ReadThis volunteers put in a weekend of gift-wrapping at Brooklyn’s Greenlight Bookstore the weekend before Christmas. All tips went to supplement the classroom libraries at nearby PS 46. They burned through rolls of paper and yards of Scotch tape, and when the dust cleared, they’d collected $668—enough to send more than FIFTY NEW BOOKS to the kids at PS 46.

Thanks so much to Rebecca and Jessica at Greenlight Bookstore for inviting us and making the event so successful. Thanks to the patrons who tipped so generously. (See, people who buy books are good people.) And thanks to everyone who gave up precious holiday shopping days to wrap and make a difference for the kids at PS 46!

Elliott Holt
Emily Cavedon
Margaret McCartney
Natalie Standiford
Catherine Wirtz
Melissa Walker
Violet Sorrentino
Amy Hundley
Judith Dieckmann

On MLK Day, ReadThis would like to thank the people whose community service in late 2010 led to a financially strapped public school in Bushwick, Brooklyn, getting 49 sets of 5 books each for their small reading groups.

This elementary school, PS 376A, asked ReadThis to help inspire its young readers by providing series for the students to read together. Currently, only 40 percent of the students are reading at grade level, but the principal and vice principal hoped to create small teams of 5 students each. The groups will take turns working their way through the series.

You came through and now 245 books are being sent off to the school. We would like to thank everyone who spread the word, and particularly Stephanie Anderson and Christine Onorati at Word Bookstore in Brooklyn, who not only translated the school’s wishlist to their site and are shipping the books off to the school, but put up an in-store promotion during the holiday season to let customers know how they might help.

The wishlist still has a few more books left to buy, so if you are so inclined, please help:

http://www.wordbrooklyn.com/help-readthis-get-books-ps-376a-bushwick

In the meantime, our special thanks goes to the following:

Cindy Bryce

Toby Bryce

Ingrid Buckner

Bikram Chatterji

Katharine Crane

Mimi Crowell

Katharine Freeman

Richard Giorgi

Tara Goodrich

Lisa Govan

Craig Harrison

Karen Hudes

Wendy Hughes

Ellaine Irizarry

Emily Kite

Rosina Lardieri

Vanessa Lilly

Jack McGuire

Suzanne Mitchell

Seth Mnookin

Katha Pollitt

Hilary Redmon

Sarah Robbins

Frank Rubino

Lisa Schermerhorn

Amanda Stokes

Anne Swartz

Falicia Valdez

Joanna Yas

Kate Yourke

Margaret Zambiasi

A student from public charter school, PAVE Academy in Red Hook, Brooklyn, with one of the ReadThis book drive donations.

So many ReadThis members dug deep at the end of 2010 to help their fellow book lovers, we’re going to have to thank you all in waves.

Let’s start with the general book drives in November that gathered donations for New York City public schools in need from the Bronx, to Harlem, to Red Hook, to Bushwick and on. Many of you hauled your donations to the book-drive host locations in the wintry weather, or mailed them on your own to the schools. The book drive locations in November collected about 1,550 books. Another 1,135, plus about 9 other boxes were mailed in directly to the schools. That’s about 2,955 total, thanks to your good work.

On top of that, a couple of boxes went off to the troops overseas, thanks to Laurie Brown and Elizabeth Royte.

Below are people we know to thank. If you donated, but were unable to get your name on a list, please alert us at readthisorg@gmail.com so we can properly acknowledge your heroic efforts.

Book Drive Hosts (who volunteered their homes one Saturday to receive donations)

Caroline and Buster Black

Roslyn Biskin

Katha Pollitt (board member)

Book Delivery to the Schools

Craig Lively

Peter Harper (board member)

Biz Mitchell (board member)

Book Donors

Jonathan Galassi of FSG (about 100 books)

Katherine Bouton

Wendy Kassel

Adam and Lara Morrison

Thea Schell

Jan Ledbetter

Daniel and Ben Zitin

Karen and Marin and other residents of 175 Riverside Drive

Emily Hartzell of The Neighborhood School (10 crates)

Fran Manushkin

Miriam Berkley

Katha Pollitt (board member)

Henrietta and Brett Pertuz

Lisa Featherstone

Jennifer Thomson

Karin Wood

Carl (who was double-parked)

Laurie Brown (7 boxes mailed)

Vickie An

Sarah Borden

Libby Borden

Judy Hottensen (board member)

Ian and Stina Sopko

Lucy and Gigi Bryce

Gail Rose

Danielle Avsrotas

Kim Maier

Publicity

Becky Firesheets

Students at CS/PS 21 in Bed-Stuy

What: Book Drives to collect gently used (or new) books for NYC kids in need

When: Saturday, December 4, 2010 (see specific dates below for each drop-off location)

How: Scan your shelves for books your kids no longer need, or buy a copy of your favorite book from when you were a young reader. These children and teens need everything from picture books to high-school level literature. The only caution is that the nonfiction needs to be up-to-date. Also please do not donate books with underlining.

See below where to drop off your books at one of 3 locations in the city.

Why: ReadThis has identified 7 locations in great need of books:

C.S./PS 21 Crispus Attucks School in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn

P.S. 54 in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn

P.S. 46 Edward C. Blum School in Fort Greene

P.S. 376A Felisa Rincon De Gautier School in Bushwick, Brooklyn

PAVE in Red Hook, Brooklyn

JHS 13 Jackie Robinson School in East Harlem

HS 440 DeWitt Clinton High School in the Bronx, NY

If you can’t get to one of our book-drive locations, but would like to donate books by mail, please contact us at readthisorg@gmail.com for posting instructions to one of our recipient libraries.

DeWitt Clinton High School in the Bronx

If you would like to volunteer to host your own book drive, or help deliver books, or assist in any other way, please email at readthisorg@gmail.com

If you don’t have gently used books to donate, but would like to help, please go to this link to buy a wishlist book for a school in need. For as little as $3.99, you can help an economically challenged school get a book in the hands of a student: http://www.wordbrooklyn.com/help-readthis-get-books-ps-376a-bushwick

And don’t forget that if you are in Fort Greene on Saturday, December 18th or Sunday, December 19th from 12 noon to 8 p.m., please stop by Greenlight Bookstore. You can do your holiday shopping and have a ReadThis volunteer wrap your presents for tips. The tips will go toward buying books for a local elementary school. We will also have a table where people can directly buy a wish list book for that school. http://abookstoreinbrooklyn.blogspot.com/

If you would like to get on our email list, contact us at readthisorg@gmail.com or join on Facebook: ReadThis (http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=43663579230&ref=ts).

Thank you for your help and we hope to see you this December.

Where:

UPPER WEST SIDE, MANHATTAN

Saturday, December 4th from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.

Katha Pollitt 175 Riverside Drive apt 13G, New York, NY

(corner of Riverside Drive and 90th). Please email in advance if you plan to drop off books: kpollitt@thenation.com

***

FORT GREENE, BROOKLYN

Saturday, December 4th from 12 noon to 3 p.m.

Caroline and Buster Black

126 Greene Avenue, buzzer reads BLACK (btwn Clinton Ave and Waverly Ave)

Brooklyn 11238 call with any questions: 919.824.7102

***

PARK SLOPE, BROOKLYN

Saturday, December 4th from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.

Roslyn Biskin 351 14th St btwn 6/7th Aves

Bring books to lower stoop readthisorg@gmail.com

THANK YOU.

We finally got to eyeball Andrew Jackson Middle School’s new library in Chalmette, Louisiana. And although our amateurish (but very funky) video doesn’t fully convey this, it is a beaut—thanks in large part to the generous friends of ReadThis.

If you haven’t been following the story, Andrew Jackson opened this fall for the first time since Hurricane Katrina struck five years ago. This was a tremendous achievement in St. Bernard Parish, where whole neighborhoods were literally washed away and the fishing community was further devastated by the BP oil spill.

But the school had no books or even a budget for books. And that’s where you came in. As you can see, the shelves are still in the process of being stocked. But at present there are more than 2,500 titles to fill this gorgeous space—and that number grows daily. When I visited, the amazing librarian Juanita Peralta and her mom were busily cataloguing books. Many of the titles I spotted I could link back to actual donors—sports books from Scott DeSimon, Roald Dahl titles from Greenlight and many generous patrons of the Brooklyn Flea.

Before we get carried away, here are a few—and certainly not all—of the people who helped give the kids of AJMS a library:

The Sarlin Branch of the Pickens County Library, Liberty, SC (1,000+ books!)
Greenlight Bookstore
Joycelyn Heintz
The St. Bernard Project
Garden District Book Shop
Eric Demby and the Brooklyn Flea
Picador
Scott DeSimon of ESPN
Vernon House/Rachel Cantor
Hawes and Ambriel Bostic
Melissa Walker
The Institute for Children and Poverty
Sam, Suzanne, and Isabel Mitchell
Harry and Marjorie Keyishian
Barri Evins and From The Heart (invited by Susanna Einstein)
Susanna Einstein
Jaime Pessin
Weinstein Company
Katha Pollitt
Vicki An
Tony Apicelli
Magnitude Capital
Peter Harper
Buster Black
Alexandra Ringe
Martin Korsin
Rebecca Fitting
Jessica Stockton Bagnulo
Rene Steinke
Amy Loewy
Britton Trice

students from a class last year working with "Not Afraid of Dogs"

ReadThis members finished buying the set of 35 copies of  Not Afraid of Dogs to support Behind the Book’s program to bring authors into the classroom. These books will go to a first-grade class at C.S. 21 in Bed-Stuy Brooklyn. The book’s author, Susanna Pitzer, will visit three times to talk about her book, work with these first graders to write & illustrate their own stories, and at the end of the session, the children will create their own classroom anthology. This book is particularly good because it gets the kids talking and writing about their own fears.

ReadThis visited the school yesterday and can attest to the faculty’s commitment to providing students a warm, invigorating environment in a community with a great deal of financial need.

Thanks to those who purchased books:

Caroline Bishop

Roslyn Biskin

Ada Calhoun

Mimi Cromwell

Craig Harrison

Bridgett Jensen

Jennifer Schram Maxwell

Biz Mitchell

Suzanne Mitchell

Sara Nelson

Henrietta and Brett Pertuz

Cliff Piper

Katha Pollitt

Martin Ruiz

Marjan Shirzad

Natalie Standiford

If you happen to be near Liberty, SC, this Saturday afternoon between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., please stop by the Sarlin Branch of the Pickens County Library. The Branch Friends of the Library are sponsoring a Book Drive to benefit ReadThis —  in particular, to aid the ReadThis effort to raise books for the Andrew Jackson Middle School in St. Bernard Parish, LA.

St. Bernard Parish was devastated by Hurricane Katrina, and all of its schools destroyed. AJMS was one of the last to reopen this August but has had a very great need for books. These very generous ReadThis members have volunteered to do what they can to restock the school.

Simply drop off your new or gently used books at the library.
Donations of money also accepted to pay shipping costs.

This event is part of Make A Difference Day, the largest national day of helping others, is sponsored annually by USA WEEKEND Magazine and its 700 carrier newspapers.

Further questions, please call: (864) 843-5805

15 S. Palmetto Street, Liberty, SC

Still from the film, "The House of Mirth", directed by Terence Davies, 2000

In this time of foreclosures, Wall Street pay-outs, and unemployment, ReadThis asked Martha McPhee (marthamcphee.com), author of the recent novel, Dear Money (loved by People magazine and Joseph O’Neill, among many others) to give us her choices of the best fiction about cash.

I have always loved novels that have money coursing through them, like blood.  It is a theme that doesn’t tire me and money certainly makes characters act, revealing who they are.  My latest novel, Dear Money (a title that I borrowed, by the way, from Fitzgerald who discarded it, using All The Sad Young Men instead), as the title suggests, has a lot to do with money.  I became interested in the topic as extreme wealth rose all around me in the heady days of mortgage-backed securities.

Money is a glorious and dirty topic and, it seems, everyone has something to say about it.  While working on Dear Money I read and reread some money masterpieces.  I especially love the Victorians as they were obsessed with money and used it as a lens through which to see the hypocrisy of their society.  To choose my five favorites is nearly impossible, so I thought I’d cheat by listing, in some cases, authors who have more than one great book that explores money.

I’ll begin with:

1)   Theodore Dreiser.  The novel that comes first to mind is The Financier which is based on an historic figure from the late 19^th century who was caught up in a run on banks that sent the US economy into a nose dive.  Frank Cowperwood, the financier of the title, is so vivid and real and scheming, and the financial fiasco so urgent and devastating that I couldn’t put the book down.  What is that magical power some writers have to make you almost cheer for the most immoral character?  And how is it that Dreiser makes deals and double-deals and greed and fraud turn into a classic novel about business?  But The Financier is just the most obvious money novel of Dreiser’s.  All of the others are about money too, about wanting more, about attaining it in one way or another.  Sister Carrie, An American Tragedy, Jenny Gerhardt – money pulses through them, the central heartbeat.  Dreiser understood a very American predicament – the burning aspiration of the have-nots to have more, the lengths they’ll go to satisfy that urgent longing.

2)   Edith Wharton.  The novel of hers I love most is The House of Mirth. I thought about Lily Bart a lot while working on Dear Money.  I wondered who she would be today.  I certainly don’t think she would kill herself.  Rather I believe she’d go off and find her way, start a career and make a satisfying amount of money on her own.  Wharton is so deliciously good at describing Lily, at that particularly place in which she finds herself — caught between having been taught to live a certain way and not being able to afford to.  Her downfall comes from being unwilling to compromise.  She won’t marry a bore.  I also quite love The Custom of the Country and found Undine Spragg one of those marvelous, awful characters you watch out of fascination as she gets just exactly what she wants.  And she wants money.

F. Scott Fitzgerald and Zelda in front of their Westport home

3)   The Great Gatsby.  I’d be remiss if that novel weren’t on my list.  It’s brilliant, a window on the roaring ’20s.  Again, Fitzgerald creates a fascination for the rude and the ugly who destroy people’s lives for the benefit of their own.  Though money is a subject that fascinated Fitzgerald deeply and though he wrote about it in all of his fiction in one way or another, I’m not a huge fan of the other novels.

4)   Now do I choose between Trollop’s The Way We Live Now or Thackeray’s Vanity Fair or Zola’s The Masterpiece?  I love them all.  I love the Trollop for all the intersecting lives and for the aged female writer churning out articles to make ends meet, her pretentions and desires.  I love Vanity Fair for Becky Sharp, her insatiable hunger and naughtiness.  She is yet another repellent character that is a joy to watch.  And, I recognize that I am now deep into cheating, Flaubert’s Madame Bovary. I look around at the world today, having just read Lydia Davis’s new translation, at all of us in the privileged city, New York, and I think that every last one of us is Emma Bovary with our abundant wants and petty needs.

5)   Perhaps a favorite: New Grub Street by George Gissing.  A favorite

Flaubert

because it is all about writers trying to get by in 1870s London, the terrible compromises they must make for the love of money.  The world of publishing and writing hasn’t changed very much since then if at all.  So reading the novel is like peering directly into our silly moment with so much foolishness passed off as high art and deep thought.

Thank all of you for the wonderful donations. The students and staff are so excited to have such wonderful resources for the library and classrooms. This has been a great blessing for Andrew Jackson Middle. – Juanita Peralta, school librarian

Students at the Andrew Jackson Middle School with ReadThis book donations

Teachers from AJMS with a ReadThis donation.

AJMS students reading ReadThis book donations.