Happy New Year, everyone! It’s time for my Smart Bitches Business Update, a monthly feature wherein I take a nerdy plunge into the various behind the scenes elements that keep the Hot Pink Palace hot, pink, and palatial. Well, how about “open for business?” “Palatial” seems a bit extravagant and heating bills are no joke.
First, last week, I mentioned that we are bringing back the SBTB Book Club! The Book Club and the Smart Bitches Movie Matinee will alternate months. For the book club, we’ll be hosting live chats here at the site to discuss the titles we selected, just like we did before.
Want to suggest a book? There’s a form for that – have at it (but please, if you’re suggesting your own book, limit it to one title).
And now: More Bitches Business!
In November, I posted Part I of the SB Reader Survey, and in December I shared the results.
Now it’s time for Smart Bitches Reader Survey: Part II, wherein we ask nosy questions about Where You Get All Your Fine Fine Books. I’ve tried to craft questions that allow for all the variables in book acquisition locations and options, and I think my brain just broke into fourteen equal pieces.
A few notes about this survey:
When we say “books,” we mean all formats for consumption, including print, digital, Braille, and audio, too. I consume books in many formats, and I’m guessing you do as well. My goal is not to identify or single out one format as superior. If the story words get into your brains, it’s all good.
When we say “shop,” we also mean browsing book retailers online or offline, searching card catalogs at libraries, looking to see if a book is available via subscription service, etc. We’re talking about actively and immediately seeking material to read.
“Shopping for books” was surprisingly a difficult concept to define because, personally, I’m never not shopping for books, nor am I frequently in a place where I can’t. As long as I have my phone, I have several bookstores and just as many libraries – which is kind of miraculous. And I’m never uninterested in pursuing a book that sounds interesting.
Ok, ready for the survey? Here we go!
Thank you for taking the survey, and apologies for any reduction or use of language that didn’t sufficiently include your usage or consumption of books. Please email me if I missed something glaringly obvious!
As always, thank you for being here. Whether or not you fill out the survey, I’m glad you’re hanging out with us. I’ll be back next month with more behind-the-scenes info, the results to this survey, and other news and pieces of information.
Thank you for being part of Smart Bitches – the site and the community wouldn’t be the same with you.
@SB Sarah: I have a question for you if you don’t mind. I was wondering whether any of the calendar apps you mentioned in your ‘Organization’ posts allow for days to be color-blocked. Not filled in and containing no data, just highlighted in a different color.
Right now I’m just using the standard Samsung android app and it doesn’t allow color blocking. I would like to highlight certain weeks throughout the calendar year so that when looking at it I know at a glance which times are actually available.
Looking in the app store just confused me as there were so many overall and also conflicting reviews. Any help would be appreciated.
I am on it – and I’m going to email you privately for a bit more detail, if that’s ok!
What I wonder is how my present 99% ebook reading will change when I finally get back to the US and libraries. I prefer physical books but I’m noticing that many/most of the books I read are not in the library catalog I access and sale prices -for obvious reasons – are exclusive to ebooks. I suspect that the seduction of immediate (electronic) access will override many other of my reading considerations.
@SB Sarah: Most definitely it’s ok, though I didn’t mean for you to do any research- I honestly thought you might know off-hand. Sorry, but also thank you.
THINGS THAT MAKE THE PINK PALACE FUN-books, books, and more books, opinions about books, books I love, books I haven’t heard of but need to read. Those are the most important reasons. But supporting these reasons are things like the friendliness, the helpfulness of both admins and the community, and things like movie reviews and other media-we get our kicks in ALL THE PLACES. I have really been enjoying the calendar discussions. They have helped me work with Google calendars so much better. Things like this that the contributors and admins offer us are so great, and i truly appreciate everything y’all do.
While both parts of the survey ask basic and interesting questions, I think that more intriguing results might be found by correlating some responses and delving into the why of others. For instance, which age groups correspond to the readers who consume the most books daily/monthly. Why do heavy digital readers or audio listeners choose that format and does age correlate to that choice as well ? How long have they been reading romances. How long have they been visiting SBTB ? Which genres/tropes /format (print, graphic novel, comic, etc.) appeal most to which age groups. And so forth …
I’m in the 65+ age group and have been reading romances since I was 18. I know how and why I still do, but would love to hear why others do too.
Virginia
I must say that now that I’ve retired I read much, much more than I did before–free or library books, or bought. I counted my Amazon kindle purchases for a month and YOWH!
I think a more indepth survey as suggested by VLD would be interesting. Anyone in academia want to get some data for an paper? Maybe you should consider compiling a survey, testing it and using the various blogs to get participants.
I have been lurking for years and decided to comment — as a deaf person, I really appreciate that your podcasts come with transcripts afterwards, so MANY thanks for that! Most podcasts aren’t accessible to me. Also, you forgot one option for audiobooks on the survey — not at all! Many readers I know don’t like audiobooks, although quite a few do and some (like myself) can’t use them at all.
I agree with Brandi that we needed another option under audiobooks. I never listen to them and have never bought one. Although I like reading to my own kids and to students, I absolutely hate being read to. I don’t know why that is, except that I know I’m not an audio learner. I’m definitely a visual and kinetic learner.
Count me in with the “never” audiobooks. My eyes see things and my mind wanders away from the story. I advocate for Scribd to offer an exchange of the audiobook included in each monthly subscription for an e-book.
Gosh, that was really dim of me – I’m sorry! I’m going to amend the survey per your suggestions. I definitely needed a “0 audiobooks” option.
Also, Brandi, I’m so glad the transcripts are valuable for you! I want to make the site as accessible as possible, so thank you for the feedback.
@Michelle in Texas: I am elated that the Google Cal discussions are helpful! I thought it was way too off topic but I was wrong, apparently! I wanted to make sure you knew about the newsletter I send out weekly about digital organization – you can sign up here: http://organizationacademy.com/
Time-wise I probably spend about an equal amount of time with audio-books and written books because while driving I can’t read, but I can definitely listen. On the other hand, according to kindle, I read about 3x faster than an audiobook so I consume 3x more books by reading. On the third hand audiobooks cost ~2x more for me…so by money I spend ~1.5x more on book books/ebooks?