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.

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!

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.

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!

“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?

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

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.

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!

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.