Tag: Books

Random

I got a Kindle!!!

Geoff W

As you may have guessed from my fairly obvious title, I got a Kindle.  I’m sure it had something to do with my blog post (July Update) including Tom’s cameo (among other things) or Tom’s rekindled, notice I didn’t say new, appreciation for books.  He gave me a gift certificate to Amazon for 2/3 of the kindle because I didn’t want him to pay for all of it.  It was a bit of a decision because I could have gotten 20-25 used books easily, but I really did want a Kindle so I bought it.

It arrived last Saturday and I immediately uploaded 25 books, three I paid for including The Finkler Question by Howard Jacobson, and the rest were pre-1923.  I realized pretty quickly that the books are pretty expensive (compared to used) and I will purchase books, but I can’t wait until the public library starts loaning Kindle e-books.

Everything was going great until Monday morning on the way to work. Less than 48 hours of owning it I gave myself a mini-heart attack by dropping it in a parking lot. If you know me, this isn’t too surprising, but I was petrified and swore at myself for not just shelling out the money to purchase a cover when I got it.  The back casing partially popped open and there is now a lovely scrape (smaller than a dime) on the back left corner, but thankfully it still worked/s.  This scare necessitated my lovely blue case to the left. It doesn’t photograph very well and Amazon doesn’t show the color very well, but it’s a nice blue, maybe a bit lavender-ish depending on the light.  I splurged and got the one with the light because after the mini-heart attack I needed something special.

I’ve had it for nearly a week and so far the pros definitely outweigh the cons.  It responds significantly faster than  my Sony Pocket e-Reader which isn’t that shocking considering this is the third generation Kindle and I have a first generation Sony.  The formatting of the novels is great, but I wish rather than it automatically starting you on the first page with text, it would start you on the cover page.  I absolutely LOVE the notes feature, although you can (and I did) go overboard as you’ll see in the quotes section of my next post.

The two biggest negatives are the side navigation buttons (personal preference) and the lack of page numbers.  The navigation bothers me because for some reason I’m convinced the left should be backward and the right forward, but both sides have a large forward and a small backwards button.  The lack of page numbers really bothers me, especially as I like to see how many pages to the next chapter.  You can check the page numbers, but you have to pull up the menu screen and hope that the publisher included them.  I’m sure I will get used to both the navigation and the page numbers as everything else works seamlessly.

Updates

July 2011 Update

Geoff W

It has been seven days since my last post.

Since that last post I have attended a warehouse sale at Harvard Bookstore (mentioned in my last update) where I picked up six books, and picked up four additional books at the biggest Goodwill I’ve seen on our way home from Maine this past weekend!

In addition to this, I’ve read three additional books and started a fourth.  Books/Posts 19-21 will appear hopefully this week and 22 will appear early next week assuming I finish it sometime soon.  And they will be:

I don’t feel too guilty as I supported a local bookstore, a great nonprofit and picked up five books on my list (bolded below), and five I’ve either heard about or thought sounded fascinating, including a book by Paulo Coelho who I’m interested in reading more of since I read The Alchemist.  The books I picked up are:

And here is a picture.
 This is my Tom, my boyfriend.  He won’t be too happy about the picture, but I like the picture (and I asked first).  Not to mention I was trying to sneakily take the picture and failed miserably.

Most of the time when I say we, I mean Tom and I.  He’s not the biggest fan of reading, but he’s starting to realize how AWESOME books are. 😀  In the picture he’s finishing Mockingjay of the Hunger Games trilogy on my eReader (which he didn’t want to give back).

I know I drive him nuts by reading as much as I do (like not paying attention to him on long car rides or not noticing he’s at the airport to pick me up because it’s a critical moment in the novel :-D), but I’m slowly chipping away at his ‘non-reader’ status.  He will be happy to see that his orange obsession (the flip-flops) and Dexter (the leg and tail in the lower right) stayed in the picture.

And on that note – I’m signing off to start writing my backlogged posts.  I’ve almost surpassed last year’s posts and have plans to keep moving forward so that’s a definite plus.  If only I’d keep to my demand of not starting a new novel until I’ve posted the last…  Now to keep up the momentum…

Random

Boston Book Festival

Geoff W

Yesterday was the second annual Boston Book Festival. I was very excited for it as it has been on my calendar since they announced the save the date in the beginning of 2010. I’m not sure if it was all of this time building up to it or if it was because last year’s festival seemed to be the perfect size, but I was definitely a bit disappointed.* As I said I attended in 2009 and it was the perfect size. The workshops were housed in rooms where there were just enough seats with no need for overflow and there was enough time for there to be plenty of audience and panel interaction. On the other hand the exhibitors were brilliant! They increased the number of booksellers and I loved seeing nonprofits from around the (Eastern? part of) the state. A lot of the exhibitors were more interested in talking to and approaching the older attendees (40ish+), but if I asked a question they were helpful to answer. I found quite a few new used bookstores to either check out online or to visit at some point including:

  • Symposium Books – AMAZING. They had a deal where you could fill a small plastic bag for $20, a large plastic bag for $40 or a canvas tote for $50. I wasn’t going to do this, but then I found quite a few books on my big list of books to read so I did the small bag. If I would’ve paid for these books new I would’ve spent $112.80, if I paid the discount price I would’ve paid $33.00, so either way you look at it I saved a good amount of money! Two are Pulitzer Prize winning books (Robinson and Toole) and three were on my list (Robinson, both Miller) and I had to buy Boston Noir, how could I not?
  • Raven Used Books – Although I didn’t buy anything from them, I’d already spent $20 which was more than I’d planned on spending, they had a very good selection (including some Foucault!) and I will definitely check them out! They are a ‘scholarly’ used book store, so more textbook/research type books which are always nice!

And of course Brattle Book Shop and Brookline Booksmith were there, both of which I regularly visit!

Now on to the three workshops I attended. I was worried that this year the workshops and the festival overall would be geared more towards writers rather than bibliophiles. But the three I attended seemed to be a good mix between the two.

Workshops attended, books purchased and books added to my list!:

Quotes

Quote from Blood Done Sign My Name – Timothy Tyson

Geoff W

“When I was only three years old, Mama found me on the floor with a book pulled tightly against my face, sobbing hard. When she asked me why on earth I was crying, I told her, ‘Because I can’t get in the book.’ Now, I could not read at that age. What had happened, really, is that my mother had read so many books to me, so vividly, so beautifully, that I expected to be able to pick up the book and plunge instantly into beautiful depths of the imagination, and was disappointed I could not. In later years, of course, I found exactly that kind of satisfaction in books, and I owe all that to Mama.” – 355