Why an e-reader?

Happy Monday, peeps! Hope you're enjoying your Memorial Day weekend.

Song of the day- My First Kiss by 3OH!3

So I thought I'd talk about e-books and e-readers today. The e-book market is on the rise, but there are still people who don't know much about them. Hopefully today's post will shed a bit of light for those who've yet to travel down the e-book route.

I think the easiest way to jump in would be to tell you the reasons I chose to purchase an e-reader and then back my opinions up with a cool article I found in The Huffington Post.

I'm a book lover who doesn't have a lot of time. With three girls, busy practice schedules and a laundry list of chores I need to complete each day, I don't have a lot of spare time to shop for books (sigh.) For me, choosing to purchase an e-reader made sense. Why?

• I don't  need to get in the car and drive to the store. The ability to purchase and download a book to my Kindle takes about a minute, sometimes less.  That right there, for me, is a huge selling point. I'm an instant gratification type of girl, and it doesn't get much quicker than that.

• E-books are green. Plain and simple, they save our forests.

• Anonymity.  Seems silly, right?  Maybe it is, but a lot of people bag on the romance genre.  Why? I have no idea. Romance fiction garnered $1.37 billion in sales in 2008. (Statistics taken from RWA's website.)  Yep, it doled out a virtual spanking to other genres such as science fiction and fantasy, which brought in sales in the are of $551 million.  Take that ya snooty tooties!  Still, with the introduction of erotica (whose authors are doing very well right now) there are those who are a bit leery of heading up to the check out counter with a extra hot book in their hand.  This is where e-books come into play.  No one knows what you're buying.  You can download to your heart's content and enjoy the books you love.

"But e-readers are expensive!"  Yeah, I can't argue with you there.  They do cost a pretty penny.  I was lucky enough to receive mine as a Christmas gift this past year.  No surprise, it was my favorite gift.  Still, I think in the long run, if you're a prolific reader, it's a good way to go.  Some (not all) e-books cost less then their paper brothers and sisters, and again, you're saving our trees.  The earth will thank you.

There are a ton of e-readers out there, so I'll spare you a lengthly comparison and just throw a couple of big names out there.  Kindle.  Sony.  Nook.  Basically, there's a reader out there for just about everyone, depending on your needs.  

Have an iPhone?  If so, you've got yourself an e-reader!  Kindle has a wonderful (and free) app for the iPhone.  There's also Lexcycle's Stanza.  Before I received my Kindle, I downloaded the free app on my iPhone and read a slew of books that way.  The fact I could take my book with me wherever I went, and store it in my pocket (heh heh, I love my phone) was a huge bonus.

Want some more info?  Check out this article.  Then go download yourself a free e-reader app for your phone or computer and give it a try!

Happy Monday!