eBook News

I love to read (print, digital, and audio), and if you always have a book with you, then you can find some time to read. I'm also a strong believer in anchoring while reading.  I can remember listening to Chopin A La Moog when I was a teen while reading Journey to the Center of the Earth and Ira Leven's This Perfect Day, and sill today when I hear music from that album I remember those books. I also think that that kind of anchoring can be done with where you are reading. Of course, not your favorite reading place at home where you normally read, but when you are traveling. I am lucky that I can travel for work, I am a teacher and Fulbright Specialist, and my work has taken me so many interesting places. When I was younger one of the problems I had while traveling was brining enough books to read, since depending on where you go you might not be able to get more books. This wasn't a problem while traveling in my home country, but you might not be surprised that it is a bi...

Large print books have been found to be really helpful in so many ways. Below are some of the results of a study about large print. A problem with large print books (on paper) is that there are so few printed, many of the publishers still think of them for "older" readers. One solution for this though is if you or your school have ereaders to read the books you want, then use the settings or font functions of the ereader to change to a larger print. Please take the time to change from the default that you got with your ebook reader and try some different font, it can make an amazing difference with your reading. Researchers have found a correlation between large print books and assessment results. findings include: 61% of elementary school students said they remembered characters and plots better when reading large print books. 48% of high school students said they read more outside of school after experiencing large print books. Middle school students reported ...

Just finished reading an interesting study that was a meta-analysis of digital versus paper reading. The research done by Virginia Clinton ( https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1467-9817.12269 ) concluded with: Reading from screens, such as tablets, smartphones and computers, has become ubiquitous for leisure, academic and work‐related reading. This review examined the literature on performance and two processes in reading text from screens and paper. There is legitimate concern that reading on paper may be better in terms of performance and efficiency. Future examination of key issues related to mind wandering, medium preference and contextual cues provided by medium will inform the practical implications of reading text from paper compared to screens. The study is well done and I wouldn't have any issues with her conclusions. Her study looked at  33 high-quality studies that tested students’ comprehension after they were randomly assigned to read on a scr...

I am a strong believer in reading in any format, on paper, eink, digital, and even audio. They are all ways of conveying the content or story and all can be great ways to read new books or visit old favorites.  AudioFile has just opened the SYNC: Audiobooks for Teens' 10th season. Starting this week teens (and others) can download two titles that are paired each week for the next 14 weeks (till August 1). Each of the pairs will be available for free during their week. Readers can download the books using the Overdrive app, and once you have downloaded them they are yours for free. So if you know a teen introduce him or her to some new titles or format or allow yourself to try some young adult books. There are also some other greats including Shakespeare's Othello and one of my science favorites Mary Roach's Gulp. SUMMER 2019 SYNC TITLE PAIRINGS Week 1: April 25 – May 2 SWING by Kwame Alexander, with Mary Rand Hess, narrated by Kwame Alexander (Blink) BLINK &...

NASA has created another great ebook - this one is titled Spinoffs (a yearly publication), and features dozens of commercial technologies that were created or improved by NASA. The publication provides nearly 50 examples of how NASA benefits various industries and people around the world, from home gyms, pacemaker components, cleaning water and generating power. Print and digital versions of the latest issue and previous editions of Spinoff are available at: https://spinoff.nasa.gov/Spinoff2019/index.html   Spinoff  2019 Click here  to read online  (HTML) Download a copy of   Spinoff  2019  (PDF) Spinoff  2019 Summary Brochure  (PDF) Spinoff 2019 PowerPoint Presentation  (PPT) Spinoff  2019 is also available on the iPad!  Click here  to view the app in the iTunes store. It features shortened versions of all the articles from the book, image galleries, videos, and more. A 508-compliant PDF versio...

NASA has released another gorgeous photo book titled Earth, appropriately about the Earth, full of great pictures and information - a great book by itself (think coffee table book) or as a resource for earth science classes. Get your digital versions for free. Kindle readers:  MOBI All other eBook readers:  EPUB PDF readers:  PDF Online reading: https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/features/earth-book-2019   Hardcover ($53) from the GPO bookstore:  https://bookstore.gpo.gov/products/earth-book https://bookstore.gpo.gov/products/earth-book