A trip to the bookstore!

My hubby’s birthday was yesterday.  He took the day off, I baked him a cake, and we spent the day at home not doing much of anything as he tried to decide what to do for his special day.  That evening we went out for sushi, and he finally decided what he wanted to do for his special evening.  So we left the restaurant and drove over to the bookstore. Yay!

Now, aside from a quick trip to Barnes and Noble last week, I had not visited a bookstore in over a year.  I can thank Amazon for that.  It is just too easy to download a book from my Kindle.  And even if I want to get a certain book in print, all I have to do is pick up my laptop (or presently, my iPad).  Sample chapters and synopses are available online, and I can have a book shipped to me as soon as the following day, if I’m willing to pay for it.  It just makes it too easy to brush aside a bookstore trip, and now I think I am beginning to regret staying away.

Of course, having no kids in tow made strolling up and down the aisles quite peaceful, but even if they had been with us it would have been just as enjoyable.  Browsing through the books - so many books to choose from, too - is just plain fun. It is refreshing.  And it gives you something to look forward to when you get home.  You don’t really get that feeling from a digital book.  

We browsed around until closing time.  We went in different directions, bumping into each other here and there.  I started off at the new releases and hot sellers, mostly gardening books due to the time of year.  From there I meandered into the Fantasy/Sci-Fi section.  I found a book by Karin Lowachee, called The Gaslight Dogs.  I had read a review a few days before by The Fantasy Cafe blog, and it was not a bad review. I read a few pages, and the Charlaine Harris section caught my eye.  I haven’t read any of her books, but I am hooked on the HBO True Blood series, and my sister is an ardent Charlaine Harris fan.  Something else caught my attention before I could pick up her latest book, however.  There is something about the fantasy and science fiction book aisles that give me a weird case of ADD.

The ADD eased off once I hit the Humor section, and by the time I hit the General Reference section I was back in the real world, sort of.  By the time I heard the closing announcement, I was in the Children’s section, desperately trying to decide which books to choose.  Hubby already had his, tucked under his arm.  Finally, my practical side took over and I chose just one book- a book I could read to the little ones.  But that’s OK.  It gives me an excuse to go back.

I made it a point to blog about our bookstore trip so I could come back to this while I am clicking my way around blogs and hopefully remember how cool it is to go to a bookstore.  I am the quintessential gadget girl.  I love to play with electronic stuff.  I own a Kindle, a Sony E-reader, and an iPad.  I have plenty of e-books.  But I also love the feel of a nice thick tome.  I like to skim through pages and sometimes sneak a peek ahead.  I like to book shop; I like to scan and see which covers catch my attention and read the back cover to see if the story piques my curiosity.  I had forgotten how that feels during this past year, and I don’t want to forget again.  Besides, I have a book coming out sometime this fall, and I cannot wait to hold it in my hands.  And I really want people to buy my print book over my e-book.  If people stop buying books, they will become too expensive to print, and the bookstores will eventually go away.   And that would be horrible.  So I think I will back away from the e-books for a bit and go back to my local bookstore to buy some real books.  My publisher, Silver Leaf Books, has released several books this year that sound like an interesting read, so I shall start my book shopping spree by ordering some books from my fellow authors.

Writing in places I have never written before

The typos you may see in this post were left there deliberately.  I am on my patio steps tapping away on my touch screen keyboard on my almost 2 week old iPad. There are hundreds of reviews on this little (or should I say not that little) gadget, so I am not going to write a mini essay on the pros and cons of the iPad.  I have found some cool things, and some not-so-cool things about it.  however, I will get you guys in on how it delivers when it comes to the two reasons I decided to break open my piggy bank and invest in a first generation, likely overpriced model tablet 'computer'.

the main reason was to have something I could take with me and write. If you have read my earlier posts you probably remember my despair at how my iTouch did not quite cut it for me when it came to writing. The keyboard was just too small. The iPad seemed to be the right size, but early reviewers mostly hated the touch keyboard. I was waffling, but decided to pre-order it anyway.  Then I found out that shipments were delayed for Apple Store orders.  No biggie, I just dragged my sister off to the nearest Apple store on Saturday morning , about 40 minutes away.  At least I would be able to play with it before deciding if this was the right gadget for me.  As it turned out, it took me no time to get used to the keyboard.  My speed is about as fast as a regular keyboard.  i would say faster,  but I have to swith keyboards to get to the quotation marks, which I use a lot.  And as you can see, there are a few typos, but they are minor and my post is still quite legible (although I am sure it is a bit annoying for some).

My other reason was to be able to read e-books and surf the web easily from room to room and outside while chasing the rug rats.  Indoors it is awesome.  The size is pleasant, it feels nice to hold and it the e-books app is vry pretty and easy to use.  However, the Wifi keeps dropping, and I have to constantly reset the settings whenever I turn it off or it goes to sleep.  First generation glitch, most likely.  Also, and this is a biggie, the iPad does not support Flash.  So as far as web surfing, I will stick to my laptop for the most part.

Using it outdoors is not as nice. It is hard to see in the sun, an dit overheats easily on hot bright days, so I can only use it in the shade.  And another annoying thing I discovered: my polarized sunglasses makes the screen invisible.

Overall I am pleased with my latest toy.  the biggest benefit is to be able to read more.  i have been browsing through Blogspot and have found a few cool blogs. and I have been able to get some writing in as well.  Not to mention being able to finally find time to update my blog. :-/