On Reading, Nooks, Book Reviews and 2011 Part I

I love to read.

Yes, of course I love to read. It’s in my blood—you should see my parents’ house—bookshelf after bookshelf after bookshelf fill the rooms. 

In my family, we take books with us everywhere, we always talk about books, we always are reading several books at once. Reading is my escape from reality, it is my comfort when I’m feeling sad, it is my entertainment. (Okay, yeah, I watch TV sometimes, but my first choice is usually a book, when I’m by myself). When I finish reading a book, I feel listless and directionless until I find the next book.

This year I have read more books than I usually do. This is in part because I have a bit more free time (5th year teacher and all that), in part because I just got tired sacrificing reading-for-pleasure time (especially as an English teacher who should constantly try to encourage her students to read for fun), and in part because I purchased a Nook last summer. It changed my life. Perhaps this is a somewhat melodramatic statement…but not really. (A Nook, by the way, is Barnes and Noble’s version of a Kindle [an ebook reader]). I bought my Nook with some reluctance. I didn’t want to become one of those people who read books on ebook readers.

Well, I’ve become one of those readers.

Here’s the reason why: I live in Africa. Africa is a wondrous place indeed, but it does lack for reading material. I am blessed to teach at a school with a great library…but since it’s the same library from my school days, I’ve read many of the books in the library already. Not the entire library, but most of the decent books (I refuse to read Christian Romance Novels, and that eliminates a lot of books in the DA library…).

When I learned that public libraries in the States had begun offering ebooks for download on the library websites, I decided to give up my reservations about ebooks and buy a Nook (Kindle books were not available at the time on the library websites). I didn’t buy a Nook to buy books, but to check out library books. (Yes, I am trying to defend my purchase since I still feel like I’ve betrayed the Real Book People who refuse to buy into the ebook craze…stay strong, my former brothers and sisters…but don’t move to Africa.)

As a result, I’ve had a lot more reading material at my fingertips, and I’ve read on my Nook voraciously (no more voraciously than usual—just with a wider selection than normal). It’s been delightful and, well, since I’m one of those people now, I highly recommend it, particularly if you live overseas (and have a library membership to a public library in the States). The majority of the books I’ve read have been free (borrowed for a 2 week period); I’ve only purchased a few (and, oddly enough, I’ve only read a few of the ones I’ve purchased, as I get distracted by the library books that have a more urgent reading deadline).

Don’t worry—I still prefer reading “real” books. It’s so much easier to read a book that doesn’t need to be recharged or cleaned or kept in a dust-free-case. It’s much less worry to worry about on bushtaxis, and if someone steps on it, it’s not the end of the world. A “real” book can be fixed with tape and cardboard and will never need its software updated. However, my Nook has been the temporary fix to my craving for new reading material here in Africa; the balm after a long, frustrating day of teaching or the companion on long lazy vacation days.

I decided to go through the mental exercise of thinking back over what I've read this year--the good, the bad, and the ugly. I'll start with the bad and the ugly in my next post--then move on to the good.

What do you love about reading? What are your thoughts on Nooks, Kindles and other eReaders? For those of you who are Real Book People...can you ever forgive me??????

Coming Up: Part II--The "Bad and the Ugly" Book Reviews...because sometimes it feels good to gripe!