The Special Niche for E-Books

I am ready to declare a special niche in my life for e-books - they are perfect for finding older books that I missed when they were first published.  I'm not talking about books from the early part of the twentieth century; I'm referring to books published in the last twenty or thirty years.  What got me to thinking along those lines again was reading Fearless, a book first published in 1993 by an author (Rafael Yglesias) I was completely unfamiliar with until I read the e-book version of the book.  Even in the nineties more books were published than anyone could possibly keep up with - meaning that hundreds, if not thousands, of great ones slipped right through the cracks completely unnoticed.

E-books give me a second chance at them.  There is no way a bookstore can keep a huge backlist on its shelves, but by shopping online, I can build my own backlist.  I've read True Grit and Fearless in the last couple of weeks, both of which are prime examples of the kind of good stuff I'm looking for now in e-book format (of course, True Grit has been re-released as a tie-in to the new movie, but it is still an example of what I'm seeking).

Another thing I like about the "e-book backlist" is that publishers and publicists are producing interesting tie-in material to go along with the books they release.  Authors are making themselves available for interviews, many of which are filmed for general release, like this one by Rafael Yglesias, himself:





So, trusty iPad in hand, I'm discovering the alternate reading path that I missed the first time around.  This is starting to be a whole lot of fun.