When I was a kid, I read books. In print. Now we have so many more choices.
I’m a big fan of audiobooks. My family listens to them when we are on the road. I listen to them when I do craft work, knitting, wash dishes, iron and fold the laundry. I also read electronic books on Kindle for the PC. This is mostly tread mill reading and I like it because I can set up a big, non-eyestrain font.
Both e-books and audio books are a different experience than print books. I’ve been thinking about whether or not I truly believe that they will edge out print books. It was one of the themes of Robin Sloan’s Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore. Frankly, I don’t think it will entirely happen because each offers such a different experience.
Print books are works of art as electronic books can’t be. From cover to font to paper choice, they are a tangible object. A row of hard cover books gives a very different feel to a room than does an e-reader on an end table.
For me, print books are also more convenient. I can loan them. I can borrow them. I can carry them places I would hesitate to take an e-reader lest I drop it, get it wet or possibly forget it.
Audiobooks are convenient because someone reads to me while I do things. Adult nonfiction is particularly good in 
audiobook format because if it isn’t tightly edited or moves a bit slow, I just keep on with whatever I’m doing.
I just listened to Robin Sloan’s Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore. In the portion of the book when the character is listening to an old audio book on tape, the sound quality sounds just like a tape. I could really appreciate that.
In other books, when the content gets racy (as my grandmother would have said), I don’t especially want it blaring through the house if anyone else is home. I also don’t always appreciate the voice actor’s interpretation. I’m currently listening to a young adult paranormal, the second in a series. I loved the first book. The second? If I wasn’t planning to write a novel on a similar topic, I would stop. The main character has a whine that could shatter glass. I am not loving it.
What about those Kindle books? Because I use a treadmill desk, Kindle books on topics I am researching are very convenient. I especially like the search feature. I’ve also read picture books in this format and wasn’t sold. I need the full sized book. I want the page turn. As convenient as the format is, I think of it as computer, not book. When I want to relax, I leave my work behind and either pick up a print book or listen to a book while I knit.
Here are the books I read in September, including Sloan’s book which got me thinking about this.
Bean, Jonathan. Building Our House (Farrar Straus Giroux)- Black, Holly. White Cat. The Curse Workers series.
- Branford, Anna. Violet Mackerel’s Natural Habitat (Atheneum)
- Brown, Peter. Mr. Tiger Goes Wild (Little, Brown and Company)
- Cabot, Meg. Abandon (Point)
- Carson, Rae. Bitter Kingdom (Greenwillow Books)
- Fforde, Jasper. The Last Dragonslayer.
- Harrison, David L. A Perfect Home for a Family (Holiday House)
- Harrison, David L. Pirates (Wordsong)
- Kleypas, Lisa. Crystal Cove.
- Larson, Kirby. The Friendship Doll (Delacorte Press)
- Mafi, Tahereh. Shatter Me (Harper)
- Mills, Claudia. Zero Tolerance (Margaret Ferguson Books/Farrar Straus Giroux)
- Patent, Dorothy Hinshaw. When the Wolves Returned: Restoring Nature’s Balance in Yellowstone (Walker and Company)
- Sloan, Robin. Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore.
- Yolen, Jane. Come to the Fairies Ball (Wordsong)
- Zullo, Germano. Line 135 (Chronicle Books)
One Writer's Journey 