Guest Blogger: Lisa Roe

Last year, I had a few offers of free books for review but when I told them that I was located in Malaysia, they apologized and said that the books couldn't be sent! That was disappointing.

When Lisa Roe sent an email to me telling me about a book called 'Maggie Again', I told her the same thing, that I was in Malaysia. Well, guess what? She said that it's not a problem and she'll send a copy to me! She sent me the first ever book for review to me. :)

Anyway, it's very nice of her to write a guest post for this blog. I'm sorry it had to take so long for me to post it up but here it is!

Guest post by Lisa Roe:

For my generation, the digital age crept in. We wrote out our assignments on sheets of paper, then laboriously set them to professional status by hunkering over our typewriters, wite-out smeared on our fingertips, the oh-my-god, it-takes-3-days-to-type-a-mistake-free paper kind of days. Computers were introduced at some point in pre-teen adolescence, but being far more concerned with rapidly appearing body parts and changing voices, the only lasting impression our one computer class made on me was of a racecar game where the quicker you typed, the faster the car went, racking up laps and thusly declared victory for the best single syllable word typist in all the kingdom.

Thankfully though, some things didn’t change at all. The Scholastic Book Club was one of those constants. Distributed by our homeroom teacher, that delicate piece of newsprint would consume me for days. My mom loved it because she could oversee and veto any of my ‘purchases,’ which was infinitely easier to deal with than my bookstore tantrums. Really, why couldn’t I get a Garfield book, a Sweet Valley High, AND a Baby Sitters Club on the same day? Clearly, my mother was hell-bent on destroying my life.

And so it went. I would pour over the offerings, making a first pass by circling everything I initially wanted, then, with every shake of my mom’s head, editing it, little by little. I would eventually whittle it down, spend a sleepless evening torn between the possible acquisition of my first horror novel and a safer piece of fiction where a cat is prominently featured as a major character.

I would then carefully cut out the order form, determined to illustrate how my reading prowess also transferred itself over to stellar scissor wielding capabilities. I would then stand by as the check was written, dated, and signed. I will never forget how that cheap piece of newsprint felt in my hand as I handed it in. Check stapled to it. All the boxes ticked just so with a properly sharpened #2. I felt powerful. I was a consumer.

And the day the orders came in and the books were distributed? I couldn’t get those treasures into my grubby little hands fast enough. The stacks of new glossy covered beauties on my desk were generally three times higher than those around me. I would grin all the way home, backpack lumpy with my acquisitions, and pour over which one to dive into first.

Scholastic Book Club is online now. You can download those order forms, and while the format is comfortingly the same, the texture of the process has changed.

So maybe it was natural that I would go on to provide book offerings of a similar Scholastic Book Club nature, giving you the opportunity to peruse, mull, and edit over a list of titles online. Of course, checks are not required and the keyboard under your fingertips is the new newsprint.

~End of Lisa's post~

I know the feeling of getting new books. It's simply indescribable.

Thanks Lisa!