E-readers Are Not Evil! (vlog)

Hello, book buds! Did you notice my absence around blogland, Facebook and Twitter the last few weeks?  No? *note to self: Lesa is not the center of the universe*  Well, I have been enjoying a much needed social media sabbatical. 

And I have been utterly and completely obsessed preoccupied with my KindleFire.

Yes, I have joined the darkside ranks of the e-reader cheerleaders. (If you missed it, groove here to my KindleFire dance party) 

In fact, I am so thrilled with the KindleFire (and e-reading in general) that I decided to focus my first ever solo vlog on it. If you fear brainwashing don't have time to watch, scroll down to read my favorable and convincing first impressions.  



Apologies, the camera got too hot and stopped, hence part two.



What I'm liking about the Kindlefire:

It is very user friendly despite a very touchy touch screen. 

The background color, font, text size and brightness of a book page can be adjusted to suit personal preferences. It makes reading a book very easy on the eyes. And it does not look or feel like reading on a computer. 


The backlit screen allows reading in the dark! My favorite feature!! I can read at night while riding in the car! When I can pry it away from my child...  

By the way, if you have children consider getting them their own Kindlefire to fight over. My little boy loves reading books and playing free games on it.  He actually prefers it over his DSi XL. Grrr...

I like the novelty of streaming videos, music and accessing the web but the Kindlefire may be redundant if you already do that with other portable devices. If that is the case, try an e-reader that is for books only. 


What I'm loving about e-reading:

Free books! And not just classics. There seems to be an unlimited supply of 'new' fiction/non-fiction freebies available.  


Convenience! An entire portable library is at hand anytime anywhere. 


So any new converts among the e-reader naysayers and fence sitters? 

Testify, Brother and Sister Bookworms! 


E-readers are not evil!

E-readers are good!

Embrace e-readers!

Really, you will be delighted by how much an e-reader enhances your reading life. 

I kid you not. I still can't get over the wonder of this cool fun new way to read. 

And I am still reading physical books too... still buying 'real' bargain books... still borrowing books from the library.  

Using an e-reader hasn't changed anything regarding my love or use of physical books. It has only enhanced and added a new dimension to my reading life. 

So don't be as silly and stubborn as me, try an e-reader soon!

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For those who viewed my vlogs, what did you think?

Have I not made a perfect drinking game vlog for book club night?!  Every time, Lesa flaps the Kindle cover take a swig! Every time,  she says 'fun', take two swigs!!

Hahahaha! Watching oneself on video is a real eye opener!  

I want to get better at this vlogging business so please share your tips and advice.  I'm very competitive with myself so I've already noted many ways to improve, such as:

1. Keep it short and to the point!  My challenge will be to keep future vlogs between 2 and 4 minutes long.  Feel free to place bets among yourselves. hahaha

2. Invest in an external microphone to eliminate camera noise and increase sound quality. 

3. Stop saying 'uh'. 

4. Stop playing with the props.

5. Sit still. Well, that one may be an impossible goal so at least sit in a non-squeaky chair. Which I did for part two. Did you notice?

6. Vlog when the lighting is best. The lighting had changed during part two and wasn't as nice.

Anything else? Be honest. Don't worry about hurting my feelings. I have no illusions and would prefer to avoid future embarrassment. ;)

Thank you so much for your help.

And many many thank yous for watching (and reading).

Until next time, hugs and happy reading! 

Biblio-blunder: Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood

Biblio-blunder is a sporadic (thankfully) feature in which we share our bookish gaffes with the world. Click on the label biblio-blunder to read more.


Last week Adele wrote about her fan letter to her favorite author. It reminded me when I wrote to an author. But it wasn't a fan letter. It was a desperate plea for help. HELP, I say!

There was a time when I could take a book, read it, and nary a mishap. Then I began to get old and feeble- minded. I got the dropsies in the bubble bathies. And the coffee spillages on the page the killer was revealed.


"As God as my witness...As God as my witness, I will never borrow a friend's precious book. Only from the library because I can always just pay the fine. No harm, no foul."

This entire speech was said with such conviction, such feeling, that all those listening shed a tear. Yes. One single tear. And a rose was involved somehow. Maybe I bit a potato. And I may have been alone. I don't remember. The point is, I could not trust myself with books.


I broke this cardinal rule one fateful day. I broke it and lived to tell the tale.

One of my friends knew I was going on a long car trip. She knew I wanted to read The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood. She knew I was clumsy and had children, but that temptress offered the book anyway! I tell you, I couldn't say no. What a fool I was! What a fool.

My old nemesis

What happened, you ask? Oh. I'll tell you what happened. Chocolate milk, the deadliest of all milks happened.

 Chocolate milk spilled out of the bottle in the cupholder into my bag o' stuff-to-do-on-a-twelve-hour-car-trip. And worse yet, I DID NOT KNOW, until it glued the middle pages together. A brown gloppy stinky mess. No chance to clean it up.

But the worst, ABSOLUTE WORST, was that this was a hard-bound, PERSONALLY AUTOGRAPHED, FIRST EDITION beautiful book ruined by yours truly. Oh. Yes. I felt so bad. It ruined my trip.


As soon as I got back to the US, I searched high and low for a replacement. I avoided my friend. I searched for a first edition that was autographed for about a week. Finally, I hunted down the address for Rebecca Wells. Then I wrote a particularly pathetic letter, explaining what happened and begging her for an autographed copy. Every possible mean of contacting were included. I didn't hear from her.

I finally gave up. After nearly two months I tracked down an autographed, first edition. I bought it and placed it in the bag with the ruined book. I wrote another pathetic letter apologizing and explaining what happened. I gave it to her husband and, like a coward, left the scene.


My friend called me later that week and told me it was fine. That she hated that I was so stressed about it, I should've told her, no need for another one, etc. She's even offered to let me borrow more books. I always say NO!

But that, folks, is not the end. About two months after this, I get a phone call. Guess who it was? Ms. Wells' assistant! Yes! She called me! They got my letter and wanted to help me. She was so very very nice. I thanked her profusely and told her I had purchased one already. She kind of laughed, apologized for taking so long to get back to me, that they understood what happened and if there was anything else that they could help with to let them know.


So, that, my folks, is my "writing an author" story. Pathetic? Yes. Will I ever borrow someone's book? Unless I can run to Barnes and Noble to replace it, then NO! I learned my lesson. Again.

Please feel free to share your bookish horror stories so I don't feel quite so bad.

Utterly Fantastic Fan Mail!

Yes! I did it! I was reading Clarice Bean Utterly Me, when I had this utterly amazing idea: To write to Lauren Child! (My absolute favourite writer in the history of utterly amazing writers!) 

So I asked my bestest friend in the whole widest world what she thought, and then it hit me! (Yet another utterly amazing idea!) We could both write to her, she LOVES Lauren Child too, so it works out.

 

So, we wrote the letter, and we included a drawing that we did. I was quite proud.

 And we even decorated both sides of the envelope!

Here is one side:

And here is the other side:

 

Writing fan mail is so much fun!

Have you ever sent fan mail to a favourite author? 

  Sorry for the photo quality!

:D

Bargain Book Bonanza (31): Drew in Blue by J. M. Kelley

Welcome to Bargain Book Bonanza!

DeLynne is hosting this week!

Drew in Blue by J.M. Kelly was free when I 'bought' it on Kindle, but now I see it's $3.99 or free for Prime members. 

 
Even if you have to pay the full $3.99 I think you will consider it money well-spent.

This is a romance story, but it's also about raising babies and making art and becoming a parent.  Drew finds himself unexpectedly responsible for his baby Nick.  You can imagine the usual Three Men and a Baby gags about diapers and spit-up, and yes, they are here.

But this is also a well-written story that made me smile and even tear up.  Don't expect a sob story because it doesn't take much to make me moist-eyed, it's a genetic thing. 

I loved riding along with Drew as he grew up, forgave his mother for dying when he was young, earned a living, fell in love with his son, and found the woman of his dreams.
  

As an added bonus, Drew is an artist, and we get to see glimpses of an artist's life.  You know, painter's block, working at home, choosing a media, meeting buyers, hanging the canvases, etc.  Not knowing any full-time artists I am not sure about the accuracy of these details, but they were interesting and made me wish I could paint.

You should know that Drew in Blue gets a little, erm, blue at times.  So if you're a stickler for keeping your reading G rated you need to move along.  Nothing to see here.  It's certainly not erotica (which Lesa says has 'all the particulars') but there are some intimacies and a bit of swearing.

The plot is predictable.  I mean Blind Freddy can see where it's going.  But it was sweet and funny: certainly more than just a Harlequin, Mills and Boon-type story.

I think you will enjoy getting to know Drew.




Not THIS Drew in Blue.

THIS Drew in Blue.

And to see even more blues, please hop over to Blue Monday hosted by Smiling Sally.

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BBB is a book haul linky party for bargain loving bookworms!

Want to join the party? Just visit the Bargain Book Bonanza page for the particulars.

What Makes a Princess a Princess?

I happened to stumble on the most adorable story. I was at our local library and my little girl was running around (quietly!) yanking any book that was predominantly pink and/or had a princess on the cover. Most of them were the "perfect" blonde princess books. I replaced those. One was different though: Princess Grace by Mary Hoffman.

Isn't that the sweetest cover? So, why is this such a great story?  Let me 'splain. No. There is too much. Let me sum up:

There will be two princesses chosen to be in the parade this year. Grace hopes to be one of them - with a pink and floaty dress. But when she asks what a princess does exactly, it actually sounds boring. That is, until her teacher shows her books of real life princess and story princesses from other lands - princesses that wouldn't be wearing pink and floaty dresses

As she learns more, she decides what kind of princess she would really like to be and it doesn't involve pink either! "Will you still like it?" her mother asks. "There's more than one way of being pretty," answers Grace.

Another reason I appreciated this book is that her mother and grandmother remind her that she may not be chosen. THANK YOU! My kids are geniuses, could be models, and are hi-la-ri-ous (as are yours, I am sure). And they don't always get chosen. Positive reinforcement is important, but teaching your kids some of the realities of life is important too. I think this book did a nice job of that. It was light, but got some great messages across.

The illustrations are very colorful, very detailed watercolors. Lovely pictures. There is a brief lesson at the back of the book about princesses - real and legend. The reader is encouraged to learn more. Verrry interesting. I plan on looking up some of these stories.

This book says it is appropriate for K-2 (5-8), but I think you could stretch it a bit further in either direction, especially if you are looking for a positive story about accepting who we are. Have you read this? If you haven't,check it out at your local library. If you have, let me know what you think about it, or if you have a favorite "positive message" book!

Linking to:

Kid Konnection hosted by Booking Mama.
Book Talk Tuesday hosted by The Lemme Library.