Monday, May 31, 2010

Book Blogger Hop & Book Giveaway

In search of a book/reading meme/theme for each day of the week like the Teaser Tuesday, WWW ... Wednesday, and Booking Through Thursday memes, I stumbled across Book Blogger Hop hosted by Jennifer at Crazy for Books. I figured I'd sign up and then hop through a number of other blogs for ideas, memes, and challenges. In other words, looking for some subjects to blog about.

Almost immediately, my blog was visited by Arena at The Nerd's Wife. She invited me to sign up for her contest where she's giving away a signed/autographed copy of Charlaine Harris' most recent Sookie Stackhouse novel, Dead in the Family. I've read the first six books in the series and I've purchased #8 From Dead to Worse, but still need to get my hands on a copy of #7, All Together Dead. So, I'm going to enter this give-away.

Since Arena is using a points system to rank the entries and she's giving extra points if you blog about her contest, here's my blog post to get the extra points, and you'll find a link to the contest over in the right-hand sidebar. Of course, I won't be very happy if you follow the link, sign up, and then win the book instead of me!

May Wrap-Up

12x12 reading challenge 12x12 in May was sponsored by the ladies at Page Turners. My personal goal was to read 10 novels including one by Anthony Trollope and one in Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time saga. Well, I exceeded the primary goal, reading 11 books this month.

  1. The Double Comfort Safari Club by Alexander McCall Smith—read just for me on my Kindle.
  2. Lord John and the Private Matter by Diana Gabaldon—mailed to Lauren in Canada.
  3. Hex Marks the Spot by Madelyn Alt—mailed to Lori in Oregon
  4. No Rest for the Wiccan by Madelyn Alt—also mailed to Lori
  5. Where There's a Witch by Madelyn Alt—mailed to Lori with the other two in this series
  6. King's Son, Magic's Son by Josepha Sherman—mailed to Kanaye in Connecticut
  7. Blue Diablo by Ann Aguirre—mailed to Cindi in Alabama
  8. Dead Witch Walking by Kim Harrison—another one read just for myself on my Kindle
  9. Vanished by Karen Robards—to be mailed to Sandy
  10. Silent Thunder by Iris Johansen and Roy Johansen—to be mailed to Jud in Arkansas
  11. The Road Home by Susan Crandall—to be mailed to Nicole in Germany

The Double Comfort Safari Club by Alexander McCall Smith Lord John and the Private Matter by Diana Gabaldon Hex Marks the Spot by Madelyn Alt No Rest for the Wiccan by Madelyn Alt Where There's a Witch by Madelyn Alt King's Son, Magic's Son by Josepha Sherman Blue Diablo by Ann Aguirre Dead Witch Walking by Kim Harrison Vanished by Karen Robards Silent Thunder by Iris and Roy Johansen The Road Home by Susan Crandall

I do have to point out, however, that I never even started reading The Eye of the World nor The Warden by Anthony Trollope. In explanation, I really fixated on reading the books that I owe to fellow swappers at BookObsessed. I'm beginning to catch up with the backlog and though I don't think I'll ever reach the point where I can totally avoid playing with TBR books, I'd like to be able to mail them out within a month of the swap or VBB end rather than the current 4-5 months later.

Saturday, May 29, 2010

BookCrossing.com

Read and Release at BookCrossing.com... Eight years ago today, I joined BookCrossing and registered my first book: Ancient Ones by Kirk Mitchell. The next day, I left it at McDonald's on Kimball Avenue in Southlake, Texas. I don't know if anyone picked it up or not, but they never went to the BookCrossing web site and journaled the book's status.

Ancient Ones by Kirk Mitchell Since then, according to the statistics at BookCrossing, I've registered 1,650 books. But after their recent upgrade, they're counting the pre-numbered labels that I generated but which have not yet been used, so if you subtract those 672 potential books, then I've really registered 978 books. Now, that's nothing to sneeze at, but quite a bit shy of the 1,650 that BookCrossing thinks I've registered.

My participation at BookCrossing has led me to the now defunct BookRelay site and its follow-on at BookObsessed.com. There, I find fellow readers and BookCrossers who like to participate in group swaps and virtual book boxes to exchange books. My daughter also participates at BookCrossing and we have fun creating journal entries for the books which we share before sending them along to other readers.

If you're a lover of books and would like to see your books enjoyed by others, pleas join me at BookCrossing or BookObsessed. Be sure to tell them that Elsi sent you.

Friday, May 28, 2010

Goodreads

Today I took the time to update my bookshelves at Goodreads to add the books that I've read so far in 2010. I'm not writing reviews of all the books—that would take 'way too much time—but I think it's good to share a couple of the reviews here on the blog. If you're interested in what I think of other books, please go to Goodreads to view all my reviews.

War on the MarginsWar on the Margins by Libby Cone

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I bought the Kindle edition of this book in December 2008. I can't remember exactly what led me to it, but I strongly suspect that it was a recommendation that I saw at either the BookObsessed or MobileRead forums. I even started reading it sometime in 2009, but set it aside as my interest waned.

But then I read The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society late in 2009. This renewed my interest in the story of the German occupation of the Channel Islands and I picked up my Kindle to finish reading War on the Margins.

I would definitely recommend this book to those who enjoy historical fiction. It has a very different "feel" than The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society as the author drew on the research she had done for her doctoral dissertation to insert a great deal of fact—and some actual persons—into the novel. Thus, War on the Margins had a much more scholarly tone. Even so, I found it particularly interesting to read the two books in a relatively short time.

The Sari Shop Widow The Sari Shop Widow by Shobhan Bantwal

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I hesitated when selecting which of my tags I'd assign to this book. While there was a bit of a romance in the story line, this was definitely not a romance novel. Rather, it was a pleasant look at a loving family that was both like mine and very different since I'm not Indian. I picked this up as a freebie offered to Kindle owners in August 2009, and I enjoyed it very much. I'm now looking at other books by this author, so if Amazon (or her publisher) was giving the book away to boost sales, then they've succeeded with me.

The Alibi Man (Elena Estes, #2) The Alibi Man by Tami Hoag

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Until I was adding this book to my bookshelf at Goodreads, I hadn't realized that this was part of a series. The Alibi Man was so well written that although I knew there was a back-story, I never felt that I was missing something. This is definitely the case with other series when I've read them out of order. Well done and I'm giving it 4 stars since it was a very good mystery/suspense novel.

Thursday, May 27, 2010

BTT: Bedside

Once again, Laura at Booking Through Thursday, has posed a question to the blogging & reading community. By the end of the day, some 30 to 70 bloggers will have posted their own replies and linked their blog posts to hers.

Laura asks:

What books do you have next to your bed right now? How about other places in the house? What are you reading?

July's People by Nadine Gordimer Well, to be honest, although I read in bed, I rarely leave any books there when I get up in the morning. Instead, I carry my book with me to the other parts of the house or on my day's travels so that I can read whenever the opportunity arises. There is a book in the headboard of my bed at home, though. It's July's People by Nadine Gordimer, which I have promised to send to Rocky who won it in last fall's Afrika Swap at BookObsessed.

July's People tells the story of the liberal (and white) Smales family who, when full-scale war between the races breaks out in South Africa, are rescued by their servant, July, who leads them to refuge in his village. This novel appealed to me when researching and looking for a book set in Africa for the swap. Gordimer was awarded the Nobel Prize in literature 10 years after the publication of July's People. I'm only a small way into the book so far, but I am finding her description of how apartheid might end in all-out violence a chilling vision, indeed.

I had intended to pick this book up off the headboard when I left home Monday morning (at 6am!), but forgot it. Fortunately, I had lots of other books with me to take its place.

Crocodile on the Sandbank by Elizabeth Peters In my backpack here in San Antonio, I have my Kindle with numerous books on it, including Crocodile on the Sandbank by Elizabeth Peters. Early in May, I discovered that Amazon.com was offering a special price for this book, first in Peters' series starring Amelia Peabody, a Victorian feminist who heads out to Egypt to excavate mummies and winds up using her sleuthing skills to help solve a murder or two. The series is up to 18 volumes now, and if I enjoy this book as much as I think I will, there will be future purchases—not necessarily all in Kindle format—as I read my way through the series.

See yesterday's post for more about the books that I'm reading. And yes, I did say “books”, plural. I can't remember a time when I was only reading one book at a time. I'm well practiced in the art of reading several books simultaneously. Sometimes one book is so compelling that I concentrate on it to the exclusion of others that I might have started reading, but I return to those as soon as I've finished reading the first.

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

WWW Wednesday: 2010-05-26

WWW_Wednesdays icon Another Wednesday on which to post my response to MizB's WWW ... WEDNESDAY meme from her Should be Reading blog.

  1. What are you currently reading?

    On my Kindle, I'm reading Crocodile on the Sandbank by Elizabeth Peters. And, I have started reading The Story of the Stone by Barry Hughart which my library was able to obtain for me through Interlibrary Loan. I haven't finished reading The Unbearable Lightness of Scones by Alexander McCall Smith. I did listen to the first 6 disks (unabridged audio CD) while I was on a business trip in NY between the 9th and 20th of May.
  2. What did you recently finish reading?

    Just an hour or so ago, I finished reading Vanished by Karen Robards. This was a very good mystery/thriller with just a touch of romance. And, since my last WWW ... WEDNESDAY post, I finished reading both Blue Diablo by Ann Aguirre and Dead Witch Walking by Kim Harrison. I have the sequels to each and I plan to start reading them in the next month or so.
  3. What do you think you’ll read next?

    I guess I ought to get started on a couple of books which I owe to fellow swappers at BookObsessed. Most likely to be started are The Road Home by Susan Crandall or Silent Thunder by Iris Johansen and Roy Johansen.

The books in this post:

Crocodile on the Sandbank by Elizabeth Peters The Story of the Stone by Barry Hughart The Unbearable Lightness of Scones by Alexander McCall Smith Vanished by Karen Robards Blue Diablo by Ann Aguirre Dead Witch Walking by Kim Harrison The Road Home by Susan Crandall Silent Thunder by Iris and Roy Johansen

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

WWW Wednesday: 2010-05-19

WWW_Wednesdays icon It's Wednesday again and time to answer MizB's WWW ... WEDNESDAY meme from her Should be Reading blog.

  1. What are you currently reading?
  2. What did you recently finish reading?
  3. What do you think you’ll read next?

1. I'm reading Blue Diablo by Ann Aguirre, The Unbearable Lightness of Scones by Alexander McCall Smith, and Dead Witch Walking by Kim Harrison. Blue Diablo, which I'm reading in paperback, is the first book in a series starring Corrine Solomon, a psychic handler who can touch something and know its history. I'm reading Dead Witch Walking on my Kindle. It's also the first in a series, this time starring Rachel Morgan, a bounty hunter (and a witch) who decides to quit her job with the Inderland Runner Services and discovers that someone has put out a contract on her. To offset these two paranormal books, I'm listening to The Unbearable Lightness of Scones on audio CD. It's the fifth in McCall Smith's 44 Scotland Street series and every bit as zany as the earlier books.

2. On Monday, I finished reading King's Son, Magic's Son on the train from NYC to Tarrytown on Monday afternoon. This fantasy novel by Josepha Sherman has been on my bookshelf for a very long time, and I just hadn't gotten around to reading it. Let's face it—I had gotten to the point where I didn't really enjoy fantasy, so I wasn't reading it. But sometime last year, I stumbled across a couple of really good fantasy novels and was beginning to read more and more of it. So, I offered King's Son, Magic's Son in a swap over at BookObsessed and I'll be sending it off to Kanaye over the weekend.

3. I plan to start reading The Next Thing on My List by Jill Smolinski. I picked it up at Barnes & Noble last week when I just went "browsing" but wound up buying four books. The blurb on the back sounded good, making me think it's somewhat like The Bucket List. I should start it tomorrow, so I'll soon know if it's any good.

The books in this post:

Blue Diablo by Ann Aguirre The Unbearable Lightness of Scones by Alexander McCall Smith Dead Witch Walking by Kim Harrison King's Son, Magic's Son by Josepha Sherman The Next Thing on My List by Jill Smolinski

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

I'm a Winner

Rumor Has It by Jill Mansell To celebrate the US release of her novel, Rumor Has It, the bloggers at Yankee Romance Reviewers invited Jill Mansell to post a guest spot. Published in the UK in 2009, Rumor Has It is now available in the US from publisher Sourcebooks Landmark. And, Sourcebooks was offering two copies of Rumor Has It to be given to blog readers. The contest for the books was to post a comment with a question for Jill.

I first "discovered" Jill's books several years ago during a business trip to the UK when I was looking for books to take home with me. My experience had been that there were a number of authors who were well known in the UK, but whose books were not readily available in the US. Case in point with Rebecca Shaw's Turnham Malpas village novels. I have enjoyed reading those, but each time I'm ready for the next book in the series, I have to order it from the UK since no US publisher has picked up her books and no local book stores can get the copy for me.

So I walked into the Oxfam book shop in Winchester and asked the clerks to help me select some representative books by British, Irish, and Scottish female authors. They brought me some more of the Turnham Malpas books and then introduced me to Marika Cobbold, Mavis Cheek, Judy Astley, Jill Mansell, and more.

Lately, I've been swapping Mansell's books over at BookObsessed. In August 2008, I picked up Making Up Your Mind which was sent to me by RootMartin from the YBS swap. Having thoroughly enjoyed it, I passed it along to Boomda in a Chick-Lit swap. And, last September I received Millie's Fling from Jordanne. Unfortunately, it's still on my overflowing TBR stack.

Thank you very much to Jill and Sourcebooks for making the copies available. Thank you to Yankee Romance Readers for inviting Jill to post and for selecting me as one of the recipients for this give-away.

Saturday, May 15, 2010

Monster Mash Ups

Is there anyone who hasn't heard about Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen & Seth Grahame-Smith? Have you heard that a prequel was released in March? Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dawn of the Dreadfuls by Steve Hockensmith is now available in your local book store or from your favorite online book store.

But did you know that there are a lot more books twisting the classics with monsters? CelticLibrarian at the Alameda County Library has posted a list of 13 Monster Mash Up Type books. Check it out. Some sound perfectly hilarious.

13 Book Monster Mash Up-Type Things

I haven't read any of these and until I saw this post, I wasn't aware that there were so many books springing from the imaginations of clever writers. I'm definitely going to check some of these out. And if I were an English teacher in a high school, I'd assign a project to my students to plot out a Monster Mash Up for a classic.

Friday, May 14, 2010

Friday Finds: 2010-05-14

MizB's weekly Friday Finds meme asks bloggers to share the new-to-you books found during the week—books you either want to add to your TBR (to be read) list, or that you just heard about that sounded interesting.

I'm thinking this is going to be a perfect place to stash away info on books that I think I might be interested in, but which I'm not sure enough about to add to a wishlist. ... kind of a place to park the title and author so that a month from now I won't have to try to retrace my steps trying to recall where it was that I saw a review or recommendation that I found interesting. There are too many book blogs and sites for me to follow them consistently and certainly too many to remember where it was that I stumbled across a book that appealed to me.

This week, I somehow ran across Not Now, Voyager: A Memoir by Lynne Sharon Schwartz. I'm not sure what led me to it, but seeing as Amazon's "Recent History" shows that I looked at the Kindle Edition first, I'm thinking that it must have popped up in one of those "just for you" links that you find on any of the Amazon pages. The publisher includes in the description of the book, “Not Now, Voyager takes us on a voyage of self-discovery as the author traces how travel has shaped her sensibilities from childhood through adulthood.” Given that I had been thinking about joining the Armchair Travel book swap at BookObsessed, I thought this might make a good book to buy, read, and swap. It's not the usual travelogue, but might appeal more to me since I have developed an appreciation for memoirs. This looks like it would be a nice merger of both types of books. For now, it's sitting in my shopping cart at Amazon until I decide whether or not to buy it.

And, when trying to find the name and author of that book—since I didn't bother to write it down—I stumbled across A Gate at the Stairs by Lorrie Moore. This is an author that I've never heard of, though apparently she's an established author. The blurb at Amazon.com indicates that A Gate at the Stairs was selected as an Amazon Best of the Month in September 2009 and notes, “It's been 11 years since her last book, 15 since her last novel ...” I'm not sure whether I want to read it, and I was perplexed because in a week, the link to it will have slid off my Amazon "Recently Viewed" list, but I don't want to put it onto my Wishlist because friends and family sometimes use that as a guide for gift-giving. I do want to re-examine this book at some point in the future and consider whether I want to read it.

And oh my gosh, I followed the link from Amazon's page about A Gate at the Stairs to the Best Books of the Month: September 2009—note to self, quit following links or you're going to go broke—and I saw Stitches: A Memoir by David Small. I don't think I've ever read a graphic novel (do comic books count?) but I'm really, really going to add this one to my wishlist if I don't just give in and buy it outright. Small, an award-winning children's book illustrator, tells his own story; and from the previews, he grew up in a horrific household.

OK. Enough! I have to stop reading about books and make time to read the fantasy novel that I've started.

Books mentioned in this post:

Not Now, Voyager by Lynne Sharon Schwartz A Gate at the Stairs by Lorrie Moore Stitches by David Small

Thursday, May 13, 2010

BTT: Influence

It's Thursday, and Laura at Booking Through Thursday, has posed another question for us.

Are your book choices influenced by friends and family? Do their recommendations carry weight for you? Or do you choose your books solely by what you want to read?

My book selection is definitely influenced by friends and family as well as people I've run into online who blog about books and post online reviews. These particularly affect the aquisition phase of the process. I'll buy books or swap for them based on my wishlist. Books get added to the wishlist for many reasons—not the least of which are recommendations from people whose opinions I trust.

One reason why I enjoy my participation in the swaps and virtual book boxes at BookObsessed is because the interactions involve discussions on why certain books were selected for the swap. These become implicit recommendations. Whichever book I wind up winning in the swap goes into my TBR, but I also often wind up putting any number of the offered books onto my wishlist for a future acquisition.

For the execution phase, I'm much more likely to select which book I will read next based on what mood I happen to be in. Heck, since I often am reading more than one book at a time, my mood will often influence which of the books I'll pick up at any given time.

Sunday, May 09, 2010

In My Mailbox: 9 May 2010

Mailbox I was on the road last Sunday and forgot to post an "In My Mailbox" entry. And, I'm still on the road today—posting from 31,000 feet in the air courtesy of American Airlines and the Gogo Inflight Internet. So, I'm relying on my daughter's e-mails to tell me which books I have received this week. She's picking up my mail and opening the book packages.

To start with, I opened a package on 1 May which was sent to me as a May Day Exchange book from a fellow member of the online book swapping group at BookObsessed. Tanya sent me a wishlist book: The Witch's Tongue by James D Doss. I'm thrilled to get this book. It's the 9th (of 14 so far) in the Charlie Moon series and the very next one that I need to read to catch up.

Then, a package arrived from a member of BookMooch. I've long had The Book of Light by Michelle Blake on my wishlist not only at BookMooch, but at BookCrossing and GoodReads as well.

The same day as the book from BookMooch arrived, I also received a package from Amazon.com.

Reading on Mother's Day

It's Mother's Day in the USA and I'm nowhere near my children. Instead, I'm at the Las Vegas airport (McCarran International Airport) and taking advantage of the free Wi-Fi throughout the terminal. I sure wish every airport would cater to travelers in a similar manner. I do belong to American Airline's Admiral's Club, so whenever I'm in an airport where there is a club, I can use the network provided there. But it's terribly nice to be able to use the laptop out here near my departure gate as boarding time draws near.

I'm flying to LaGuardia airport in NYC, by way of DFW, and then will take a rental car and drive to Poughkeepsie where I have meetings all week long. In my carry-on bag—the backpack for my laptop—I have two paperback books.

Where There's a Witch by Madelyn AltFirst is Where There's a Witch by Madelyn Alt, fifth in her Bewitching Mysteries series. I'm on page 160 of 290 and fully expect to finish this book before I land in Dallas. I'll be mailing this book along with No Rest for the Wiccan to LoriPed in Oregon.

King's Son, Magic's Son by Josepha Sherman The second book is King's Son, Magic's Son by Josepha Sherman. I've owned this book for many, many years, but never felt motivated to read it. When I offered it in last November's Young Adult swap at BookObsessed, I was putting myself on notice that I had to get it read within a couple of months so I could mail it out to Kanaye. My time is running out and I need to get it read or be forced to mail it off without reading it.

Dead Witch Walking by Kim Harrison And, if that weren't enough for 7 hours of flight time—not to mention the time spent in the airports—I have my Kindle with me. I'm currently well engaged in Dead Witch Walking by Kim Harrison. I have the 2nd and 3rd books in this series waiting for me at my house and I can't start reading them until I finish the first one. (Well, I guess I could read them out of order, but that just seems so wrong to me.)

So, Happy Mother's Day to all those I love who are mothers—in particular my two daughters-in-law who are celebrating their very first Mother's Day. Love and Kisses from Nana!

Saturday, May 08, 2010

Update on Twenty-Ten Reading Challenge

It's time to post my progress in Bart's Twenty-ten Challenge. I posted my intention to participate in this challenge at the beginning of this month. I'm glad that Bart says it's not cheating to count any book read since the beginning of the year, even if you join the challenge later on. So far, I've read 7 of the 20 books which make up this challenge. I'm 35% complete with the challenge at 35% of the way into the year. (Yes, that's true. 8 May 2010 is the 128th day of a 365 day year. Do the math.)

The Categories:

  1. Young Adult
    1. What Was Lost by Catherine O'FlynnWhat Was Lost by Catherine O'Flynn

      This was one of the books I read early in January. I don't think that I realized it was a YA book until I opened it and started reading. Natalya offered in the Mystery book swap in March 2009 over at BookObsessed and I won it. I then offered the book in a Virtual Book Box and sent it along to Azuki after I read it. It was a pleasant mystery which had just a smidgen of the paranormal in it. If you'd like to follow this book's travels, it is registered at BookCrossing.

Thursday, May 06, 2010

BTT: Half

Over at Booking Through Thursday, Laura has asked:

So … you’re halfway through a book and you’re hating it. It’s boring. It’s trite. It’s badly written. But … you’ve invested all this time to reading the first half.

What do you do? Read the second half? Just to finish out the story? Find out what happens?

Or, cut your losses and dump the second half?

Once upon a time, I felt compelled to finish each and every book that I started. It might take me a long time if I wasn't enjoying it because I'm perfectly willing to set a book aside or even keep a couple of books going at the same time. (In fact, I'm currently reading both Hex Marks the Spot by Madelyn Alt and Dead Witch Walking by Kim Harrison.) But, after one totally disastrous experience, I've stepped back from that position.

'Twas a number of years ago when I started reading Lord Foul's Bane by Stephen R. Donaldson. If you're not familiar with this book, it's the first book in the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever. The series had been given glowing reviews and I was looking forward to a great fantasy novel. Instead, I met Thomas Covenant—a totally dispicable character who not only has deplorable behavior, but who also whines and whinges all through the book. I kept plodding through, thinking, “Surely, this will get better.” But I got all the way to the end of the book and I had not enjoyed a single moment of the reading. In fact, I really wanted my time back.

Since reading Lord Foul's Bane, I'm no longer timid to abandon a book that I'm not enjoying. I do tend to keep track of how far I got in the book before I set it aside—just in case I later decide to give it another try. I suppose that deciding to do that will depend on the level of dislike. If I truly hate the book, I'm probably never going to pick it up again. If it's a milder level of dislike, I am honest enough with myself to know that I have to be ‘in the mood’ to read certain types of books. So, I might be more inclined to enjoy a particular book at a later date.

E-books and e-readers

Yesterday, I was following the May Blogroll over at NaBloPoMo and stumbled across Becky's blog called Musings from the Sofa. She had classified it as a blog that is predominantly about books, so of course I was interested in seeing how she was doing with her daily posts.

Imagine my surprise when I saw that she had posted a mild rant about e-books and e-readers. I felt compelled to respond. You should go read Emily's comments and criticisms. Here is my response:

I’m an e-book evangelist. To me the most important thing is the story. For a novel, short stories, even a biography, I really don’t care if the characters that I read are printed onto paper or rendered onto a screen. It *does* matter to me how comfortable it is to read. Therefore, I’m not likely to be reading on my laptop, netbook, or even a flat-screen monitor. But give me the e-Ink screen on a Kindle, Sony, Nook, or other electronic Reader, and I’m terribly happy.

My biggest complaint today is that most publishers haven’t taken e-books seriously. Formatting is often substandard—which the publisher would not accept in a paper book, but which they are glad to sell me in electronic format. And, I probably wouldn’t mind so much except that current e-book sales carry terms and conditions that basically say that I don’t *own* the e-books I buy. I can’t sell them or give them away after I’ve read them. Well, if the book must remain in my permanent library, it ought to be produced to higher quality standards.

I don’t need color. I don’t need things that move & wiggle. I don’t need to drag Internet content into my book. I can go get those things with my laptop or netbook. I need stories; at a fair price point; in a well-crafted product.

I still buy paper books—paperback only ’cause the hardbacks are too large, too heavy, and too expensive. I don’t think e-books will ever replace paper books, but they are great alternatives.

So, what do you think? Do you own an electronic reader? Do you use it? How often?

Of the 54 books I've read this year, 45 of them were printed on paper. This is largely related to the active book swapping that I do at BookObsessed and BookCrossing. I also loaned my Kindle to my librarian for a couple of months to give her an opportunity to see how she liked reading with it and to evaluate whether she might want to purchase a couple of readers for lending to patrons. I just got it back at the end of April, and I've already read two electronic books. I'm sure that the ratio of paper-to-electronic will change a bit during the year, but I'll still finish out the year having read more paper books than e-books. That's OK, though. It's the story that matters.