Sample Addiction

One of the beauties of owning a Kindle is the ability to download samples. Unlike standing around at the bookstore, arms burdened by multiple hardcovers or paperbacks, trying to flip through another book of interest and read the first few pages to see if I enjoy the writing style, Kindle lets you store 5 bajillion samples (maybe more!) for your reading pleasure at your moment of choice. And so . . . I did. I stored. A lot.

I am still on a personal mission to complete reading as many of my DTBs as possible, but upon the arrival of my lovely Kindle I loaded her (him? Damn that reminds me! I need to pick a name for him (her?) still!) up with a lot of samples. Many. Hundreds. Okay not hundreds. At first count I think I wound up with about 50 some odd samples. Which was great! For a week. But now I feel restricted by my sample loading. I sent a bunch of them to the Kindle for iPod Touch app I downloaded which worked out well. Samples are a good length of reading to do during lunch time at work, so I plowed through a bunch that way. As of today, two weeks-ish after Kindle arrived, I still have approxmiately 20 samples to read on the actual Kindle. And I keep reading, say, five, and then adding two more. It’s madness! And I don’t feel I can just say “Screw it” and delete them. I’m genuinely interested in these books and want to save them for later purchase if the sample is appealing. I don’t want to delete them and forget! What if one of them is the most awesome book I’ll read . . . ever? Yet, I missed out on reading it because I deleted the sample? No. I can’t take that risk. At the same time, I desperately want to clear my Home screen on the Kindle of samples. I only want full books on there, and I won’t feel free to read an actual book until I clear off the samples.

It’s a vicious cycle. The samples are winning.

By some grace of the Federal Government I have today free from work. I was planning to finish up the sample reading, update my list I’m keeping to track which ones I want and their current cost. Alas, I was utterly derailed by movie watching and video game playing. I fear the samples will continue to win. At the very least I’ve decided all new samples will be sent to the iPod exclusively. That little puppy can hold quite a bit as well, so I don’t need to worry about filling it up. And the samples really do make perfect lunch time reading. I’d love to take my Kindle to work, now made possible by the arrival of my handmade padded case for it, but I’m probably not going to. I don’t want my annoying co-workers annoying me even more by asking about it. Maybe after the holidays, when other people will likely have new gadgets at work from gift receiving, and it’ll be like “Oh wow nifty! Oh and by the way, here’s more of my work to do for me thanks you’re the best bye!” Actually, come to think of it, if I’m still at my current job after the holidays . . . anywho . . . being able to sync to my iPod makes life so easy. It’s convenient to not have to carry one more thing around. And the iPod isn’t bad to read on and is easier to sneakily read on if I get bored. So I may continue to use it as my work reading device regardless.

Hmmm. Babble tangents. So. I already have a quasi-list of To Read for my DTBs. At the very least, even if I don’t finish samples today, I will make a list of To Read for my Kindle purchases. I’ve cut myself off from any more for a while, so making a list won’t have to be adjusted for any new purchases (unless there is something I find that is free . . . woops! Didn’t think of that . . .). I figure I am capable of keeping up with more than one read at a time, so, I’ll be trying to read at least one DTB at the same time I have Kindle editions going in order to clear off the bookshelf more as well. However, I am loving reading on the Kindle so much, I’m not sure how fast the bookshelf clearing is going to happen. If I can figure out an easy way to sell a bunch of them, I may just do that and splurge on Kindle editions anyway. We shall see. In the meantime, lets hope I can overcome the Sample Addiction and get to some real reading soon.

Let The Bookworming Begin!

Hi. My name is Rebecca. I am a bookworm. Actually, book addict might be a more accurate term. I always had a healthy interest in reading, but I remember that the addiction truly began when my neighbor and best friend moved around the age of 8. I was devastated to lose her and I retreated into the world of Books to recover. Only I’ve never been able to get back out of that world!

Thanks to Higher Education I have lacked, for numerous years, the time or mental energy to read for fun. I know I read books while in school, but they’ve all blended into a daze of all night study sessions and essay exams. Now that I’m finally done with school I have time to read, and read I shall!

Yesterday was a monumental day in my reading life. My bright and shiny new Kindle 2 arrived. As I removed it from its clever packaging, charged it up, and powered it on, I realized immediately I was in for a life altering experience. I admit to being up till 3:30AM browsing for new books, downloading samples, and reading into the wee hours. As I lay there trying to sort out how I wanted to handle the switch from reading Dead Tree Books (DTB) to almost exclusively reading on my Kindle, I realized I had The Blog itch again too. I used to Blog frequently about my life and antics, but that too faded out thanks to schooling. I’m not sure I feel the need to post extra personal posts anymore, but part of enjoying a good book is sharing it. I realized setting up a Blog would be the perfect way to track my reading and share it with who ever might stumble here and get sucked into my babbling. Plus, it never hurts to work on ones writing skills, right?

Right!

So, without further intro ado, here is my blog. I have all the best intentions for tracking my reading each month/year, blogging about challenges (both of the “this book was hard to read!” and “I have a goal of 50 books read this year to challenge myself!” kind of challenge), attempting to write insightful reviews (I tend to write things like “It was real good huckyuck!” – I’m not typically the best reviewer), and to chronical my Conversion to Kindle adventures. Really, this blog is for me, so I can attempt to satisfy my compulsive list making and organizational impulses, but I hope that in writing it others will find interesting info here too.

Happy Reading!

~ Rebecca ~