The BEST Thing About Kindle

I love to read. I am sooo addicted to books. Not really the best thing when you have to pack up every few years and move, and every thing you and and family owns has to weigh less than 7200 pounds. As anyone who has ever been to college can attest, books are heavy. Very heavy. So you would think the best thing about my kindle is that this little electronic gizmo that weighs only fourteen ounces (including cover) has more than two hundred books on it. Two hundred books and only 14 ounces? That is COOL, but it's not the best thing about my kindle.

You might think the best thing about the kindle is the near instant ability to get new books. I will freely admit that it is wonderful to finish a book and be able to click on Amazon (assuming the internet is working) and get the sequel without having to drive to a bookstore (if there is such a thing near you) or waiting weeks for the Amazon box to show up in the mail. Getting books in minutes instead of weeks is is GREAT, but it isn't the best thing.

My husband thinks the best thing about the kindle is his ability to surprise me with new books anytime, even when he isn't home, as long as he has access to Amazon. I LOVE fact that my husband understand and supports my literary addiction. That's one of the reasons I married him, he spoils me rotten. Admit it you are jealous and wish you had found him first, sorry he is mine and I'm not sharing him. Or the kindle. But it's not the best thing about the kindle.

So what is the best thing about my kindle? It is one little feature that is really on Amazon not the kindle itself. If I try to buy a book I have already bought in kindle format, Amazon warns me and reminds me when I bought it. If you don't think that is awesome you have obviously never gone book shopping with kids, quickly grabbed a likely book by a favorite author and realized hours later, half way through chapter one, that it was a book you already owned, just with new cover art. Deja vu in a really sucky way.

When I was cleaning out my bookshelves before we moved out Frankfurt I sorted my books by author and suddenly realized how many duplicate titles were in my library. I had at least a couple dozen titles for which I had two (or more) books. Yes, some books I had three copies of, and I think I had four copies of Dragon Singer by Anne McCaffrey. I blame Dakota for at least a few of those doubles because we have similar taste in Sci Fi/Fantasy books, but most were my mistakes. Do you know how much money a couple dozen books adds up to? I could have spent that money on books I didn't already have. So you see the BEST thing about my kindle is never accidentally buying the same book two (or three) times.

Look What Showed Up

Yes that is David reading to Colin from my brand new Kindle. It showed up this week. Awhile back I blogged about my birthday present gone awry. In fact I broke the bad news to a number of people that their electronics were being held hostage by the pouch and wouldn't be arriving at post as expected, but I never told the rest of my story.

Unlike a number of people who were told their computer/ipad/camera was in the warehouse, I was told mine had been returned and was not at the warehouse, BUT Amazon had not received it back so we were out the money but had nothing to show for it. We held off contacting Amazon to request a refund because there was still so much confusion as to what was going on. What would the new official policy be? What about all those computers and things in the warehouse? Eventually policy was set and cables issued: "No more lithium ion batteries!" There would be a one time shipment to clear the warehouse. That hurt since my kindle was returned to sender but others would be receiving their electronics. The shipment showed up this week and lo and behold there was my kindle, duly stamped return to sender, but obviously NOT returned. I am a happy camper, let me tell you!


The best thing about the kindle is all the free books! There are hundreds and thousands of free titles out there for e-readers. Some are the classics which are no longer protected by copyright law due to age. Others are special offers by publishers to get you hooked on a series or author. I have already downloaded a half dozen free books to read and have a list a mile long of titles I want either for myself or to read to the kids. Here are a few of the free books I already have or will have by the end of the week. Did I mention they are FREE???

A Christmas Carol by Dickens
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austin
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Beauty and the Beast by Marie Le Prince de Beaumont
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank
White Fang by Jack London
The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams Bianco
Alaeddin and the Enchanted Lamp
The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry
Anne of Green Gables by L. M.
Black Beauty by Anna Sewell
The Christmas Angel by Abbie Farwell Brown
Fireflies in December by Jennifer Erin Valent
Run Like a Mother: How to Get Moving--and Not Lose Your Family, Job, or Sanity by Sarah Bowen Shea and Dimity McDowell
Letters of a Woman Homesteader by Elinore Pruitt Stewart
Slow Ride: A Rough Riders Story by Lorelei James
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
Emma by Jane Austin
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
Irresistible Forces by Brenda Jackson
Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift
Fairy Tales Every Child Should Know by Hamilton Wright Mable

I still love the feel and the smell of a real paper book. I will always have real paper and ink books around me, I love them and that isn't going to change. It's simply a magical feeling to pull a book off the shelf and fall into a new world. If I had access to a library and a bookstore I might not be so excited about an e-reader but I live a few airplane flights away from such luxuries. To be able to have a new book to read with a few key strokes (and some patience with the internet) is amazing! Even better when the e-books are free.

A Response to Advice From Mom

I received a new message from Mom today:

I checked the blog and was flattered that you thought my note was good enough to post. However you left off the last and most important sentence....Ok, now get serious and sort out what you don't absolutely need to survive. I know you don't want me to come over there and clean your room! You know I clean rooms with a trash bag! By the way, I recall that your boys (and probably you too) brought home some rocks from your recent holiday. Rocks are heavy. Get rid of them!

So sorry I lost the last line, it wasn't intentional, I promise! So lets look at the new message shall we? Lets start with this line:

"I know you don't want me to come clean your room!"

Well yes, actually, I do. Would you please? How soon can you get to the airport? I will have a ticket waiting. And while you are cleaning could you please clean the boys rooms and maybe the living room, oh and the dining room too? I will clean the kitchen, I like my pots scratches dents and all.

Then there is this:

"You know I clean rooms with a trash bag."

Good I will buy the bags! Is there a particular size or brand you prefer? Will Hefty do? I think they carry that brand at the base.

And finally there was this:

"By the way, I recall that your boys (and probably you too) brought home some rocks from your recent holiday. Rocks are heavy. Get rid of them!"

Maybe you shouldn't have let me take that geology course way back when 'cause I like rocks. We are are going to allow the boys to keep a few fossils each, with a weight limit of a couple of pounds per kid, then the rest gotta go. Some one is going to be very puzzled some day to find iron pyrite and ammonites in Frankfurt.


Update on cleaning: I know most people could care less how much junk I managed to get rid of today, but it makes me feel like I have accomplished something to put the numbers out there.

Today was books. First let me say, "My name is Shannon and I am a book-aholic" and before you fire off a new e-mail Mom the only person I know with more books than me, is you. Apparently this is a hereditary condition.

So anyway books, two large standard FS issue bookshelves full to the top, two folding bookshelves from Target, and two smaller bookshelves, plus two small closets holding the over flow from the bookshelves. We got books people! Five of the six of us are confirmed book-a-holics. Dakota cleaned his shelves not long ago and I was impressed how many books he got rid of, until today that is. I found all the books that used to be in his room in the boys rooms and on my bookshelves. They weren't gone, just relocated. Brat! I went through every book in the house one at a time. It took hours, hours and hours and lots of chocolate and cappuccino.

I found three lost library books from school, a couple of duplicate books, a book I borrowed from a friend and never gave back, a bunch of board books for toddlers, piles of magazines and a handful of books that I have no interest in reading again, ever. There were also more than a few books that were beyond being taped back together so these were condemned to the recycle bin along with piles of papers from school, out dated catalogs, odd pieces of crushed oragami, and German junk mail.

Totals from today:
Books to be returned, donated, or dumped at the books swap: 86 pounds!
Magazines to be dumped at the field house so someone else can enjoy them: 55 pounds!
Books, papers and assorted junk tossed in recycle bin: 44 pounds!
For a grand total of (drum roll please) 185 pounds WooHoo!

Here are the books and magazines we are getting rid of minus the ones I tossed in the recycle bin. Even I don't generally take pictures of trash.


In case you are wondering we still have plenty of books left.

more books

and even MORE books

And No Dave that doesn't mean I am going to quit ordering from Amazon. In fact if you look carefully the paperbacks are piled up by author so now I know which books I am missing from which series, I am already working on my shopping list for when I visit Barnes and Noble or Borders or Half Price Books this summer. Those ORs should probably be ANDs because I am so totally going to all three. Is that a bad thing?