books – Page 6 – Linda Nelson

This year I found the perfect Christmas gift for my mom.

You see, she had been having trouble reading for the past few years. She has tried using reading glasses. In fact she even has bifocals, but they really don’t help her when it comes to reading. She is in her mid-70s.

So I got her a Kindle.

No, not a Fire, not a Touch, and not a Keyboard. It is just the simple plain Jane version.

At first I was not sure she was going to like it. She has never really been much into electronics. But the more I heard her fuss over the fact that she couldn’t see the words on the pages of the books she was trying to read the more I got thinking. Why not get her an eReader? Then she will be able to make the font larger and make it easier on her eyes.

I was a little leery at first. There was the possibility that she wouldn’t even give the device a chance.

What could I do to entice her to give it a try?

Well, first off, I put some books on it. Since I didn’t know if she was going to use it or not I put some free Kindle Thrillers and Suspense books I found in the top 100 free list.

Then I added for a bit of measure Steven King’s, 11-22-63.

Boy was I surprised when she turned on the device and began to read.

Now that it is over 2 weeks after Christmas she is 74% done reading that Steven King book.

She loves her Kindle.

So if you are having a hard time figuring out what to get Grandma or Grandpa for their birthday, why not get them an eReader?

Just make sure it is the simplest to use device you can find and they will be in their glory with the door reopened to the world of books.

What better way to read a book than with a kindle! (gadgetgimmicks.wordpress.com)

I guess it is now official, the Indie Bookstores have allianced themselves with Kobo eBooks and it is about time they partnered up with an eBook Powerhouse. Maybe now they will be able to recover some of their sales by being able to offer their customers some of those great eBooks coming from Smashwords authors around the world.

I am really excited about this news.

In the past I went ahead and loaded my books onto the Google eBook site. Their site is a horror show. It is hard to maneuver and it is just plain quirky. And when they post the reviews for my books that are coming off of GoodReads, for some reason they like to grab all the lowest review ratings instead of the top ratings. I thought this to be an odd practice for a company who was looking to sell eBooks.

Now with the new Kobo deal with the indie bookstores, anyone who publishes with Smashwords and selects the distribution to Kobo will be able to have their books distributed to the US Brick and Mortar Stores.

It was not too long ago that I spoke to the owner of our local bookstore. He really didn’t know what to expect with this new Kobo deal. He was kind of apprehensive about the eBook movement and was afraid that eBooks would replace print books just as mp3 files took over the CD market.

Hopefully he decides to carry the Kobo eReader so he can actively promote eBooks from his store.

So move over Amazon, the Independent Bookstores are back in business.