h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Is the title of an ebook in my amazon list. Make of that what you will. But in 7 years I have obtained over 15,000 free e books. A lot of them were from gutenberg.org. Others from Amazon.

Are you a speed-reader, then? I can manage to read 100 books a year, but 2,000 would be beyond me.

Not actually speed reading, but I read faster than some.

There are a lot of recipe books in there, which are helpful as references. 10 best recipes for brownies, 10 best something else. There are some full sized cook books, others are vintage/ancient from gutenberg.

A lot of classics: Complete Mark Twain, All of Arthur Conan Doyle, not just Sherlock, Complete Dickens, mysteries, lots of other stuff, some of which I might not have picked off a shelf and paid for. But, since I have spent so little on like 3 titles by known authors, the rest is disposable. If I don't like it, all I have to do is delete the file from the laptop, if it's not deleted from the amazon account, it can still be read later or even loaned to someone else via electronic transfer to their kindle.

I have the kindle app on my phone. I only put one or two books at a time on that so if I'm stuck waiting somewhere, I can read.

My favorite feature of the kindles and kindle for pc is that the font size can be changed. It makes reading while I am tired a lot easier. Before you say 'wear reading glasses', I don't need them.

I'm totally cool with increasing font size.

One of the books I've been reading was originally available only on Kindle: "Beneath a scarlet sky," by Mark Sullivan. Demand was so great, though, that a paperback version was printed. I saw the paperback in the Amazon store in my area, and requested a copy through my local library.

As a reader, I'm an omnivore. I'll read things online, in hardcover, in paperback, etc., etc. Nothing is off limits. At the end of every year, I compile a lengthy list of the best books of that year, based on the critical expertise of numerous newspaper (new York times, Boston Globe, Christian science monitor, etc.) critics, Publisher's Weekly, Library Journal, and anything else that seems aware of what might be good. I look for award-winners (Hugo, Nebula, Pulitzer prize, various Mystery genre awards, etc.). I also happily take suggestions from my friends at H2g2 and my neighbors in real life.

it's all good.

I left out GoodReads.com.

I do love physical books. Problem is expense and storage of them. So, if I can use my library card to read the digital book of a bestseller, and download classics free I am ok with that.

There is a local thrift store that had several Clive Cussler books a dollar a piece, I bought some, maybe 5. I found the Dirk Gently books at a different thrift store.

I have also downloaded history books, American, French, British, and world history. Last night I found the War Dept. report for Utah Beach, already had Omaha Beach. The writings of Samuel Adams, Thomas Paine, and Thomas Jefferson were also free on Amazon and gutenberg.org

Those are all good options.

There's a thrift shop next to my laundromat. While my clothes are washing, I sometimes look through the paperbacks on the shop's shelves. I picked up several "Odd Thomas" books there, by dean Koontz. I just checked now, and realized that the first one had been made into a movie in 2013, starring Anton Yelchin, one of my favorite actors. How did I let that one slip by me?

I have read a couple of Dean Koontz books that a friend gave me because it wasn't her type of book.

There was a salvation army store where books were 50 cents hardcover, and 25 cents paper back.

I usually keep those paperbacks in my car so I can read them while the clothes are in the laundromat. When I finish reading them, I put the books back in the donation box at the thrift shop.

The description made me laugh.

One of today's free ebooks:

Dating an Alien Pop Star
By Kendra L. Saunders
To blend in among humans and win their favor, a couple of new-in-town extraterrestrials disguise themselves as English pop stars — and kidnap geeky Daisy to help them pull it off. A hysterical misadventure!

Is a pop star a star that pops? Such as a Nova? I bet those aliens had a solid reason for leaving their vicinity as fast as possible.

*trying to picture a guitar playing Nova*

Maybe you can apply string theory there.

It would probably unravel or get all knotted.

Thus goes much of life.

I had a teacher in 1982/83 that was fond of saying ''When you reach the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on!''. She said that many times, until someone answered with ''How do you tie a hangman's noose?''.

She was also fond of ''Smile it makes people wonder what you are up to.'' even had the poster on the wall. Guess how that went....

I believe that there have been scientific studies about the effect of smiling, even if you have nothing to smile about. Apparently the very act of smiling persuades your mind that you are happy. I can't say that this has worked much for me.

Looks too much like , does it? I could try to persuade myself that I am happy when unhappy, but I would know that I was lying.

It's possible that genetics plays a role in determining whether you are happy or sad by nature. Random chance is involved, too.

It's complicated. L

I know everyone has a share of misfortune or loss or whatever. I have known some that had several people's share of grief in one way or another .

I met someone many years ago. Always smiled, no matter what. But, she would still smile. One day after an argument with her ex, she was telling me about the abuse from years earlier. And, how she got away from it.....

I swear, I thought she was in hysterics.

Another friend has lost three members of his family in a short time span and still tries to help others.