In Link Love

Link Love: Book Nerd Edition

Posted on 8 Comments
Books for the Desk Set

As I suspect is true with most lovers of stationery, I am also a book nerd. I particularly like the feel of book in my hands but I have also learned to enjoy the convenience and portability of ebooks and audiobooks. At any time, I am reading at least one book but often it’s more like three: one paper book, one audiobook and one ebook.

I had tried to switch to reading all fiction digitally because our house is absolutely bursting at the seams with books and it didn’t seem to make sense to keep hard copies of books I will most likely only read once. This spring, however, in an effort to read more “distraction free” I joined the Book of the Month Club.

Yes, THAT Book of the Month Club. The books are reasonably priced, curated like the front table at your favorite book store and delivered right to my door — an introverts dream. I promise this is not an advertisement for the BOTM club, I just wanted to share my digital vs. analog reading habits.

As a result of my new analog reading habit, I’ve had a lot more kismet reading moments. I can leave a book open on the table and read a page or two as I’m cooking or moving about my day that is a bit harder to do with a digital book which requires keeping the screen on or unlocking the device to read a page or two. And I do like being able to quickly flip pages to see how much longer a chapter is. Sometimes, that just requires folding back the page corner that is not as easy to do with a digital book.

I participate in the GoodReads reading challenge and I am currently several books ahead of my reading goal as a result of my 3-pronged reading approach.

Do you read a lot? Paper or digital?

In link news this week, there is a wonderful post about ink bottles, a post of tools for lefties (I’ve never used or owned left-handed scissors, in most places, they are as rare as hen’s teeth so I learned to use right-handed scissors but maybe I should try them?) and a post about pens and the Ukraine that I found thought-provoking.

What were your favorite links this week?

Pens:

Ink:

Pencils:

Notebooks & Paper:

Art & Creativity:

Other Interesting Things:

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8 comments / Add your comment below

  1. I’m a long-time reader of your site, and this post gives me the opportunity to add a relevant comment.

    Reading several books at once is fun, but it can be a challenge keeping track of the people, places and plots in each book. In addition, you deserve to remember the characters, drama, and quotes long after you’ve finished reading.

    I’d like to invite you to try out a product I’ve developed called reMARKS (ree-marks). reMARKS is a note-taking system that has been cleverly designed as bookmark. You download and print reMARKS on your own paper, and keep it with your book at all times. The guided sections of reMARKS make it easy to keep track of the important aspects of your book.

    Best of all, reMARKS templates are FREE to download.

    I’ve love to see you and your readers experiment with printing reMARKS on boutique papers, and jotting notes with a variety of inks or leads.

    If you’re interested, please visit my website at http://www.my-remarks.com for more information, and download your own reMARKS templates for FREE. You can also find me on instagram: @my.remarks

    Many thanks for your consideration.

    Reply

    1. I prefer physical books too, but I think digital books do have their place. For example, you can store thousands of books on one device, which makes them much easier to store than thousands of physical books. Useful if you live in a small house!

      Also, because you can easily change the font on a device, digital books are better for the visually impaired. I have a good friend who can only read with her Kindle on the very largest font, bigger than you’d be able to get in books with even the largest text. Even if you could buy a book with such big font, it would have to be very, very thick due to the numerous amount of pages needed to accommodate the text, and since she lives in a small house, she wouldn’t have room for the thousands of books she has on her Kindle (yep, my friend loves reading like I do!)

      I’m not sure if your reference to ‘digital books’ also refers to audio books, but if so, I certainly hope they are not left in the dustbin, as once again they make life much easier for visually impaired and blind readers, since they don’t need to struggle to read text as long as they are able to hear the words.

      Just my opinion, but while I adore physical books and personally prefer them, I hope that digital books stick around so people of all abilities can enjoy fine literature!

      I am, however, sad that libraries now have more computers than books. All the libraries I have visited in my county are very sadly lacking – it is impossible to get a good book. I wish they’d get rid of some of the computers, and instead stock their shelves full of good, informative, and fun books, both fiction and non-fiction. It makes me sad to see such empty shelves.

      Reply

    2. If ebooks disappeared millions of people wouldn’t be able to read anymore at all, or would have their reading choices severely limited. You might as well start the pyre and start burning books, your attitude to limiting reading access because you think something is worthless is no different.

      It’s extremely difficult to find physical books for people who speak foreign languages from far away countries. Yet one can in a matter of minutes buy from online bookstores on the other side of the world and have ebooks on their device in microseconds.
      People who live in remote places in the world where shipping is not available or where shipping costs so much they wouldn’t be able to afford books. Libraries are more limited in what they can stock when up against all the online bookstores combined.
      Disabled people like me. I can’t turn physical pages, but a reading device can be clipped above my bed and allow me to read all day long. I also have issues with light and vision and my tablet can turn on color filters, increase or change font, won’t ghost letter from the opposite page… I can’t go join a library because I’m bedridden, nor can I peruse physical bookstores. My cognitive issues make me forget names of characters or other details easily and highlighting + search function allow me to refresh my memory in a second. Millions of people are like me and I am sure there are disabilities I don’t even know of where digital devices help.

      Reply

  3. I’ve tried reading ebooks, but still prefer the real thing. For several years I’ve been reading fiction. I’ve decided to start getting one fiction book, and one nonfiction book. Right now the fiction is Hemingway’s The Snows of Kilimanjaro, which I finally intend to finish this third time of checking it out of the library. The nonfiction book is Longitude.

    I tend to get books from the library vs buy them. I do have a bookcase full of books, some of them being my college textbooks. I’ve bought several books in recent years. Since I own them, it seems like I wait and wait to read them. Occasionally I’ll buy or ask for books for gifts after reading a library copy.

    Reply
  4. Pingback: Web Finds – 15 June 2022 | Travellers Notebook Times

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