If you love books, you probably have a fairly large area of your home devoted to books.  If you live in a large enough home, you may even have a room devoted to reading, with shelves of books lining the room.  If you are like us, in a smaller home, you have a good-sized shelf filled with books.  Though books are relatively easy to pack because they are flat, and similar in shape, the thought of moving them can seem overwhelming…it’s easy to want to sacrifice them, but this shouldn’t be necessary.  Next thing you want to consider, especially in the present economy, is how to save money when you move.  You may want to consider truck rentals that allow you to pack your books yourself so you can give them the tender loving care they need. Usually these services save you money if you are able to do the packing, or able to get help doing the packing, into containers that can hold the contents of a room or an apartment. There are companies that will just charge you for the space you use on the truck as opposed to charging you for the use of a whole truck even if you only need a small part of the truck. Do your research, and dream about how nice it’s going to be to bring your books, which have become like old friends, along with you to your new home, where they will bring warmth and a comfort in your new location that only a lover of books can understand.

This post is a mix of personal and sponsored information.

Three Wise Girls, aka Debbie Barth, Linda Alexander and Dori DeCarlo will be interviewing the authors of a book that will not let the mystery of the death of Natalie Wood rest, because, in fact, it is a story that still leaves those who remember it unsettled…and if it’s a new story to you, you’re going to want to listen in and read the book.

“The Three Wise Girls” will be interviewing Marti Rulli and Dennis Davern.  Marti Rulli is the author of  the book “Goodbye Natalie Goodbye Splendour” and Dennis was the captain onboard the boat “Splendour” at the time Natalie went overboard and drowned.  In fact he was the only person on the boat besides Natalie Wood, Robert Wagner (her husband) and Christopher Walken.  Please stop by and visit “The Three Wise Girls” blog, and their “spot” on BlogSpot radio where the interview will take place on March 11th - this Thursday - at 12 PM EST.

The answer is actually yes, and getting a degree through distance education, as it was called when I got mine, and may still be called, has changed so much.  When I took my courses to be certified in Nutritional Counseling, there were no colleges nearby that gave degrees, and I was a Mom raising my children at home.  And home computers weren’t as prevalent as they are now, so everything was done by phone and mail, and yes, I did have textbooks.

There are courses that I have been thinking of taking recently, and have been browsing sites that offer online degrees, and have articles that are helpful in learning more about the way things work as far as getting a degree online. My daughter is taking such a course now, the biggest challenge is to be self-disciplined, as you are working at your own time and pace, which can have it’s advantages, but also disadvantages if you aren’t a self-motivated, self-disciplined person. I still have and refer to a few of the textbooks used in my studies.

When I looked up the meaning of the word “Mojo”, there was only one definition that resonated with me out of several provided, and that was “self-confidence, self-assured,  as in basis for belief in ones self in a situation…” and that’s the perspective I’d like to focus on as I introduce a book that I was asked to review entitled “#MOJOTweet - 140 Bite Sized Ideas on How to Get and Keep You Mojo” by Marshall Goldsmith.

My favorite “praise” for the book was offered by a John Hammergren, CEO, McKesson Corp., and winner of the Warren Bennis Award for Leadership.  He states: “The insights in ‘MOJO’ are certain to help people at all stages of their career tap their full potential and live more fulfilling lives.”  The introduction states that “Mojo happens the moment that we do something purposeful, powerful and positive and the rest of the world recognizes it….”

The author shares why the book was written this way: “Why Did I Write This Book? I wrote this THINKaha book to share what I know with as many people as I can. I wrote this book to help my readers have happier and more meaningful lives.”  You can follow the author, or send a tweet or direct message to Marshall Goldsmith on Twitter using @coachgoldsmith.

The book would not be if it weren’t for Twitter, by that I mean we wouldn’t have words such as “Tweet” and we wouldn’t know how to express ourselves in a meaningful way in 140 characters or less.  This book is a collection of wonderful, uplifting, positive phrases that bring a smile to the face, or motivate you to take action, or cause you to think again about how you might be viewing a particular situation you find yourself in.  You may find yourself sharing some of these “tweets” on Twitter and mentioning where you found them….in 140 characters or less:-).

Take, for example, this tweet “A man who takes more delight in doing his job well, even at the expense of some easy profit, is rich in Mojo. He will never starve.”  It reminds me that it is more important to do a job well than it is to focus on what I’ll receive for it…that there is a satisfaction in a job well done that transcends money.

This is just one example of many a wonderful “Tweet” that can be found in this book.  For more information about this book,  visit this link at the “THINKaha” website, or purchase from Amazon through the image above in this post.

This is the week to stop procrastinating and get those borrowed books back to the library and back to the friends that you borrowed them from.

Yes, for some reason March 1-7 has been set aside as “Return Your Borrowed Books Week”.

I buy most of my books because I take so long to read them, and wonder what the fines are for returning books now?  They used to be a nickel, a dime, really low.  Are they still?

There is a free brochure available about a new form of treatment for Prostate Cancer called HIFU.

It includes a lot of information about this treatment, but basicly HIFU stands for “High Intensity Focused Ultrasound”, a procedure that uses powerful sound waves to treat prostate cancer. A simple explanation is that these waves are sent through the tissue in such a way that they intersect at the point where treatment is needed, killing the offending tissue. Among the advantages are that this is an outpatient procedure, and does not involve surgery. You can read a lot more about HIFU for prostate cancer by clicking the live links in this post and requesting the free brochure, and if this is something you need, you may want to consider adding it to your treatment options.

Yes, this is a sponsored post, and it doesn’t have a lot to do with books, but it was one I didn’t want to pass up (and I do pass them up if the topic isn’t related to this blog in some way) because it seemed like something that would be helpful to someone.  We’ve had more than a couple friends who have had this disease, and know the importance of exploring your options before deciding on a treatment.

If you are a cancer patient reading this, I wish you the best!

When I was in college, textbooks were expensive, and when my son went to college, the prices were even more incredible.

Because I was living on my own and trying to save money while in college, I visited a used bookstore nearby to see if I could purchase any of the textbooks used, and was able to save this way for some of my books, but the supply was often limited because there was so much competition for the same book.

Now you can purchase used textbooks online, and post textbooks that you are finished with to sell.  I visited a site called Stubex.com that has well over 13,000 textbooks available.  This service has been available since 1998, so they have about 12 years of experience and the best part, listing your textbooks is FREE.

To help narrow down your buying experience, you can search books by school and state so that you get titles for courses being offered at a particular school.

College is expensive, and every little bit that you can save can be put toward other school and living expenses.  Buying used textbooks is a great way to pinch pennies and get a return on books for courses you or your children have completed.

I have been reviewing various ways to store the information that is on my computer.  I’ve considered buying a external device, but haven’t wanted to spend the money.  I’ve looked at a few online services, and am still considering this option.

Online Backup is worth it if the amount I would have to pay (if anything) is reasonable and most important to me, the site storing the information must be secure.  See the little “iDrive Basic - 2 GB Free” image in this post? That is what drew me to take a look at iDrive.com.  2 GB isn’t enough to store everything that I have on my laptop by any means, but it’s enough to test the system.  Then, after testing and learning how things work, if I’m happy with it, I’ll pay the monthly fee, it’s really quite reasonable.  It would take me a couple years to spend the amount it would cost me to buy the external unit I was considering.  I use a laptop, and don’t have an iPhone, Blackberry or MAC, but understand that you can store information from them as well.

SO, I’m definitely giving this a try when I finish typing this.  Everything is explained so clearly at the site I’m most interested in with images showing you step by step how the service works online, quite impressive.

So don’t loose all that typing and the graphics you’ve done for that book or manuscript, or any other information on your computer, back it up.