Weather in the Tries: I don’t want to make any extreme promises, but in looking at my weather app, it looks like we’re still back to a normal summer, whatever that means in this day and age. The AQI shows “Good” air quality, though I’m smelling smoke in the air—but not seeing it. I’m still masking when I walk the dog.
Speaking of masking: I was in a store the other day where the hired help all wore masks. Mostly on their chins or mouth, only putting them up when a customer came near, and taking them down to talk. They all wore cotton masks. They couldn’t leave their face properly covered because it was too hard for them to breathe. What a crock of brown stuff! Wonder how comfy they’ll find a tube for breathing? Or the inside of a casket? Sigh.
And now I’m not sure if I’ve been exposed or not, I have a sore throat, congestion, but no fever. I mask. I socially distance myself. I’m tired of these selfish brats and their dependance on me for herd immunity when they can’t help themselves, let alone care for other people.
Which is all a way to let you know that I’m on a bit of a rant today. It’s an old rant, but still a rant.
To eBook or Not to eBook? That is the question!
I love ebooks. I love to read my fiction on ebooks. I don’t understand the cost of ebooks. Stores don’t have to stock them, shelve them, dust them, etc. They take up no room in warehouses, don’t have to be boxed, shelved, and mailed. Yes, they take up room in the cloud, but how much space? How big is the cloud? Yes, it costs money to store/retrieve/send the ebooks. I’m guessing pennies, not dollars. But when you buy an ebook, you’re not really buying it—you’re renting it. You can’t read it and give it to your local Friends of the Library. You can’t sell it on ebay, or to a used bookstore. In many cases you can’t loan it to a friend, and if you can, you can only loan it once. You can’t leave it to your heirs, well, I guess you can, if they want to continue to pay your membership, etc..
And what’s with this bit where an ebook now costs $14.99 but the paperback only costs $11.99? Come winter if necessary, I can burn my paperback to cook food or stay warm. Can’t do that with my ebook. Oh, and if the carrier who supplied my ebook folds, I lose my book. If I quit subscribing to the company where I rented, I mean bought, my book, I lose my book.
I know authors have earned and deserve to be paid. Publishers know it, too. But there must be a way to make ebooks more affordable, especially considering their limitations. A great many people can’t afford to buy books, and reasonably priced ebooks could be a solution. Every kid has a smart phone. Make books inexpensive enough they can afford them.
Now publishers are trying to force libraries into buying extremely limited licenses—in other words, they can only loan the ebook out one or two times, five at most. This isn’t about books or authors, it’s about greed. Not of the author, s/he isn’t getting any more money.
I might feel a bit better about it, if I was assured the author actually got the majority of it. In the meantime, for a book I really want to read, I just might go back to paper. Or find another author/publisher.
Photo of the Week: This is what I wanted to show you last week but couldn’t figure out how. My BOC (brother of choice) came to the rescue and taught me how, so here you are, with many thanks to Davey;-)
Books: Remember, if I finish a book, I review it, and post my review at Rainy Day Reads
Finished two books I have yet to review:
Defiled, by Joseph Flynn. A marvelous who done it, with two of my favoritest fiction heroes, John Tall Wolf and Ron Ketchum, and
The Poppy War: A Novel (Book 1 of a trilogy) by R. F. Kuang. She’s a new author to me, and I thoroughly enjoyed her book. The other two are available.
And, of course, the best news of all—A Bride’s Gate and Other Assorted Writings is now available for your reading pleasure https://www.cyberwit.net/authors/lenora-rain-lee-good
https://www.amazon.com/dp/818253772X ISBN: 978-81-8253-673-9
You can order through the above links, or go to your favorite bookseller and ask them to get it for you.
Quote of the Week:
“A writer gets to live yet another life every time he or she creates a new story.”
― Pawan Mishra, On Writing Wonderfully: The Craft of Creative Fiction Writing
And there it is, Gentle Readers. Another week gone by. Oh, and if you’re wondering why this post is a tad late, it’s because last week was a tad early and I thought I should make up for it. Sammy sends pupkisses, and I send properly masked and socially distanced hugs until next week.
I couldn’t agree more about the real books vs. ebook dilemma. When the real book is cheaper or nearly the same price, I want to share the book, or I don’t ever want to lose it to changing technology or defunct providers, I buy the real book. If it’s a cookbook, I may buy the ebook to check it out, but if I’m going to use, I buy the real book, even though it’s usually many times more expensive. Poetry has to be read from real books as do nonfiction books that I’ll dip into again and again. And, of course, books with fabulous photography or artwork must be experienced as real books. And don’t forget that authors can’t inscribe ebooks. Hmm, looks the only thing ebooks reall have going for them is that you don’t have to carry an extra suitcase for your books when you travel.
Mary, You’re right! They save weight when traveling. I’m with you–I want paper books for cookbooks (hard to write on the Kindle screen when I make a change to the recipe), and I want to read nonfiction more than once, at least to go back for reference. And yes indeed, poetry needs paper. The white space in a poem is important, and it can’t be seen electronically. Unfortunately, there are those who prefer poetry on kindle because they are sight impaired and can expand the font to something large enough they can read. I’m sorry they miss so much. I’m still trying to figure out how to make my poetry available to the sight impaired so they can read it.
Maybe large print?