publishers to pick up my book, while also avoiding a big financial investment.