growing up writing

Yesterday’s post about reader book buying habits got me curious…how exactly does my fourteen year old daughter choose the books she reads and buys?

Here’s the short answer:

1.  She checks out Goodreads and follows the links to authors and books that look interesting

2.  She reads School Library Journal blogs

3.  She reads Book Review sites (sometimes she finds links to these on Goodreads)

4.  She searches Common Sense Media to check for content and appropriateness (can you tell her mother’s a teacher?)

5.  She goes to Amazon and downloads a sample chapter

6.  If she likes the chapter she buys the ebook on her mother’s Amazon account

7.  And finally, if she absolutely loves it she is then allowed to buy the print copy (a rule instigated by her mother who nowadays has to stand at the door of her study to place aforesaid books on perilously high piles of books bought indiscriminately over many years of bookshop trawling)

Conclusion…we love our local bookshop (and every bookshop between here and New Zealand) but the Internet has opened up our lives to a world of books we could never have otherwise found. We are voracious readers and will always love the texture and smell of books, and our house will always be full to brimming with the things, but our iPads with our iTunes and Kindle apps allow us the added pleasure off fossicking for reading treasure that until now we would never have had the opportunity to enjoy.