Darleen gave me a Kindle last year.
This was not a completely altruistic gift on my wife’s part. We are running out of shelf space, and my suggestion that we build more bookshelves in other rooms (the bathrooms, for example) was not greeted with anything like enthusiasm. In fact, it was greeted with a look that reminded me I had a lot of chores to do outside. On the far side of our little ranch. Out of voice range.
I fought like a steer against the Kindle, but I have to admit I’ve grown to like it. It holds a ton of books, literally. It includes an unabridged Oxford English Dictionary, which is a feature I really love; nothing drives me battier than coming across a word I don’t know while I’m stuck somewhere waiting for my truck to be repaired and don’t have a dictionary with me. Most of the books I download are far more affordable as e-books than they would be as either hardbacks or paperbacks. Certain classic books are completely free or almost so. And, perhaps the greatest feature of all, it allows me to download a free sample chapter of any book I wish. That single feature has saved me a small fortune.
I follow various book reviews in various newspapers. Most are traditional sources, primarily “The New York Times” and “The Los Angeles Times,” and some are newer, online sources. Being of a certain age and certain habits, my tendency has been to rely on “The New York Times” first and foremost.
I began to have doubts and concerns about “The New York Times Book Review” several years ago. It was nothing too serious at first, just fledgling doubts, little wobbly-legged precocial concerns, caused by one of their reviewers, herself an esteemed and published novelist. At least, I assume she was esteemed. I had never heard of her, but I can’t imagine the Gray Lady grabbing some unknown wannabe with a BA in Eng. Lit. off the street. I don’t remember her name or the book she was reviewing, but she wrote a sentence that went something like this:
“Having told you [this happened] and [that happened], it should now be redux of me to have to tell you…”
What?
Redux?
At that time I was still so in the thrall to the Gray Lady’s reputation that I actually sat there for several minutes trying to make the sentence work, to uncover some arcane meaning behind her use of that word, but you can’t make chicken salad out of chicken shit no matter how long you stare at the page. Redux means restored to a state of health (that’s the OED speaking). It bears no relationship of any kind, no matter how you try to stretch it, to redundant, which is what the reviewer meant.
Since then, thanks in part to my Kindle, I have learned that much of what you read in the Times Book Review section is pure, unadulterated bunk. Pre-Kindle, I wouldn’t have discovered this because I couldn’t have afforded to buy all the books whose rave reviews intrigued me. But the free one-chapter sample allows me to stick my toe into what I always hope will be refreshing and entertaining and enriching water, but usually turns out to be a literary La Brea tar pit.
Most of the time I finish the free sample chapter and think, I’d rather be boiled in oil than read any more of this tripe. On the one occasion when I overrode my own instincts and downloaded an entire novel (to be fair, I did so partly because it got a rave in the “LA Times” as well) I had to force myself to finish the damn thing, and when I did, I turned the Kindle off and asked myself, Why did I just waste four or five precious evenings out of the little span of life I have to read this? What did I learn about the human experience? Is my life enriched? Am I wiser? Happier? Was I even distracted for the interminable hours it took to finish the damn thing? To which I replied: I don’t know; nothing; no; no; no; and no.
But, as a certain news organization likes to say, to be fair and balanced, I have to admit I first heard of “The Help,” “Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand,” “The Corrections,” and “To Be Sung Underwater” in one Times or the other, and I enjoyed all of them tremendously. And simply because I didn’t like Novel X doesn’t mean you wouldn’t either; after all, your taste may be as bad as the Gray Lady’s.
Hahaha! So anyone without your taste has bad taste, is that it?
Suzy7:45pm, 03.May.11Okay, I love books and have a study/library in my house complete with a wall of Billy becokasos filled with my favorite books. But I also have a Kindle (for 3 years now) and an Ipad (for about a year). I got the Kindle because I sometimes travel a lot and packing books for a long trip took up too much room in my suitcase. And I love my Kindle now, and having any book I want at my finger tips. Not to mention the benefit of reading magazines without those stupid subscription cards falling out everywhere. My Ipad, I got for different reasons, mostly business expense reasons. And I don’t like reading on it. I think it has to do with the difference of the way the screen is lit. I still read books, esp if I can pick up a paperback copy cheaply at Half Price or amazon marketplace. Of course my biggest disclaimer should be that I am a gadget girl and love all manner of things electronic and nerdy.{}3:34 pm, 04.May.11, I used to think of myself as a gadget girl but now, not so much. Also, If i were a traveller (or ever left the house) I’d probably change my Kindle tune pretty quickly.{}
Loving paperbacks (and the occasional hardback) as I do, there was no way you would ever, and I do mean ever, get me to own a Kindle (other e-readers are available), I love the thrill of sitting down with a good book, turning the pages, some crisp with newness, others dog eared and worn away over the years. Then came the spine problems, and the holding anything heavy problems and you may think a book isn’t heavy, but some of them really are. When I travelled I would take a book or three with me, some would be too big to put in the shoulder bag, and those that did fit were so heavy. Those that didn’t fit had to be carried and not put down anywhere for a minute in case it was tidied away (as in hospital waiting rooms) or I just plain forgot them (regular occurrence).
Then the husband decided I could do with a Kindle! and yes, I do mean the electronic reader thingie before you start nudging and winking!! So, in early November last year I became the proud owner of the Kindle wi-fi keyboard and I honestly don’t know how I lived without it for so long but, and this is one of my bugbears with e-readers, some of the books I want are not available for Kindle or other e-reading devices which kinda defeats the object for me. However, I had a look at my account the other day and surprisingly (for me anyway) I have over 80 books stored in my Kindle! 80 books!! I could never imagine trawling 80 books around with me anywhere. It is a fascinating piece of kit. I love the way I can buy and download a book in seconds. I see a recommendation and have a look at it, without wasting money buying the entire book after trying a sample if it’s not for me. Another bugbear, for me anyway, is the reading light. New Kindles I believe have lights built in to the cover or something similar but mine does not, and I wish I had not spent so much money trying to find a decent light for reading in bed as hubby doesn’t like the light on when he’s trying to sleep, well who does? After trying and failing with cheap little lights, and then having a Kandle II bought to go with said Kindle last year, (someone actually gets paid to think up these names) which failed as soon as the batteries died, not only did I need a degree in physics to get at the battery compartment and change them, it gave up the ghost and would not work, threw its toys out of its pram and refused point blank to work. It’s now sitting atop the coffee table in the lounge to be sent back to wherever it came from when hubby ‘can find the paperwork’ so I guess it will still be here this time next year as he and paperwork do not mix well. Resigning myself to the fact that the Kandle II was no more, I quietly bought myself something called an Octovo Solis which is slim and discreet and gives excellent coverage of the whole Kindle reading page, it is a tad expensive but worth it. This little gizmo takes a normal battery, so will be the easiest thing to change and, I get to read in bed.
Now, if only I could stay on the one book from start to finish, but no, I keep dipping in and out of newer books, kinda like getting to the last page to see what happens before reading the book. I am weaning myself off of doing that now and thank you Sir for your recommendations of Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand, To Be Sung Underwater and The Corrections (I already had The Help downloaded). I love reading recommendations for books but will generally make my own mind up on whether I like them as well as the person recommending them does, quite a few times I don’t feel the same and so don’t buy them – but this time I was glad of the recommendations because I am a quarter way through Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand and I’m loving it so far.
Claire
Well, thank you to you and your readers for the update on Kindles. I haven’t ventured there yet but thought has danced through my mind. I recently down graded my book collection. I know, what was I thinking, but it’s a bit like ripping a band-aid off. Hurts momentarily and then you realise you have space. Did not know it had a dictionary or that you could get free classics. It does sound enticing.