How do you read? Perhaps, I should be asking whether you still read.
It’s an interesting question and one I wanted to pose given that this week is National Library Week. One of my favorite authors, Ellen Crosby, posted a survey on her Facebook page asking people how they read. The choices were – they buy the book, they read on an e-reader or they go to the library. The winner was real books that are owned, followed by library books.
Of course, this was a small survey and is not scientific, but I started thinking about how I consume books. I’ve moved a lot in my adult years so I’ve always tried to keep my collection of books manageable. Despite that, if I moved today I would easily fill 15 to 20 boxes with books – and those are only my favorites that I’ve kept. And then there are all the business and leadership books that I have at work.
To cut down on books, though, I’ve become a huge fan of my library. I can walk to it and pick up a few books. I also volunteer with the Friends group of my library. We hold two books sales each year. This is great because I can buy books, read them and then contribute to the sale. I also coordinate our Writer Wednesday series where authors come in and speak about their books. Topics have included mysteries, remodeling, history and anything else that will interest our patrons. The wonderful part is that the topic almost doesn’t matter because readers love to meet authors.
E-readers, library books and purchased books -- I read them all! (Photo by Cynthia Price)
I also have succumbed to the e-reader. Last fall I traveled to Indonesia, which is a 30+-hour journey. I needed some variety in my reading choices and not much weight in the suitcase. So I bought a Nook. I love it for traveling and enjoy reading on it. I have some friends who even have abandoned a physical book for their e-readers. Apparently, we’re not alone. A Pew Research Center survey showed that one in five American adults read an electronic book in the last year.
For me, though, at the end of the day, I still want to hold a book, preferably new, so I can sniff the ink on the page and hear the sound of the pages crinkling and the spine slightly cracking as I open it to explore.
Would you take the time to share how you consume books by posting a comment this week as part of National Library Week?
Cynthia's Communique 
My family also uses a variety of ways to consume books. For example, my son read the 2nd book of “The Hunger Games” series before he realized it was a series (checking it out from his school library). I started reading the first book on the Kindle app for my iPad after a friend recommended it. As soon as I finished the first book, I purchased the second too and consumed them on my iPad in one week. Meanwhile, my son was still waiting for the first book to come back in the school library so he could read it. We charged my Kindle so he could read it on that. As I finished the last book, I knew this series was one that I wanted in my “paper” library so I purchased a hard copy of the first one for my son to begin reading. I’ll then purchase the next two so we can add them to our family library. I like using my iPad and Kindle for reading because I spend a lot of my non-working hours in my car waiting … waiting for my farmer husband so I can transport him from one field to another … waiting for my child to finish a sporting practice … waiting for another child to come back from a band event. I don’t have time to read, but I certainly have “dead” time when I can read! The only problem is that I have 20+ books on my iPad that I need to get through!
I read all three. I still love the possession and smell and feel of a new book as well as the adventure of a trip to my local library. For travel, I love the iPad. I can carry many books with little weight and can read under the covers at night without turning on a light to disturb a roommate.
I’m happy to reply, since libraries are my favor place to be. At age 15 my first job was in our little neighborhood library. Then came college, a job, marriage and children. Now, at age 86, sitting out in a Iowa cornfield, for the first time in my life I have TIME TO READ! (along with a part time job as a reporter) And the town of De Witt, Iowa, (population 5,000) has a neat library, where I go every two weeks to stock up on BOOKS. They do have large print books, but I prefer wandering through the stacks (as long as the print is reasonable), and then I can hardly wait to get home and READ!
Thanks for asking.