Books

10/1/2012

Books

Amazon, my electronic books in particular, love me.  Since I’ve been on vacation this past week I have bored through a lot of books and getting new ones to read is particularly easy with one click buying.  So on Friday, I decided to return to what was once my favorite haunt – the library.  Did I want to go?  Not really but I was trying to be economical if only for a day.

The library hasn’t changed much in the years since I’ve been inside.  People are still sitting at computers doing research (I assume), some are reading and others, like me, are browsing the aisles looking for a good read.  It is not true what they say – you can judge a book by its cover – at least I do.  As my fingers trace along the spines of the books (in alphabetical order of course), I’m looking for a pleasant picture.  Porch, winding flowers, awnings on shops – well you get the idea.  Mind you, that just because the book looks pleasant doesn’t necessarily make it a good read; but, it’s a good place to start.

I find several pleasant looking books with peaceful titles like “The Wedding Machine”.  I get them home and plop into my reading chair which is also where my reading glasses live - hence the title reading chair.  I open the first book eager with anticipation and realize that the print is very small and that unlike my Kindle I can’t magnify the stupid page and even with my reading glasses, it’s a strain.  Darn it all.  Okay I toss that book aside and grab up another.  This one I can actually see the print but the story is weak and the characters boring.  I only took out four books and I’m already down two.    I hit pay dirt with the third book, engaging, fun story, bright characters and a predictable plot.  But, I stayed the course and finished the book and it wasn’t bad but it wasn’t good enough to get me to read the author’s other books either.

Truthfully, by the end of Saturday I had put my library books on the chest all ready to be returned to the library sometime next week.  Economics be damned I went back to Amazon, typed in the name of the last book I read that I enjoyed so that I could get that lovely line-up of similar books.  Of course you can have a sample for free so that you don’t have to commit to a book you eventually find you don’t want.  I like it when I select a book and Amazon gently reminds me that I already own that book.  It’s easy to do especially since I have 15 screens of book titles on my Kindle, most of which I have read.  There are some sleepers in there to be sure that I should probably delete because I’m not suddenly going to become interested in the book in the future.

 While browsing for a book on my phone, which was a big mistake, one of my big fingers selected some boring research book about economics.  I pushed everything on the screen that I could to make that purchase go away – particularly since that book was $35.00 and probably dry as toast!  Luckily, you are given 7 days to return an electronic purchase and I was able to get my money back.  But, there for a moment I was sweating and dreading how I was going to explain to Jeff why I had spent $35.00 on a book and a research book at that.

So I’m off library books again and back to the Kindle which I have grown to love.  So apologies to Jeff for my reading habit which I find hard to control.   On the plus side there are fewer stacks of books, I don’t or won’t read mocking me as they sit around collecting dust.

Happy Monday.

P