I guess the fancy ways to read books that I'm going to talk about are actually not so very new, but they are new to me. And I haven't been able to leave my house for two days, so I have to blog about something.
I did not really mean to get a Nook. I was pretty sure I didn't want one up until a few weeks ago, in fact. I was kind of surprised that I didn't want one, because last year I wanted both a Flip and an iPhone so very much. An e-reader of some sort seemed like this year's equivalent. Then I got two new books for Christmas. Only two. And yet I realized, looking at my two new books, that I had nowhere to put them when I finished reading them. I could tell, because I have giant piles of books all over my house that have no permanent home. I actually have a bookshelf whose sole purpose is to hold books that I have not yet figured out where to put. I have 21 bookcases in my not super big house, so I'm not sure the answer can really, practically speaking, be to get more shelves. The answer might be getting rid of some books, but that's hard for me. I start thinking, "but what if some sort of catastrophic, apocalyptic, book-destroying event happens, and there are no more libraries or bookstores, but we still have this house and a ready enough supply of food that I'm not so concerned with basic survival that I don't worry about providing the kids with a good education and a solid foundation in great literature? I'll need my books then!"
Then I wanted some more books. I have a bunch on my Amazon wish list, and one night, the night after Christmas I believe it was, I started to load my cart up. I had about 3 books in my cart when it occurred to me that if I bought many more new, hardcover books, I could save money by buying an e-reader. Hmm. An financially justifiable answer to my book/space issues? Maybe I DID want an e-reader after all! And I had some Christmas money...why, yes, yes I did want an e-reader!
I probably should have spent hours and hours researching Kindle vs. Nook vs. Sony....instead, I found out that Overstock.com had refurbished Nooks on sale, and I was sold. One reason I was leaning toward the Nook anyway, though, before I found the refurbished ones, was that you can check out library books for Nook and not for Kindle. So while I was waiting for my Nook to arrive, I went to my library's website to see if they have e-books. They don't. But they DO have audiobooks that can be checked out online, which I'd never realized before.
It took me most of an evening to figure out the whole process of downloading audiobooks and loading them onto my computer, but I did it! My county's library has just under 400 online audiobooks available...so not a huge selection, but I found several that I'm interested in. Most of the books that sound at all appealing are already checked out (for both e-books and online audiobooks at libraries, it works just like a regular book: the library buys the license for one or more "copies" and then can only check them out to one person at a time), though most of them only have one or two people waiting for them. I pretty much never bother to check out new, popular real books at the library, because the waiting list is generally long and I know that the odds are not great that I would find time to make it to the library when my turn came up anyway. With the audiobooks, it's no big deal. You put a hold on it, they e-mail you when it's available, and you can check it out from the comfort of your crappy Ikea office chair. That I can handle.
I am not especially patient, though, so I was determined to find one book that was not on checked out and that I could have right away. I found After This by Alice McDermott. More on the content when I've actually finished it, but I'm nearly through with it now, so I can give a quick overview of my thoughts on the audiobook experience thus way. I think I had the option to choose how long to keep the book--1 week, 2 weeks, or 3 weeks--when I checked it out. There's no way to return it early (apparently it will just magically disappear when it's due), so the advantage of a shorter period is that it will be "returned" early, leaving more room on your account to check out books (you can only have 3 out at a time). I let it default to 2 weeks, which is going to turn out to be exactly perfect; it's due tomorrow, and I have maybe half an hour left to listen to. It's a relatively short book, though (about 280 pages, according to Amazon, which translates to just over 9 hours). My audiobook listening time is pretty much exclusively while I walk the dog and while I walk on my treadmill. I sometimes manage to put in an hour a day at these two activities, but it's never really going to go much higher than that. I am not the perfect audiobook listener. The perfect audiobook listener, I imagine, has a long, childless commute. I usually listen to podcasts when I walk, and I haven't done that at all since getting the book--partially because I've been enjoying the book, but also partially because of the time limit and the need to finish it up. Aside from the logistics, I had no idea whether I would enjoy the actual experience of listening to a book instead of reading it. We've listened to kid audiobooks on occasion in the past, but I've never listened to a grown-up one. Turns out I like it pretty well. It's a little tough sometimes to keep my mind from wandering--it's terribly inconvenient to have my mind wander, because then I have to try to go back and figure out what I missed--but I've managed okay. And there have been a few times when I've wished (particularly in light of the fact that I'm blogging about books right now) for a pen and paper so I could note some particularly interesting passage. But other than that, it's been a good experience. I think I'll probably be ready to take a break for a few days when I finish this book and catch up on podcasts. And I think I'll try to relieve the pressure by extending the check-out period next time.
That wasn't actually brief at all. I used to be so good at brevity. Like in grad school; I was a master at using Bookman Old Style to make my papers look longer without resorting to the glaringly obvious Courier. Anyway. Onward.
My Nook finally arrived, and I was very excited...but I was also in the middle of Franklin and Eleanor so I had to wait a few days to start reading on it. I spent some time playing around, though, and downloaded Calibre because I'd read that would make getting stuff onto my Nook easier. And, umm, I guess it does? I've never tried doing it any other way, so I can't really be sure.
I loaded it up with a bunch of free books from Project Gutenberg, et. al. but the North Korea book was the first book I read on it. And....it was fine. Not really a substantially different experience from just...reading a book. Except for the part where I didn't need to find somewhere to put it at the end. I feel like I should have more to say about my reading experience, after my not-brief audiobook thing. But I don't. I actually read all of Persuasion on my iphone last year, so I guess if I could handle that, it's not surprising that Nook reading didn't bother me. Also, the possibility for immediate gratification in obtaining books is quite nice. I read The Giver (Ari's current book) the other day and then bought its sequel The Messenger that same night. Of course, when I say it's "quite nice" I really mean, "potentially financially ruinous."
Re: library books. My library, as noted, has no ebooks. I was thinking of getting a non-resident card, for $40, to the library system one county over. But then a friend mentioned the Free Library of Philadelphia to me. You can apply through the mail for a non-resident card there, it's only $15, and they have more than 4000 e-books. I sent a check off immediately and am waiting breathlessly for my card. To pass the time, I look through their catalog and make lists of books I want to read--I have 35 on my list already, and I'm only midway through the As in fiction and the Fs in non-fiction. Quite a few things from my Amazon wish list are available there. Of course, as with my library, there are holds already on most of the good stuff. But most of them, except for the very new and very popular titles, only have a couple of people waiting for them. They have a big selection of audiobooks, too, and also online videos (I haven't looked around much at that to see what there is, but it could be a great homeschooling resource, too). It makes me very, very glad that I went with the Nook over the Kindle.
And now I should probably stop talking about my Nook and go read something on it!
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