Bookshelves

Welcome to my library. I have tried to keep track of the books and journals stored here for future reading but I am always finding a book that isn’t on the lists or noticing that something I remember buying isn’t represented. After I read a book, I usually give it to a friend or an organization that might get a few coins for the book. I see this as a good way to recycle literature and to reduce the effective cost of those terribly overpriced books. I have five or six people I periodically ship books to and a couple of local groups that make good use of donations — the Palmetto Animal League Thrift Store, the Friends of the Beaufort County Library, and the Sun City Book Exchange.

I have another group of books that I keep for reference or for further study, but they are either missing from these lists or mixed in with all the other titles as if I am waiting to read them. One day I will add these to a new stack called Reference. But the operative expression is KISS … and if I follow that advice I will have more time for reading. And that is really what it is all about, right?

Failing eyesight and inventive engineering have turned my attention to electronic books. Although I also have the apps for all the commercial readers, my go-to tablet is the iPad. Of course I need it to make the fonts of the texts big enough to read without squinting and the larger size of the iPad allows be to get maximum text on the screen at a comfortable font size. Although this ability to alter the font size was the major reason I purchase the iPad, I acknowledge that other devices work just as well … but they don’t integrate with my all-Apple world of computers, routers, set-top boxes, music sources, etc. After using the iPad for a short while, I discovered that I could take it with me instead of my MacBook and do almost everything important on the road, like email, internet browsing, updating my website, etc. So far I have only found one function it will not do and that is because of the restriction on video apps. Note: The iPhone is just as functional as the iPad and it makes phone calls and text messages too. Yes, the screen is smaller but that hardly matters when you literally are carrying your personal computer in your pocket and with the Cloud, can have access to any important data wherever you go.

I have been limiting my book buying this last year or so, accepting only digital books unless there is a good reason to own a real paper and ink copy (some reference books, for instance). Also, I have been collecting many other books from the internet, especially those in the public domain, and have even started replacing many of the books on my shelves with digital editions. I probably have about a thousand books to read stored on my iPad and the majority of them are not reflected in these lists from my bookshelves.

I could correct this with a great deal of time and effort. Or I could use that time and effort to read a few more books. Tough choice?

So if you don’t see a book title on these book shelve lists, that doesn’t mean I don’t have a copy stored digitally

I should say that the paper and ink books I am replacing are going down to the local Book Exchange … I bring them in by the basketful.

Recent Additions

I have stopped buying paper and ink books except under special circumstances. The bookshelf list here represent, for the most part, those real books that are still waiting on my extensive bookshelves to be read or replaced with a digital edition. In some instances  have already procured the digital edition and the book that I may have moved from house to house and even across the country is now in a large library bag headed for the book exchange.

I have considered posting my digital reading collection but since these electronic books are so easy to collect and may never be read, I am hesitant to even consider it fuller: do we need page after page of the Hardy Boys or The Man of Bronze? Who knows, someday I might just read about Conan the Sumerian, but until then I see no reason to clog my booklists with hundreds of serial novels that I downloaded with a single click and then pretty much ignore.

If I do decide to replace this Bookshelves list with the digital list, I know I can export it from Calibre.

Oh, I now read on both the iPad Pro and on my iPhone 11 Plus. The newer the device, the better (sharper) the screen and even with my bad eyes, I find it easier to read on the small iPhone screen than on the big computer screen. Add this to amazing audio interpretations of the text and I may be able to continue reading many moons into the future.