BOOKS: On the whole, I'd rather...

Sometimes, reading is a bother.

These days, I prefer my books in electronic form. I can carry around a dozen or so on my Sony Clie PDA. The screen on the Clie is great. I can sit/lay in the dark and read comfortably, switching hands as necessary. No bookmarks are needed. It remembers where I left off. And, if I want to look back for something, there's even a search function. Virtual nirvana.

Well, not quite. The battery doesn't last as long as I do, which might or might not be a good thing. And I can't even consider a leisurely bath with the Clie. I use it for business reasons too, and dunking it would NOT be a good thing.

So, I still read the old-fashioned hard-copy books. In fact, by prior arrangement (a publishing of my Gift Wishbook a month before birthdays and Christmases), I get A LOT of books as presents. I suggest paperbacks to lessen the hit on gift-givers' pocketbooks. But I list a bunch of each format, paperback, trade paperback and hard-cover. Naturally I get some of each.

Hard-covers can be handsome reminders that somebody cared enough about me to spend the most. But, they seem to be getting more and more awkward to handle as I get older. A connection, I'm sure. I end up sitting up in the green comfy chair downstairs when I read a hard-cover book these days. But I do love a book I can read while lying on my side.

Trade paperbacks are nice. A medium price-point and easily handled for the books I tend to read. There was the exception of the Captain's Log ombnibus of Star Trek-related titles that weighed a zillion pounds, but I was able to buy an electronic version of that one [G]. The other thing publishers can do to screw up the trade paperback is to die-cut the cover so that it's no longer rectangular. Two recent Clive Cussler books reviewed below, demonstrated I can fight through the annoyance of a badly-cut cover to recommend a book. But it would have been a WHOLE lot nicer not to have to work around the cover issues.

Which brings me to paperbacks. I have had a LOOOOONG love affair with books and paperbacks in general. My personal library now runs close to 5,000 volumes, mostly in the paperback format. I would have no space to actually live in my house otherwise. But even this format is changing. And I think for the better.

The latest Stephanie Plum book by Janet Evanovich, arrived with Large EASY-TO-READ type. It said so right on the front cover. I was a tad annoyed at which of my relatives thought it necessary to give me the large type book, until I realized I had ordered that particular book pre-release in February and it was only a happy happinstance that the book arrived as is. And frankly, I loved it.

The other new formatting I recently saw was in The Lost City by Clive Cussler. It advertised itself as being easier to hold. And by dadgum it was. It was slimmer and a tad taller. And it was perfectly easy to use single-handed. I want MORE paperbacks in this format.

They can even survive a little soap suds. Trust me.