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| My Mum loved her Books |
As a child I can remember accompanying Mum to a subscription library in Kings Cross where she borrowed books. When we moved to the Randwick Municipality we used to borrow from their mobile library which stopped at Maroubra Junction on a Saturday morning. That was when I got my first library card and became a regular borrower. As an adult a career working in public and school libraries afforded me easy access to large collections for no outlay.
Since becoming a retired old biddy I haven't made many visits to local libraries except for genealogy related activities. I have purchased many books and dropped so many hints for gifts of books or book vouchers on birthdays and other special occasions. As new books are rather expensive I have been able to pick up many near new books at op shops, charity book fairs and my favourite online charity bookstore, Brotherhood Books. I keep a list of recommended/wanted books and every so often check Brotherhood's catalogue to see if these are listed.
I love physical books, the smell and feel of the paper adds a pleasurable and familiar element to the reading experience. During Covid time most of the places where I sourced my books dried up - op shops and libraries closed and no book fairs . I had to find some other way of satisfying my appetite for reading.
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| My Mobile Library |
When going on holidays I had been in the habit of downloading a few eBooks from local libraries in case I read through the half dozen "read and ditch" books I usually pack. So Covid-19 made me turn to eBooks. After a few months of reading the books I had borrowed on my smartphone I decided that I needed some sort of eReader. I did a bit of research and decided to purchase a lightwieght inexpensive, Android tablet which would give me more flexibility than a Kindle or similar device. Then I struck a problem as the Samsung tablet I wanted to purchase was out of stock in Australia.
Finally around a month ago I found that some local retailers had the desired tablets in stock. I phoned the closest store, got them to match the lower price of another shop and quickly dispatched Mr GeniAus on a mercy mission to buy one. I am enjoying reading on the new device, it's not too heavy to hold up in bed, I can more easily see the text I am reading and I don't have to turn the pages so often.
My tablet is set up with apps from several local libraries and vendors of eBooks like Amazon and Google. I have also copied all of the other eBooks I had on my hard drive to the device. I have installed just a few other apps: a browser, email and Facebook. My 21st century version of the mobile library is truly mobile and has access to more titles than were available on those Saturday mornings at Maroubra Junction.
The initial purpose of this post was to share my pride in having read 63 books in the first half of 2020 but I digressed. You can see what I have read this year here on the fabulous, free site Librarything https://www.librarything.com/catalog/GeniAus.&deepsearch=read+2020.
63 books, excellent score! I’m just up to my 47th so far this year. I read on Kindle Paperwhite, Android phone if I’m waiting somewhere, iPad with library apps and paper books. Always prefer Kindle and if I borrow a paper book where print is too small, will usually search out an ebook version. Mine too are in LT a great way of keeping track as I’m notorious for forgetting what I’ve previously read. :))
ReplyDeleteThis still working Teacher Librarian and genealogist is only up to 31 for the year. I set goals on Goodreads each year.
ReplyDeleteGoodreads tells me my tally for Jan-June 2020 is 106. Not much that’s profound though. Glad to see you’re being corrupted by ebooks...I like the readability in dimmer light, the fact that I can highlight (and later review) sentences or paragraphs that I like, check the meaning of words etc. mostly I’ve downloaded from Amazon or library sites (I like BorrowBox as the reader) or Scribd but I miss the functionality of my downloaded ebooks. I’m not a fan or reading in bed any more either.
ReplyDeleteThanks girls for you comments. Carmel we seem to be keeping pace with each other. Sharon - you are doing so well for someone who is working fulltime and Pauleen, have you done a speed reading course?
ReplyDeleteYou didn’t ask if you remember what I read Jill, and I’m blessed with a chef who cooks dinner.
ReplyDeleteG'day Jill. My reading habits have been transformed by adding books I have listened to - to my reading list. Some libraries subscribe to Bolinda. Download their Borrowbox app and listen to books for free https://www.borrowbox.com/
ReplyDeleteG'day Jill,
ReplyDeleteI am a new blogger and have started reading your posts. 63 books is pretty impressive! I am a full time library worker, part time student, part time genealogist and almost a grandmother. I enjoyed your posts tremendously. Working in a library is the best for getting your hands on books, and even better for 'collection development' where you request the books you want to read.
We use Borrowbox, Overdrive(sometimes re marketed as Libby) and RB digital Magazine It is well worth looking at the magazines as well.
cheers for now
Meg