I Confess....I Love my Kindle!

That statement may not mean much to you, a lot of people enjoy their Kindle.  But up until a few months ago, my rallying cry was "Save the books",  books with real paper and ink and hardboard that is.  I'm definitely a bibliophile.  My husband (and the moving men) can testify to the number of bookshelves and nooks and crannies where I store the treasures I've picked up at used book sales.  I honestly didn't think that curling up with an electronic device could give me the same satisfaction as grabbing a tome, opening it at the bookmark, and carefully turning the pages.  

Then I started to discover just how many books are available in e format--books I've never seen on the library shelf (they don't have room to save all the old ones) or at a used book sale.  Or perhaps I have seen one but so many other homeschooling parents recognized its value too and thus it was priced out of my budget.

I asked for a Kindle for Christmas and I've been loading it up with books that have passed out of copyright.  As I read, I discovered a few advantages to the Kindle.  It can automatically keep track of the last page I read in every book.  Since I often have more than one going at a time, it's very easy to switch from one to another without having to tear off scraps of paper to mark my place in each.  Another great feature is the build in dictionary.  I consider myself to have a fairly large vocabulary, but I often run across older terms in my choice of books.  Now I can just move the cursor next to the word and up pops a definition.  I can keep my reading flow rather than put the book down, get the Webster's, look up the word, and return to my text (or more likely just guess at the meaning and end up missing some of the subtleties of the author's word choice).

So from time to time I plan on sharing some of my finds with you.  Will start off with the author James Otis Kaler(1848-1912) who wrote under the name James Otis.  Mr. Otis was only sixteen years old when he was sent out by a local newspaper to report on the Civil War.  His experiences helped him develop a spirit of patriotism and adventure. He  Quoting from Jan Bloom's Who Should We Then Read?     "Kaler's interest was war stories and he cranked them out feverishly.  His boys were honest, simple, hard-working boys who get caught up in the events around them.  Unlike [Horatio] Alger stories, Kaler's boys do not long for respectability, fame or fortune. They just want to go home after they've done their duty. " 

If you're trying to use living books for history, here are a few of the free titles you may want to download:

Defending the Island: A Story of Bar Harbor in 1758

Neal, the Miller, a Son of Liberty

Under the Liberty Tree: A Story of the Boston Massacre

Corporal 'Lige's Recruit: A Story of Crown Point and Ticonderoga

On the Kentucky Frontier

Minute Boys of Boston

Minute Boys of the Mohawk Valley

Minute Boys of York Town

Richard of Jamestown

Commodore Barney's Young Spies: A Boy's Story of the Burning of the City of Washington