French ebooks – free!

What a delight to have recently discovered the Richmond Public Library’s collection of 300+ French ebooks. I heard about the collection via Twitter @RPL_YourLibrary and from the children’s librarian at the Brighouse Branch. Before I go into the pros and cons, I know you want to know what I read and how I accessed the collection!

Here is the link: http://downloads.yourlibrary.ca/232D83AB-C2E4-4834-84B3-5FD66004AD73/10/50/en/Default.htm Click on French ebooks on the left hand side. This is the link for accessing the books from a computer. You can access the books on a tablet but I have not tried that yet. I also had to enter my library card number to check out the books.

First, I read Babette déteste la bicyclette by Andrée Poulin. I couldn’t help relating to Babette and loving how she wears her emotions on her sleeve. The story has momentum, just as you hope the bicycle eventually does. An excellent read aloud especially since the weather is improving and you might be taking your class on a field trip by bicycle. There are several more books in the Babette series.

Next, how was the ebook reading experience?

Pros:

1. able to browse all titles from home
2. while browsing, I could see the book covers and read a short description
3. easy to check out – one click!
4. easy to return – one click!
5. lots of white space around the text so it felt uncluttered (unlike the usual online experience with a million buttons and links competing for your attention)
6. easy to turn pages, very intuitive
7. a new book I hadn’t heard of and I was really excited to discover this new title

Cons:

1. sitting at my computer to read (don’t have a tablet at home)
2. can’t mark up the text or put Post-its in the book — correction — I noticed that there is a bookmarking feature that I need to check out

Finally, the collection. I am impressed by the titles that have been selected. There are some familiar books and some new titles. If you get ‘hooked’ by an author, e.g. François Gravel, you can keep reading more in the series.

And, now I’ve read my first ebook – ever. I’m one of those people who likes to fall asleep book in hand and I love to dog-ear the page to mark where I’m at, so I wasn’t sure how this ebook experience would be. But this is my account of the experience which will remain forever etched in these pixels.