When it was time for me to buy a new TV my first thought was B&W(why spend the extra $) but by then my son was old enough to object loud and long. Thanks Mom & Dad! I say he's my son because I remember the whole giving birth thing and he's too much like his dad to have been switched in the hospital. It may be that the only thing he got from me is his work ethic and I can live with that :)
Today a young blogger I especially like mentioned his big heavy TV and sparked the memory of the day I bought a big, heavy, color TV a lot like his. It was so big it didn't fit in my little Saturn coupe so we had to go home and get Jesse's car. He muscled it into the car and the house and was quite pleased with "our" purchase. But as I told my friend, he later dropped the thing trying to wrestle it up the stairs to his apartment. These days my TV lives in the garage. So ya see - just not that important to me.
Given the above info you'll agree it was a little odd for me to be interested in the Kindle 2. Never knew there was a Kindle 1 - see first sentence above. I thought about it, read about, talked about it, asked another blogger (who reads as much as I do) if he had one. At Christmas time, or maybe it was later, I saw the Nook (?) at Walmart. I asked my Dad about it since he was attending Kindle 2 classes. And, to put an end to this lengthy introduction, I now own one. By the end of the week Dad will own one too. Yeah! He was attending classes before he even owned one. We Mathesons tend to deliberate ad nauseam before we spend more than $100. Except for Jesse who, as you know, takes after his father.
And there she is - my Kindle. OK, not mine exactly, that gal has way better finger nails than I do. You knew that tho, right? I love lots of things, books being high on the list, and the idea of reading whenever, wherever, was just too much to pass up. No more reading in the bathtub tho.....
The timing has been perfect because I'd decided I need to go back to the books I read as an english major* - you know, revisit them with the benefit of all the things I've learned, or not, in the past 40-some years. And Holy Bookmark Batman, lots of them are FREE!!! Of course some of those books weren't exactly new even then.....
First stop - Ernest Hemingway. Since I devoted an entire year to my thesis on him it seemed a good place to start. "The Sun Also Rises" and "A Farewell to Arms" and "The Old Man and the Sea" were already on my night table so I fired up my little wireless wonder and searched on Hemingway. Turns out he's not old enough or boring enough to be free. So I went back a little further in my recollections and came up with Joseph Conrad, Ford Madox Ford, Oscar Wilde, Arthur Conan Doyle, Jane Austen, E M Forster --you read a lot when you're an english major -- for free. Imagine an entire course in school dedicated to just one author. It should have been divine, but I was a kid and really wanted to be in the foreign service or be an airline stewardess. I was just going thru the motions, getting the degree so I could go do what I wanted -- that and it kept Dad off my back ;) Then, junior year I got married. But I digress.
Here's the deal on Arthur Conan Doyle; the free version of "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" comes with some annoying little hiccups. Plus, we've seen them all on TV over the years anyway. So unless you're a senior citizen who has forgotten how they end, it's a miss in my book. No pun intended. The free version of "Where Angels Fear to Tread" isn't perfect either, but we're talking free here and I figure one can't afford to be too choosy when looking a gift horse in the mouth....
Ok, I'll admit it. I bought two books, the new Sue Grafton and the first book in Elizabeth Peters' Vicki Bliss series. Sue Grafton never fails to please. First of all she writes about Santa Barbara (which she calls Santa Teresa for some reason) and Lompoc, territory I know well. Second of all her heroine, for want of a better word, eats peanut butter & pickle sandwiches and is a bit off kilter. Instant like. Plus, you can read her books in a day -- two if you slept in.
Not so crazy about the Elizabeth Peters book. The interaction between the two main characters never felt right to me. It was ok when they weren't talking to each other, which was fortunately a good part of the book, but next time I'll trade for a book in that series. Or get it used from Amazon. It'll be hard to beat the 99 cent deal I got on a brand new hard back book recommended by a friend tho. Add on the shipping and it cost me about $5.00. Having said that, I think I'll trade for the book. You can miss a good thing by judging a series by one book. That almost happened with the first book of hers I ever read. I was in a hurry and picked it for the picture on the cover - sand dunes, pyramids, a crocodile, and the kind of hat I associate with archaeologists. The archaeology part was accurate and the story did take place in Egypt, but the voice of the narrator, Amanda Peabody, annoyed the heck out of me. Glad I tried the next book tho - I've read the entire series twice. She either dropped the "dear reader" bit or I just got used to it. Jesse's father often re-reads books he's enjoyed but I never understood why when there are so many out there to be read. Came to the table a little late on that one ;)
If you're on the fence about the Kindle here are some things to consider:
- the free books tend to be OLD books or new authors, but if you're a student reading the classics that can be a good thing
- keep in mind that Free and $9.99 aren't the only choices - some books cost more and you may do better with a used book on Amazon or a trade from your local bookstore 'cause really, we're not gettin' rid of our book shelves
- get a book cover to protect it, there are a lot to choose from, and consider the light made to tuck inside it, especially if you read in bed
- if you're a note-taker you'll love My Notes and the fact that you can highlight any passage you like without doing damage
- if like me, you're a died-in-the-wool bibliophile who thinks you'll miss the feel of a book, rest your mind, the thing is so ergonomic you'll love the feel
- the dictionary is FAB-U-LOUS, put the cursor on the mystery word and the definition comes up at the bottom of the page - especially handy with Miss Jane Austen and her contemporaries
- it comes with instructions already loaded in and you can learn more tricks for 76 cents or so
- and the clincher for me - if you can't read, some of the books have male or female voices (you choose) to read to you. The feature needs improvement but if you're waiting to find out what Mr Darcy decides ANY voice will do :-))
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*You'll not be surprised to hear I switched to english from journalism because I editorialized too much and I tend to verbosity.....
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