Try the IndieBound Reader App, Get a $5 Gift Card

I’ve been using the IndieBound Reader app on an Android Tablet for months now and really enjoy it. (You can read my full review of the app here: ) It’s a got great reading functionality and lets you show your support for shopping local and independent. We want you to try it.

For the month of March, if you come into the store and show us that you’ve installed the IndieBound Reader app on your device we’ll give you a $5 gift card good on all in-store and online purchases. When you come in, we’ll just ask for your name (one gift card per person please) and what type of device you have. You can also sign up to receive email about ebooks. We can even guide you through your first ebook purchase.

Here are what some people are saying about the IndieBound Reader App.

For Android:

This is app s great! It's running on my Asus Prime which is using ICS and reader is running flawlessly. So happy to by buying my ebooks locally, this app is even running on my friends Kindle Fire! Matty

This is an amazing app, and works seamlessly with bookstores around the country. I work on the road, and can now buy ebooks from whichever store is closest! Mick

Once it's set up with the bookstore of choice this App is really easy to help you search and support the store. Simple and easy. Sara

For iPad:

One of my recent purchases from the Books, Inc. website was damaged every time I tried to download it from Google Books, so they steered me toward this app. Works like a charm. ewestby

Easy download from my local independent bookstore website, then simple download of books from my store account. Reading on iPhone, and so far seems straightforward and as pleasant as you get on this size. So pleased to have buying local so easy! Wren54

Hyperlinked Infinite Jest: This is What iPads are For

When ebooks were in their infancy, Infinite Jest was the first book I thought of. Not only is it the size of a small dog, but it is also has end notes. (And no, you can’t skip them. I mean, no one is going to show up at your house and make you read them, but you miss out on a whole level of the story if you skip them.) This means, that you are constantly flipping back and forth between two bookmarks in a book that wouldn’t look ridiculous in a stroller.

But, now, the Google editions .epub version, at least read in the IndieBound Reader on a touch screen is hyperlinked. Just touch the annotation in the text and you are taken to the note. At the end of the note is another link that says “Back to Text” which takes you, well, back to the text. You can also search in the text, which for a book with as complex a structure as Infinite Jest, gives you another tool for keeping all the characters, ideas, and events straight in your head. And you can add linked bookmarks, like to the page that shows the chronological order of the sponsored years, that can take you back and forth between events. And you can add your own notes. And it's $9.99.

To me, this is what makes ebooks important; they can allow for a deeper reading experience than print books because of how they allow the reader to interact with the text itself. And, this means are there no longer any excuses for not reading Infinite Jest.

Most Anticipated Addendum

A couple of books have crossed my path since the last post that I wanted to share with you. (And hope you remember them when they do come out.)

You & Me by Padgett Powell. Powell’s last novel The Interrogative Mood was a book composed entirely of questions. I had my doubts about it at first, but at some point, I realized that you would learn a lot about yourself if you actually bothered to answer the questions themselves. Even without that element, it is still a strange and mysterious, yet compelling book. Powell’s new book, You & Me, is coming out in August, and is described as a Southern send-up of Waiting for Godot. Any other author I would be very suspicious of reinterpreting such a precisely surreal and truthful work, but I’m excited to see Powell’s take on it. In some ways, The Interrogative Mood is about living without answers. Since Waiting for Godot is, in many ways, also about living without answers, I can’t way to see Powell tackle it.

Amsterdam Stories by Nescio. You are probably going to get sick of hearing me talk about this book. Beautiful. Truthful. Artistic. Vibrant. Did I mention beautiful? For me at least, reading these stories has been akin to watching Casablanca; you try to open your eyes and ears as wide as you can to take everything in, knowing that something staggering and beautiful is just out of sight and just out of earshot, and even though you can’t say specifically what made that shot work or that line stunning, you know that whatever it is, is perfect. Amsterdam Stories is scheduled for release on March 20.