New Year's Resolutions

Happy New Year!! I hope that each of you had a wonderful holiday season. Here at casa de Twimom, we enjoyed the time off, even though both kidlets were sick at different times. They both enjoyed their gifts and were mostly good the entire time.

I am excited because I received several Amazon Gift Cards for Christmas, and I used them to buy a new Kindle Paperwhite. I just got it Thursday, and I spent over 2 hours organizing my books and collections. I already LOVE it!  What about you... what was your favorite holiday gift?

Anyhow, so January 1, 2013 is upon us, and I thought I would take time to talk a little about New Year's Resolutions...  I don't make them... I will continue to try and eat healthy and lose that "extra weight," but I'm not going to "make a resolution" to do so. I find the promise to "start fresh" or make lists to "be better" false when I know that I will end up failing at some point during the year. It's not that I can't commit to a pledge or promise to do something specific during the year. But let's face it... New Year's Resolutions are a big set up for failure, so why put that kind of pressure on myself?! Instead, I plan to do my best and be positive.

With that said, I have made a couple of reading resolutions for 2013. First, my reading goal for 2013 is to finish 75 books. Second, I want to continue to experience new-to-me authors, so I'm challenging myself to read at least 15 books by new-to-me authors. These goals (resolutions) are not only achievable, but will enhance my reading and blogging experiences.

What about you? Do you have any New Year's Resolutions? How about Reading Resolutions and/or Challenges?

Happy New Year to all!

E-reader vs. Book

In today's day and age, books are available to readers 24 hours a day.  A reader has access to thousands of books on your phone, you can pre-order favorites online and have them delivered, and you can visit your local library or book store. I for one love this!

What I also love is the rise of the ebook. Thanks to the giants like Kindle and Nook, e-readers are a common gadget in our electronic arsenal. I myself have been reading via a Kindle (or the Kindle app) since late 2008. The first appeal was that I could get a book whenever I wanted. I was like a kid in a candy store. I also liked that I could  easily look up words I didn't know instead of reading over them. But I still preferred the feel of a paperback in my hands.

It wasn't until I began to review books in early 2010 that I fell completely in love with reading on a Kindle. First - I love that I can take notes and highlight passages right within the text. GENIUS! I also love the "cloud" feature - so if I forget and leave my Kindle at home, I can still read on my phone!

But best of all is the search/look up function. When I started writing reviews, I no longer was able to read books within a series back-to-back, and my memory of characters and events was a little shoddy. If I had the previous book on my Kindle, I could look up events and characters using keywords. This is such an important feature for me now - I use it within books and not just looking up old books. For example, when I'm halfway through a book and "Mrs. Brown" enters the room (and I don't remember something about her), I can look up to see what we have been told about her. If I can't recall the hero's favorite flavor of ice cream (because it is critical!), I can type in a couple keywords and voila!

So now, although I still read a paperback when tossed my way, I prefer to read on my Kindle. How about you? Do you prefer an e-reader or a book when reading? What are your pros and cons?

Thanks for stopping by to chat!

A little rant from Twimom...

Readers of my blog know a couple of things about me. 1) I bought a Kindle earlier this year and I am in LOVE with it. 2) I am a huge fan of Lora Leigh’s Breed series and am excited for the release, tomorrow. Put those two things together and you can guess that I pre-ordered Lion’s Heat for my Kindle weeks ago!

I received the following email from Amazon yesterday (Sunday):

Hello from Amazon.com,

We're writing to let you know that we've canceled your order for Lion's Heat because it will not be released by the publisher in Kindle format on Tuesday, April 6th, 2010 as previously expected. We don't yet have a date for when this item will be released for Kindle. We will send you an email notifying you when the Kindle edition becomes available.

The print edition is sometimes not an ideal substitute; nevertheless, we have decided to offer the print edition of this title at an exceptionally low price to partially compensate for this inconvenience.

We look forward to seeing you again soon. 

*SOB* 

I was crushed. How could the publisher do this to me? I worry that others will follow suit. What does this mean for me, a newbie Kindle Junkie?

I’ll tell you what it means... A trip to Walmart. I wait for no one or company when it comes to my Breeds!!

I love my Kindle!


I'll say it again, I LOVE my Kindle! Even with the big, SCARY mess that Amazon and MacMillan Publishing have gotten themselves into, I still have faith that my Kindle isn't going to leave me anytime soon.

Background Information:

First about my book buying habits: I love to read book series. I'll blog on my favorite series another time, but just know that I have at least a dozen paranormal romance series in paperback (I started reading/collecting the books in October 2008). I love to collect the books, referring to earlier books in the series, re-reading my favorites from time-to-time, etc. I am also very obsessive-compulsive about how my book series look... the books all need to be in the same format (hardcover, paperback, electronic).

Now about my venture into ebooks: I have an iPhone and about a year ago, I downloaded the free Kindle application. I was instantly smitten. I loved that I could get a book at anytime - day or night - and just read it from my phone. I loved the fact that the phone has backlighting and I could read in the dark: like in bed while my husband sleeps or on the airplane at night. I immediately started to download New (to me) Book Series like Gena Showalter's Lords of the Underworld and her Amazon series and free books like Jennifer Stevenson's The Brass Bed (which then led me to buy more of her books). Again, keeping with my OC tendencies, I would only buy individual books or whole series. Until last April... That's when J. R. Ward's Lover Avenged was released in hardcover. HOW DARE SHE MESS UP MY BOOKS! For those not familiar, Ward's series, Black Dagger Brotherhood, Books 1-6 were all paperback format. The 7th book was released in hard cover. I couldn't wait 7 or more months to read the book (and I can't get from my library, which is an entirely different matter to blog about), so I decided to pay the $9.99 and download the book onto my phone. It was wonderful... I took the book with me everywhere and could read anytime. BUT I still preferred my books and series in a more traditional format, for the most part.

This leads me to 2010... I decided that I wanted to give a formal ebook reader a try. After research and consideration, I decided to go with a Kindle. It made the most sense, especially since I already owned several Kindle titles. When I got the Kindle, I still had about a dozen paperbacks that needed to be read, and I felt a bit guilty, but I made my first "official" purchase. (Buying Jill Myles' Gentlemen Prefer Succubi). OH MY GOD... I was in LOVE! I didn't think it possible, but I PREFERRED to read on the Kindle - even without the backlighting! In fact, when I tried to go back and read on my phone, I didn't like it. And when I tried to read a paperback, the book seemed all bulky and unruley! SO, needless to say, my OC book buying tendencies went out the window! I've already started preordering and buying my beloved book series on Kindle - even midway through the series!! Now I am desperately trying to finish my paperbacks so I can get back to my Kindle (her name is Kendra)!

I am traveling to Florida to visit my folks later this month and instead of the 4-5 paperbacks that I usually bring, I'm taking my Kindle. Here is my current electronic TO BE READ list (on Kendra and ready to be read):

• Riding the Storm (ACRO #1), Sydney Croft
• Azazel, Dawn McClure
• Kiss Me Deadly, Michele Hauf
• Mortal Temptations, Allyson James
• His Majesty's Dragon, Naomi Novik
• Archangel's Kiss (Guild Hunter #2), Nalini Singh
• Of Crimson and Collars, Stella and Audra Price
• She Wolf, Teresa D'Amario

Some of these books are free downloads, some I've won in Twitter contests and others I've purchased. And Archangel's Kiss - that is my first "break" in a series. I own the first book in the Guild Hunter series in paperback, but this one is all Kindle.
I am so excited to have my Kindle and watch the library grow. Sure I can't display them (in piles in my closet) or ogle pretty covers, but I can take my entire library with me almost anywhere. Do you have a ebook reader? Are you OC about your book purchases? What is in your TBR pile? (I'll do another post about my paperback TBR pile... it's slowly getting smaller).