Read an E-Book Week
February 19, 2009 by Lillie
Read an E-Book Week, the annual event to educate readers and encourage them to “read an e-book,” is coming up the second week of March.
If you’ve read my blog for any length of time, you know that I am a big fan of e-books. Check the series and related posts page for more information about e-books.
During that week, I will be offering a free e-book to each of my visitors.
Several of my editing clients have generously offered copies of their e-books. The following titles in the quantities indicated will be available on a first-come, first-served basis:
- As Shadows Fall by Grace Anne Schaefer (5 copies)
- The New Day Dawns by Grace Anne Schaefer (5 copies)
- On the Wings of the Wind by Patricia Eytcheson Taylor and the Reverend Doctor James Taylor (2 copies)
- Some Monument to Last by James Doughty (2 copies)
- Spring House by David Bowles (5 copies)
I am offering an unlimited number of my own e-books:
Be sure to return on Monday, March 9th and leave a comment indicating your first, second, and third choices for your free e-book. I will e-mail you the e-book (typically a zip file containing several different e-book formats) within one business day.
Hi Lillie – This sounds like a brilliant competition. I’ll be back. I do read ebooks but I usually print them out. I know you can get special readers but I still haven’t got my head around replacing real books permanently.
Cath,
E-books are a real blessing to folks like me who have a hard time reading print. I have two e-book readers and couldn’t get by without them. The only print books I own are autographed copies, which I collect.
But I understand loving print books and not wanting to change. When I had the stroke, the idea of not being able to read was devastating. But someone talked me into trying audio books. While I prefer reading to listening to books, audio books were a blessing when that was the only way I could read. As I recovered from the stroke and regained some vision, I was able to read again, but it needs to be large print.
I like E-books for technical topics, because they are so much easier to search and like you said, being able to enlarge the font is very nice.
With that said, when reading for pleasure, I still prefer a regular hard copy, as I like the way they feel, smell, and that I can take them with me…
Brad,
It’s interesting to see different people’s tastes. Reading print books, especially hard cover books, is uncomfortable for me—both the text size for my puny eyes and the weight and feel of the book for my arthritic hands. An e-book reader is so much more comfortable to hold and read … and I can hold hundreds of books in my hand at one time.
Fortunately, we’re all different so print publishers can stay in business for people like you and e-publishers can stay in business for people like me.
To be honest, I’m a big fan of Grace Anne Schaefer and I’ve waiting to read her books for a very long time, Lillie.
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Be sure to come back at the beginning of Read an E-Book Week and request one of her books. If you haven’t read either of them, start with The New Day Dawns—that is the first book in the series.
Wow, this is real challenge for me. I didn’t read a book for 4 months. So I will begin today
.
Mark
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Mark,
I’m glad this encouraged you to get back to reading. There are so many good books out there, I never have enough time to read all I want.
Ebooks can be very handy, especially on vacation so you don’t have to lug as many books around.
Morgan Mandel
Morgan,
Any time you need a lot of reading material e-books are handy. When my husband was in the hospital and I spent most of my days sitting with him, I carried my e-book reader with several books and had plenty to keep me occupied all day.
Not to rain on your parade, but reading is overrated, in my opinion, unles it has relevance to something you want to accomplish right away.
Why spend your life reading about other people’s lives when you could be living your own?
Josh,
You’re not raining on my parade. To each his own.
I love to read both for entertainment and education. I suspect you enjoy entertainments that I would hate. If you want to torture me, make me watch TV or, worse, try to get me to watch or participate in sports.
Some people like movies or TV; some like watching sports; some like playing sports; some like to read. It would be a boring world if we were all alike.
Hello! I love reading even as a child. And I’d like to read these e-books (hope you’ll give me the chance
“Dream or Destiny” and “The New Day Dawns”. Offering them for free is a good idea to an e-book newbie like me. Thank you very much!
Rose,
I’m glad you’re looking forward to your free e-book. Please return on Monday and make your request on the post that day. My intention is to give the books to people to comment on that post since that starts “Read an E-Book Week.”
I used to read ebooks all the time about 6 years ago on my PDA (compaq pocket pc) but have gone back to good old paper books. I find them much nicer to hold and read.
I do think the new iPod Touch would make a good ebook reader if they released software for it that is.
Paulette,
That’s interesting. You’re the first person I’ve heard of who went back to print books after reading e-books. Many people I know have been unwilling to try e-books, and many more read both e- and p-books.
I can’t imagine giving up the comfort of an e-book reader for the clumsiness of trying to hold a book open with one hand. I read most of the time when I’m eating, so I only have one hand free.
And the text in most print books is so small it takes a magnifying glass to make it legible.
Oh well … to each his own.
All of us being different makes the world a more interesting place.
Lillie, I must say that one big reason I stopped reading ebooks was that my Pocket PC failed and I never bought another to replace it.
At the time it was great to read in bed with a little PDA and no light on to disturb my husband
Do you only read via a computer? I have read about Amazons Kindle but it is only available in the US I believe.
Paulette,
No, I don’t read on computer. I have both a Kindle and an eBookWise reader. The Kindle is easier to read with the crispness of e-ink and the ability to increase the font to a large size. The eBookWise is backlit so I use in when reading in dark or low light. It’s not quite as easy to read, and the font can be only increased by one size so I prefer the Kindle except reading in bed and similar situations.
Neither of those devices read PDF files. I can convert unencrypted PDF to read on either, but I don’t read encrypted PDF files because the only place I can read them is on the computer … and I’m spoiled with the ebook readers.
If you have a established website…like this there are a few places that will give you free copies of their ebooks to write reviews for. Win-win…you get a book they get a review and a link or two. I am writing one at the moment about WordPress themes.
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Simon,
My policy on reviews (e-books, software, Web sites, or anything else) is that if, in my sole discretion, I think it is something that will appeal to my readers, I will read/try/evaluate it.
However, if I don’t like it, I will not write a review, and if I choose to write the review, I will be positive but honest. I won’t write an advertisement in the guise of a review, but I won’t write a totally negative review either.
I mostly read ebooks about computers and technology. I prefer to use paperback editions of novels, stories, inspirational books. I don’t like to read good stories on computer/ebook reader screen. If I don’t find any book which I want to read, in local store, then I search of ebook on net, then I take printouts of that book and then read. Electronic screens are big No-No for good books.
Maria,
Obviously you are blessed with good eyesight. Not all of us are so fortunate. I hope you don’t begrudge people who can see better with larger font on a screen than tiny print on a page the ability to read because you think “Electronic screens are big No-No for good books.”
Besides that, I much prefer carrying a lot of books in one small e-book reader than trying to manipulate printed pages. Hardover books especially are difficult for arthritic hands. And even paperback books can be a pain to hold and keep the pages open.
I won’t tell you that “print on paper is a no-no for good books” if you won’t tell me “electronic screens are a no-no for good books.” OK?
E-books are pretty cool. Most of the e-books I read are some sort of technical information (i.e. Adobe or ASP.NET) but nonetheless very useful and informative. I have access to an online library that offers an uncountable amount of e-books for schooling on numerous different fields.
I have read that many soon-to-be authors release e-books first and then re-release them as real books if they do well. This intrigues me as I am an aspiring author/screenwriter. I will check back! Regards!
Online (If you wrote YourName@Keywords, I could address you as a real person, and you would still get your keyword link. As an aspiring writer, now is the time to start building your platform by getting your real name out in the public.)
Some authors are releasing e-books in advance of print books—I did with my latest novel because it could be produced faster. Often, though, e-book and print editions are released simultaneously. But in all cases, both e-books and print books are “real books” in my opinion. There is an article about this here on my free articles page: Is an E-Book a Real Book?”.
E-Book week is a great idea – I’ve been trying to get around to reading/watching the HubSpot Internet Marketing Kit, so this might be the perfect excuse to get ‘er done!
Portland (if you wrote YourName@Keywords, I could address you as a real person, and you would still get your keywork link),
I’m glad you have something planned for Read an E-Book Week. Hope that motivates you to read even more e-books in the future.
Hum…that’s good to hear but I don’t read ebooks that much hopefully will find a good one in the coming week. I don’t like spending on ebooks and if you know a place where I can find free tutorial ebook please let me know.
Ben,
Of course, as an author who likes to earn royalties for my work I like people to buy e-books.
If most people realized how little authors make, they might be more willing to pay for their work.
Not sure what kind of tutorials you’re looking for, but I have a bunch of sites offering free e-books listed at E-Books.
Thanks Lillie I will check those ebooks and hopefully a find a good one.
Ben,
Hope you find something you like.
Normally, i’m don’t fancy ebooks, but the titles seem pretty nice, monday you say? I’ll be here hehe.
Reliable (if you wrote YourName@Keywords, I could address you as a real person, and you would still get your keyword link),
Hope you enjoy the e-book.
I’ve always enjoyed reading ebooks. I love some of the works done by William Walker Atkinson written way back in the 1910′s and most on ebook. Many of his works are easy to grab on ebook, but I still have a few paper copies just for kicks.
Gabriel,
I’m not familiar with Williamn Walker Atkinson. What kind of books did he write?
[...] my previous post about Read an E-Book Week for a list of titles. Include your first, second, and third choices in your [...]
[...] Read an E-Book Week 2 [...]
Hello! How awesome of you to offer this to readers for this fantabulous event!
My first choice is As Shadows Fall by Grace Anne Schaefer and second is Spring House by David Bowles.
I would also like a copy of your book, Dream of Destiny, please.
Happy Read an E-Book Week!
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Dawn,
I am enjoying Read an E-Book Week as I find free e-books from other authors and publishers.
As Shadows Fall is on its way to you in e-mail. Hope you enjoy it.
I like reading books but I don’t really enjoy reading e-books, it always get me fall into sleep. So, what I did was I print all the e-books and then read it like a normal book.
Charlie,
I much prefer reading e-books than reading print. And printing out the books is such a waste of paper. But I’m glad you’re reading them any way.
I’m a book fanatic myself, and that includes e-books. but, I print them out because my eyes aches whenever I spend too much hours on the computer.I just can’t miss out a very good book or e-book.
Lea,
I’m always disappointed to hear that people print out e-books to read because that defeats one of the great benefits of e-books: reducing the amount of paper used and trees cut down. However, printing out an e-book and reading it is much, much better than the practice of printing thousands of books that are destroyed without ever being read. At least the trees sacrificed for you to read an e-book are put to good use.
Of course, I’m always happy to hear someone is a book fanatic and reads a lot.
I understand about the difficulty of reading on the screen for long periods, though it’s easier for me to read on the screen than in print because I can adjust the font to make it easy on my not-so-good eyes. However I prefer to read on my Kindle or eBookWise reader than on a computer screen.