Books, that is. The last several books I have downloaded from Amazon have been duds. They were New York best sellers but duds as far as reading something of interest to me or they were not the slightest ounce of entertainment to them. Why? Why would a book on the New York best seller list not offer some entertainment value? I don’t have a ready answer. I’m an old dude and not much appeals to me the way it once did, books included. So here’s what I have decided. I’m not going to buy anymore books. Period. With my one good eye I plan to do my reading online, on my computer where I can adjust the font size. I will of course read your writ here on Seniorsonly Club. I also read stuff on flipboard.com. There’s a lot of good reading on The Electric Typewriter. I’m also going to watch more Netflix on my iPad more, maybe. Now, having said what I have said, my Periods ( . ) also contain some However’s and some exceptions. And I may mine your comments for items of interest. Mainly, I’m tired of spending money on disappointments or it could be maybe, I’ll see you at the library.
I usually have 2 or 3 books going at once. At the moment, I am reading Surprised by Joy , an autobiography of C.S. Lewis about his childhood. It is a bit heavy and not everyone's cup of tea, but I need brain exercise. I am also reading a detective-type novel on my Kindle. The C.S. Lewis book is my "downstairs book" and the detective novel is my "upstairs book", e.g., what I read at night before going to sleep. I read a heavier book during the day that will stimulate me and make me work a bit, but in the evening, I read much lighter stuff until I get sleepy. I finished a biography of Dietrich Bonhoeffer a little while ago. I also read that Titus Bass series some time ago; my interests range far and wide, but I am always reading something. I used to read a lot of magazines and newspapers, but I have found that newspapers have deteriorated over the years, and magazines have gotten too expensive.
That's what I always used to do. I still do, but in a different way since I have Kindles. I have three different Kindles and different books on each. One I read before going to sleep at night, although lately I have trouble staying awake. Another I keep downstairs because I download my research (job) books to that one, but also have other reading material that I take a break with from time to time. Then I have an old paper white Kindle that I'll take with me to a restaurant or otherwise pick from every now and then. Plus, there is a library of real books that I don't turn to so often anymore. I also subscribe to a few magazines: Self Reliance, Anabaptist Voice, Reminisce, Good Old Days, and Discover Maine. I did subscribe to Backwoods Home, but they no longer publish a paper version and, although I subscribe to the Kindle edition, I rarely open it. Kindle books are great, but Kindle magazines are not so good. The printed magazines, I usually read, or at least a good portion of them. I like taking a magazine to a quiet restaurant, where I can eat and then sit for a couple of hours with coffee.
When I got married, I subscribed to 27 different magazines. My new wife was horrified by the expense, although I read every one cover to cover. I gave up many of them to please my new bride, and now I don't subscribe to any magazines at all. My last two were Alaska and Last Frontier.
Bill - I absolutely agree with you. I had purchased about 3 books on Kindle only to read a few pages Now - I get a sample of the book first, doesn't always work out, but mostly it does I like biographies but wont accept constant swearing
I have several books that were gifts from work. Why? It only makes me think that this is what they thought of me as a person that the content would be of interest to me. Something about me made the book say, "I think this book has her name all over it." Another instance is a book I recently received from my sister. This book has her name all over it, not mine. I get it though wanting to share some of her interest with me. It's buried somewhere. Don't get me wrong though I like to read - children's books, do-it-yourself books, and enjoy pictures in magazines. I purchased a book on cd I thought I might like but it's just sitting on a shelf in view and I think, 'Not right now.'
I also am usually reading several books at a time, some for study and some for entertainment. I have my Bookbub and Book Gorilla set to show me any kind of book that I might want to read, and I generally only get the free books (unless there is a specific book that I am wanting to get); so even if the book turns out not to be interesting, it didn’t cost me anything to get it. This is also something that might work for you, @Bill Boggs . We have Amazon Prime, so I also get books and sometimes magazines from the Prime Reading Library. Even though these have to eventually be returned, if I am just getting a novel to read for entertainment, it works just as well as going to the library used to do.
I still rather have a book in print vs reading it online and etc. However, cheap that I am, I only buy at Half Price Books and in the clearance section. I spend 2 to 3 dollars type of book, and read only one at a time. I am very fast reader have been known to finish in a day or two. Works fer me
Only book my wife reads is the Bible. As for me, I don't read any kind of books. I've really never been a "book reader" aka as the "intellectual" type. Only two books, that I can remember, that I've read is Catch Me If You Can, which, to me, was so interesting I couldn't hardly put the book down. Other book was Moby Dick.
I used to feel that same way about having a real book, @Gloria Mitchell . However, once i got the Kindle and started reading books on there, I found that there are a lot of benefits for this. One main things, as I mentioned, is getting the books for free. Another thing, which @Bill Boggs has mentioned, is being able to set the print size, which you can’t do in a regular paper book. this is really nice now that I need larger print in order to read easily. I also like that the Kindle is small and lightweight, so regardless of the size of book I am reading, it only takes up that little bit of space if i want to carry it around (like to the dr appointment) in my purse. Plus, I can either store the books in the Cloud, or even if I have downloaded them to the Kindle, it can hold hundreds (maybe thousands?) of books . Kindle has a feature called “collections”, so you can actually organize all of the books into a special collection. For example, you can have one for mystery books, another for gardening books, one for knitting books, etc, and that makes everything very simple to find whatever i am looking for. Also, I don’t have to try and figure out what to do with the book once I am done reading it. Before, I had to either store it in the bookcase, trade it to someone else, or haul it back to the thrift store. Now, I just delete it when I am done unless it is a book that I want to keep, like the knitting books.
Although I used to buy many books I would read deciding to downsize changed that for me. Now it very rare that I will buy a book. Yet I still read all the time and get most of my reading material from our Public Library. I don't know when I will be ready to give up what I call the real books...not anytime soon for sure. Like a few others on here I also read more than one book at a time and can't remember a time when I didn't do this. Books are such an important part of my life and a trip to the Library is fun and exciting to me since I never know what treasures I will find when I get there. If there was a College Degree for reading books I would have one for sure.
I like both the Kindle and regular books. It is much easier to carry the Kindle onto an airplane, train, or whatever, and you have many books there. If you finish one, you can move on to another. I also like being able to change the font size. I make the print larger if I am in a low-light environment, but if the light is adequate, I make it fairly small. I suppose that if I should lose or break my glasses, I could make it really large. As I said before, I like the "Look-Up" feature as well, especially if I am reading a scholarly or difficult work. The Wikipedia only works if you have Wi-Fi, but the dictionary seems to work without it. You can even look up references and words in foreign languages if needed.
I mentioned before that for one of my Birthdays a few years ago my daughters decided to buy me a Kindle for my present. Knowing how much I love reading, they figured I would love being able to just pull up books on that Kindle. I checked it out but knew that this was not going to take the place of real books in my life. Yet I did not want to hurt their feelings because they really thought bringing me up a notch in the tech world was a good thing and I would enjoy reading my books on the Kindle just as much as I love doing everything I do on my laptop. Alas! This old girl did not want to come up a notch in the tech world...at least not when it meant trading in my Library card for a Kindle. This girl still has perfectly good cassettes and Cd's of my favorite movies, plus Video tapes and DVD's of my favorite movies and they all work just fine for me on the players I have for them. I am enjoying listening and reading along with the Bible on my CD's and also on the DVD I bought recently. That's as close as I am to being ready to leave my real books behind to come up a notch in the tech world.
@Babs Hunt What version of the bible do you read? I haven't had a bible for a long time but the only version I ever read was the KJV.