Published January 3, 2012 | 
We hope everyone had a safe and happy holiday. There are lots of stuff happening in 2012 and we as avid readers are very excited. There is the Kindle Fire for only $199 with it colored touch screen and the Amazon whispernet delivering our favorite reading materials in just a few seconds. Can’t wait until I get my income tax refund so I can get me one of those.
Kindle Fire, Full Color 7″ Multi-touch Display, Wi-Fi
Some of my favorite authors are releasing new and exciting books this year and some of my favorite characters are even being made into movies! Check out Janet Evanovich’s website for more details of the first Stephanie Plum movie. I love the actors they have chosen for the characters in the book and from the previews I’ve seen it is going to be a hilarious movie.
And Finally, our sponsor site is sponsoring a Contemporary Limericks Contest. We love limericks of all kinds but this is strictly a family oriented site so all of the limericks are supposed to rated “G”. Hey, maybe we can compose some limericks about Stephanie Plum or even the Kindle Fire. Alright all you writers, readers and fun-loving people out there get your thinking caps on and compose those 5 lines rhythming limericks about your favorite characters! Then go to the All About Limericks website and read the contest rules and enter to win…..They are now accepting applications and the first winners will be announced on March 1st with monthly winners thereafter!
Published December 22, 2011 | Amazon is trying to corner the market for books, ebooks, digital download books and much more. I have a KINDLE and I do love it. Granted, there is nothing like taking a paperback book when going to the beach and reading your favorite stories or even on a picnic or day at the park. A book doesn’t require batteries, or recharging but a KINDLE or any other reading device is capable of holding hundreds of books so you only have to carry one little device a little larger than a regular paperback but usually a lot thinner. And on a long trip I will be bringing my KINDLE. While perusing the FREE ebook selections on the Kindle store I noticed that they now provide children’s books. I mean the illustrated kind that my 6 year old grand-daughter can read to herself or me. Most are small chapter books but those are nice as well when we want to read a story together. She is currently in the 1st grade and should be reading 5 little books a week. We didn’t want to get out of the habit during her Christmas break but we no longer have any children’s books on our bookshelves. The regular Kindle has only gray-scaled pictures but they are crisp and clear. The KINDLE FIRE should have all the ebooks with colored illustrations. I will be checking once a month or so for any new books they have added to the FREE listing as well as buying some of her favorites as well.
Our local library is getting on the digital book bandwagon as well. They now offer over 4000 books in one or more digital formats. All you need with them is an online library account and a computer or reading device. Most of the ebooks and audiobooks offered can be downloaded onto your computer, i-touch, i-pad or KINDLE device for the lending period specified. Of course, if you want the KINDLE version you will need an Amazon account and they have the books on their servers and download directly to whichever device you specify. Once, your lending time is up the books are deactivated and no longer readable. Of course, I don’t know about those books that you can burn onto a CD. I haven’t tried that yet as I haven’t had the time to listen to any books on CDs in a while. We tried 4 ebooks from our local library that they listed as “Guaranteed” to be available. The process was really quite painless. I didn’t read the descriptions very well and ended up getting some Graphic Novels instead of the actual story I was expecting but my youngest daughter really likes Graphic Novels and she enjoyed them. The graphics were excellent even in gray-scale. Now there is not a lot of contemporary authors available on our library site and what there is has a long waiting list for all the newer books that have been added. But hey! It’s FREE. Contact your local library and see what they have available for your area.
Another source of FREE ebooks that has changed it the Gutenberg Project. They now offering audio books and Kindle versions of their copy-write free books. Yes, you can still download the text and html version of all the books they offer onto your computer. But the Kindle versions are specifically formatted for the Kindle device to make for easier reading. They also now have Android, iOS and other portable device versions of a lot of their more popular eBooks. The website offers a Mobile Version for those searching the site on their phones.
Published October 20, 2011 | I finally broke down and bought myself an Amazon Kindle Ebook Reading device. I’ve had it for for a couple of months now. Amazon has several versions of the Kindles ranging in prices from $79 to $379. Some of the less expensive models are the same model as the mid-price 6″ Kindle they just include advertising and sponsored ads. I bought the Kindle model that does not have advertisements but you have to use your own wireless connection or the various FREE connections available around town. My grandmother has the 6″ model with no advertisements but uses the Kindle Wireless connection. The 6 inch model comes in gray and white and has that special “ink” technology and gray-scale screens. You can view the words in direct sunlight with no glare and there are some low-resolution pictures that can be viewed in some of the books and magazines. Amazon offers a variety of different ebooks for FREE as well and not just the “Out-of-Print” books but more modern works from authors willing to have their books offered for FREE on a month-by-month basis. So, you have to keep checking each month for new ebooks that are on sale. Plus, you can have literally hundreds of books available on your little device anytime you like. I carry my Kindle in my purse and read it everywhere I have to wait for any length of time even if its only 5 minutes.
Click here to see the least expensive deal for a Kindle:
I do recommend that you get a cover for you kindle to keep it from getting scratched. The screen seems to be “scratch-resistant” but not impervious. So, a leather or vinyl cover would be a wise investment. There are a wide variety of them offered on Amazon and other websites and in a multitude of colors.
Lastly, if you would like to get a colored-screen model with a variety of new features I would highly recommend the new KINDLE FIRE. It is not available until next month but from the information available on the website it promises to be a GREAT deal and it will allow more magazines to join in on the Kindle craze. You are also supposed to be able to view your videos on the device. Totally Rocks! If, I had just waited two months I could of gotten one of those instead 
Oh, well, I guess I will have to wait until after the new year for that one. Happy Reading, and GO GREEN!
Published June 22, 2011 | Summertime is a great time for parents and kids to keep up their reading skills. Without the pressures of school kids should continue to read books, magazines, newspapers and even ebook versions of all of these. I keep several websites bookmarked for my children and grandchildren that have age-appropriate lists of books to read such as Scholastic.com – http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/collection.jsp?id=608. Their website has a pdf version of the lists by age group for your children to read this summer. You can open up the documents and print them out to take them to your local library. The library is a great place to take the kids several times during the summer. Most all public libraries have some kind of programs available during the summer and the librarians will be happy to help your and your kids (Grandkids) to find the books on your lists.
There are lots of programs out there that even offer prizes for summer reading. One such program I found on a search on Amazon called Journey Forth’s Summer Reading “Read in the Deep End” program on the BJU Press website: Click here for more details and you might win a Amazon Kindle Ebook reading device. They have age-appropriate reading lists, reading logs to print out and accepts several forms such as print books, electronic books etc and you have until August 31st to turn in your completed logs for each of your children!
Barnes and Noble also has a Summer Reading Challenge for you and your kids (Grandkids) with a Reading Journal to download and print out. You just have to read through the rules, read the books, complete the journal entries and turn them into your local Barnes and Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/summerreading/index.asp Give a try and see how you do!
Don’t forget your local library and your local school systems has information about summer reading programs on their websites. Most kids are given a summer reading list by the end of school as well as a couple of pages of reading logs or journals to fill out. Please remember that your child needs to see you reading as well as encouraging them to read. And reading to them during the day or at bedtime shows them that reading is important to you and is a great time for bonding. If you cannot afford to buy books for your kids the library is always a great resource for books. Perhaps at the end of summer you can reward your child or grandchild with a brand new or used book that they can keep from your local bookstore.
Published April 10, 2011 | Have You Read A Good Magazine Lately? You know you pick up magazines and browse through them when you are in a long check-out line at the store. And you pick up a magazine at the doctor’s office waiting for your turn to be seen. Our parents used to put magazines on tables in the “formal living room” and many people still do. I am no exception. I have to have something to read when I am waiting on my car to be serviced, when seeing any doctor and when I have to stand around in line at any kind of store. I have even given magazine subscriptions to my loved ones who have a special interest such as Cooking with Paula Deen or Sports Illustrated for my kids who loved sports. I know whenever I find a Reader’s Digest lying around I have to pick it up and at least read the “Humor in Uniform” and “Laughter is the Best Medicine” sections.
Now-a-days we are getting our magazine fix electronically. The I-Pad, I-Pods, Kindles, Nooks and more are offering monthly electronic versions of our favorite magazines on our electronic reading devices. Is this a good thing? Yes and no. Yes, it is better to have electronic versions of magazines because it is the “GREEN THING” to do. And it is convenient to have all of your magazines stored on your little reading device. The really neat thing is they haven’t figured out how to put those perfume smells on electronic versions yet. I have allergies to strong perfumes and when picking up a women’s magazine I have to be leary of those samples they put in the middle of them. The “No” part of the answer comes in with not being able to cut our coupons, cut the pictures and articles or donate our used magazines to nursing homes, hospitals and homeless shelters as a way to recycle. I always recycle my magazines after I read them. The problem comes when I don’t have time to read them and they pile up. But that is another story.
Remember in order to encourage our kids to be readers they have to see us reading and we have to give them gifts centered around reading. You may not want to pay for an electronic reading device for your kids yet but an age-appropriate magazine subscription may be a good way to get them in the habit of reading. And you can save them for their school projects. My children and grandchildren are forever having to cut out pictures in magazines for some project or another. So spend the $10 or $20 a year for a magazine subscription before they go the way of the cassette tapes and become extinct!
Published May 1, 2010 | It is no secret that I love to read. As a matter of fact my favorite form of relaxation is reading a good mystery. And I admit that I will read a trashy romance novel on occasion as well. While looking for material for my next article I came across a couple of websites that had quotes about reading. Some of my favorites are from http://www.richmond.k12.va.us/readamillion/readingquotes.htm Here are a couple of examples:
“Beware of the man of one book.” Thomas Aquinas
“Of all the diversions of life, there is none so proper to fill up its empty spaces as the reading of useful
and entertaining authors.” Joseph Addison
“Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.” Joseph Addison
“Reading is a basic tool in the living of a good life.” Mortimer J. Adler
“A library is a hospital for the mind.” Anonymous
“If you can read this, thank a teacher.” Anonymous Teacher
“Where is human nature so weak as in the bookstore?” Henry Ward Beecher
“Books are not men and yet they stay alive.” Stephen Vincent Benet
Here are a few more from the Reading Rockets website: http://www.readingrockets.org/books/fun/quotable
“I have always imagined that paradise will be a kind of library.” Jorge Luis Borges
“Once you learn to read, you will be forever free.” Frederick Douglass
“The things I want to know are in books. My best friend is the man who’ll get me a book I [haven't] read.” Abraham Lincoln
“Children are made readers on the laps of their parents.” Emilie Buchwald
Now what are your favorite quotes about reading?
Published April 8, 2010 | One of my favorite magazines to read is the Readers Digest. I love to read on the jokes and humorous stories at the bottom of the pages first and then Laughter is the Best Medicine and Humor in Uniform stuff next. Finally, I will read the articles. Whenever I am in a waiting room that is the first magazine I look for. It has always been a great resource of information and humor. I can read it in a few minutes or take my time and read the whole thing. I haven’t had a subscription to the magazine in a long while as it was costing too much but now they have an online version that is just about as much fun to read at: http://www.rd.com/. I know that all magazines depend on advertising and paid subscriptions to stay alive and I wish them well in that pursuit. So if you can afford the price of a subscription please get one.
The Readers Digest magazine will keep over time better than just about any other magazine you can get. I have kept all of the ones that I have collected over the years and enjoy re-reading them whenever I run out of books to read. They are compact enough to put in your purse or maybe in your back pocket (if your pockets are big enough). The company also still pays for stories contributed by everyday people as well. I have never done this but if you have and were paid we would like to hear from you about your experience. Encouraging people is write is always good thing and even young people can get their start by writing for the magazine you can go here: http://www.rd.com/submitJokePage.do
Published March 25, 2010 | My next favorite author is JA Jance. She has three characters that she normally writes about and one of those is Ali Reynolds. Ms. Reynolds is a former TV News Anchor who lost her job and her husband (her philandering husband is the one who fired her) and decided to move back home to Arizona for a while to get her barrings. Her grown son encourages her to start her own blog and her adventures start there. Her latest book is “Trial By Fire”. Ms. Reynolds volunteers to be a Media Consultant for one of the local sheriff’s offices that is having a little trouble. She gets mixed up in a murder (of course), has no authority to investigate but gets pulled in nonetheless.
The Reynolds character speaks to me as she is about my age, has to look for another career, has a grown child and starts her own blog. I would like to become an investigator as well but, sadly, don’t have the time or the resources and quite frankly glad that I haven’t been thrown into any murder investigations. Ms Jance’s books are always entertaining as well as suspenseful, lots of action, and have a well thought-out plot. She is very descriptive about her surroundings and allows the reader to feel like they are there.
Posted in Favorite Authors, Reading for Fun, Review of Books | 
Ali Reynolds, female detectives, JA JancePublished March 8, 2010 | I am playing catch-up again and so you will notice that there are 3 or 4 articles added this time. Sorry about that. Don’t be alarmed as these are being back dated. As I have stated in previous posts I love to read and some of what I like to read takes time away from things that I need to do such as keep up with my blog postings. And I have to limit myself or else as you can see nothing will get done. I have to read articles, newsletters and other blogs to keep up with trends in my job for which I have a blog at: http://medicalofficeclerk.info. I have a couple of blogs for family and friends at: http://jolenesramblings.blogspot.com/
As well as an electronic bookstore that I am currently renovating at: http://jolenesbooksandmore.com
And I have started a new business of website and blog creation service that is still in it’s infancy at each of the following:
http://websforyou.info
http://blogsforyou.info
http://websforwriters.com
http://blogsforwriters.com
Of course, I have other websites and blogs and for shear dumbfoundedness on my part I volunteer to redo a website for our local Volunteers in Medicine chapter as well. Which I believe turned out pretty well. In between all of this I have found the time to read for pleasure as well.
One of my more recent books that I have read was Laurel Hamilton’s Divine Misdemeanors I wasn’t able to get the book when it was first release in December of last year like I normally do, you know Christmas expenses, but when I did read it it was well worth the read. Ms. Hamilton’s stories are always good and this book is about her second set of characters that she writes about Merry Gentry – Private Eye also known as Meredith Nic Essus, princess of faerie. It is the eighth book in the series and on her website you can still download the first chapter and read it. If you like books about supernatural stuff and murder mysteries then give this author a try. Her books have a great story line with suspenseful plots, great characters that are well fleshed out and she gives informative details about the worlds she has created that seem so believable that they could actually happen. Both her series that I read, Anita Blake – Vampire Hunter and Merry Gentry – Private Eye are set in the U.S. Anita Blake is set in St. Louis and Merry Gentry in Los Angeles. All of her works are great reads and take you out of the everyday!
Published February 18, 2010 | Hey Gang, I couldn’t wait to post this one. One of my daughter’s teachers sent this video from Ocoee Middle School in Ocoee, Florida. Great video and fun too. Check it out on you-tube at:
Ocoee, Florida is a little town just west of Orlando, Florida which use to be nothing but orange groves and farmers. It is still a kind of small town but the Middle School has created a really first rate project. Congratulations Ocoee Middle School and keep up the good work!.
After seeing this video I have hope that there are children out there who want to read and whatever we can do as parents, relatives or friends of kids to encourage our children to read is worth trying. Once a child or adult, for that matter, learns to read it opens up all kinds of possibilities for that person to pursue knowledge in its many forms.
GoogleSearch
