More About Reading

While my mind is still thinking about reading, I have to admit after all the previous talk about love for my library I do enjoy my Kindle.  I do. I do. And I did pick up the flyer that Florence, my favorite head librarian, handed me that explains how I can down load certain library books to my e-reader for free. They have figured out the Kindle thing apparently. So now I have to feel a guilty because, as I mentioned in an earlier post, I am thinking that my favorite head librarian is counting on statistics to let her know if this is the wave of the future and I haven’t used the downloads as of yet.  Okay, I haven’t even gone out on line to check if the limited selection had anything I was interested in perusing.  I am not supporting her in developing these statistics of use.

I have, on the other hand, become addicted to the, inexpensive and free Kindle buys. Fortunately/unfortunately depending on how one looks at it, I seem connected through Facebook with enough e-book writers and their want-to-be writing friends that post connections to both their writing and want-to-be-writer friends.  Can you see where this is going? Soon I am “liking” the Free “Ink” sites and getting forwards for the “Free just for today” deals.”  And we won’t mention the “My friend just published his first book and here it is.” deals.  The thing is, some of these are good.  Self promotion is the first rule of self-publishing so it does all sort of flow together.

Even before Kindles and self-publishing I have always enjoyed discovering new authors, new voices. I would tooling down the highway listening to NPR and suddenly realize, “Hey, I’ve already read stuff by that author.” Something about reading those first novels or that new memoir before the writer gets the movie contract is nice.

What I do want to point out is that in the e-book world of self-publishing not everyone has the same support group around them to help edit and prepare their works. And it shows in their products and the lack of “polish”. Many of the authors must have a talented multitude of friends and/or family that assist them with the editing and overview of their ideas. Yes, people, you can self publish but please let some one else edit your work.

E-mail me if you really want to know what I feel about some of the characters and dialogues that I have read lately. As you can tell I have a few opinion on this.

It is one thing to post on a blog. I think another level of professionalism is needed for e-books. (Must remember not to eat my words if I ever get that far. Must remember.)  The little voice in my head reminds me that we often get what we pay for.  

Others writers seem to have more of the multitude of friends that will give them 5 star reviews regardless of what they have written. Good reviews are important in the self-publishing world. I find reading the three star reviews more interesting and some how more wholesome and often more telling to fact. I will still down load the story but with full understanding that I paid 99 cents and in the end I can feel that A got a good deal because I can like the story for what it is. Not great fiction but a good story.

I admit that I do not take advantage of downloading the sample first. As it is I often don’t read the book until weeks after I have downloaded it. I download it as I find it, in someone’s blog, on his or her Facebook page, on one of those other “get this book now” sites.  I did mention that I am a sucker for books.  But as I am reading some of these I am very glad that I did not pay money for them. Or I am very glad that I did not pay much money for them. 

Other finds are true gems and I wonder and hope that they will find their way out of the e-book maze to some higher awareness.

Of course, I still have my library card for those books by famous authors that publishing houses think I should purchase for some ridiculous e-book price.

Love of Libraries

I am not Nick Russell.  I so admire his work ethic. He posts everyday. Even the day after his rally when he was bone tired, he posted that he was bone tired. He apologized for not having the energy or brainpower left to post. He wrote more than two sentences coherently then signed off to head to bed.   Me? I just don’t write. I have however in my quilt, been reading.  Make me feel more righteous.  Must use brain for something. Must use brain for something. Cannot sit on couch with TV emitting toxic messages and evaluate the sad affair of non cable TV shows and TV marketing. I believe I have touched on my reactions to that scary stuff earlier.

Back to reading… I love my public library card. I understand that being retired and not traveling full-time I have the freedom of selecting and returning books without paying large fines that include naming new additions of the library after me.  Actually even when I am traveling modestly for a month or so at a time, if the dogs will kindly remind me to call and renew the books every two weeks before they are overdue, I am good to keep driving around listening to the books on tape till I make it back to Ohio…whenever. Florence, my favorite head librarian, reminds me that as long as no one puts a reserve request on a book they really don’t care how many times I renew them.  Rather they do care. They like it. It all shows up as circulation numbers on their statistics. And good statistics can translate to funding and grants.

I have always loved books.  Meeting the characters and exploring the places books introduced me to were my first experiences with the love of journeys and adventures.

When my mother left Ohio with my brother and sister and myself, she took us to Houston, Texas, and enrolled me in the third grade. I found myself in the SLOWEST reading group.  I was smart enough to realize which “bird” group I was in. Only later would I figure out that it had to do with Ohio’s curriculum and when/if phonics was ever taught. And I also figured out that the answers to those math questions on the board were listed in the back pages of the math book and you could flip to the back of the book and look them up. And they thought the Ohio girl was slow! 

Anyway, I spent many hours that year in the library and with books.  Besides the fact that I was uprooted from Ohio and not so happy being in Texas away from what was familiar. I missed my animals but I still had books.

After that year, my father came down to Texas in the summer to pick us up for his month of visitation. We headed back to Ohio and after going through the courts it was decided that we did not need to go back to Texas.  But my affinity for libraries was established.  Where else in the world can anyone walk into a building and gain access to almost unlimited learning. If you want to know something or teach your self something (or escape something) you are only limited by your ability to read.  

So, even if my books are over due, I smile and pay my due to keeping knowledge available to the free world.