Tuesday, April 02, 2013

Print vs Electronic...

...in the book world. I could ramble forever about the ups and downs of having eBooks in the library and the hoops that publishers create, but this is my personal blog and not my librarian blog so I'll just talk about me.
 I have been reading eBooks for years, even before I had a Nook or a smartphone. I would sit and read off my laptop screen, which was not convenient for reading in bed. But now that I can read straight from my phone's apps or from my Nook, eReading is a lot easier and convenient. If I'm waiting at the Chiropractor's office I can pull up my current eBook and hope to get a few pages in before my appointment. If I want to read in bed and don't want to get up and turn off the light when I get sleepy, (thereby waking myself up) I can just read from my device. It was also handy this last weekend when I could no longer wait for the library to buy the newest Shelly Laurenston book and so I bought it for my Nook.


It was fast delivery and I read it right away but there is one thing that just doesn't work for me with eBooks. See I also read Kristan Higgins new book "The Best Man" this weekend. It was a print copy from the library and reading both of these books in the same weekend brought one specific reading detail to light for me. I get more of a sense of accomplishment reading a print book than I do reading an eBook. There is just something about watching that bookmark moving through the book that means something. The closer I got to the end the more I wanted to slow down and make it last while at the same time hurry and find out what happens. When I have read the very last page, the very last paragraph, the very last sentence and the very last word, I know I have finished something.
I just don't get that from an eBook. For one thing unless you are keeping track of page numbers as you read, there is no sense of progress. On my Nook I can see that I am on ### page of ### but if the story is good I'm scrolling to fast to track pages. On my Kindle app progress is only shown when you open up the book so if you are wondering how many pages are left you have to tap out of the full page view to see the progress bar. (Actual Kindles may be different. Remember this is about me and my experiences) I also miss the sense of accomplishment when finishing an eBook. I believe it is because the end often sneaks up on me so I don't take the time to absorb how it all comes together. I can't tell you the number of eBooks that I get to the end of and just want to keep scrolling, knowing there has to be more to the story. So all that to say that I love my stories whether in print or electronic but if I want to feel like I have 'read a book' it will have to be print for me.

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

It's 2013...

...so far it looks and feels a lot like 2012. It sometimes amazes me how one tick of the clock or one flip of the calendar and suddenly everything is brand new. Is not every month, day, hour, minute brand new? It reminds me of birthdays were in one single day you age a whole year! That is a lot of pressure to put on somebody. Within 24 hours you need to act older, look older, be wiser and add the last 364 days to your timeline. I'm not intentionally changing anything in 2013 that I wasn't already trying to change in 2012. I'm still looking for a new job that will challenge me to grow professionally and also provide benefits. Although my fine for not having insurance would not be the 1.5 million a day that Hobby Lobby may have to pay, I really don't want to give the Government any more of my money than I have to since I don't approve of the way they are using it. Using that as a springboard to a new conversation...why can't tax payers decide what their tax money is used for? I know, we vote for the people that we believe will make the decisions as closely as we would make them ourselves, but couldn't they add a section to our 1040's where we could indicate where we would like our taxes to go? I would support road construction but I could really care less about the mating habits of the bull moose. I would support job training and skill development programs but don't want to pay people with no ambition to just sit at home and collect part of my paycheck. I hate the fact that my tax money could be used to kill babies. I don't have a problem paying taxes for police and fire protection, although I hope to never need them, I love supporting my library with tax money and schools also have to receive funding. I don't have a problem using tax money for prisons and guards but do they really need all the TV, computer, gym facilities and everything else that many law abiding citizens can't afford? Well there is my "Bogus Thoughts" thoughts for the day. I read a lot of librarian blogs and find myself asking, Why don't I write about work? The truth is each day becomes routine and while there are exciting things that happen I don't know who out there would really enjoy reading about the boring administrative things I do. Maybe you would like to hear more about the books I read but since the majority are romances not everyone would enjoy them. Besides I do one for the library at Let's Talk Books that you are invited to read and follow. So I guess this blog will just continue to be random thoughts and events. And maybe a picture or two!
This is from last winter, so far we haven't been "Blessed" with a lot of snow this year.