The Week That Was…

/ Theresa Smith Writes

International dog day:

Mine celebrated by trying to blend into the rug that he is NOT allowed to lie on! Well played Zeus, you picked your day right but still no.

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A thing of joy (that only readers will understand):

I was early to the ebook scene, straight in once they were released and the proud owner of an iRiver eReader way back in 2008. It wasn’t even wifi enabled! To put books on it you had to plug it into your computer and transfer them on through Adobe Digital Editions. Over the years, I’ve had platforms where I’ve bought from become obsolete, some I’ve just moved on from and then came reading apps for your phone and tablet, so those were added in as well. The end result: ebooks all over the place needing to be read in different apps and on different devices. I had gotten to the point where I had no idea what was where and it was making me itchy.

Last year I got a Kindle, primarily so I could read NetGalley arcs with no expiration date. I love it and have purchased books on there as well as the arcs, but that didn’t solve my problem with all the other ebook libraries I have because they’re all epubs and not compatible with the Kindle.

So I decided to buy a Kobo, even though I think that Kobo are expensive for their ebooks, they are attached to Booktopia and that meant that already, two of my library platforms were automatically merged onto the one device. It was a start.

About 12 hours of exporting, downloading, importing and merging later, ALL of my epub ebooks from all the various platforms I had are nestled in my new Kobo.

Cue the applause!

And now, my ebook reading life looks like this:

Two little matching blue ereaders, fully loaded and ready for reading! A thing of joy indeed.

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Joke of the week:

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What I’ve been watching:

Remember I started rewatching Friends some time back? Well, this week I hit season 7 and discovered pretty quickly that I had never seen these episodes before. Messaging with a friend about it led to the deduction that it would have originally aired around the time my first child was born so that completely explained my having never seen it. I used to have to vacuum every night with her strapped to my body in a sling just to get her to stop crying (I have no explanation as to why the vacuum soothed her but it wasn’t enough to just run the thing, we had to be rocking and moving and actually cleaning for it to work). Anyway, utter joy to be now watching and loving a season of Friends I’ve never seen before. Like a gift from the past!

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What I’ve been reading:

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Until next week… 😊📚☕

38 thoughts on “The Week That Was…”

  1. Hahaha cob loaf!! That is so true. Oh Zeus, he’s not really fooling anyone, is he? I have a Kobo too, although it is quite a few years old now and I still struggle to work it, so I am very impressed by your ereader skills and dedication – well done and happy reading! (And I also have THE ECHO CHAMBER on my TBR, so looking forward to your thoughts!) Have a great weekend. xx

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    • Nothing compares to a cob loaf! My oldest friend has the cob loaf power. 😂
      I think I only managed to work out the merging into the Kobo because I had to go old school and that’s the way I used to load ebooks ‘back in the old days’.
      So far, The Echo Chamber is VERY funny and I’m loving it.
      Have a great weekend xo.

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  2. I am a Kindle owner and have been from the beginning (I think nearly 14 years??) I’ve only had two in that time (and thinking about upgrading at the moment) – in terms of devices, they’re very good value, especially if I did a cost/per use analysis! You have got me thinking about a Kobo though…

    I have the Boyne in my TBR stack. Will be keen to hear what you think (specifically, is it as good as Heart’s Invisible Furies?).

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    • Might have been easier if I’d started with Kindle originally! But at least I’ve got it down to two devices now.
      In terms of The Heart’s Invisible Furies, this is a case in point as to why I needed to sort my ebooks. I knew I had it, but no idea where, but now it’s on my Kobo! But I haven’t read it so I won’t be able to compare for you. All I can say so far is that The Echo Chamber is very funny!

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  3. Poor Zeus – you are mean!! Haha.

    Re ebooks, very well done. I’ve only ever had a Kindle – since about 2009 I think – but I read my Kindle books on various devices and am frustrated by the fact that what I organise on the Kindle itself doesn’t flow through to the apps, and organising them on the apps seems less easy. I need to spend time researching because it’s not intuitive to me!

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    • Gums, you can get a book onto an app by going into the Amazon site, then your account. The process is messy and tedious, and quite unlike the simple and slick process of buying an ebook. I wonder why the difference (end of sarcasm). The problem I have is that I have installed the Kindle reader app on every PC and tablet I have owned, which is many, and you can only make a book available on a few instances of the app.

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      • Thanks Neil. I have a Kindle, tablet and phone. Clearly they don’t mind three! Actually I do have an old tablet and old Kindle but I dong use them now and ‘it’ seems to know?

        I’m not sure what the first part of your response is about? I get my Kindle books easily from the Amazon site so I think you must be talking about something else?

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    • I know what you mean about the apps. I ended up buying the Kindle last year because the NetGalley arcs weren’t always formatting well in the Kindle app on my phone or tablet. I don’t seem to have the same problem on the actual Kindle, so it’s been a great purchase.

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  4. LOL Theresa, you have so perfectly captured what is wrong with e-readers… their ultimate obsolescence.
    Real books never let you down:)
    I have a Kindle but I use it very rarely because I dislike reading with it. But worse than that is that I forget about the books that are on it because they don’t have a physical presence in the house.
    Still, I am impressed by your skills!

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      • Absolutely! But even then it felt like living in the future. Just a few minutes and the book was downloaded, wow!! It was so awesome being able to have so many books in one device. I still remember mine was $1200 and it was a huge investment for the time. I remember I was temping at the time and took my pride and joy to work for my lunchtime read. I was always stopped by people asking what I was holding 😆 I loved explaining what it was and using the excuse to start talking about books.

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      • Lol, totally remember feeling the same way. My iRiver also had an MP3 player in it so I could listen to music while reading or play audio books on it. It felt like next level luxury. I still have it and it still works, just very slowly and crashes often.

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  7. Ah, the joys of reading an ebook. Do you ever borrow them as well from the library? I find that’s also good and because of the time limit (and often extension) it is useful and downloadable direct to the app on you ipad. However, there is nothing quite like a paperback in your hand when you can get it.

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  8. Zeus is my hero 😂 and I am SO THRILLED for you and your Kobo! I completely understand the joy – I’m still stuck in the dark ages with my commitment to paper and ink, BUT I remember the feeling of peace and clarity that came when I did a great big book stocktake and recorded/alphabetised every single book in the house. It felt like the first time I’d ever had a proper handle on what books I had on hand and whether or not I’d read them – the RELIEF! 😅

    Also, is it weird that my first thought reading your Friends/newborn anecdote was “WOW, her floors would have been SO CLEAN!”? 😂

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    • My floors were definitely clean. To the point where I was possibly vacuuming the varnish off the floorboards. 😂
      Zeus has upped the game since the rug episode. He’s discovered that if he goes into eldest son’s room, he gets to snuggle on the man couch and watch TV without mum knowing. Except he looked so cute eldest son couldn’t resist capturing the moment and bam! Photographic evidence! Apparently Zeus likes The Office. 🤷‍♀️😂
      I totally get that need to catalogue. I may *ahem* have a complete printout of my entire elibrary to reference.

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