My books-to-read list keeps getting longer and longer, possibly because I wander the internet so much and find interesting titles. My next problem is that when I choose a book to read, how shall I obtain it? As a hard copy from a library, an independent bookstore, or a large corporation like Amazon? Or shall I get an eBook from another large corporation, Apple?
Getting a book from a library is free and my borrowing a book helps it stay in circulation for others to read. Getting my own hard copy is either calling ahead to an independent bookseller or ordering it online. Getting it from a local bookseller helps the local economy. Ordering it online may get the copy to me faster. Most would opt for Amazon or Barnes and Noble. I opt for ABE Books which is a consortium of independent booksellers. An advantage to ABE Books is that I can find foreign titles and maybe even have them shipped free.
But then I already own so many books, where can I put new books without throwing out older ones. And which ones?
If I get an eBook, I can have a bigger choice of reading when I'm away, I can easily add comments, and I can easily copy excerpts for a blog entry.
Life is so full of choices!
So, what does all this have to do with advertising? I've noticed that many sites that mention a book have links to that book at Amazon. From reading about Maria Popova's "Brain Pickings" and seeing some of her links, I know that web authors can get a small fee if readers click on the book reference, probably only if someone buys the book.
Now I always like to earn a few bucks more if I can, but do I want to earn those bucks by supporting a large corporation? If I go that route, I'll probably have to drop the Google Ads, which aren't providing many bucks anyway. The easiest thing is for me to do nothing; given the underwhelming readership of this blog, the revenue from either source would be about the same, not much. Maybe I should make this blog a "cleaner" reading experience by having no ads at all.
So, dear reader, if you see me around, please let me know what you think. I think I have five or six regular readers in Duluth.
