Author Archive
October 15th, 2008 | 
Author: I have done a lot of research on Ebook Reader devices. I know that the Ebook Readers are supposed to be more “green” and the “wave of the future”. I sure hope so as I have created an inexpensive ebook site at: www.jolenesbooksandmore.com . I believe in the future of ebooks and have even read a few of them on my computer. I haven’t, however, broken down and actually bought an Ebook Reader Device.
I love electronic gadgets and am always willing to try something new but I am also always on a tight budget. Thus, my constant researching on the subject. I am still holding out for a decent, easy to use, generic ebook reading device that doesn’t cost somewhere between $250 to $400 to buy. I love the concept of the Amazon Kindle Reading device and have even incorporated a bookstore link page to them at: Jolene’s Ebook Store2. Don’t get me wrong, I have and will continue to buy things from Amazon and their concept is great. But I also would like to be able to upload my own acrobat reader files. According to their own literature on the website the Acrobat Reader Format is not quite perfected yet and any personal files uploaded may be charged an additional $0.10 fee. That is really not such a big charge but HEY! why pay any more for something I already own or have created myself? Plus, for right now, the price is a little too prohibitive for me.
Like I said there are other alternatives to Amazon and one of them is the Sony PRS-505/RC Digital eBook Reader – Redwhich comes in Red, Silver and Black. This product, from all of the literature, would be a great Ebook Reading Device to try and they claim to be able to read the Acrobat Reader files just fine. I have even found them for about $50 to $70 less than the Amazon Kindle. I may be able to try out that one if the discounted price offered at J&R Computers and Music holds out until I can save the money to get it. As soon as I get one to play with I will post another review.
Getting back to my original title of this post. “Going Green” is pretty important to me. I try to recycle as much as I can and I am looking into ways to convert from electric to solar for our home heating and cooling needs. (That is the subject of a very long post in the future). I have read and written articles at work for helping our environment with recycling, turning down or up the thermostat to comfortable for that particular season, using hand-dryers instead of paper towels (also another great subject for later) and cutting down on the trips back and forth for work by working longer shifts and taking more days off (that hasn’t been accepted yet but I am still hopeful). I am not as good about buying glass jars of food and reusing them as I have clumsy teenagers running around the house all the time and they have a tendency to break glass. I also own approximately 600 books. I keep the books that I buy and only give the ones I don’t want to read again to the library or exchange books at the local used bookstore. The concept of electronic books hasn’t really taken hold in our household yet!
There are always good and bad points about anything. The good about electronic books is that they do not collect dust, invite pests, take up room on a bookshelf, can fit about 100 of them into one device and only weigh as much as they device they are stored in. The bad about electronic books is that you have to have a device of some kind to read them, requires some form of electric power to see them, as of yet there isn’t a market to swap or exchange them for new ones, and if they device gets broken you cannot tape it back together again.
Now, I am homeschooling my daughter and starting next week I will be homeschooling my nephew as well. We are using a service offered by the Florida Virtual School. There are no textbooks, no papers to turn in and no reports or notes written to the parents. The whole thing is electronic. Everything is turned in via attachments from our computers. The tests are online, the grading is online and available 24/7. The teachers communicate via email, online bulletin boards and over the phone. This is a truly “green” service. I’m sure if the books that are required for reading in language arts classes were available in ebook form they would find a way to get them added to their virtual library.
Our local library and the University of North Florida offers the Net Library to check out electronic books as well. These, of course, require that you belong to one of these institutions with privileges to check out electronic books. The Net Libraries however are limited in that you have to check out the book on their site and read it with software on your computer at their site.
The other drawback to electronic ebooks is that not all authors are happy with the service. Some have stated that they would not want their books to go electronic because they can be “hacked” and sold without their consent. I hate to tell them but after the initial sale of the books by bookstores or from the publishing houses their books are sold, traded or just given away by those who own, traded or received the books for free anyway. Electronic books are protected under copyright just as the printed versions are protected so long as the guidelines are followed. Any infringement can be taken to court just like any other work. Copyright protection can be established for the courts by anyone who writes a novel, textbook or short-stories simply by printed out a copy, sticking the pages into an envelope addressed to yourself and mailing it. Once you receive it back, “DO NOT OPEN IT”, just file it away and the date of the postmark becomes your copyright date. The US Copyright office does not require that your work be published at all. If you fill out the application, pay the fees and turn in a copy of your work as required in their publication you will have your letter from them in a few weeks!
Finally, “GOING GREEN”, with electronic books is a good thing all in all. For it to take a good hold on our economy and our way of life the devices themselves will have to come down on price, be in “True Color”, and have more authors willing to accept it as “THE MEDIA” to publish in.
Till next time, be sure a read a book, whether it is electronic or paper!
Jolene
Posted in 
Tags: 
I have always loved the writings of Faye Kellerman. Her characters Peter Decker and Rini Lazarus have always been entertaining. Her latest book, Mercedes Coffin, is a great read for her fans and for someone new to her writing as well. I opened the book Saturday morning and couldn’t put it down until a few hours before I had to be at work at 11:00pm. Needless to say I wasn’t fit for much at work that night. But I couldn’t wait until my breaks to sneak in another paragraph or two before trudging back to work. By the time I got back home the next morning I had finished the book and was wondering when the next one was coming out. Of course, I have read almost all of her books with these two characters but I seem to have missed one.
I went to her website to see if there was another book in between that I had missed and low and behold she has done two other books that contain short-stories with these characters. Now I will have to go to the library and see if they are available. That is what I do when I’m broke otherwise I run on down to Books-a-Million to pick up the latest releases. I haven’t been keeping up on Ms Kellerman as the last two books were a collaboration with her husband. I don’t like his stuff as much however so I don’t read them unless I happen to be desperate for something new to read. Don’t get me wrong Jonathan Kellerman has some good characters but his novels tend to get a little graphic or have a tendency to drag a little bit.
Now their son has also published a few books. Jesse Kellerman has published 3 books so far each of them in January. I haven’t had the time to read these either so there is some more new material for me to look for when I get a chance to read another book.
Each of these writers have their own style. It must be nice to have all of that talent in one family. It gives each of them lots to talk about as well as having plenty of common ground. On the other side there are probably problems with “ego” with 3 famous writers in the family. Now from reading the excerpt on the ‘Garden of Eden’ on Ms. Kellerman’s website it notes that one of the stories “Luck of the Draw” is credited to Rachel and Ilana Kellerman. From the information on the web this is Faye and Jonathan’s daughters. WOW, how did they get all of their kids into writing. I’m lucky to get my children to text me let alone actually write a book.
Right now I am trying to homeschool another of my children. The first two did not work out so well but with my youngest daughter (who is 12) I may have a better chance of getting her through school. There is this great free resource for Florida called the Florida Virtual School. They have everything available online and free (well so far) beginning with 6th grade up through 12th. There was a post at the beginning of the semester that they have a sister site or resource available for younger children. They stress short lessons with lots of writing exercises in all of the classes including Math. So, despite everything at least my daughter is learning how to type a paragraph.
Cheers and until next time!
Jolene
Get Your Copy of Mercedes Coffin
Faye Kellerman Talks about her book Mercedes Coffin
That question gets asked a lot in various forms on any kind of social networking website such as this one, myspace and reunion.com to name a few. I think it is a great question because it tells you a little bit about a person and whether or not they really have similar interests as you. I love all kinds of books but mainly I read mysteries. The romance and suspense novels are great for a little light reading but a good mystery whether or not it has a sex scene is a great diversion for me. I have read and enjoyed all kinds of mysteries over the years and my favorite authors are JA Jance, Iris Johansen, JD Robb, Faye Kellerman, Nevada Barr and Elizabeth Peters to name but a few. Each of them have a certain style with their characters that keep me coming back for more. I just wish we could instill in our children this love of reading as well. I am having a half and half success with mine. My oldest and youngest children don’t seem to be great readers and my middle two are doing much better. I have always told my children that I didn’t care what they read so long as they do.
If you haven’t had a chance to read any of these authors I have listed the first book in the series of my favorite characters that each of these writers have created. I seem to always start in the middle of a series when I find a character I like to read about so I end up having to backtrack to find out what happened in the beginning. So, if you are like me and would like to read a series from beginning to end then try the books below. You can go to their websites and get a listing of the other books within the series once you have found one that you really like!
Until next Time — Keep Reading!
Jolene
Elizabeth Peters – Crocodile on the Sandbank (1st Amelia Peabody)
Iris Johansen – Face of Deception (1st Eve Duncan)
JD Robb – Naked in Death (1st Dallas & Roarke)
Nevada Barr – Track the Cat (1st Anna Pigeon)
JA Jance – Desert Heat (1st Joanna Brady)
Faye Kellerman – Ritual Bath (1st Peter Decker & Rini Lazarus)
Every year I read an entire series from my favorite authors. Usually, it is because he/she is publishing a new story in the series and sometimes it is just because the author is no longer publishing and I haven’t read the stories in a while. While it is great to read new stories and new authors, the ones we love the most are great to re-read. There are a variety of different reasons but the main one for me is that I have forgotten the story and like to relive it once more. It’s like watching reruns of your favorite shows when they come out on DVD. They can be like old friends and you just want to get reaquainted. The classic tales never go out of style. We should all try reading one of the classic stories at least once a year. You will be amazed at how much you will enjoy the story again. For me I like to re-read all the great mystery novels from Arthur Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie to the more modern Nora Roberts, Dorothy Gilman and JA Jance.
What stories have you read more than 3 times? I think a book is not considered a favorite until it has been read at least 3 times. The first time is only because it is new or that it was recomended by a friend or relative. The second time is usually because you think you have read it before but aren’t sure so you read it again to remember. By the third time you are hooked and will probably read it again and again over the years. I confess that several years ago I was introduced to the science fiction writer, Anne McCaffrey, with her PERN series. The story line was good, the characters were well-developed and she had written quite a few books. So, I read one of the stories in the middle somewhere and then became obsessed with reading the entire series from the beginning. I printed off her book list from her website and proceded to drive around town to the various branches of our local library to get ALL of the books. I then spent the next 3 weeks reading every one of them. It has been several years since then and Ms McCaffery and her son, Todd McCaffery, has written several other books since then so now I must gather all the books together again and have another reading marathon. Maybe, this year I will just go online and order all the books from Amazon or Barnes-N-Noble to save myself some time and trouble and almost the price of the tank of gas it will cost me to get all the books in one place.
I have done that with several other authors but now I go online or to my local used bookstore to get all of the books in a series. My mother and I are both avid readers and we have a tendency to buy a lot of books when we have extra cash. We now have 7 bookcases filled with books that I won’t let her get rid of. She likes to trade her books in but I like to keep them and re-read them. I think I have the entire collection of Nora Roberts and JD Robb (minus 4 of her earliest works), all of Laurel Hamiltons, Dorothy Gilmans (except for 3 that are out-of-print), and Elizabeth Peters. I think I might be a little obsessed or put a nicer way, I AM A COLLECTOR.
Until Next Time….Keep Up on Your Reading!
Jolene
Guilty Pleasures (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter: Book 1)
