Confessions of a Librarian Who Doesn't Didn't Read Books

I don't read books. (OK, a bit of an over-generalization.) I haven't read a book in years. (Ditto.) I guess the general public assumes librarians must be book-loving readers and would find this confession somewhat shocking. But after laboring in the infomation factory all day, the last thing I really want to do is read.

With the advent of enhanced law eBooks, I felt obligated to test some out via eReader apps on the desktop but also via the eReader gizmos themselves. This meant using my iPad for something more than playing Tiger Woods Golf and using the Blog Widow's Kindle Fire for the first time. (Is it an admission against interest to mention that the Kindle Fire was the Blog Widow's birthday present from me in part because I knew I would have to use one to test enhanced law eBooks?) Testing over. I'll leave it to the much younger and much, much brighter law librarians in the blogosphere to provide a critical assessment of current enhanced law eBook offerings, their desktop eReading apps, and their eReader gizmos based on their user experience. However, one unintended consequence of my testing is that I've started reading books again, eBooks that is.

So what the heck is going on now? A half dozen or so years ago, I tried to jump start the mid-life crisis we boomer gen males are supposed to experience by asking the Blog Widow if I could buy a used Corvette that was for sale at the local gas station. She said "yes" in a very "no-ing" way. Got the message and what the heck it was just a C4, meaning it wasn't even close to one of the Corvette body types in the Blog Widow's "in your deams" fantasies of mine. I'm thinking this whole eBook reading thing must be my mid-life crisis. Ain't getting any younger. The old grey matter certainly isn't working like it used to.

One would think that the last thing a pair of old and tired eyes would want to do is read something off a screen display after hours of staring at a monitor in the information factory. Not mine. Thank you, Jerome Rubin. Serously, I mean it. LA Times obit at Jerome Rubin dies at 86; futurist who foresaw e-books. Quoting, OK, OK, myself, from Jerome Rubin, 1925 - 2012: Passing of a Pioneering Giant in Electronic Publishing History:

Rubin was instrumental in bringing to the commercial marketplace both full-text online legal research [for Mead Data Central aka LexisNexis] and eReader display for eBooks and other electronic content [co-founder of E Ink]. He was one of the giants in the electronic publishing industry. We take full-text legal searching for granted now and, by the end of this decade, we will be taking enhanced Law eBooks for granted. His legacy is the world of information options and opportunities we live in today.

Endnote. I seriously doubt anyone gives a hoot about what I am reading. But if you do, I am currently reading Philip Delves Broughton's "The Art of the Sale: Learning from the Masters About the Business of Life." Recommended, at least until Keith Hawk & Michael Boland's "Get-Real Selling: Your Personal Coach for REAL Sales Excellence" is eBook-ed; soon please, I'm running out of my pBook inventory to hand out to new account reps with my "nice to meet you, we'll get down to business after you read this book and there will be a quiz first" mantra. David Graeber's "Debt: The First 5,000 Years" is being held in reserve for reading during some AALL sessions in Boston. You know, to keep from falling asleep.  [JH]