eBook News

Ok, this is a bit off-topic, but I was just presenting about ebook accommodations at a science teacher convention and they wanted to know about some good "science books" that would work well for the classroom collection. I'm a strong believer of having classroom collections (real or virtual). There are lots of great books out there that people just don't realize. Too many people think of science books and then immediately go to the science textbook or some kind of field book (although those are great to have in the classroom too. If you are building a classroom collection for your high or middle school science classroom make sure to include a variety of books, not just non-fiction, but also picture books (think coffee table books), and fiction (that would include science fiction too). So here are some non-fiction books that I think are great to have in a collection.  Some great books on science that are not textbooks: The Science of Sci-Fi: From Warp Speed to Interste...

Last month had the Banned Books Week, and it made me think about all the good books that others don't want to exist. I agree that there are many books that I don't like, but just because I don't like them doesn't mean that there isn't someone who does like them. I always feel bad about disposing of a book, even one that I find in the road that has been run over a few times. But in case you missed it, there was a nice Humble Book Bundle of Forbidden reading ( https://www.humblebundle.com/books/forbidden-books-2018 )  and it is surprising how many banned books have ended up as commonly required reading lists.  So if you want to try some banned reading, you might go over to Project Gutenberg ( https://www.gutenberg.org/ ) to download a copy of a required but banned reading. And while it wasn't banned officially it would have had problems was Andy Weir's great book The Martian. So many teachers and students wanted to read it in class and discuss the wonde...

A recent survey of about 2000 British persons found some interesting reading patterns. They report that people use ereaders use the ebook to hide what someone is actually reading such as 58% read adolescent/children's books, and 26% Science Fiction and Fantasy. When looking at physical books on people's shelves, it was found that 71% was non-fiction (which is only 14% on the digital shelf). And that the majority of people (55%) had read less than a third of the books on their shelves and that 10% hadn't' read any. I'm not sure that "Shame" is the right word though, it just not being public or boasting about something. I pretty sure that those reading science fiction would talk about the books they are reading when they were with other science fiction readers, but they just don't want the confrontation or judgement of others who don't read or respect those books. Which is worse, reading something you like or buying books to make ...