Library Book Read-a-thon: Days 6 and 7

I just now realized that the Library Book Read-a-thon runs for 8 days, not 7. So I'll be able read more than I had anticipated. This is a busy weekend. Today is Father's Day and our kids planned a surprise for their Dad. They bought him a new LED television and took us all out to lunch. The boys are now setting up the TV and hubby will be watching Rangers baseball very soon. All this family activity cuts into my reading time.

Last night, I finished reading Bad Blood, the 20th and last-so-far book in Dana Stabenow's mystery series starring Alaskan PI Kate Shugak. That completes another series for me, but I'm really hoping there's at least one more book since this one ended on a cliff-hanger and it isn't “and they all lived happily ever after.“ It was borrowed from a library in the local consortium and I'll return it to my library's drop-off box later this afternoon.

This morning, I started reading Burn by Nevada Barr, the other hardback book that is checked out from the library. I'm sure I won't finish it today, so it will be set aside until next weekend as I have another business trip coming up next week. Tomorrow morning as I fly to Missouri, I'll resume reading Sorcery and Cecelia on my electronic book reader and if I finish it before bedtime, I can start the second book, The Grand Tour.

Library books finished during the read-a-thon

Library books I'm currently reading:

Library books I plan to read during the read-a-thon

Library Book Read-a-thon Day 5: Digital Resources

It's been a busy couple of days. Here it is the middle of the 6th day of the Library books read-a-thon and I'm just now getting around to posting my entry for day 5. Rachel's post on Friday talked about digital resources available from the library. I suppose that audio CDs and software programs that can be borrowed from the library fall into this category, but for the most part when people talk about digital resources, they're really talking about eBooks, audio books, and music/video downloads. As I mentioned before, my library has a very limited budget, so it doesn't offer the variety of digital resources you'll find at a big, metropolitan library system.

I am a real fan of eBooks. I bought a Kindle shortly after the very first one was announced. It arrived in February 2008 and the first book I read on it was Stone Cold by David Baldacci. As soon as I had my Kindle, I started hunting around at all the sources for eBooks and somehow came across MobileRead. For several years, I was very active in the community at MobileRead and I still check in the forums from time to time.

I like eBooks so much that I have three readers. I upgraded my original Kindle to the third-generation Kindle which has Wi-Fi as well as the cellular “Whispernet” connectivity. I also have a Sony reader and a BeBook Mini. Both of these use books in the ePub format and the Kindle supports only MobiPocket format.

Now, all that information just sets the stage for a description of the digital/downloadable resources available through my library. As eBooks have become more popular, my library investigated how they might provide a service to lend electronic books. The most common service used by libraries is through Overdrive, but the fees were too expensive for my little library. So, they signed up with a service called Freading. Freading doesn't offer books by the big-name publishers. Instead, they've partnered with a number of smaller publishers such as Poisoned Pen Press and Open Road Media. I've found plenty of books to read at Freading—at first tackling the Phryne Fisher mysteries by Kerry Greenwood and now moving on to the Kate and Cecelia fantasy series. I have made a wishlist of books which I've seen in the Freading catalog and I'll be downloading many books from them throughout the rest of this year.

The disadvantage of Freading is that they don't offer books in a format compatible with a Kindle reader. I'm fortunate that I have other readers which can use the ePub format provided by Freading, but I really wanted to be able to borrow books to read on my Kindle. I was very happy to discover that a nearby library had a subscription through Overdrive. This library is also in the North Texas Library Consortium, and they have a restriction that you can have a library card from only one library in the group. I could have given up my library card for the local library and gotten one at the other library, but I really didn't want to do that. However, hubby didn't have a library card at all, so he signed up for a card at the second library, and I use his card to borrow books from Overdrive. This library's Overdrive subscription also includes audio books, but I'm really not interested in borrowing audio books because it can take me months to listen to an entire book.

Progress in the Read-a-Thon

On Thursday evening, I continued to read Sorcery and Cecelia for about an hour into the flight. Then I decided to go back to Post-Human and I read it for the rest of the trip home. I didn't quite finish it before I went to bed, so I read the last couple of chapters on Friday morning before I went to work. Hubby volunteered to pick up the two books that I had reserved, so I started reading Bad Blood at supper time. I've been reading it off and on today and hope to finish it tonight. Oh yeah. It should be obvious that I'm not going to finish all the books that I have borrowed before the read-a-thon is over.

Library books finished during the read-a-thon

Library books I'm currently reading:

Library books I plan to read during the read-a-thon

Library Book Read-a-thon Day 4: Inter-Library Loan

We're now four days into the Library books read-a-thon and I'm going to follow Rachel's lead today and talk about Inter-Library Loan (ILL). As Rachel explains, ILL is a service available to any library in the USA. Participating libraries may borrow items from the collections of other libraries. Of course, a library is free to decline a request if the item is rare or fragile -- or for any other reason.

Of the 50 library books I have read this year, four of them have been obtained via ILL. My library charges a postage fee, usually only $1, to defer the costs of shipping.

Since my library does not have the ILLIAD application, I have to request the books in person or by sending an e-mail to the library's address. I've never bothered to research which libraries might have copies of the book, but I did follow Rachel's suggestion to use the Worldcat catalog. I may find that useful in the next few months!

Progress in the Read-a-Thon

I didn't have as much time to read yesterday as I would have liked. I read a little bit further into Sorcery and Cecelia and I'm just about to board an airplane to fly home, so I plan to read for the entire 3 hours of the flight. That means I should finish, or come close to finishing a book tonight. Well, that's if I don't fall asleep.

Library books finished during the read-a-thon

Library books I'm currently reading:

Library books I plan to read during the read-a-thon

Library Books Read-a-thon Day 3: The Online Library Catalog

It's day three of the Library books read-a-thon and Rachel used her blog post to talk about requesting books from her library. In my community, our little library is all there is—there are no branch libraries. But, our library has joined with 12 other nearby libraries to form the North Texas Library Consortium. As their web site says, the Consortium “consists of independent libraries in North Texas that have agreed to share an integrated library system in order to better serve their patrons.”

This integrated library system is most visible in the online catalog shared by all the Consortium member libraries. When I access the catalog, I can restrict my searches to only my local library, to any other individual library, to one of the three regional groups of libraries, or to the entire Consortium. Since I'm usually wanting to get a specific book, I tend to search the entire Consortium as my default scope. In addition, from the online catalog, I can place a hold on any book and if the book is not held by my local library, it will be shipped to my library for me to pick up.

This morning, I received an e-mail notification that there's a copy of Bad Blood by Dana Stabenow at my library, ready for me to pick it up. The book belongs to the Decatur Public Library, but was sent to my library because I requested it through the online catalog. Since I'm out of town, it's waiting for me to get back to Texas. (And, you may recall from my earlier post, there's another book ready to be picked up.) On Friday morning, I'll swoop into the library and pick up both books and settle in to a serious reading session over the weekend.

Not only do these libraries share a common catalog, items can be borrowed from any member library, making my library card valid at 13 libraries. I can walk into any member library and check out anything. And, I can return it to my local library rather than having to travel to the other library.

Library books finished during the read-a-thon

Library books I'm currently reading:

Library books I plan to read during the read-a-thon

Library Books Read-A-Thon Day 2: Sharing My Library Story

Over at Rachel Turns Pages, Rachel is sharing her own library story. I think that's a great idea, so I'll do the same.

My first experience with the library was in the small town of Andalusia, Alabama. I was 4 or 5 years old and my Daddy took me to the public library and introduced me to the librarian. I don't remember getting a library card, as such. Maybe I did and he kept it for me, and maybe not. It was a really small town, after all. The only thing I really remember from this visit is that Daddy told the librarian that he didn't want her to direct me only to the kids books. I was to be allowed to check out any book in the library and if it was too difficult for me, I'd figure it out.

Several weeks later, my grandmother took me to the library and I proudly walked up to the desk with the book I wanted to take home, only to have the librarian tell me that I couldn't check it out. I stamped my feet and loudly proclaimed that “my Daddy said I could have any book I wanted.” She wound up getting my Daddy on the phone and having HIM explain to me that NO ONE was allowed to check out a volume of the encyclopedia.

I was a precocious reader. I remember reading Little Golden Books at age 3 and 4. By the time I started 1st grade, I was reading at a 3rd grade level and my teacher gave me a shelf in the room for my own books from home so I'd have something to read while the rest of the class was finishing their work. I made a lot of use of the libraries in my schools, particularly in high school.

During my college years, I didn't actually use the library very much for anything other than my classes. I spent all my available money on books and I even had a small “library” of paperback books stored under my bed in the dorm.

In my adult years, as we have moved from town to town, the first place I check out is the public library. We've lived in a small town in Texas for 10 years and due to my travel for work, the only people I have gotten to know are the librarians and the waitresses at the local diner.

Yesterday, in my goals, I pointed out that use two nearby libraries. The library in my town offers an excellent collection of bound books, audiobooks, movies, and research materials. They also have 3 or 4 public computers and offer a Wi-Fi hot spot for your laptops, tablets, and smart phones. When I want a book which isn't in their collection, the librarians will locate a copy for me. If the book is available from a member of the regional library consortium, it will be shipped to my library at no cost to me. If no member of the consortium owns a copy, the librarian will order it through InterLibrary Loan and I have to pay the postage. This service makes it possible for me to get just about any book that I might want to read.

I've now finished a second library book—this one read entirely during the read-a-thon. During breakfast, I finished reading Sub-Human by David Simpson. This book was borrowed from the Kindle Owner's Lending Library at Amazon. I'm going to shift to the Cecelia and Kate series that I checked out from the Freading service offered by my local library. And, yesterday, I received a notification from my library that a copy of Nevada Barr's Burn is waiting for me. I'll be back in town late Thursday night and will pick up this book on Friday morning, so I'm adding this book to my goals for the read-a-thon.

Library books finished during the read-a-thon

Library books I plan to read during the read-a-thon

Library Read-a-Thon Goals

The objective for day 1 of the read-a-thon is to post your goals for the week. Rachel is the organizer of the event and she's posted a photo of the books she has checked out of the library. I can't do that since right now, all the books which I have checked out are eBooks.

So, what are my goals for this week? I'm on a business trip, therefore I didn't bring any bound library books with me. I've been unfortunate enough to lose a library book on a trip and had to pay to replace it, so I just won't take the risk any more. But, I do have a couple of eBooks checked out and some bound books on reserve to be picked up on Friday morning. Until I get home, I'm going to focus on these eBooks:

• Sorcery and Cecelia, or the Enchanted Chocolate Pot by Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer
• The Grand Tour, or the Purloined Coronation Regalia by Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer
• The Mislaid Magician, or Ten Years After by Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer
• Sub-Human by David Simpson

About the Libraries

I have a card at two different libraries. My primary library is only 2.5 miles from my house. I live in a very small, rural community, and this library did not have the funding to be able to offer eBook lending through Overdrive, so they signed up with Freading. Freading doesn't have agreements with the big-name publishers, so I don't find best-sellers there. But, they've got quite a few books and authors that I enjoy reading, so I haven't had any trouble finding something good to read. In fact, this year I've read through all of the Phryne Fisher mysteries by checking them out from Freading.

In addition to the lack of best-sellers, the other downside of Freading is that they don't support the Kindle reader. The eBooks that they deliver are in ePub format and encrypted via Adobe Digital Editions (ADE). I could convert from ePub to Mobipocket format for the Kindle if they didn't have the DRM encryption applied. Instead, I have to read these books on another book reader. I'm fortunate to have a BeBook Mini, so that allows me to enjoy the books that Freading does offer.

My “secondary” library belongs to a consortium that offers eBooks and audio books via Overdrive. It was this service that caused me to go and get a card at this library. It's located in a nearby town, about 20 miles or so from my house, so I never go to visit. But, the ability to check out eBooks and download them directly to my Kindle is just wonderful.

Lastly, I borrow one book a month from the Kindle Owner's Lending Library. This month, the book I borrowed is an omnibus of the first four books in David Simpson's Post-Human series, so I have plenty to read this week.