For those who have resolved to read more in 2012, there are many resources available in the Spokane area to help people enjoy more books, audiobooks and other related media without breaking the budget. Here are a few suggestions to help people achieve their goals.
1. Get a library card.
Most people in and around the Spokane area can benefit from great materials and services provided by the Spokane County Library District (SCLD) and the Spokane Public Library. Thanks to shared branching, it is pretty easy most of the time to track down books on someone's reading list.
Both districts also provide ebooks, audiobooks, CDs, movies and other materials. Their web sites make it very easy to look for books and other resources from home, so people can reserve or renew items or search library catalogs without having to travel to a brick and mortar location.
People who live outside the Spokane city limits can take advantage of SCLD's impressive ebook collection. The district has partnered with OverDrive and Project Gutenberg to provide access to an embarassment of riches.
According to their website, OverDrive hosts over 650,000 titles from publishers such as Random House or HarperCollins. Project Gutenberg brings about 36,000 public domain titles to readers in our area, making it even easier to finally read the literary classics on someone's bucket list.
2. Invest in a Kindle, Nook or other ereader device.
Buying a Kindle from Amazon or a Nook from Barnes and Noble involves paying at least $79 up front, but in the long run the investment is totally worth it. Especially when one considers how much hardcover books cost these days. Some ebooks cost as little as $1.99, which is a lot easier to afford than even the discounted prices on most of Amazon's print edition new releases.
Kindle users can try out Amazon's Kindle Owners' Lending Library. In exchange for having a registered Kindle and an Amazon Prime account, readers can enjoy one free book a month from a selection of over 50,000 titles. Their selection is now 10 times bigger than it was when the service started back in November, which seems promising.
The Amazon Prime membership costs $79 a year (enough for a second Kindle), but Amazon offers a one-month free trial that should give people enough time to decide if they want to make a longer commitment. The free shipping that comes with the Prime membership may make the annual fee seem worth it for people who also buy traditional books on a regular basis.
3. Order books from Spokane's own Gray Dog Press.
Local publisher Gray Dog Press offers a variety of fiction and non-fiction titles, many of which are written by people from the Spokane area or nearby communities. Readers get to support local business and local authors while enjoying some really great stuff at reasonable prices.
It may be difficult to think of Spokane as having a literary scene, but with a little investigation it doesn't take much to discover that many people in our area are doing exciting things in pretty much every genre and medium ranging from poetry to contemporary literary fiction to urban fantasy.
Fans of mysteries and crime fiction can't go wrong by ordering something by local authors Frank Zafiro and T. Dawn Richard. Romance lovers may enjoy the Western fiction of Dawn Nelson. Outdoor enthusiasts should check out the publisher's popular trail guides such as "2012 Trail of the Coeur d'Alenes Unofficial Guidebook" by Estar Holmes. People who are interested in memoirs might enjoy "Spies, Lies and Psychosis" by Joan Kopczynski or "Book All the Teachers!" by James Parry.
4. Support Closed Circle.
Hugo award winning author and Spokane area resident C.J. Cherryh formed Closed Circle with fellow authors Lynn Abbey and Jane Fancher as a way to produce definitive new editions of books that had been allowed to go out of print by their publishers. They also have produced new content that is available through their site. Ebooks by the three authors usually cost $9.95. There are also some free short stories available for download.
Hopefully, this article will get people pointed in the right direction. Even with all the changes in the book publishing industry, the loss of Borders in 2011, and even successful authors like Patrick F. McManus losing their publishers, there are still a lot of great new books out there waiting to be discovered. Many of them are being produced by talented people right here in the Spokane area.
Auntie's Bookstore in downtown Spokane is a great place to find books by local authors mentioned in this article for those who would rather support a local brick and mortar bookseller instead of shopping online.
One of many great things about reading is that the search for new books often leads to stumbling across even more things a book lover might like. It's more about the journey than the destination. Have fun in 2012, fellow travelers.
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