Carley is very quiet because she has new puzzle games. She is playing a game which is free for today only, called Mayan Mystery: Hidden Object HD. As you might expect, it is a hidden object game. Ha, ha. She has another one called Clueless Crossword Party. It has crosswords, with a twist or two. For instance, I had a 3 letter word with an 'a' and an 'l' showing. The third square was blank, with a 19 inside it. I went to the list of letters below the board and tapped the 'e'. When I did, every blank square with a 19 in it had an 'e' appear. (The word was ale, by the way.) The whole thing seems more dynamic than working a puzzle from the newspaper and the graphics are nice. I had to mute the music. I never like to play music as I play games, because it distracts me.
Carley also bought the new version of Wheel of Fortune. Unfortunately, it won't play on her I-Pad 1. It plays fine on my I-Pad 3, though. The graphics are cool and the gameplay looks fun. This stuff is not my forte but I may have to play it some. It was $2.99. It has over a thousand puzzles, by the way. I guess they posted on the app store that the game is not compatible with I-Pad 1, now.
If anyone from Apple is reading this blog, can you please fix I-Pads so that I can delete photos easily from the thing? One would think this would be the easiest thing in the world. Also, if anyone from Amazon (the company, not the really tall women) is reading this, please make it where I can easily and permanently delete books from Kindle Books. Thanks. Let me say that I love tall women, as well as women from Brazil, so no slight was intended.
Speaking of geography and nations, isn't it cool that the ebook phenomenon is spreading across the globe? Amazon, Apple, Barnes and Noble, Kobo and Sony, among others, are getting serious about this stuff. These digital book stores are opening in many nations, just lately. It is sort of fun to watch the transformation of this ebook thing from its infancy over the past couple of years, especially since I am intimately involved.
From a personal perspective, I went back to re-read an old Zane Grey paperback which I've had for 35 years. It is yellowed with age. As I read, I had to shift around the room to get good lighting for reading. Then I noticed that both my hands were required to hold the book open and turn pages. After a while my aged hands got a bit stiff. With my I-pad I just lay it in my lap and swipe occasionally, or lean back on the couch or chair, tilt the Padster against my legs and swipe. The backlit screen is an important feature to me. I can read anywhere, no matter the lighting. Good lighting for reading is rare in most homes and even libraries. So, yeah, despite the obvious shortcomings of digital books, I am thinking that I prefer reading that way.
When I mention the shortcomings of digital books, I have talked about that stuff before. Like a few instances where people have lost their books somehow. I don't like folks being able to monitor what I read either. With any industry in its infancy, there are growing pains. I noticed that Amazon has a way to opt out of that stuff, where your highlights can be shared with friends or whatever. When I read, it's a personal thing and I don't want to share it, other than with the 135 nations that occasionally cruise by the old blog here at the green retreat. Ha, ha. And only reviews with you guys.
I find it interesting that the big publishers are now starting their own digital book services. Adapting is a key to business, I suppose. After many years of lording it over authors, I wonder now about that business. For instance, if I were offered a contract by a publisher, would I take it? Maybe. But I only write when I want to. I don't want someone calling me to pressure me to get a book out. I don't like someone taking 85-90% of the money from a product that I worked my butt off producing. I don't like someone telling me what to put in my books. or sending it back to me for changes or major rewrites.
Let's face it. The book industry was a snobby, outmoded domain of people who held the earth's readers under their thumb. As they merrily sent out rejections and tossed books of talented writers in the incinerators and slush piles, there was a deterioration of good books. I have bought hundreds of books that truly bored me to tears and paid big money for them. My ebooks may still never rock the best seller lists, but they are more readable than 80% of the stuff that was churned out of Madison Avenue prior to ebooks. No handful of people should be able to hold the reading habits of the planet hostage. Well, you say, with digital books, the governments will be able to eventually control and suppress reading material worldwide. True. I once read an Edgar Rice Burroughs book called The Moon Maid and its sequel, The Moon Men. It dealt with the subjection of America to a totalitarian government. At a young age it gripped me with the horror of a nation where people hid in the woods to worship, marriage was illegal and books were forbidden. So, I have mixed feelings about the ebook thing. Read my other blogs on the subject by hitting the label below.
Can you imagine book burnings? It freaks me out to think about it. Live and let live, read what you please, and eat what you want to eat. That's my motto.
From the author's green retreat, I'm CE Wills.
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