The eBook Craze

I was a staunch proponent againsit eReaders and eBooks. I am an avid reader. I read mainly for pleasure and entertainment. This means I read lots of books for young adults and mostly fantasy. I like reading them because when I read I like to escape to a different world. Although I have read a lot of books on Chinese history and Chinese political figures just for fun (Which is why I think my new job is just perfect for me). I liked the covers I liked seeing them on my bookshelves. I liked holding them. I once scoured book bins so I could find these certain books. I had to have all of the books of my favorite author Tamora Pierce. Although I needed to have the books with their original covers. They company had of course re-released the books with new covers that I hated and those were the only ones you could find in the bookstore. The old covers brought back my memories of reading them for the first time as well. So I finally found the books with the original covers. I liked the used books because they had food stains. You could tell that they were well loved because of the food stains. I often can't put down a book to eat. Because of this I usually did not check them out from libraries. That and for some reason I have never really like libraries. I love the library I have in my house though. So anyways when the whole eReader movement came about I clung to my well loved books.

However then things changed. I was moving to China. The best way to get books in English was to get a Kindle. So I could get all the books I wanted and could get in the states. So I was converted. I also like that I am can bring dozens of books on the plane and not have them taking over my carry on. The first few times I went to China my carry on was mostly filled with books. I brought a wide array of books mix of books. I wanted to have plenty of them to read on the flight. I am a fast reader and wanted enough that I wouldn't run out. So this time I can fit the same amount of books into one small package. Although I am also bringing some actual books on the plane because I will need something to read during those times they don't allow electronics. Plus they are literally my most favorite books in my collection.

However now I have started finding great sites that offer kindle books for free. I found these sites by using stumbleupon. I know that might be surprising because most people associate it with kids just wasting time on the internet. However you can put in your interests and tell stumbleupon what you like so that it brings you information that you are interested in. I said I liked articles and sites about books and kindle books. So I think stumbleupon is another tool that you can use to bring information to you.

Anyways the best site to win free copies of books is a site called librarything. However there is a lot more interesting features about librarything. You can add books to your online library at library thing. Then the members and the site offer you book recommendations based on the books in your library. I love this tool because I hit a wall of what books to read. The site recommended this series of books that looks really interesting. The account is free and I think you can upgrade the account, but I am all about free stuff. I have often finished a book now and went to librarything to add a recommendation for another book. This way I am helping guide readers to another book that they will most likely enjoy. However library thing offers free books  each month to help authors get the word out and to get feedback. You have to post a review on the site in exchange for the free book. There is also a member giveaway where authors offer free copies of their books in exchange for reviews on library thing, amazon, etc. I have gotten at least a dozen books or more from the giveaways. It has helped fill up my kindle with free books for the plane ride. All of them were rather good books. I ended up downloading most of the books I won from a sit called smashwords. This site seems like a great site for small authors to "publish" and sell their work.

I think this eReader craze has helped expand the number of voices in the writing world. I think it is great that now any one can write a book and sell it. However this crowds the material and makes it harder to judge what is of good quality. Although the same can be said about the information on the internet. It is just what we have to deal with in this information age.

I have heard of amazon now offering textbooks on the kindle. I think they offer them the ability to just rent them. That would save college kids so much money. Those prices are ridiculous. Although yet again I hung onto a lot of my textbooks so I could refer to them. I saved most of my math textbooks so I could use them in my teaching later. I saved some others that I liked. However I ditched books I knew I didn't want to get me some money so I could eat the rest of the semester. Also carrying all those textbooks on your kindle sounds great to me. It totally cuts down on the weight in your backpack. I know my high school students hated carrying around their textbook and having to take it home. They always loved when I handed out worksheets.  So I think offering textbooks on an eReader for high school students would also be a good model. However I still think students should know how to use a table of contents, glossary, and index. So they should still be able to know how to use an informational text to help them study. Although I believe the kindle would still be able to jump to these things and has a search function. However I still don't want the use of books to die in school. So I am still struggling with the whole eReader craze.

I spent lots of money on books before I got my kindle. Although now I could spend even more. Since an entire bookstore is right in my hands and it takes seconds to get the book. If I didn't stop myself I could run up a crazy amazon bill. Although then I would just read and not get work done since I can't put a book down. However the first book I bought on my kindle had just recently been released. So if I had bought it in the store I would have paid twenty dollars for the hard back instead I paid ten bucks for my kindle copy. So there is a good and bad to having a bookstore in my hands. I think I will still buy actual books. I still enjoy the books I have. I think I want certain books in a hard back. I still would like to go into a book store and pick up books. It is interesting to see borders go out of business after the rise of the eReaders. So I wonder what is going to happen to the publishing and book world as time marches on. So that is my take on that new technology option.