Career News 24/7: The Cynical Girl: Amazon Trade In & Business Books

Thursday, June 16, 2011

The Cynical Girl: Amazon Trade In & Business Books

Posted: 15 Jun 2011 03:45 AM PDT

I’m a big reader. I don’t have a Kindle (it’s on my list) but I do manage to consume my fair share of books. And my husband reads more than I do. Between the two of us, we have read & then donated hundreds of books over the course of our marriage.

Then I discovered Amazon Trade In and now I’m done donating books, suckers. I am a capitalist and I like the fact that I can buy shoes and purses and other stuff on Amazon. Momma needs a new Garden Defense Wind-Action Owl, so I just went through my business books and made $27.67 in easy peasy money.

What did I donate? I’m sorry to say that Guy Kawasaki and Gary Vaynerchuk got the shaft. So did Jim Collins and Marcus Buckingham. Now hush. Those guys understand.

And I made an effort to keep the really good books that might be useful. I held up a copy of Now, Discover Your Strengths and asked Ken if we should keep it or trade it.

He said, “I actually believe in weakness-based leadership.”

Exactly. Boom. The book is gone.

I have no idea what Amazon does with my books. I don’t really care. Rather than having the books sit around in my local library’s warehouse — or in my basement waiting for the garage sale I’ll never have — the books are gone and I can keep our economy churning with random internet purchases.

Next up? Momma needs a Clarisonic Skin Care System. I wonder how many bad business books that would take?