Put the Trees at Ease

Since I have written posts about book recommendations here on Petite Planet, I have some guilt over the cutting down of trees required to produce our beloved reading material. Instead of buying a brand new book off the shelf, opt for used books found in rustic bookstores (in which I could wile away an entire afternoon), or visit your local library and borrow a book. To this day, I still get a thrill out of leaving the library with an armful of books. It's so decadent, and I can't believe it's free. I always feel as though someone is going to stop me for stealing, because how fabulous is it that we can select any books we want and just walk away with them! Ah, it's the little things in life...

If you really want to offset your book buying, Eco-Libris is an organization that will "plant a tree for every book you read." For $10, ten trees will be planted. If you're wondering why you should be concerned with such things, Eco-Libris shares a chilling fact that, "About 20 million trees are being cut down every year to produce the books sold in the U.S. alone."

Click here to see exactly how Eco-Libris works. They have also partnered with an online book exchange community called BookMooch, wherein you can give your books away and receive books you'd like to receive from others, based on a point system. You may also try visiting half.com where you can find used books as cheap as .50 cents!

If you and a friend are in separate book clubs, green your clubs by reading the same books, one month behind the other so one club can hand off their reads to the other, and halve the amount of purchasing. Most clubs plan their reading calendars a year in advance, so this would be quite doable. You could then have each club vote on their favorite book of the year, and get together in December for a large gathering based on the theme from the most loved book.

When you meditate, trees, and the forest are probably among some of the first images that crop up in your mind. Let's help keep these towering beauties alive in our minds, and in reality, by being more aware of our book habits.