Book Web site tries to turn a page on dialog.Byline: Diane Dietz The Register-Guard A Portland man hopes to use his Web site as a lever to deepen the tone of discourse across the entire nation. Ric Bernat hopes that people who join up with his www.book project.org will add the topics of global warming global warming, the gradual increase of the temperature of the earth's lower atmosphere as a result of the increase in greenhouse gases since the Industrial Revolution. , sustainability and peace to their daily conversations on such things as sports and shopping. "If one person hands another a book and says: `I think this is important,' it gives more elbow room elbow room Noun sufficient scope to move or to function Noun 1. elbow room - space for movement; "room to pass"; "make way for"; "hardly enough elbow room to turn around" room, way for discussing that kind of stuff in their relationship," said Bernat, 45, who makes his living as a software programmer See systems programmer. . His book reading venture is a nonprofit A corporation or an association that conducts business for the benefit of the general public without shareholders and without a profit motive. Nonprofits are also called not-for-profit corporations. Nonprofit corporations are created according to state law. effort. Bernat's concept is to provide a system for people to circulate books on important environmental, political and social topics and to share thoughts about the books on his Web site. Someone with a pile of such books on their shelves can "deploy" a book by registering it on the bookproject Web site at no cost, then handing the book to a friend and asking that friend to read it, record comments about it on the Web site, and then pass the book on. The recipient then repeats the process. The initial book "deployer" can watch as the book makes its mark downstream through many degrees of separation, Bernat said. The Web site's counters show each book deployer how many books they've deployed and how many "reads" each volume has received. It also counts "offshoots" from the original book deployers. Offshoots start when someone who's received a book from a deployer takes a book of their own and sends it out into circulation. He officially launched the site in early October, and has deployed 101 books. So far, some of the books have turned over three times. A political liberal, Bernat said that last year he saw former Vice President Al Gore's presentation on global warming, shook Gore's hand and was changed. "Global warming is just such an urgent issue that living my life and not trying to do something about it didn't seem appropriate anymore," he said. He said he tried to think of ways to interject in·ter·ject tr.v. in·ter·ject·ed, in·ter·ject·ing, in·ter·jects To insert between other elements; interpose. See Synonyms at introduce. some serious and important ideas into folks' daily discourse. "It's just crucial that we get the noise on these topics up," he said. Here are examples of books he's deployed so far: "Affluenza Affluenza is a social condition arising from being, or desiring to be, materially wealthy, or to "Keep up with the Joneses." Affluenza is symptomatic of a culture that prides financial success as one of the highest pursuits to be achieved and can be found (according to those who : The All-Consuming Epidemic," by John De Graaf, David Wann, Thomas Naylor. "The Weather Makers: How Man Is Changing the Climate and What It Means for Life on Earth," by Tim Flannery For the baseball player, see . Professor Timothy Fridtjof Flannery (born 28 January 1956) is an Australian mammologist, palaeontologist and global warming activist. Flannery was named Australian of the Year in 2007 and presently an adjunct professor at Macquarie University. . "Our Endangered en·dan·ger tr.v. en·dan·gered, en·dan·ger·ing, en·dan·gers 1. To expose to harm or danger; imperil. 2. To threaten with extinction. Values: America's Moral Crisis," by former President Jimmy Carter. One of the earliest participants on Bernat's site is Portland resident Catherine Bennett Dunster, whose children attend gymnastics gymnastics, exercises for the balanced development of the body (see also aerobics), or the competitive sport derived from these exercises. Although the ancient Greeks (who invented the building called a gymnasium class with Bernat's children. She read "The Little Food Book" and "We the People: A Call to Take Back America" and then tried to get others to read them. "Food Book" went merrily on its way, but Dunster said she's having a heck of a time getting somebody interested in "We the People," a comic-book style treatise A scholarly legal publication containing all the law relating to a particular area, such as Criminal Law or Land-Use Control. Lawyers commonly use treatises in order to review the law and update their knowledge of pertinent case decisions and statutes. on the corporate takeover of culture and government. But Dunster said she'd keep trying to support Bernat's concept. "It's all about community, so it's one more thing that can connect us together," she said. BOOK PROJECT This Portland-based initiative means to amplify progressive political ideas nationally by circulating books, linking reader to reader along the way. See how: www. bookproject.org |
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