Thoughts on the reading of books now.

Against all of my instincts, I'm becoming converted, almost against my knowing to the digital eBook cult. This is kind of maddening to me; because I thought the idea of eBooks was intriguing, but also a little bit stupid. How could anyone ever possibly choose a plastic hunk over a rich, textured, beautiful hardcover book?

Then we moved to Maine. This was planned to be a brief trip, not more than five years until we either set up a permanent residence or moved on to something better. So my entire library of books and comics and everything else I'd surrounded myself with was left behind in Idaho. I brought a few select titles, A couple Lawrence Watt-Evans, a Marshal Karp, Douglas Adams, Stuff that I loved to read over and over, but there was a snag. The other source of my books (The roughly 200 a year I read) had to come from library borrowing.

Turns out that libraries in small town Maine are kind of few and far between and have erratic collections and hours, mostly falling right between my times at work. My wife decided my best solution was to get an E-Reader. After a bit of research, I went with the original nook reader, primarily because is used the epub file format rather than the format and programs that the Kindle went with. I also like the layout of the reader better than the Kindle.

It took some getting used to but I eventually fell in love with books again and got quite used to the experience of reading on the device. There was also something seductive about the idea of making a few clicks and having a new title ready to read. Hey Presto!

I built up my library quickly, mostly through cheap collections and promotions and trading files with online friends, much like swapping paperbacks. Every now and then, I'd be browsing through my collection and feel a pang of desire to see the real covers, judge a book by them and the heft of the paper, whether I wanted to read it based off of the blurb on the back, but overall I was pretty happy.

Since then, my digital reader zoo has been enlarged. The old original nook, its bezel cracked and chipped after hundreds of books was set aside, replaced by a pocket edition Sony reader and books side loaded on my iPod touch. I also started listening to a lot of books on tape on my long commutes. Then I picked up the newest nook, the Glow edition. Man, I love that little thing. Lightweight, intuitive, quick, and I use the glow feature all of the time. I used to use the iPod for in bed reading but adjusting the super bright light was a bit of a pain and I hated the strain my eyes felt but the new nook allowed me to pretty much wander the darkened hall of my house as I prepared for bed, reading and winding down after a long day. I even use it as I wander the block-long driveway to get the mail.

I was the kid growing up that walked into street signs because he was reading constantly and I was back again.

Recently, my wife laid a bit of an ultimatum down on me – Go through the books on our slowly growing and overflowing bookshelf. For, although I've been good, I cannot fully resist books. They're drawn to me – Old pulp novels in back corners of antique shops, book drop off bins in grocery stores, yard sales, co-workers and friends unloading their old books on me. I take everything.

The problem is that I don't read everything. Despite my moaning about my missing library, I let the collection of books build, mostly unread. But now, change is on the wind. We are planning a move back to the West in about a year and things have to be thinned. So before another book may be bought, these orphan books must be read. If they find a permanent home with us, great. If not, they have to go, but I have to read every one first.

My nook has sat in its case for a week now, almost two. Its last screen the last page in a Robert B. Parker novel while I read through odd paperback editions of “Romance Thrillers” and gothic suspense and westerns from the forties. Some are quite good, some are Nora Roberts. I adore the texture of the paper and the simple joy of holding my place with a finger. I still love REAL BOOKS.

Then I'll go to bed and realize to read my book without waking the wife, I'll need to dig out the fiddly book light, or I'll try to hold the book in some awkward way that I'd usually find quite simple with the nook and be scuttled. I'm really surprised how the natural movements I've developed with the reader are at odds with a paperback.

My solution? I have no idea. The simple fact is that I'm happier when I'm in a room filled with books. If I visit someone and I don't see at least a few novels strewn about, my respect for them drops a notch or two, whether I mean it or not. I think a happy balance would be keeping the rare stuff, the old pulps and the nice hardbacks that I love, maybe enough for a two story library and keep the rest on my reader. That oughtta work.

How about you? Have you converted to digital exclusively? Is it from convenience or do you actually like the way of reading better?

eBook Thoughts - Whispering Ferns Update #1

I released my first self-pubbed eBook, The Whispering Ferns, roughly three weeks ago. I'd planned it as a kind of soft release, partly just to test the waters and see what exactly went into the procedure of releasing an eBook, in advance of the release of Mr. Pale Steps Out, which is my adult novel being completed right now. I hadn't planned on any real promotion, just a few posts here and there, a couple of announcements to friends

Which is good, because the second I hit publish, my personal life got busy and I haven't had time to do much of anything. Sure, I checked the stats obsessively for the first few days, but that was about it. Tonight was the first time I've checked them in a week.

So how have I done? So far, between Smashwords (Which includes Kobo, iBooks and a few other sources) Amazon and Barnes & Noble, I've sold 7 copies of my book.

Which isn't going to make me rich any time soon, but I have gotten a positive review (Which, admittedly is from a friend, but one that is always quite honest and candid, so it still felt good) and that's enough for a dinner out. As long as I don't order drinks and my wife stays home....

But y'know what? It's been super educational, and despite any misgivings, you can freaking type my (Pen) name into google or amazon and see my awesome cover. That is cool, and this is just the beginning of my journey.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go write so I have more than one book to jabber about!

eBook Thoughts #2 - What is an eBook?

What is an eBook? Essentially, its a book in digital form, designed for reading on any number of electronic devices. eBooks aren't new, people have been reading books on computers for years, but with the creation of the eReader, they've taken on a new significance. I actually remember reading a few novels and comic books on my computer back in high school... It wasn't the most pleasant of ways to do it, but they did the trick.

At the times, it was a glorified text file, often even opening in a text editing program to be read. Slowly, comic books became more widely accepted in digital form, since the geeks are usually the first to accept anything but changes to Episode IV. A few reading programs and formats came out, like the .cbr (Comic book reader) format, which was similar to a pdf file, allowing the reader to zoom in and flip pages in a more natural fashion.

Technical and scholarly books were around too, some even offered free in libraries and a few enterprising authors posted their work online for the masses to read. A large jumble of "Fan Fiction" slinked out there too. For many a young man or woman, these fan created stories about their favorite characters from movies, cartoons and video games were their first experience with the eBook reading method. (Be warned, most of Fan Fiction is sexual in nature, so search with care)

Text files are small, too. An entire library of books can take up less space than a single movie file, or a collection of photos. One early method of disseminating bootlegged, scanned copies of books on less reputable sites was to embed the novel in a photo of the cover. Downloaders could then manually change the extension and unzip the book.

eBooks are cheap too, of course. no dead trees, no dead glue monsters, the foil rats have grown to dangerous populations in Norway without the production of covers to cull the herds. All you need is a edited book, a decent cover and a computer.

But reading a book on a computer screen is kind of crappy. It's backlit, flickery, bright, fake and awkward, even on a laptop. And of course, it loses all of the charm a real book has. So for a long time, that's how things stayed.

Then e-Ink was created....

eBook Thoughts - #1 - Writing What You Love

Self Publishing eBooks.  Yeesh. I have so much to say about this, yet I find myself struggling to decide where to begin... I guess with my books. That would be a pretty cool place. I read a lot of blogs about writing and post regularly on a few forums, but I also know a few people read this blog that have no toes dipped into that pool, so I'm going to start with pretty beginner stuff here. After all, I'm a beginner.

I've always wanted to write, I filled long notebooks of rambling fantasy stuff back in junior high, longing for a computer or typewriter at home I could use to make them official. For a long time though, the urge faded. I'm not sure why, I was certainly as interested in reading as ever, but the writing side of me lay dormant.

Then my wife started writing a novel and it lit that fire again, seeing how much enjoyment she got from writing made me want to try too. So I started two very different books. A childrens novel and a book about a zombie attack. I also came up with about a dozen other ideas that I've since started to plot out.

I'm not a conventional typist, I hunt and peck with the best of 'em, however, usually just using my index fingers with an occasional tap or two from my other fingers, and writing a long book was a challenge. (Still is) But I kept at it, surprised at how the creation of the story in my head, even if no one else would read it was so therapeutic and exciting.

But a lot of my ideas are kind of unconventional. Sure, zombie books are hot right now (though I've been a fan for decades) but mine is a small scale novel, taking place in one location over the course of one eight-hour shift at a drug store. And it's told in short chapters from different points of view. My kid's book? Old school all the way. A little slow moving and good-hearted, with humor but not the scathing sarcasm that passes for humor nowadays. Mr. Pale Steps Out is a classic revenge novel that happens to take place in an alternate timeline 1960's where a biological weapon explosion has killed 85% of the population and left the rest infected or struggling to survive. And it's a short novel, pulp sized.

So I decided to write novels and promptly set about writing a bunch of books that I will never be able to sell conventionally to "Legacy" publishers. Then eBooks reared their digital heads... That's more like it!