One For the Money - Ipad and Ebook Review

My college is exploring ways to switch to Ebooks, and our president is pretty set on that switch taking place with Ipad technology.

This is not an academic blog so I'm going to try my best not to go any further than that.

I sorta lost control with my vocabulary explanation yesterday...Whoops!

I'm a book lover so I've really tried to to turn a blind eye to the Ebook.

I like to keep my books after I read them, and in Ebook format, that's impossible.

You can keep the Ebook...on your laptop, Ipad, Kindle, Nook, or Ipod...but the actual book...Nope, sorry...you can never touch it, much less keep it.

However, I am supposedly the Reading expert at my school, and when people started asking me how the switch to Ebooks would affect student reading, I decided I better get some experience in this area.

I do realize that most of our students (and let's face it, a lot of adults these days) are not as in love with their books as I am and can part with a book they've read (if they've actually read it) very easily...without a 2nd thought most of the time.

In need of space in my office I have forced myself to consider that there might be books on my shelves that I could possibly part with...my goal was one per day to the recycling bin. 

I've managed maybe 1 per month :( 

BUT, I have put about 3 books in the recycling bin...actually 4, but a colleague of mine got one of them out

:/

Must be another symptom of the dreaded English teacher's disease.

Instead of focusing on how many books I've NOT been able to part with, I've realized that there ARE very definitely books that I am attached to more than others.

I am also very unfond of the smaller mass market paperbacks...I can't see them, people!!!

And, I don't like the way they feel in my hands!!!

I also don't care much about keeping those if I'm forced to read them.

They do not look very pretty on my shelves!

I've been trying to read the Stephanie Plum series for quite some time...but I'm a fanatic about starting at the beginning of a series.  I was having a hard time finding at least an oversized paperback of the first book in the series and refused to read that little paperback...do NOT even think about suggesting that I read the oversized print version :p

Once I realized I was going to have to read something in Ebook format AND I could read Stephanie Plum on my Ipad without having to hold that teeny paperback and strain my eyes (or heaven forbid actually put on my glasses), a match in heaven was made.

Stephanie is a New Jersey girl after my own heart...when the story begins she has been laid off of work for about 6 months and is slowly but surely sinking.

She even finds herself eating dinner at her parents' house more and more often just for sustinence.

But, she will NOT give up!

Go Stephanie!!

At her mother's insistence, Stephanie finally goes to her cousin Vinnie for what she thinks is a filing job and walks out of Vinnie's office a Bounty Hunter.

Stephanie has absolutely no experience whatsoever in this area of law enforcement, nor any other for that matter.

She bumbles through figuring out what to do next just about every move she makes.

But, every time she gets knocked down, she brushes herself back off and gives it another go.

This gal is made of grit, let me tell you!

Desperate times call for desperate measures, and tempted by a $10,000 bounty, Stephanie goes after Joseph Morrelli, a big, arrogant, lady killing hunk of Italian Stallion who Stephanie has known since she was 12.  Stephanie and Joe have quite a history and the tension between them can be cut with a knife...they can't decide whether they hate each other or want to spend some more time together behind the eclair case...Ahem...Cough, Cough...

Joe, a policeman, has been accused of murder...and is on the run trying to prove himself innocent.  In her pursuit of Joe, Stephanie begins to run into other shady characters, namely a psychopathic boxer named Ramirez, Sal the butcher who may be using his shop for more than cutting and selling meat, and Ramirez's manager, Jimmy Alpha who spends most of his time cleaning up Ramirez's "messes."  Stephanie very quickly begins to realize that there may be some truth in Joe's story; as much as she would like to haul his butt to jail and collect her money, she decides to dig even deeper and ends up working with Joe to find the mystery witness with a smashed nose.

Stephanie has an incredible support group...friends like Dorsey at the police station, Ranger, a bona fide experienced Bounty Hunter and a variety of others who live in "the neighborhood."  Family is also paramount in this book and in Stephanie's life...Grandma Mazure is my absolute favorite character of all...and makes me laugh out loud almost every time she opens her mouth!! 

I read this book in less than 48 hours...could have read it faster if I hadn't had to stop and go to work, feed children, etc.  This is a fast, easy and entertaining read.  No hard thinking here...but I like that sometimes, a nice little break from grading freshman comp essays for sure!

I cannot wait to download the next book in the Stephanie Plum series, Two for the Dough...and yes, I'm downloading it to my Ipad.

:)