Books

I will never own a Kindle, Nook, or other eReading device at least not to use to read for pleasure. A number of students, teachers and friends received eReaders as gifts over the holidays and as a known technophile, they all wanted to show me their new toys.  I was underwhelmed except perhaps for the Nook but only because it was in color, hand a bunch of handy apps, and costs a LOT less than an iPad.

Over a decade ago, I bought a Rocketbook eReader and thought I would love carrying multiple books with me in my little gadget to read anywhere.  Dan Brown’s Deception Point was mindless entertainment on the plane to California and having a bunch of tech manuals in one relatively small electronic package was handy too.  However, I never liked the feel of it.  The plastic just wasn’t the same as paper.

I love trade paperbacks and prefer them above any other type of book.  They have substance but are pliable and lightweight.  Hardback books don’t travel well; I do like to carry a book with me just in case I have a few minutes of down time. I find paperbacks are great for the beach but just don’t have the heft I like to hold while I enjoy a good story.  I’m a big fan of the library book sales where I immediately scan the shelves for trade paperbacks.  Our local sales have become a contact sport, so you need a plan if you’re going to get anything worthwhile.  I snatch every trade paperback I see then retreat to the stacks to see if I actually grabbed anything good.  Few things make this reader happier than a bag full of oversized paperback books purchased for $5 on a Saturday morning!

Can’t say I’ve seen any eBooks at these sales.

I also buy books in thrift stores (see previous post about a great find at the Salvation Army last summer).  I found the first Thursday Next book for 50 cents in Manasquan a few months ago.  Thursday would never survive in the world of eReaders, and I do love Thursday Next.  If you haven’t read that series, check those books out.  I can’t begin to describe the fun you’ll have especially if you are a lover of English literature and wickedly well written fantasy.   Basically, Thursday lives in a world similar to ours but not in a lot of ways – she has a dodo named Pickwick, a father who time travels, and is able to jump into books and interact with the characters.  We learn that Miss Haversham loves fast cars, and Jane Eyre didn’t originally end up with Mr. Rochester (don’t worry, Thursday fixes that in the first book).

I can’t say Mr. Rochester would be all that romantic pixellated.  If Thursday jumped into an eReader, she’d experience a world more like Nintendo than Charlotte Bronte!  Video games entertain, it’s true, but there’s an intimacy between author, characters, and reader that you don’t find in a video game.  Video games are more of a group activity … and you don’t get to shoot characters in books as much as you might want too.

Below is what Photoshop came up with if Mr. Rochester lived in the world of eReaders (aren’t filters wonderful).

I know.  Now do you see why I’ll never own an eReader?  I will, however, go out very soon and purchase another bookcase, a new home for more trade paperbacks. Let me know how you feel about eReaders by taking my poll!

The following stop motion video demonstrates how I would like the eBook experience to be … except for the iPad at the end.

Ordinary Joy:  Our most profound joy is often experienced during ordinary moments. What was one of your most joyful ordinary moments this year? (Author: Brené Brown)

To me, ordinary joy means reading.  Not at 9 p.m. after I’ve done everything I have to do for the day and can barely read the English language, but at 9 a.m. with a cup of delicious coffee and the dog snuggled up and chewing a bone by my side. In honor of today’s #reverb10 prompt, I’ll share with you some of the best books I’ve read in 2010 but which is in no means an comprehensive list.  I read at least a book a week.

The Assassin Trilogy by Robert Ferrigno.  What if the terrorists “win” in 2015 and a majority of the US became an Islamic state with the capital moved to Seattle and the remaining states in the deep south function as another Christian country called the Bible Belt?  And what if a Mitch Rapp-style character from the Islamic state realizes that a reunited USA benefits both sides? (BTW, Vince Flynn was a real disappointment this year.)

Without Warning and After America by Australian writer @JohnBirmingham.  What if an unexplained event called “The Disappearance” wiped out the human population in most of the US, eastern Canada, and Mexico right as the second Gulf War is set to start (2003)?  What if a city planner became President of the US, his capital now in Seattle (what IS it with Seattle always surviving – must be something in the Starbucks)?  What if a renegade General takes over the “Texas Administrative Division”, and wages a war of ethnic cleansing against the new immigrants? (Disclosure: my family live in Texas.) What if there was a British lady aristocrat turned pirate with a former soldier named Rhino sidekick?  I KNOW!

Berlin Noir: March Voilets, The Pale Criminal, and A German Requiem by Philip Kerr.  This trilogy takes place in Germany before, during, and directly after WWII.  Bernie Gunther, the main character, is a true noir detective; he’s just German at a bad point in history.  Really makes you think about what being German was like at that time … and the mysteries are page turners too!

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami.  Exceptional prose on mushrooms.  Not literally, but that’s what it’s like to read this book.  You get to the end and know it was an exceptionally well written book, but you’re not sure why, and you don’t understand it all, but you’d definitely read it again knowing you still won’t get everything the author is trying to say because it was just that amazing an experience.

The Way the Crow Flies by Ann-marie Macdonald.  I probably chose this book to read because I was watching this season of Mad Men at the time.  The background is the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the procession of lies made by adults and perceived by 8 year old Madeleine keep you reading with dread, anticipation, and a sense of fatality.  You know where this is going, you hope it won’t go that way, and it doesn’t.  It’s worse.

Germ by Robert Liparulo.  What if the ebola virus could choose specific targets?  Think about the (terroristic) possibilities.  This is a “faith” book for people who live in the real world.

Daemon and Freedom (TM) by Daniel Suarez.  You didn’t think you’d get through a list of books I’ve read without a few cyberthrillers.  Gaming genius dies of cancer but comes back through the internet to wage a war on, well, everyone.  Oh, and you can trademark freedom, just amazing no one has tried this yet.  Neal Stephenson is my favorite author; I bet he loves these books.

… and finally, a book I loved over the summer, a big pot-boiler of a book I got for 25 cents at the Salvation Army (or as we like to say, “The Salv”).  Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts must weight 3 pounds in the paperback version and apparently was a best seller in the early years of this millennium.  From another Aussie, this one escaped from prison, did a lot of good and not so good deeds, was recaptured and went back to prison then wrote this fictionalized account of his adventures.  I also  found it interesting to see how India was transformed during that time from a backwards country to and up and coming tech giant.  Oh, and it’s a love story just in case you’re thinking everything I read is a downer.  I am a child of the Cold War after all!!

So there you have a few moments of the ordinary joy I experienced this year.  I’ll leave you with this message from your local library where you can get every one of the books I mention above for free:

P.S.  The Thursday Next books by Jasper Fforde, and The Strain and The Fall by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan are also 2010 favorites – I’m currently in the middle of both series… stay tuned!