Reading used ebooks

This is the story: I love used books. The smell, the bookstore, the dog ears left by others (well maybe I shouldn’t go that far). In fact, like most people I know, I love used books so much that the thought of reading an ebook at first was borderline ridiculous. Now, I swear by them, those ebooks. What happened ?

I bought my first Amazon Kindle in January 2012, and though I have changed since then to the iPad, kudos to Amazon for a great product. EInk is very easy to read. My first purchase was The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt, and it just read so well. I could take this five hundred page volume anywhere, along with my growing library.

I was still reluctant, as it is one thing to read biographies or work-related subject matter, and another to read literature. But I wanted to read a particular book, Caribou Island, and I didn’t want to wait for the book to arrive by mail. I wanted it now. Click. Here it is. I felt way too privileged at that point.

And the real killer was when, while vacationing on the beach one fine windy day, I could read very comfortably my novel while sand blowed all around, drops of ocean sprinkled my Kindle… you get the picture. The sweet smell of an old musty used book was a long ago fairy tale. The ebook proved its worth.

So after all, I feel it’s only natural that I love used ebooks. Though of course, the meaning has changed. Ebooks are all about being used, and reused, in a real world context. I send everything to my Kindle, or iBook, or instapaper. I love highlighting with my finger, and sharing with one touch. And hence, this blog. I love ebooks, so I want to write about how I use them.

Here’s a non-exhaustive list of some web ebooks already reviewed or waiting to be reflected upon. In spite of their age, they are still prevalent. New and used ebooks will be added as they come:

Content Strategy for Mobile, Karen McGrane
Content Strategy for the Web, Krstina Halverson
Content Everywhere, Sara Wachter-Boettcher
Content Rules, Anne Handley and C.C. Chapman
Client Centric Web Design, Paul Boag
Design is a Job, Mike Monteiro
Mobile First, Luke Wroblewski
Designing for Emotion, Aarron Walter
Designing the Invisible, Robert Mills
The Inmates are Running the Asylum, Alan Cooper
The Art of SEO, Enge – Spencer – Fishkin – Stricchiola
The Elements of Content Strategy, Erin Kissane
Don’t Make Me Think, Steve Krug
Lean UX, Jeff Gothelf
The Elements of User Experience, Jesse James Garrett
Storytelling for User Experience, Whitney Quesenbery and Kevin Brooks
Responsive Web Design, Ethan Marcotte
The Information Architecture, Peter Morville
Introducing HTML 5, Bruce Lawson and Remy Sharp
HTML5 for Web Designers, Jeremy Keith
The Book of CSS3, Peter Gasston
JavaScript Patterns, Stoyan Stefanov
jQuery, David Flanagan

Articles you might find insightful from the web agency, WS:

Here’s the very short list of (e)books outside of the web that I recommend to anyone:

Classic literature / poetry

Les Miserables, Victor Hugo
Moby Dick, Herman Melville
Leaves of Grass, Walt Whitman
Fleurs de Mal, Charles Beaudelaire
Everything Socrates said (through Plato)

Modern and Contemporary literature / poetry

Caribou Island, David Vann
The Road, Cormac McCarthy
The Crying of Lot 49, Thomas Pynchon
Joker, Joker, Deuce, Paul Beatty