There’s a short interview with me, about my book, up on Kipp Poe’s blog.
I met Mr. Poe, an author, on the Kindleboards, which I’ve just recently found. If you have a Kindle, or have downloaded a Kindle app onto another kind of e-reader, it’s an excellent message board where you can chat with other Kindle owners and readers, as well as authors of Kindle books. If you don’t have some kind of e-reader – I can’t believe I’m saying this – but I highly recommend one. A lot of e-books are really low-priced compared to physical books (owing to the comparatively low production and distribution costs), and I’ve found reading books digitally surprisingly enjoyable, which I never thought I’d say. They’re easy to fit in your bag, you can read anywhere because of the internal light, and, like I said, you can buy books for a small fraction of the regular price.
About a year and a half ago, when I needed a new cell phone, I bought an iPhone and downloaded the various e-reader apps to test how I’d like reading books digitally. I didn’t think I would but I needed a new phone and was sick of T-Mobile so I figured what the hell. Now I read so much on my iPhone – not everything but a great deal. You can buy Kindle books (if you have an Amazon account) directly through the phone without having to be connected to a computer. And of course they download right away; no waiting for delivery. Only real drawback of the iPhone is the short battery life… I’ve heard the Kindle and iPad don’t have those problems though.
Yet by having an e reader and telling people to get one, you’ll end up putty Librarians (soon to be me!) out of a job. Thanks Tonya. 😉 Just Kidding! I want a kindle just to read my school pdf files so I don’t have to keep printing them. Other than that, I go to the library. It’s faster, cheaper and hey get this! It’s free 🙂
Oh no! Well, in the future, don’t you think libraries will carry vast digital collections?
I go to the library a lot too – that’s where I get most of my print books!
It’s a huge debate in the library world right now. Frankly in my opinion they will carry them just like they do audio books, dvds, and CDs but there will always be books because there will always be a segment of the population that can read but doesn’t ever have enough money to buy the equipment to read stuff on e-readers. But no I don’t think they’ll be vast. And especially right now there are no fair use (which is how libraries are able to have books/cds/dvds/audio books) policies or even practices for e-reader material. The loaning of books for e readers is coming (it kind of “premiered” so to speak at the book festival in DC last year) but its still going to be a while.