Recently in Books Category

Finally ordered a Kindle. Got it mainly so I could read in bed before going to sleep but I'm sure I'll use it at other times, too. I pretty much stopped reading before bed because I was having so much trouble creating a comfortable reading environment. My eyesight currently requires that I have a lot of light and the light has to hit the page a certain way. Paperbacks, in particular, were giving me headaches. I'm disappointed that the model I got requires a light source at night. You cannot read mine in a dark room. It does not need as much light as I was needing to read books, though, and being able to resize the print is a major plus. My vision is not so bad that I can only read the E on the chart but it's not as good as it once was. I probably could use bifocals but I still only use reading glasses. When I asked my lovely wife this morning for confirmation that E was at the top of the chart, I got the Quote of the Day.

I don't intend for it to completely replace book reading and it saddens me that, someday, readers like the Kindle and the Nook will entirely replace books. I think turning the pages of a good book is an essential life experience but publishers won't be able to stay in business making books for just the handful of us dinosaurs who want them.

I haven't bought anything for it yet. One of the things that postponed the purchase this long was the limited content originally available and the price of said content. More is becoming available and the prices are coming down. I will probably make my first purchase tonight. My eyes have sufficiently recovered from that 640-page waste of trees I finished the other night so it's time to start another. One of the things I've discovered already that I like a lot is that you can download a substantial sample of a book that you're thinking you might buy. I don't know how the samples are chosen but the two samples I downloaded last night were two whole chapters each. That will give you a feel for the story and the writing. I like that.

By the way, that's not my hand you see in that image. That hand implies that the Kindle offers one-handed reading. I've had it a couple of days now and have not mastered that technique yet. I still have to use my other hand to turn the page.

Quote of the Day

Why? Are you planning to cheat?

Patsy

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My blog friend was right. I was on the fence about reading it. Sports Illustrated's Peter King had recommended it. I almost never agree with King. As if that warning wasn't enough, my friend, Kem, was even more forceful in swaying me away from it. His is the first comment at the link. Thanksgiving at Katie's was very pleasant and the book came up. We talked about it for a few minutes. As Patsy and I were leaving, she gave me her paperback and I was on the hook.

There are three main plots in the book. One is the disappearance of a girl. The resolution was not at all surprising because what was thought to have happened to her was never convincing. The second was the discovery of an unknown serial killer. That one was revealed and resolved about 200 pages from the end. The third, least interesting plot was about a financial empire one of the main characters wanted to ruin. It was basically a 200 page epilogue and I hate epilogues. The only remotely interesting character in a book full of dull characters is The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. Minor Spoiler Alert: That description and that title have no bearing on anything. It would be in the wood pellet stove this morning if it were mine. I'll gladly bring it back, Katie. :)

PS - The movie will almost certainly be better.

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Updated: July 26 (9AM)

There may be spoilers below the fold. Read no further if you haven't finished Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Do not read the comments, either.

Plan to get in line at the bookstore at midnight on the day of its release? We're just going to go the Amazon route. It will be in our mailbox same day. I also don't intend to try to read it in one sitting. I've never done that even once in my life. Speculation has J.K. Rowling writing other books after this release about the wizard world she's created but I think this one due out on July 21 will do it for me. I've read them all so far and want to know how it turns out but I don't have much interest beyond that. She's had a good run.

Got yours yet? What amazing cultural events these books are turning out to be. Amazon promised to deliver it to us on the day it was released but we got an email the other day saying they may not be able to do so. It has a lot of other people upset. We have a few other things going on so it is not that important to us that we may miss the starting gun. (Update 2:45PM: It was in today's mail. Normal life may resume) I'm only about a third of the way through The Historian. Just haven't had time for reading. I suppose I could give up some computer time........maybe not.


I don't know what made me pick one of them up. Patsy had said I should read them but she's always saying that about one book or another. She's a much more avid reader than I am. I didn't become aware of the phenomenon until the fourth book. My sister-in-law had all of them so I borrowed them not knowing whether I was going to be able to read them. Patsy had already read them all. The first one was cute and the second one was OK. It's the third one, Prisoner of Azkaban, that got me. The next two were tedious but I suppose I have to finish them now.

Experimenting with this image plug-in thingy. It's a little more complicated than I thought it would be. I see other bloggers doing this stuff all of the time. I thought it must be easy. Maybe with some practice. I've already spent way too much time on this entry. Time, I suppose, I could have been reading. Now, it's time to go get a haircut.