Ramblings
Find me on Storify
I’m playing around with a new site called Storify, where you can pull news and other stuff from all of the different social media sites and web results and put it all together in one “story”. It’s where I can pretend to be a journalist like I’ve always wanted to be! I was looking for a way to gather interesting and relevant news without having to regurgitate and rewrite the news myself because sometimes, I just don’t feel like doing that. :)
Check out my Storify page here: For the Love of Lit on Storify. Below is one of the stories I made about the new Kindles that were released last week. I’ll try to get my other stories posted here as I make them!
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Kindle + Libraries
Exciting news! You as a Kindle owner or Kindle app user can now borrow Kindle ebooks from your local library! How awesome is that? I admit, I haven’t been to a library in way too long. Other than the college library for school stuff, I probably haven’t visited a library for pleasure reading since high school or earlier. Sad, huh. I recently applied for a library card with my local library system, but I didn’t go pick it up right away so I think I have to reregister online again. Oops.
Anyway, I first read about this news on one my favorite tech blogs, TechCrunch. Amazon has a page dedicated to Public Library Books for Kindle and it seems to answer any questions that you could have. You can go to the OverDrive search website to see if your library participates in this program and if so, you can go to your library’s website and check out ebooks to your Kindle (you must have a library card, though). The only downside that I see is that the libraries must only have one or a very limited amount of each ebook. I did a quick search on some popular titles in the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh site and many of them were checked out. I believe that there is a two-week lending period for each title, but it looks like you can put yourself on the wait list. Wonder how long that would take. I’ll have to check it out as soon as I become a responsible adult and get a new library card.
I’d love to hear from you if you’ve tried this with your local library! Any success stories, pros, cons?
100 Kindle Books for $3.99 or Less
Cheap books (or ebooks) are my weakness. Did you see that Amazon has 100 Kindle books for $3.99 or less
There’s a pretty decent selection and it really looks like there is something for everyone. If you’re looking for something to download and have the same taste in books as I do, I recommend “Shanghai Girls“
Check out the list and let me know if you recommend any others!
Summer Reading
It’s that time of year again… SUMMER! I can’t believe June is almost over already but technically, summer only started a few days ago. I just ran across Amazon’s summer reading recommendations for this year. On the first list, I thought it was kind of weird that cookbooks were on a “reading list”, but whatever. You can drill down the recommendations by genre so you can take a look and see if there is anything that really interests you. A few books that I’ve already read are listed in the Literature and Fiction section like “Room“, “The Help” (never blogged about that one yet, sorry, but it’s amazing, so please go read it), “Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet“, “Shanghai Girls” (also didn’t blog about that one but it’s also very good), “Heart of the Matter“…. and that’s just in the top 27 in that category.
I’ve preordered a few books for my Kindle that should be out soon:
- “Silver Girl” by Elin Hilderbrand (this one actually just came out on June 21 and I didn’t even realize it but it should be in my Kindle library waiting to be read!)
- “Then Came You” by Jennifer Weiner (out July 12)
- “Escape” by Barbara Delinsky (also out July 12)
I wonder if I’m missing any other new summer releases by my favorite authors. Are there any books that you’re looking forward to reading this summer, whether they’re new or have been out for awhile? I would love to hear your recommendations!
Happy summer reading and make sure you’re stocked up (with books, but also sunblock, water, etc) before you hit the beach or pool!
Fleeting Pages – A Pop-Up Bookstore in Pittsburgh
If you don’t live under a rock, I’m sure you know that a very large number of Borders bookstores have closed in the past several months. One of the targeted stores was the Borders located in East Liberty (in Pittsburgh, PA, if you’re not from around these parts). A local woman came up with the idea to open a temporary bookstore in the empty space that would focus primarily on local authors or indie authors rather than the mainsteam authors and books that the “big box” bookstores carry. The store will also hold evening events such as documentary screenings, author readings, et cetera.
Check out this article that was in the Pittsburgh City Paper today about Fleeting Pages: Old East Liberty Borders gets new life as a pop-up bookstore. The new store opens on May 7th and will be open for four weeks. Will you be there? I definitely want to check it out! This is a really interesting concept and I hope she finds much success in those few weeks. Maybe that will lead to something else in the future, like a permanent storefront somewhere.
Find out more about Fleeting Pages by visiting www.fleetingpages.com.
