Special Post: Name Change, Kindle Lending, Book Club, Etc.

Happy New Year, folks!

You may notice that we changed the name of our blog. I hate to spring that on you, but honestly, "Sixty Books in 2010" just doesn't seem to fit anymore. Out with the old, in with the new. Since we recently started a book club with some friends and family (mentioned in this post), we decided to change the name of the blog to the name of the book club -- Descripted. As promised, we'll still review the books we read outside of the book club, but this just helps streamline things a bit. The URL for the blog will stay the same (http://sixtybooks.blogspot.com). Even though it's not actually sixty books anymore, our followers won't have to change their bookmarks if we keep the old URL.

I thought I'd mention a few things about Kindle, since I do so much of my reading on my Kindle and Kindle applications. First of all, just in case you aren't aware, there are a few options for accessing Kindle content even if you don't actually own a Kindle. You can download the (free!) Kindle application to various cell phones (including iPhone, Android, and Blackberry devices) and the iPad. You can also download (free!) Kindle reading software on your PC or Mac desktop or laptop computers. Click here to download any of these. (I personally have the app on my Droid Eris phone and my computer, as well as owning a Kindle.) Any of these apps gives you full access to the Kindle store, both free and paid content.

Here's my favorite part -- For example, let's say I read 22% of a book on my Kindle, and I find myself waiting in line at the post office (happens more than you might think, since I work across the street from the post office and seem to constantly have something to mail). Let's say I just walked across the street from work without my bag, so I don't have my Kindle. I have my phone in my pocket, though. I take out my phone, open my Kindle app, and choose "Sync to furthest read location." Within seconds, it automatically takes me to where I left off on my Kindle -- 22% into the book. Suddenly the fifteen minutes in line at the post office isn't so bad... I get to be that obnoxious hipster who never puts her phone away. Oh well.

Kindle has also just announced the lending option, which I was really excited about until I did a little more research. I'm now only marginally excited, but I guess it's better than nothing. Kindle lending is basically exactly what it sounds like. If you have purchased a book on Kindle (or any of the Kindle apps), you can "lend" it to another person who uses Kindle for ten days. Most books are available to lend, although not all of them are. (None of the free ones are, but why would you lend a free book anyway?) This is a free service, but it does have its downsides. While your friend has the book you "loaned" them, you don't have access to it. After the ten days is up, you have your book back automatically, and your friend loses access. That's not really a big deal, because chances are, if I loaned you something, I've already read it, and ten days without it won't kill me.

The real problem is that it's only for ten days, and after those ten days, the book cannot be re-loaned to that person or anyone else. Basically you can lend each book one time and only one time. So, if you lend a book to a friend (let's say, Life by Keith Richards, which is, oh, I don't know, 584853948 pages long) and that person can't finish it all in ten days. Too bad, guess you'll have to buy the book to finish it. Or, if you lend a book to Friend A, and they totally love it and say, "You should loan it to Friend B, too!" Too bad, Friend B is left out of the sharing party. But I guess you can't really blame Amazon for that. If you let everyone lend willy nilly, eventually there'd be a big enough community of Kindle users who were willing to share, no one would ever need to buy a book again. The other devices similar to Kindle (eg. the Nook) have lending systems that work very much the same way. So, having the option to lend at all is better than nothing, but I guess it's not as amazing as I thought. You can go here to read more about Kindle lending and learn how to loan your books.

Lastly, I'd like to give y'all a heads up that the first book the Descripted Book Club will read for 2011 (chosen by a vote from all of our members) is Life by Keith Richards. Don't ask me how that happened. Be looking out for reviews by both Derrick and me sometime this month... probably towards the end of the month, since apparently this thing is longer than the Bible.

Hope y'all are having a wonderful beginning to 2011!

--C