Top Ten Things That Make Your Life as a Reader/Book Blogger Easier

This week's Top Ten from The Broke and the Bookish asks Top Ten Things that make your Life as a Reader/Book Blogger Easier. Here are a few of my favorites!

1) LibraryThing.com – Oh how I love thee! I joined in 2006 and have catalogued and reviewed my books on LT ever since. I keep track of what I own, what’s recommended, what’s loaned and what I’ve read each year.

2) Paperbackswap.com – As soon as I hear about a new book I want to read I add it to my wish list on PBS. Sometimes I cave and buy it before it’s available or get it from the library, but other times I’m willing to wait until a copy is up. I couldn’t afford half the books I own if it wasn’t for PBS.

3) Indy Reads Books – This incredible bookstore has only been around for a year, but I am so in love with it. All the proceeds (100%) support literacy in Indianapolis. They host community events all the time and have a great used book selection.

4) Voice Memos app – I have this on my iPhone and I love using it to record quotes from my audiobooks.

5) My Library – I have a list of 50 books (the limit) on constant rotation at my library. I always have a stack of audiobooks at home and use my library for a lot of new books and eBooks.  

6) Half Priced Books – There are 3 in my state and I am a frequent visitor, both buying and selling books. This is also the one place everyone knows I love getting gift cards to!

7) Audiobooks – I always have at least two audiobooks going at a time; one in my car and one in my house. In the past 10 years I think my reading has become about 50% audio and 50% print. They give me the chance to read so many books I never would have gotten to.

8) Wikipedia – I use it for a quick fact check for nonfiction or historical fiction books when I’m writing reviews.

9) My kindle – It took me a LONG time to actually use my kindle regularly. Now I still tend to reach for a hardcopy first, but I use it a lot when I’m traveling and when I’m reading a huge chunkster.

10) My Clippings (option on my kindle) – I love that you can highlight lines that you read on your kindle and it saves them in a single document. I use this whenever I read an eBook to remember lines I want to include in my reviews.

Photo by moi of my library.

Reading the States: Indiana

** This is my state, so it was fun to discover a few new authors and books that originated here.

State: INDIANA

Fiction:

- The Fault in Our Stars* by John Green

- God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater by Kurt Vonnegut

- A Girl of the Limberlost* by Gene Stratton-Porter

- Here Lies the Librarian by Richard Peck

- The Circus in Winter* by Cathy Day

- The Inner Circle by T. C. Boyle
- Where the Birds go When it Rains* by Jamie Paul Wesseler

- Magic by the Lake by Edward Eager

- The Stone Diaries* by Carol Shields

- Raintree County by Ross Lockridge

- Crimes in Southern Indiana by Frank Bill
- The Magnificent Ambersons* by Booth Tarkington
- We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler 

Nonfiction:

- A Fever in the Heartland* Timothy Egan

- A Girl Named Zippy* by Haven Kimmel

- A Lynching in the Heartland Race and Memory in America by James H. Madison

- A Christmas Story by Jean Shepherd
- She Got Up Off the Couch by Haven Kimmel 

Authors Known for Writing in or about the State:

- John Green

- Haven Kimmel
- Booth Tarkington

Authors Who Lived Here:

- Ernie Pyle

- Kurt Vonnegut

- Booth Tarkington

- Lew Wallace

- Meg Cabot

- James Whitcomb Riley

- Karen Joy Fowler

- Theodore Dreiser

Great Bookstores:

Loudmouth Books

Tomorrow Bookstore

Hyde Brothers Booksellers

Golden Hour Books

Dream Palace Books & Coffee

Book Corner
Indy Reads Books

Half Priced Books (These are in most states, but this is my state and my HPB)
Black Dog Books
The Two Sisters Bookstore 

Literary Places to Visit:
Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library
Kurt Vonnegut's Childhood Home
Kurt Vonnegut Mural
James Whitcomb Riley Museum Home
Red Key Tavern
Center for Ray Bradbury Studies 
Library Installations
Limberlost State Historic Site  
Central Library
Funky Bones 

Lilly Library

*Books I've Read

Photo by moi.

The End of Borders

(My pretty new copy of Cannery Row)

As everyone already knows, Borders is officially closing. Book bloggers have been talking about how bummed out they are and I've been seeing posts about book buying at their sales every where I look. So I decided to check it out... it did not go well.

In recent years Borders has stopped being a bookstore in my mind and has become a stationary or journal shop where you can also buy coffee. It seemed like every time I went into one, the books were becoming fewer and fewer and the other products were taking over.

I decided to ignore this fact and check out the much lauded "sale." I drove about 45 minutes, in bad traffic, to be greeted by giant 40% sale signs. I'll admit, I was a bit giddy with anticipation. I am the last person to get excited by the closing of a bookstore, but a book sale is another things entirely.

Unfortunately the sale itself consisted of about five items that were 40% off (mainly 2011 calendars) and a bunch of books that were 10% off. And folks, 10 % off of a $30 book does not put it in my price range. If I'm going to buy a book for full price, it's not going to be from a Borders or Barnes and Noble, it's going to be from some independent bookshop that I love to hang out in. Preferably one that lets cats roam the aisles.

Anyway, I just wanted to add my two cents into the whole Borders issue. Yes, I hate to see any bookstore close, but at the same time, I felt like Borders stopped catering to readers a long time ago. I would encourage all of you to support whatever bookstores you love, big or small, but don't be fooled by the "liquidation sale" that probably won't be an actual sale worth going to for another three months.

p.s. To make myself feel better about the failed Borders trip, I stopped into a Half Priced Books on my way home. That trip ended successfully and I walked away with a 1945 edition of Steinbeck's Cannery Row for $7! It's one of my favorite classics and it even has an awesome dust jacket asking people to buy war bonds.

*Photos by moi.