#WDYTWed: e-book mix in the home

#WDYTWed: e-book mix in the home

In the more than ten years that I’ve been writing this blog (the first post was August 28, 2009), one of my favorite things has been interacting with the readers.

That used to happen a lot more. When I started out, I averaged 1,000 new words a day, but in more recent times, I just haven’t been able to do that. I’ve been trying to write more narratives again, but without that, the blog doesn’t tend to provoke many comments…and I miss that. I think my long time readers do, too.

One of those long time readers and amongst my most frequent commenters is Lady Galaxy, who suggested that I write something once a week with the intent of increasing interaction.

It’s a good idea. 🙂

I think the best way to do that is to do one or more polls (which I’ve done throughout the past decade).

I’ve decided to name this series #WDYTWed. WDYT is an internet abbreviation for “What Do You Think?”, and I’m going to do them on Wednesdays. Hopefully, just about every Wednesday…although I missed some recently. I work in healthcare, supporting frontline healthcare workers, primarily through training on technology…and that’s really big right now, with so much changing for the safety of our members. I really intended to do a round-up this last week, but didn’t end up with time…had a great video meeting with my family, for one thing!

This time, I was curious about whether the current situation has changed how much you are reading e-books compared to p-books (paperbooks/physicalbooks)…and I suppose some people are doing more with audiobooks, too.

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Join thousands of readers and try the free ILMK magazine at Flipboard!

All aboard The Measured Circle’s Geek Time Trip at The History Project!

Bufo’s Alexa Skills

* I am linking to the same thing at the regular Amazon site, and at AmazonSmile. When you shop at AmazonSmile, half a percent of your purchase price on eligible items goes to a non-profit you choose. It will feel just like shopping at Amazon: you’ll be using your same account. The one thing for you that is different is that you pick a non-profit the first time you go (which you can change whenever you want)…and the good feeling you’ll get.

Shop ’til you help!

This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog. To support this or other organizations, begin your Amazon shopping from a link on their sites: Amazon.com (Smile.Amazon.com)

#WDYTWed: last week’s results & long books

#WDYTWed: last week’s results & long books

In the more than ten years that I’ve been writing this blog (the first post was August 28, 2009), one of my favorite things has been interacting with the readers.

That used to happen a lot more. When I started out, I averaged 1,000 new words a day, but in more recent times, I just haven’t been able to do that. I’ve been trying to write more narratives again, but without that, the blog doesn’t tend to provoke many comments…and I miss that. I think my long time readers do, too.

One of those long time readers and amongst my most frequent commenters is Lady Galaxy, who suggested that I write something once a week with the intent of increasing interaction.

It’s a good idea. 🙂

I think the best way to do that is to do one or more polls (which I’ve done throughout the past decade).

I’ve decided to name this series #WDYTWed. WDYT is an internet abbreviation for “What Do You Think?”, and I’m going to do them on Wednesdays. Hopefully, just about every Wednesday…although I missed some recently due (at least in part) to the holidays.

Here are the results of last week’s poll:

What are you choosing to read during the current situation?

• It hasn’t affected my reading choices at all 61.9%
• I just want to get away from reality for a while, so I’m reading books with nothing to do with it 33.33%
• I’m confronting the situation, by reading books with themes similar to reality 4.76%
• I don’t know 0%

I have been consuming some related works myself, but the vast majority of respondents said it didn’t change what they were reading. I get that, but interesting to see!

So, this week…

I was thinking about people binge-watching…and about people possibly reading longer books. I don’t have more time than I did before, but I know many people do…and maybe they’ll choose to tackle a long book they’ve always meant to read:

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Join thousands of readers and try the free ILMK magazine at Flipboard!

All aboard The Measured Circle’s Geek Time Trip at The History Project!

Bufo’s Alexa Skills

* I am linking to the same thing at the regular Amazon site, and at AmazonSmile. When you shop at AmazonSmile, half a percent of your purchase price on eligible items goes to a non-profit you choose. It will feel just like shopping at Amazon: you’ll be using your same account. The one thing for you that is different is that you pick a non-profit the first time you go (which you can change whenever you want)…and the good feeling you’ll get.

Shop ’til you help!

This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog. To support this or other organizations, begin your Amazon shopping from a link on their sites: Amazon.com (Smile.Amazon.com)

#WDYTWed (on Thursday): escape or confront?

#WDYTWed (on Thursday): escape or confront?

In the more than ten years that I’ve been writing this blog (the first post was August 28, 2009), one of my favorite things has been interacting with the readers.

That used to happen a lot more. When I started out, I averaged 1,000 new words a day, but in more recent times, I just haven’t been able to do that. I’ve been trying to write more narratives again, but without that, the blog doesn’t tend to provoke many comments…and I miss that. I think my long time readers do, too.

One of those long time readers and amongst my most frequent commenters is Lady Galaxy, who suggested that I write something once a week with the intent of increasing interaction.

It’s a good idea. 🙂

I think the best way to do that is to do one or more polls (which I’ve done throughout the past decade).

I’ve decided to name this series #WDYTWed. WDYT is an internet abbreviation for “What Do You Think?”, and I’m going to do them on Wednesdays. Hopefully, just about every Wednesday…although I didn’t manage to get this out yesterday. I think most of you know, I work in healthcare, so I’ve been very busy. I don’t directly deliver patient care, but I support the people who do. I train doctors & other medical staff, and they are all learning new workflows right now. That’s not just specific to the current pandemic, but there is a big shift to “telehealth”, which requires new skills or honing existing ones.

My question this week has to do with how the current situation is affecting what you read.

I’ve noticed that there seem to be two broad trends.

One is escapism. People want to read (or watch or listen to or play) works that having nothing whatsoever to do with the real world. A lot of people are looking for happy endings. Those people might read, say, cozy mysteries or Regency romances (ones without “consumption”, of course).

On the other hand, some people are choosing works which directly involve plagues & pandemics, or post-Apocalyptic scenarios.

I suspect the latter may surprise some who are choosing escapism. Why would you want more of it?

I think it may have to do with control. If you are reading Stephen King’s The Stand, or Jack London’s The Scarlet Plague, or Richard Matheson’s I Am Legend (the last can really resonate with social distancing), you can simply close the book (physically or electronically) and walk away for a while to reset your head. It’s sort of like exposure therapy for a phobia…you confront it while there is a control factor that doesn’t exist in spontaneous encounters.

So, what’s your choice?

By the way, this is a time I’m particularly grateful for e-books. We aren’t restricted to just the books we had in our houses when we might have found ourselves unexpectedly at home. We can just download more if we need them.

I’ll be interested to see the answer to this one! I’ll let you know, I’ve sought out resonant works. I rewatched my favorite version of I Am Legend, The Last Man on Earth with Vincent Price (available on Prime Video in the USA). However, I’ve also continued reading other books I was reading…the only change for me is the “confront” choice.

Feel free to let me and my readers know what you are reading by commenting on this post! If you have other thoughts, those are welcome, too. I haven’t been particularly responsive lately, but I always appreciate seeing those comments!

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Join thousands of readers and try the free ILMK magazine at Flipboard!

All aboard The Measured Circle’s Geek Time Trip at The History Project!

Bufo’s Alexa Skills

* I am linking to the same thing at the regular Amazon site, and at AmazonSmile. When you shop at AmazonSmile, half a percent of your purchase price on eligible items goes to a non-profit you choose. It will feel just like shopping at Amazon: you’ll be using your same account. The one thing for you that is different is that you pick a non-profit the first time you go (which you can change whenever you want)…and the good feeling you’ll get.

Shop ’til you help!

This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog. To support this or other organizations, begin your Amazon shopping from a link on their sites: Amazon.com (Smile.Amazon.com)

#WDYTWed: last week’s results & isolated TBR

#WDYTWed: last week’s results & isolated TBR

In the more than ten years that I’ve been writing this blog (the first post was August 28, 2009), one of my favorite things has been interacting with the readers.

That used to happen a lot more. When I started out, I averaged 1,000 new words a day, but in more recent times, I just haven’t been able to do that. I’ve been trying to write more narratives again, but without that, the blog doesn’t tend to provoke many comments…and I miss that. I think my long time readers do, too.

One of those long time readers and amongst my most frequent commenters is Lady Galaxy, who suggested that I write something once a week with the intent of increasing interaction.

It’s a good idea. 🙂

I think the best way to do that is to do one or more polls (which I’ve done throughout the past decade).

I’ve decided to name this series #WDYTWed. WDYT is an internet abbreviation for “What Do You Think?”, and I’m going to do them on Wednesdays. Hopefully, just about every Wednesday…although I missed some recently due (at least in part) to the holidays.

Last week, I shared the results of the previous week’s poll(s), and I decided to do that again:

This one fascinated me and was a difficult choice for my readers! I asked if you could only fund one, schools or public libraries (there was more context to it than that), which would you choose?

If you didn’t have enough money to keep both schools and libraries open, which would you fund?

• I would fund libraries: 35.29%
• I would fund schools: 35.29%
• I could never make that choice: 17.65%
• Other: 11.75%
• I don’t know: 0%

Yes, that’s right…it was a tie! Clearly, in a perfect world, we would fund them both.

So, this week…

I think you can probably guess what inspired me on this, but here we go: if the internet went down and you couldn’t leave your house (or have books delivered), how many unread books would you have available to you? Count p-books (paperbooks) and e-books you already have on your devices (including ones you have on back-ups that you could transfer to something on which you could read them), but not e-books in the cloud,

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Join thousands of readers and try the free ILMK magazine at Flipboard!

All aboard The Measured Circle’s Geek Time Trip at The History Project!

Bufo’s Alexa Skills

* I am linking to the same thing at the regular Amazon site, and at AmazonSmile. When you shop at AmazonSmile, half a percent of your purchase price on eligible items goes to a non-profit you choose. It will feel just like shopping at Amazon: you’ll be using your same account. The one thing for you that is different is that you pick a non-profit the first time you go (which you can change whenever you want)…and the good feeling you’ll get.

Shop ’til you help!

This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog. To support this or other organizations, begin your Amazon shopping from a link on their sites: Amazon.com (Smile.Amazon.com)

#WDYTWed: last week’s results & where do you read your e-books?

#WDYTWed: last week’s results & alphabetical author bingo

In the more than ten years that I’ve been writing this blog (the first post was August 28, 2009), one of my favorite things has been interacting with the readers.

That used to happen a lot more. When I started out, I averaged 1,000 new words a day, but in more recent times, I just haven’t been able to do that. I’ve been trying to write more narratives again, but without that, the blog doesn’t tend to provoke many comments…and I miss that. I think my long time readers do, too.

One of those long time readers and amongst my most frequent commenters is Lady Galaxy, who suggested that I write something once a week with the intent of increasing interaction.

It’s a good idea. 🙂

I think the best way to do that is to do one or more polls (which I’ve done throughout the past decade).

I’ve decided to name this series #WDYTWed. WDYT is an internet abbreviation for “What Do You Think?”, and I’m going to do them on Wednesdays. Hopefully, just about every Wednesday…although I missed some recently due (at least in part) to the holidays.

Last week, I shared the results of the previous week’s poll(s), and I decided to do that again:

An alphabet of authors…which of them have you read? (I’ve read them all)

• Edgar Allan Poe 11.81%
• Agatha Christie 9.72%
• George Orwell 9.72%
• Isaac Asimov 8.33%
• Edgar Rice Burroughs 6.94%
• Richard Scarry 6.94%
• John Updike 6.25%
• Lucy Maud Montgomery 5.56%
• Henrik Ibsen 4.86%
• Harlan Ellison 4.17%
• Andy Weir 4.17%
• Roger Zelazny 4.17%
• Larry Niven 3.47%
• Hugh Lofting 2.78%
• H. Rider Haggard 2.08%
• H.A. Rey 2.08%
• Gerald Durrell 1.39%
• Jane Yolen 1.39%
• Other: 1.39%
• Norton Juster 0.69%
• Sorry, I’ve never actually read Malcolm X 😉 Well, excerpts… 0.69%
• Walter Tevis 0.69%
• A.E. Van Vogt 0.69%
• Egon Friedell 0%
• Ron Goulart 0%
• John A. Keel 0%

I’m not too surprised by Egon Friedell (pretty obscure). Ron Goulart is fun science fiction (as well as others). I did think some of my readers would have read John A. Keel: he has had a movie made from one of his books starring Richard Gere, and had at least two TV series apparently inspired by him (Kolchak: The Night Stalker and Miracles, both shows I really liked). He’s a Fortean author, writing about strange happenings, but in a very every day way…almost like paranormal noir. The Mothman Prophecies is the one that was made into a movie…

So, this week…

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Join thousands of readers and try the free ILMK magazine at Flipboard!

All aboard The Measured Circle’s Geek Time Trip at The History Project!

Bufo’s Alexa Skills

* I am linking to the same thing at the regular Amazon site, and at AmazonSmile. When you shop at AmazonSmile, half a percent of your purchase price on eligible items goes to a non-profit you choose. It will feel just like shopping at Amazon: you’ll be using your same account. The one thing for you that is different is that you pick a non-profit the first time you go (which you can change whenever you want)…and the good feeling you’ll get.

Shop ’til you help!

This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog. To support this or other organizations, begin your Amazon shopping from a link on their sites: Amazon.com (Smile.Amazon.com)

#WDYTWed: last week’s results & alphabetical author bingo

#WDYTWed: last week’s results & alphabetical author bingo

In the more than ten years that I’ve been writing this blog (the first post was August 28, 2009), one of my favorite things has been interacting with the readers.

That used to happen a lot more. When I started out, I averaged 1,000 new words a day, but in more recent times, I just haven’t been able to do that. I’ve been trying to write more narratives again, but without that, the blog doesn’t tend to provoke many comments…and I miss that. I think my long time readers do, too.

One of those long time readers and amongst my most frequent commenters is Lady Galaxy, who suggested that I write something once a week with the intent of increasing interaction.

It’s a good idea. 🙂

I think the best way to do that is to do one or more polls (which I’ve done throughout the past decade).

I’ve decided to name this series #WDYTWed. WDYT is an internet abbreviation for “What Do You Think?”, and I’m going to do them on Wednesdays. Hopefully, just about every Wednesday…although I missed some recently due (at least in part) to the holidays

I haven’t been talking about the results much, but last week’s really interested me!

Compare the number of p-books in your home now to ten years ago…

• I have fewer p-books now than ten years ago 75%
• I have more p-books now than ten years ago 10.71%
• It’s about the same 10.71%
• Other: 3.57%
• I don’t know 0%

For format, I commonly read

• Just e-books 61.54%
• Both 23.08%
• Other: 15.38%
• Just p-books 0%
• I don’t read 0%
• I read some other way (audiobooks, for example) 0%

I also did one on how old the oldest p-book in your home was…and 22.22% said they had one more than 100 years old!

So, what intrigued me? These results are what people might have predicted for e-books…oh, maybe 5 years ago. Massive reductions in the number of p-books in the home, and more than half of respondents reading just e-books (and nearly 85% reading some e-books). Of course, my sample will be skewed, but still…maybe e-books have been quietly gaining more market share.

So, this week…

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Join thousands of readers and try the free ILMK magazine at Flipboard!

All aboard The Measured Circle’s Geek Time Trip at The History Project!

Bufo’s Alexa Skills

* I am linking to the same thing at the regular Amazon site, and at AmazonSmile. When you shop at AmazonSmile, half a percent of your purchase price on eligible items goes to a non-profit you choose. It will feel just like shopping at Amazon: you’ll be using your same account. The one thing for you that is different is that you pick a non-profit the first time you go (which you can change whenever you want)…and the good feeling you’ll get.

Shop ’til you help!

This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog. To support this or other organizations, begin your Amazon shopping from a link on their sites: Amazon.com (Smile.Amazon.com)

#WDYTWed: your p-books

#WDYTWed: your p-books

In the more than ten years that I’ve been writing this blog (the first post was August 28, 2009), one of my favorite things has been interacting with the readers.

That used to happen a lot more. When I started out, I averaged 1,000 new words a day, but in more recent times, I just haven’t been able to do that. I’ve been trying to write more narratives again, but without that, the blog doesn’t tend to provoke many comments…and I miss that. I think my long time readers do, too.

One of those long time readers and amongst my most frequent commenters is Lady Galaxy, who suggested that I write something once a week with the intent of increasing interaction.

It’s a good idea. 🙂

I think the best way to do that is to do one or more polls (which I’ve done throughout the past decade).

I’ve decided to name this series #WDYTWed. WDYT is an internet abbreviation for “What Do You Think?”, and I’m going to do them on Wednesdays. Hopefully, just about every Wednesday…although I missed some recently due (at least in part) to the holidays

As I’ve been winnowing my books (donating them to author Loren Coleman’s International Cryptozoology Museum for the most part), and walking by a Little Free Library (where people can leave or take books), it got me thinking about the p-books (paper/printed/physical books) in your homes.

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Join thousands of readers and try the free ILMK magazine at Flipboard!

All aboard The Measured Circle’s Geek Time Trip at The History Project!

Bufo’s Alexa Skills

* I am linking to the same thing at the regular Amazon site, and at AmazonSmile. When you shop at AmazonSmile, half a percent of your purchase price on eligible items goes to a non-profit you choose. It will feel just like shopping at Amazon: you’ll be using your same account. The one thing for you that is different is that you pick a non-profit the first time you go (which you can change whenever you want)…and the good feeling you’ll get.

Shop ’til you help!

This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog. To support this or other organizations, begin your Amazon shopping from a link on their sites: Amazon.com (Smile.Amazon.com)

#WDYTWed: required reading

#WDYTWed: required reading

In the more than ten years that I’ve been writing this blog (the first post was August 28, 2009), one of my favorite things has been interacting with the readers.

That used to happen a lot more. When I started out, I averaged 1,000 new words a day, but in more recent times, I just haven’t been able to do that. I’ve been trying to write more narratives again, but without that, the blog doesn’t tend to provoke many comments…and I miss that. I think my long time readers do, too.

One of those long time readers and amongst my most frequent commenters is Lady Galaxy, who suggested that I write something once a week with the intent of increasing interaction.

It’s a good idea. 🙂

I think the best way to do that is to do one or more polls (which I’ve done throughout the past decade).

I’ve decided to name this series #WDYTWed. WDYT is an internet abbreviation for “What Do You Think?”, and I’m going to do them on Wednesdays. Hopefully, just about every Wednesday…although I missed some recently due (at least in part) to the holidays

Yesterday, a number of classic book titles were trending on Twitter, and I was curious to see why. Well, apparently, it was people objecting to having to read the books as required reading in school.

As regular readers know, I’m not a big fan of required reading. I totally understand the idea of analyzing a book, and of course, it’s only really possible to do that in a school situation if the teacher is familiar with the book…and makes the most sense if you are doing it in a group. That not only allows a clearcut curriculum, but it helps for students to hear other students’ opinions.

On the other hand, I greatly prefer (and preferred) to make my own reading choices. While I can’t help but analyze everything I read, I don’t want to approach a book as an assignment.

Let’s start with some (there are many others) commonly assigned books to get you thinking about it:

Now, how do you feel about having had assigned reading?

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Join thousands of readers and try the free ILMK magazine at Flipboard!

All aboard The Measured Circle’s Geek Time Trip at The History Project!

Bufo’s Alexa Skills

* I am linking to the same thing at the regular Amazon site, and at AmazonSmile. When you shop at AmazonSmile, half a percent of your purchase price on eligible items goes to a non-profit you choose. It will feel just like shopping at Amazon: you’ll be using your same account. The one thing for you that is different is that you pick a non-profit the first time you go (which you can change whenever you want)…and the good feeling you’ll get.

Shop ’til you help!

 

This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog. To support this or other organizations, begin your Amazon shopping from a link on their sites: Amazon.com (Smile.Amazon.com)

#WDYTWed: Amazon’s 3 pillars

#WDYTWed: Amazon’s 3 pillars

In the more than ten years that I’ve been writing this blog (the first post was August 28, 2009), one of my favorite things has been interacting with the readers.

That used to happen a lot more. When I started out, I averaged 1,000 new words a day, but in more recent times, I just haven’t been able to do that. I’ve been trying to write more narratives again, but without that, the blog doesn’t tend to provoke many comments…and I miss that. I think my long time readers do, too.

One of those long time readers and amongst my most frequent commenters is Lady Galaxy, who suggested that I write something once a week with the intent of increasing interaction.

It’s a good idea. 🙂

I think the best way to do that is to do one or more polls (which I’ve done throughout the past decade).

I’ve decided to name this series #WDYTWed. WDYT is an internet abbreviation for “What Do You Think?”, and I’m going to do them on Wednesdays. Hopefully, just about every Wednesday…

Today, I wanted to check something with you which Amazon has done that I really admire. They have three pillars: Selection, Service, Price (I’m summarizing these myself, that might not be their exact words). I loved when Jeff Bezos was asked if they had to do things differently in, say, China (this is from my memory). His response was that logistics might be different (more bicycle deliveries, perhaps), but that the three pillars were consistent. Nowhere in the world do people say, “I wish you had fewer choices, it took longer to me, and it cost more.” 😉

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Join thousands of readers and try the free ILMK magazine at Flipboard!

All aboard The Measured Circle’s Geek Time Trip at The History Project!

Bufo’s Alexa Skills

* I am linking to the same thing at the regular Amazon site, and at AmazonSmile. When you shop at AmazonSmile, half a percent of your purchase price on eligible items goes to a non-profit you choose. It will feel just like shopping at Amazon: you’ll be using your same account. The one thing for you that is different is that you pick a non-profit the first time you go (which you can change whenever you want)…and the good feeling you’ll get.

Shop ’til you help!

 

This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog. To support this or other organizations, begin your Amazon shopping from a link on their sites: Amazon.com (Smile.Amazon.com)

#WDYTWed: author interactions

#WDYTWed: author interactions

In the more than ten years that I’ve been writing this blog (the first post was August 28, 2009), one of my favorite things has been interacting with the readers.

That used to happen a lot more. When I started out, I averaged 1,000 new words a day, but in more recent times, I just haven’t been able to do that. I’ve been trying to write more narratives again, but without that, the blog doesn’t tend to provoke many comments…and I miss that. I think my long time readers do, too.

One of those long time readers and amongst my most frequent commenters is Lady Galaxy, who suggested that I write something once a week with the intent of increasing interaction.

It’s a good idea. 🙂

I think the best way to do that is to do one or more polls (which I’ve done throughout the past decade).

I’ve decided to name this series #WDYTWed. WDYT is an internet abbreviation for “What Do You Think?”, and I’m going to do them on Wednesdays. Hopefully, just about every Wednesday, although I missed a couple recently. Good reason, though: a happy family event…

I read a lot of posts from the “writing community” on Twitter. I’m always surprised at how much shared language and how many shared concepts there are. There can be very shorthand references to tropes and terminology, and most people seem to know them. Perhaps that’s through higher education, with people taking similar courses? Maybe that’s from popular “how to” books? Not sure…

Anyway…

One thing that comes up for me is the amount of social interaction encouraged between authors and readers.

No question, when I have had some interactions with authors (as a reader), it’s had a significant impact on me.

So, for today’s poll, what kind of interactions have you had?

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Join thousands of readers and try the free ILMK magazine at Flipboard!

All aboard The Measured Circle’s Geek Time Trip at The History Project!

Bufo’s Alexa Skills

* I am linking to the same thing at the regular Amazon site, and at AmazonSmile. When you shop at AmazonSmile, half a percent of your purchase price on eligible items goes to a non-profit you choose. It will feel just like shopping at Amazon: you’ll be using your same account. The one thing for you that is different is that you pick a non-profit the first time you go (which you can change whenever you want)…and the good feeling you’ll get.

Shop ’til you help!

 

This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog. To support this or other organizations, begin your Amazon shopping from a link on their sites: Amazon.com (Smile.Amazon.com)