San Antonio Public Library discussion

I read on mysa.com today that San Antonio is opening a bookless library on the South Side later this year. While I totally get it (from a technological viewpoint), the notion that such a thing can even exist makes me feel old and lost and cold inside. In a couple dozen years, we will have a generation that will not know the touch or smell of paper and ink.

Oh well... onward and upward, I guess.

I totally understand your points, Jay. I read about half on my Kindle and half in print. There's some great articles on the Bibliotech bookless library on TPR and NPR radio.

I've been chatting with a school library friend, who uses both print and eBooks in her library. The teens she serves appreciate online databases to do research, but they aren't keen to use eReaders. They'd rather have a book to pass around or read quietly. I think we are in a world where sharing online ebooks is not easy, and that effects our natural tendency to share a good story.

While I love taking my eReader on trips, I miss the spontaneous conversation that happens when others see what I am reading from the book jacket. Sharing titles is great on Goodreads and at the library, but it's harder to browse eBooks, flip through the pages to find an intriguing passage, and "feel" the book itself. When it's a great story I'm still pulled in, regardless of format, to savor passages or race to the ending.

So during this "shelter in place" time, and with the local libraries closed, I finally started trying out digital audiobooks, and discovered that I really liked them. I would listen to them while I was working on a jigsaw puzzle, or doing household chores, etc. So during the last two months, I have probably listened to about a dozen digital audiobooks, adult and teen mostly.

Beverly, I’m curious. What draws you to the young adult or teen books? Have you found any that appeal both to adults and older teens?
Nancy West

Nancy wrote: "Beverly, I’m curious. What draws you to the young adult or teen books? Have you found any that appeal both to adults and older teens?
Nancy West"

The same thing draws me to teen books as to adult books--a good story, well-written, with interesting characters.
As for teen books that appeal to adults, it depends on what genres you like to read. I see that you are a mystery writer, so I assume you like reading mysteries.
One mystery series for teens that an adult might like as well is the Enola Holmes series (Enola is Sherlock Holmes younger sister).
The Case of the Missing Marquess by Nancy Springer is one title in the series.
If you like mysteries combined with the supernatural--ghosts, etc.--the Lockwood & Co series is awesome.
The Screaming Staircase by Jonathan Stroud is one title in the series.
The Forensic Mysteries was also a really interesting series. The Christopher Killer by Alane Ferguson is the first in the series.

Beverly, thanks for the leads. I’m not too interested in the supernatural, but the rest sound interesting. I’m working on a novel of domestic suspense about the effects of divorce on a family with an eighteen-year-old boy. It also includes a mystery.
The forensic mysteries sound especially interesting.

Nancy wrote: "The forensic mysteries sound especially interesting. ..."

They are, but the author only wrote 4 books in the series. I would have liked to have read more in this series, but that's all she wrote.