Ramblings on Romance Etcetera. Etcetera: Why this hipster Granny loves Ereading

Yep, I can now call myself a hipster granny – 'cause I am one!

I didn’t think I would ever be an ereader. Amongst my ‘people’ – fellow romance readers – I was a hold out. I had no intention of doing ereading. I love the feeling of a good book. Years and years ago I was at a Romantic Times convention in Toronto On and they had a prototype for demonstration and I vividly recall thinking that it was a really dumb idea and no one would want to give up print books for such a thing. But fast forward a number of years later and the world of ereading has indeed taken off once technology started catching up with demand, making ereading an alternate way of reading a book.

But still I resisted until there were too many books I wanted to read that were only available as ebooks. I sat in on a seminar on different ereaders at an RWA conference a few years ago to hear the pros and cons and I ended up thinking a Kobo would best suit my needs. Books on Kindles and Nooks weren’t easily available in Canada. So it wasn’t long after I got home when I got one and loaded up a few books. It came with 100 free books but none of them really appealed to me to be honest. But I managed to figure out how to buy them from Chapters and I also got Caliber if I got any ebooks from an epublisher directly. I would take it to work and was astonished that many people I work with had no idea what is was and I spent many a lunch hour explaining what it was and how it worked. It seemed odd as I had just come from a group where I was a bit of dinosaur to a group where I was a tech-type leader. Me! A leader in technology. Whoever would have thought such a thing?

I was still maybe 75% print books to 25% ebooks and most of the ebooks I was reading were only available as ebooks.

But then my world was really rocked and my reading turned upside down when I got an IPad!!! It came with IBooks and I uploaded/downloaded (I don’t really know the difference) the Kobo app and the Kindle app and I was off to the races. From that moment on it turned around completely and I became 98% ebooks as opposed to 2% print. And for some of those who are older dinosaurs than I am, here are some perks

Colour covers that no one else can see. OK – I confess (and have many times) I can be sucked in by a good looking guy on a cover. But reading a print book in public with such a cover – even more so if he’s mostly naked – can be a bit intimidating and opening myself up somewhat to possible mockery. With an ebook, one doesn’t have to wonder about that. My original Kobo only had the covers in black, white and gray. But I love the colour.

Changing font size. I LOVE this feature of ebooks. My vision – it ain’t what it used to be. And it often changes throughout the day. My eyes are tired more towards the end of the day so it’s easy peasy to make it bigger. When I read the 2% print books, I have to wear reading glasses and hold the book right up to my nose. With and ereader, I don’t have to worry about that.

Traveling. I know a lot of you will be nodding at this one but when packing for a trip somewhere the big question isn’t what clothes to take but rather what books to take. What if I were to take a Western and wasn’t in the mood to read a Western. Then I have to add a RS. But what if the Suspense is much greater than the Romance and I’m more in the mood for a romance. So I have to add a historical. But what if the heroine of that one is a twit and drives me nuts. So I bring a contemporary. And so on. And what if I go on a real reading frenzy. I’ll need more than just those books. The mind boggles. But with an ereader my choices are almost limitless. I have books on Kindle, books on Kobo and books on Ipad. Surely I’ll find something and it won’t weigh down my suitcase. I kid you not when I tell you a few years ago, before I started reading ebooks, I went to an RWA conference – AND BROUGHT 5 BOOKS WITH ME!!! The insanity of it. Here I was at a place where they are handed out almost like candy and I brought some from home.

Always having my bestest of the best within reach. I’ve been slowly collecting my favourite all time books on my Ipad. It’s so damn comforting to have them handy, never far from me. I’m very much a mood reader and if I’m in a sad mood, I don’t have to plow through boxes or shelves to find say – One Summer to read and cheer me up.

Savings on purses. Before I carried at least 3 books with me at all times. As Canada doesn’t have $1 or $2 bills now, instead of paper, we have heavy coins. You add heavy coins, 3 books and a bunch of pens, wallet and all other things I carry in a purse and I was often having the straps break on me, causing me to have to buy more purses. Now with just the one device that doesn’t weigh that much, my purse is lighter and I also don’t have so sore of shoulders anymore.

Space in the house. Oh my goodness yes – space. Though I still don’t have it because I have culled my books yet – I have well over 2,000 to go through – 36 BOXES alone in one of the bedrooms, when I get around to that job I will have ever so much more space – specially in that bedroom because right now there isn’t even room for a bed. It’s the handiest thing in the world to have them all on ONE SINGLE IPAD instead of 36 BOXES in the bedroom

Not having to worry about my anality. Because yes, I am anal about keeping my books in mint condition. I was reading a rare one the other day and I got it new in 1996 and while they pages have yellowed considerably; it looks like it’s never been read. Folding pages or breaking spines or making border notes or anything like that is simply not done in my world to my books! My sisters making fun of me for it, one of them even to the point of deliberately breaking books signs when she sees me. That hurts me as well as the book. I have enough physcosees so it’s nice to be able to dump one.

My IPad is backlit! I love that. I can read in bed with no lights on. When I’ve read enough I don’t have to reach over and turn out a light or I don’t have to look around and think to myself – I really should be cleaning this room up. It’s dark in the room!

Orientation. I know it’s a small thing, but it’s kind of nice to be able to hold it horizontally or vertically. When I hold it horizontally and it’s a Kobo book, I even have it set to two pages just like a real book

Emotional overload. I love emotional reads, but sometimes I take them too much to heart and need a break. With my IPad, I can quickly flip over to a game and play that for a bit of a break before I'm ready again to tackle the emotional. What's really bad - and it's happened - is I've taken a break from an emotional book, put it down and then can't remember where I put it. Now that drives me crazy.

Free books. This needs to be repeated. FREE BOOKS. Kindle has quite a nice selection of free books you can download. They (or the author – not sure which) have this ingenious idea of having the first book of some series free of charge. It’s happened three times now just recently where the first book was free and I loved it so much that I went back and bought up the rest of the series and possibly more. This happened with both Peggy L. Henderson and Brenda Rothert, my two eauthor highlights. In both cases, I not only bought the whole series but also other books by the author. I can’t imagine going into a book store and trying to bargain with them to give me the first book of a series free and I’ll buy the rest if I like it.