For a very long time, I limited most of my recreational reading to books written by my favorite authors. I won’t mention who they are because there are so many of them. And all of them have been established writers for what seems like eons. Once in a while, I would read a book by a new author, but only once in a while. Snobbish? Maybe just a bit.
Between 2002 and 2010, I spent way too much money on mass market and trade paperback books. Eventually, I acquired so many books that I ran out of space to store them. This annoyed Other Half. So, with his, ahem, encouragement, I sorted through my collection and, shedding a tear or two, packed up at least a third of the books and hauled them to the library.
Then I bought a Nook eReader. Of course, I could download eBooks only from Barnes and Noble, but that was okay. Until 2012.
That’s when, I discovered BookBub, an eBook daily deal site. I decided to broaden my eHorizons, so to speak, and check out the eFreebies offered by Amazon. I didn’t want to buy a Kindle, so I did the next best thing. I downloaded the Kindle app to my PC. Many downloaded books later, I realized that I disliked reading full-length books on a computer.
Being a sort of frugal person, I still wanted those freebies. Downloading free eBooks allowed me to expand my electronic library without exceeding my (more than frugal) monthly book budget. Or buying more bookshelves.
At the beginning of 2013, I bought a Kindle Paperwhite. Since then, I’ve downloaded more than 500 (yes, really) eBooks. And yes, probably more than three-fourths of them are freebies. That does seem a little excessive. But I think I did mention my limited monthly book budget.
The books I bought usually cost $.99. However, I bought maybe twenty-five for $2.99 each, and I confess that I paid as much as $11.99 for five or six books. Those five or six were just-published books written by some of my very favorite authors.
The majority of the freebies are mysteries or romances written by indie authors who self-published their works. Some of the books are great reads that were well-edited. Some of them could have been great reads if they had been better edited. Most of them are just-okay reads that I suspect were edited by the author’s mother, husband, or best friend.
Sadly, too many are not-so-okay reads that actually should have had a plot and a few other things, including editing. And I hate to write that about any book because I know how much time, effort, and hope for success goes into writing a novel. However, those not-so-okay reads are books I won’t keep on the Kindle permanently.
But this time, when I decide to purge my book collection, I will just press delete.
WestWord Arizona 
Grammar Nazi in retreat
I recently confessed that, in the past, I sometimes have morphed into a Grammar Nazi. I’ve commented on grammar and spelling errors I’ve found when reading comments and status updates on my Facebook newsfeed. It’s instinctive. I’m an editor.
However, I also think that most people who make mistakes when posting online actually do have good grammar and spelling skills. Most likely, they make mistakes because they are posting comments or status updates on their office computers (during breaks), cell phones (when stopped at a red light), or tablets (during lunch at the Coyote Café), and they are posting in a hurry with no time to proofread.
I’ve learned the hard way that people generally don’t appreciate my calling attention to their temporary lapses in using correct grammar and spelling. Those individuals often accuse me of being persnickety and judgmental. And their responses in retaliation to my comments occasionally have been more than a tad nasty.
Hey, I only was trying to help.
However, in an effort to avoid the flame throwers, I will attempt to cease and desist.
I solemnly swear on a stack of dictionaries that, from now on, I will try my best to not (oops, split another infinitive) point out grammar and spelling errors on an individual’s Facebook newsfeed. But (yes, there is a but) there will be exceptions.
From now on, I will hold my “cyber tongue,” so to speak, and not mention any errors I find, unless an error could be embarrassing to the poster. For example, if I spot an update or comment where the l has been omitted from the word public, I might mention it.
Then again, maybe not.