On Today’s Bookshelf (VI)

My bookshelves are groaning under the weight of my to-be-read acquisitions. Fortunately, ebooks don’t weigh much.

My newest hardcover acquisitions include:

• Behind the Dream by Clarence B. Jones (story behind Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech)
• How to Write a Sentence and How to Read One by Stanley Fish
• Ratification: The People Debate the Constitution, 1787-1788 by Pauline Maier

My ebook acquisitions include (an asterisk [*] following a book title indicates that I have completed reading the listed book):

Fiction

• Olivia’s Kiss* by Catherine Durkin Robinson (see my review of this book: On Books: Olivia’s Kiss)
• The Hunger Games Trilogy: The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, and Mockingjay* by Suzanne Collins (good series but not outstanding, although its appeal to young adult readers is evident)
• Lady from the Jade Mountain by Jonathan Saville
• The Man with the Iron-On Badge* by Lee Goldberg (excellent police-procedural-type story; well worth reading)
• An Agent of the King by Nigel Slater
• Faithful Warrior* by Basil Sands (not particularly well-written or interesting)
• The First Betrayal by Patricia Bray
• The complete Lord Vorkosigan* Series by Lois McMaster Bujold (an excellent and highly recommended series)
• The complete Vatta’s War* Series by Elizabeth Moon Bujold (it, too, is excellent and highly recommended)
• The complete Heris Serrano Series by Elizabeth Moon
• The Healer’s Apprentice by Melanie Dickerson
• New York: The Novel by Edward Rutherfurd
• Carved in Bone* by Jefferson Bass (an excellent murder mystery)
• Daughters* by Consuelo Saah Baehr (well-written and interesting story of multiple generations of Arab daughters; similar to the outstanding Shayne Parkinson Promises to Keep quartet reviewed in On Books: Promises to Keep are Promises Kept)
• Starlighter by Bryan Davis
• A Plunder by Pilgrims by Jack Nolte
• The Sword Lord by Robert Leader
• Justice is Served by D.P. Clark
• Champion of the Rose by Andrea Höst
• The Borgias by Alexandre Dumas
• Ameriqaeda* by Markus Kane (a well-written thriller that imagines home grown terrorism in America)

Nonfiction

• Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years by Diarmaid MacCulloch (I bought this in hardcover but it still sits in my TBR pile, so I decided to buy the ebook version as well in hopes of getting to it sooner; the result is that I have finally started this long tome)
• Honor Killing: Race, Rape, and Clarence Darrow’s Spectacular Last Case by David E. Stannard
• A Magnificient Catastrophe* by Edward J. Larson (see my review of this book: On Books: A Magnificient Catastrophe)

As you can see just by the length of the lists, in the past couple of months I have been more involved in reading fiction than nonfiction, and definitely more involved in ebook reading than print book reading. (Many of the fiction ebooks are available for free or for nominal cost at Smashwords. If you are willing to give indie authors a chance, you can obtain myriad ebooks, ranging in quality from poor to outstanding, with most falling in the good to above average range, for $2.99 or less — all the way down to free — at places like Smashwords, Feedbooks, and Manybooks.)

Although I have been trending toward reading more ebooks than pbooks, the trend really accelerated with the purchase of my new Sony 950 in late October. Reading on the device is so pleasurable, that I almost hate to pickup a hardcover book.

My browsing habits have also changed. In previous months and years, you could almost set your watch by my at-least-once-weekly habit of going to my local bookstore and browsing the new nonfiction releases and buying several books. Except to buy a new opera, I haven’t been to the local bookstore in a couple of months.

A recent New York Times article discussed the impact ereading devices are having on children. Apparently, the devices were high on the holiday wishlists of many children and for those who received one, has changed their leisure habits. One 11-year-old girl featured in the article has spent significantly more time reading and less time on the computer or watching TV since receiving an ereader for the holiday.

Although I rarely watched TV before getting my first ereader (a Sony 505), my habits, as I have noted in various articles on this blog, also changed. I began reading more fiction and more books overall. This change has been reinforced with the acquisition of my Sony 950.

Perhaps as these ereaders gain traction among the very young, reading will have a renaissance, something that would definitely be worthwhile.

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