Baby Boomers will understand that entertainment used to be called books. Not that we didn’t have television, radio, movies, etc., but unless you lived in a city, the choices were often very limited. Our small town didn’t have access to public television, so it was the basic three channels, and of course, only part of the programming was for kids. We actually did not have a radio because my mother didn’t care for it and as for movies – well, it required a car to get to one and it just wasn’t a priority in our house. The library and books though – now that was a winning combination. Yes, that also required a car, but because it was not fixed to a specific time, a drop off and pick-up at the library could be incorporated with other trips into town. The school library was good and we did have a Book-Mobile that came, so for the entire school year, we had quite a selection.

I don’t recall reading time as a big thing when I was very young, although I’m sure I had children’s books and was read to. Once I was able to read on my own, the world was opened to me. All the usual (that was also when they taught the classics) and when I was in junior high school, the school librarian put me on a special reading list that was heavily American literature with some English thrown in. I made my way through Zane Grey and Louis L’Amour as well as the basic science fiction of Asimov and Bradbury, and didn’t stick with either genre. I admit that romances were never big after Victoria Holt and Norah Lofts and I didn’t really do a lot of non-fiction until I was an adult. I’ve already written about Ayn Rand’s influence and yes, through all of it, I dreamed of the day when my name would be on the cover of a book. That, however, isn’t the main point of this post.

I am always searching through the independent authors to find new ones rather than look at the best sellers because in knowing how the mainstream publishing world works now, I realize how many writers never make that cut. Don’t get me wrong – just like with movies, there is a lot of “B” and worse stuff out there and for sure a number of genres that I don’t care for. On the other hand, the beauty of Kindle under $3.99 books, just as with discount bins in a bookstore, is that you can try authors you aren’t familiar with for a low cost. Even though I resisted a Kindle for quite some time, I have to admit that I’m really glad to have one now. Nothing against Nook, mind you – we went the Kindle route instead. And if you want to, you can go right into the Independent Author Network and roam around. There are others you can check out, but they have a pretty big selection.(http://www.independentauthornetwork.com/)