Usually, I post about the books I read, the friends I find within each story and reconnecting with them.  And right now I am reconnecting with Olivia and Gabriel–and all the mystery and magic of Cainsville.  But I wanted to tell you about something seemingly unconnected and in the process I will explain the thought train that led to this post.

I love reading, as you know all to well.  And I dislike audiobooks because depending on narrator, the book can be enriched through the process of creating an audiobook or it can be ruined by the slightest thing-a name pronounced differently, an accent that is different than what was expected or any other of a million reasons.  When we read a book, we imagine the characters, their accents, and a million other things.  An audiobook can ruin that because it makes the elements written in stone and each of these things can skew the enjoyment of the book.

I have been a long time fan of the Elfquest comic book series.  When I first found them they had been reprinted as a graphic novel and were in color.  When they later rereleased the comics in Black and White, they used a similar explanation–that the coloration of the comics limited the possibilities and locked the characters descriptions in stone.  Printing the comics in black and white allowed for infinite possibilities and for the enjoyment of the stories in a whole new way.

For years I was a physical book reader, and my daughter still is.  For her a book has to have a physical presence in order to be a book.  Ebooks do not work for her-without the pages to flip and the smell of the paper and weight of the book in her hands, they do not seem real to her.  Now, I fully enjoy all the facets of having ebooks- the ability to carry hundreds or thousands of books in the palm of my hand, rather than having to carry an extra suitcase on trips.  I enjoy having multiple copies of the books in multiple places and the ability to transfer from device to device.  I was and am a firm supporter of amazon kindles and have been for a long time.

Anyone who reads ebooks should look into the freeware program Calibre.  It allows you to organize your library by author or series or even by publication date.  It allows you to convert your books from one format to another and that allows you to use multiple devices.  It can also manage your devices.  You can merge files together (using plugins) and a million other things.

So now I have found the best program for my needs to be google play books.  First off, google offers 24-7 tech support on using the play books app for free. In addition to allowing books to be read on multiple devices, with your progress in each book being communicated no matter which device you read the books upon.  Google Play has a read aloud feature-it uses a computer voice of your choice.  Much like the black and white comics, it still allows me to add the details to the story.  It also allows me to speed up the reading so I can keep pace with where I would be approximately without using the read aloud feature.

So, whats the point of this long rambling post?  It’s actually quite simple.  My smartphone has become my reading device of choice.  And protecting that smartphone has become VERY important.  While there are a million choices in the market for cases, tempered glass protectors or plastic film protectors I want to speak with you about my experience with a company called Skinomi.  They produce plastic film phone protectors.  You can buy one just for the front screen, one for coverage of the entire device (front, back and sides), or one for just the front and back.  he plastic film is self healing and the have a lifetime warranty on their products.  They now have lines that can be used to change the look of your phone from wood to tempered steel or even  cool black carbonite looking skin.

They are the best phone protectors out there.  I have used a lot of different ones, but theirs have stood the test of time with each of my phones.  In addition, they have exceptional customer service and replace your screen protector if there is an error in installation or for some other reason you need a new one.  And it is a lifetime replacement on their products and there is a bubble free guarantee.  So protect your phone-get a skinomi protector, they are the best on the market and worth the price!