In the past year, I’ve been devouring more ebooks. I started off with two last year. I was really keen on reading Halberstam’s Breaks of the Game. After all, many have labelled it as the unparalleled basketball read. I bought the book off Kindle and read it on my Mac. Following this, I feasted my eyes on the Jay Williams biography. This year, I’ve read even more basketball-heavy ebooks. If you’ve been following my posts, most of these reading lists included an Ebook. Eleven Rings by Phil Jackson was the first such featured. Others followed. Only two reads were not hoops related. Both Nick Joaquin and Albert Camus’s were literary pieces. Unlike last year, I’ve been doing the reading on my iPad.

The good and the bad

When undertaking any endeavour, one must consider the pros and cons. With the ebook, you don’t need a dictionary as you could look up words in the app. You also have more access to sports themed reads, something that the local library is lacking. Highlighting passages and annotating is seamless if you own your copy. Moreover, one could make the argument that ebooks are lighter and more expedient than physical tomes. This is especially true if you’re reading War and Peace. In addition, if you’re browsing multiple books, the tablet will do you more good. In general, the soft copy is cheaper than their physical counterpart. If you’re borrowing ebooks, you also save $$$ and shelf space in your study. Meanwhile, first among the negatives is eye strain. Tablets these days are made to be less straining, especially the ebook readers.

Some would also argue that the experience of holding a hard copy of a book is vastly different than that of a soft copy. See also: Infinite Jest, with all its end notes and tangents. Conversely, reading an ebook is the novel, high-tech way. Imagine all the classics, from Great Expectations to Vonnegut, dead Russian writers to Raymond Chandler. All of them are available at your fingertips. There’s no need to explore the library and browse physical shelves. This is how you move with the times. You could use your bookmark and pick up where you left off. You could view the same pics, just in a different manner. This is definitely helpful to those kids with massive packs. No more textbooks! No more hitting annoyed strangers with your bags!

The rundown

Aside from the aforementioned trio of ebooks, I’ve also consumed Steven Adams, Giannis, Fab Five, Golden Days, and (most recently) Blood in the Garden. Authors from various squads have penned these texts. Apart from Chicago and LA’s Jackson, there’s also Oklahoma City Thunder (Adams), Milwaukee Bucks (Giannis), Michigan Wolverines (Fab Five), Golden State Warriors (Golden Days), and New York Knicks (Blood).

All of these b-ball reads have a four star rating or higher. Indeed, all the ebooks I’ve bought sported such a rating. Otherwise, it would be a waste. I’ve crested some of these in a few days. Joaquin’s collection took me over a week. I’m sure the reason I’ve gone through them so quickly is that I am familiar with the terminology. More importantly, I yearn to read these books. Of course, I’ve had iPads before but I never utilised them for reading. Back when it was still called iBooks, I downloaded pdf files but not ebooks.

App central

Most of my forays into the digital version have been with Apple Books. Here, as mentioned, I’ve purchased the basketball reads. At about twenty seven bucks, Giannis was the dearest. Some of the books, like Fab Five, were older releases. Others, such as Steven Adams, were more recent works. Of course, Books is not definitive. I’ve used other ebook apps like BorrowBox. The latter requires a library membership, but once logged in, the rest is history. Sometimes, you’ll not find what you’re looking for. In that case, ditch the app and buy the hard copy. Or request it from your local repository.

At the moment, I’m working on another ebook. The Late Show is the first instalment in the Renee Ballard series. Late was released five years ago. I’ve read all the rest, save the fifth edition that came out last Tuesday. Should I finish the ebook soon, it’ll be on my latest reading list. There’s a chance that I’d consume the new Ballard book right after I’m done with Late. Regardless, I’ve got a few reads on the cards. Before, I posted about reading more nonfiction titles. Now, it’s all about the ebooks. At this rate, the only iterations left are comic books and audiobooks. Meh.