Being associated with Net Galley I get the opportunity to read books before they are published.  All the publisher requests in return  is that I write an honest review of the book on a few websites and hopefully on a blog that someone actually reads.

I do post to Good Reads after sending the review to the publisher through Net Galley.  I have to wait until the book is published to be able to post to Amazon.ca   Kobo lets me post a few weeks before the book is released and I make an effort to do that in the hopes my review will provide another perspective from that of the publisher for those who are looking for a book to consider purchasing.

I get free and discount books through BookBub.  A service that offers a variety of books from genres you specify.  Most of these books have been released a few years ago and are often book 1 of a series that is now in book 2 – 5 stage.   So far I’ve only had a few duds from Bub.   BookBub sends an email list I can click on ordering from whatever e-book site I use.   Since I mainly use my old Sony Readers, now Kobo owned, I download or purchase through Kobo.   I do have an old Kindle that Amazon downloads to and occasionally a book is just too interesting not to drag out the Kindle and get a freebee on it.   A few times I’ve gone back and ordered the rest of the series on the Kindle because book 1 was so good.

I think that’s the reason they offer me deals.  LOL

Keeping track of what I’ve read, what can be posted to various sites and when, takes some organizing and commitment on my part.   Not being as computer savvy as I should be, I tend to print and file my reviews, though copy pasting from Good Reads is sometimes the best solution once I figure out when I need to post a review to other sites.  I think I’ve developed a better system this past month in how I file and track.   I am getting more familiar with this ‘new to me’ laptop and more modern software but there is only so many hours in a day for personal learning and blogging.

Always use your local public library’s e-book collection if you can.  It encourages them to commit dollars to this resource over print copies.  In Ontario, the provincial government sponsors Overdrive.  The source of e-books through our libraries.   Your local library purchases their own copies especially for use by their patrons, but the province also has copies for smaller communities and the cities have access to these books too.

With all the new electronic devices in our hands you can read an e-book on just about anything:  Smart Phone, Tablet, E-Reader, Computer.    Be sure if you buy an e-reader that you can read E-Pub and Adobe pdf files on it. Otherwise you may find yourself stuck with purchasing books that can only be read on that specific device, like my old Kindle and Amazon’s format.   I believe Nook is similarly limited.  Of course new modern ones may no longer have that problem and accessing library books on them is standard.  At one time only Sony had library access built in to their readers software.

Well, hope this was educational.

Happy Reading!

Brenda