It's my turn to host bookclub, and I have chosen to review Enders Game, by Orson Scott Card. It's kind of a given with the movie coming out... November 2, I think. Choosing a book for book club is almost as difficult as naming a child. They're just so many different choices available! I want to choose one that will have a lasting impression not only on me, but other readers as well (I'm talking about a book, not naming a baby… I'm not making any kind of announcement either… That "book" is closed)
With this Enders Game decision, I've (once again) come to a pretty frustrating debate in my own mind: digital vs. hardcopy. One thing that helps me decide on a book to review is the availability at the local library. Well, since the two books I REALLY wanted to review had holds 20 years out, I decided to look into a different book. Nothing was satisfying my mind like the two I had already narrowed it down to so I decided to just go with the cheapest purchase of the two, Enders Game. It is available in a digital format from $3.97 and a soft back copy can be purchased for about $7.00. (The other choice I had narrowed it down to was Blackmoore by Julianne Donaldson... Which I HAD to buy and couldn't put down till I finished... Which may still be a topic of conversation at book club)
Anyway... Since I really wanted to do Enders Game, and it was SOOOO cheap I decided to just do it and hope there are enough people willing to bite the bullet and pay to buy a copy. Therein lies my frustration. I hate that I have a book that I love, in a digital format, that I want to share with others in a physical sense, as in swapping hands, but more-so in a human connecting way. By getting together and talking about the plot and the characters and the similarities and the obscurities and many of the other elements that infiltrate the imaginations and cultivate the creativity of the human spirit.
That's kind of hard to do if you don't have a copy of the book.
So to make myself feel...better????... about selfishly purchasing digital copies of books (I feel like I can't even call them books!!) I will do what I was raised to do, make a visual display of pros and cons:
With this Enders Game decision, I've (once again) come to a pretty frustrating debate in my own mind: digital vs. hardcopy. One thing that helps me decide on a book to review is the availability at the local library. Well, since the two books I REALLY wanted to review had holds 20 years out, I decided to look into a different book. Nothing was satisfying my mind like the two I had already narrowed it down to so I decided to just go with the cheapest purchase of the two, Enders Game. It is available in a digital format from $3.97 and a soft back copy can be purchased for about $7.00. (The other choice I had narrowed it down to was Blackmoore by Julianne Donaldson... Which I HAD to buy and couldn't put down till I finished... Which may still be a topic of conversation at book club)
Anyway... Since I really wanted to do Enders Game, and it was SOOOO cheap I decided to just do it and hope there are enough people willing to bite the bullet and pay to buy a copy. Therein lies my frustration. I hate that I have a book that I love, in a digital format, that I want to share with others in a physical sense, as in swapping hands, but more-so in a human connecting way. By getting together and talking about the plot and the characters and the similarities and the obscurities and many of the other elements that infiltrate the imaginations and cultivate the creativity of the human spirit.
That's kind of hard to do if you don't have a copy of the book.
So to make myself feel...better????... about selfishly purchasing digital copies of books (I feel like I can't even call them books!!) I will do what I was raised to do, make a visual display of pros and cons:
I still feel like I'm betraying my heart by reading a digital copy, but at least now I can justify it to myself, if only a little, by looking at my list.
*sigh*
(Maybe I feel like I'm disappointing my ancestors? Not grandma tho... She'd likely have a digital library to shame the iBooks store by now... Probably paid for by uncle John;)
*sigh*
(Maybe I feel like I'm disappointing my ancestors? Not grandma tho... She'd likely have a digital library to shame the iBooks store by now... Probably paid for by uncle John;)
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