FAQ: Why I Do Not Accept EBooks For Review
Hi ya’ll!
I just wanted to drop a quick note. Seems like every day I have someone ask why I don’t accept e-books for review, or mad at me because I wont. Thought a post in the faq would be the best way to answer. For future reference if you will.
My thoughts on e-books:
The main problem I have with e-copies is – they give me migraines. I’ve tried on the desktop, on the laptop, and on my phone. All ended with me crying in my pillow. Even with my handy dandy new bi-focals. That is the main reason I will not accept an e-book for review. It would just take forever to read and have me in bed hiding my face for 3 days. I know that e-readers and all that are the new "thing" but there will always be those that either CANT or WONT convert to them. I am a little of both.
I have thought about getting an e-reader like the Kindle or Nook but then I realize, I could take that $150 it would take to buy an e-reader and get a whole box a books. =D
On a personal level, I love my library too much to switch to e. When I see my books on my shelves its not just pieces of paper. They’re my friends in there. Places I’ve visited. "People" I grew to love. And in some, memories I wouldn’t dream of giving up. E-books will never hold the memories for ME that some of those hard backs do. It wasn’t a touch screen I was holding when I got caught ditching class in 4th grade, it was a copy of the Hobbit. All beaten and worn, loved. With e-books, It’s just not the same. I like to see them on the shelves, touch their covers, and even to smell their pages. I am old school. There is just something about a BOOK, a real book, that an e-book will never be for me. I know I’m weird, but I don’t want to give them up.
I know that paper books cost money to produce, and e-books are basically FREE to produce. I’m not an idiot, I get it. However, if I (and this is just ME not "everyone"… just me) am to connect with a story, I need to be able to hold it, touch it. There is a connection in my mind between the turning of a PAGE and the awe I felt the first time a book "whisked" me away as a kid.
I’ve been told if I “ever expect to be taken seriously as a ‘professional reviewer’” then I’d “better be willing to accept e-books because traditional review copies are a dying breed”. That may be so, but to that all I can say is: I don’t think I am a “Professional Reviewer”. I am a “Book Lover”. A “Reader”. A “Word Nerd”. There is a HUGE difference. I love the BOOKS themselves, not the job title. This isn’t even my job, it’s my joy. Not to be snarky but, traditional BOOKS will never disappear completely. I always have, and always will be a lover of (and thus a buyer of) BOOKS. The real, hold in your hand kind.
I’m sorry, but I can not accept e-books for review.
~Bunny
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