Ten Steps to Reading More

[deva_fagan]

I was chatting with some friends about reading, right around the new year when resolutions were in the air. “Read more” or “Read X books” seem to be goals for a bunch of folks, and it reminded me of the Dark Times.

As in, the years when I was not a Reader.

I started off as a Reader. My wonderful mom read me Tolkien on cross-country car trips, I got

Comments

[kumir_k9]

I like the idea of surrounding myself with books. I certainly keep every book I've ever owned. In fact, one of my Madrigal teammates was put in the spare room that has my library this past weekend and he looked like he'd died and gone to Heaven when he saw the bookshelves.

And until recently, I've always had a queue of at least 6 or 7 books on my night stand so that I wouldn't run out of reading material. I have this awesome bookstore a couple miles from the house, a small, privately owned shop where I buy all my books, full price. The owner knows her books, does her homework on when books you like are coming, pre-orders them, lets you know when they'll arrive and she's friendly and talkative. She also has reading groups and brings in authors for discussion groups.

Unfortunately, the big drawback to books is their volume and weight. It's a pain in the butt to bring a lot of books on vacation or carry them around in your wallet. ;-)

These days I have an iPad that I take with me anywhere and the majority of my new book purchases are happening on-line to the iPad. I'm still working through the last of my paper book queue, but when that's gone, I probably won't ever buy another real book again.

This unfrotunately will likely mean the demise of small bookstores and I feel terrible about that. I notice however that you have all of your books available electronically. Is that a requirement of publishing these days (except for JK Rowling)?

[deva_fagan]

I love rooms full of bookshelves full of books! Having a good local bookstore is definitely a blessing.

It's cool to hear about folks reading so much on devices -- If I sell another book, that's probably what I'll get myself to celebrate. I still like having paper books sometimes (like for reading in the bathtub) but I'd love the convenience of an eReader when traveling, especially. Glad to hear you like your iPad!

You can actually buy ebooks from some indie bookstores using the IB app on iPhone or iPad: http://www.indiebound.org/iphone

I'd love to see a future where local bookstores still exist, with a combination of POD devices for paper copies and some way to browse books in person and get help from staff, then scan a QR code or something to buy the book so that the store gets a cut of the $$.

Nowdays most publishers seem to buy electronic rights, and make ebooks available. I suspect (though I haven't gone to look it up) that the first HP contract was probably before eBooks were part of the standard, so JKR would have kept them to herself, and is thus selling them directly now (on Pottermore).