A Boon or a Farce?

12.12 Wraith

Ever since the Kindle came out there has been a boon in the self-publishing industry.  It started with people taking works from the public domain and “selling” them on Amazon.  So, if you searched for Great Expectations you would find 20 different listings with various prices even though the original is free to all. 

Then we started getting a bunch of free books that were self published originals and were basically just converted Word documents that had no editing or real literary worth.

Then we started to see a push towards getting things cleaned up, and self-published authors finding mainstream success.  Some authors took down the self-published links and replaced them with traditional publishers, while others left their publishers and took on the tasks themselves.

When I first got my Kindle I would try anything for free but have pulled back because there are some real stinkers out there.  Just recently, I found a YA self-published book called Wraith that looked interesting, and was free, so I picked it up.  To be fair it is one of the better free book I have read, but to also be fair it needs some work.  I think the idea of self publishing is very exciting, but there is an over all hint of lazy that I find attached to it.  This book had a pretty good plot, a bit too familiar, but pretty good, and the writing is good.  But there were too many mistakes with easy fixes and that drives me crazy!  You need to use the right word, and you need to have things stay consistent, and you need to use punctuation correctly.  Authors are excited to share their work and that makes me excited but it does need to be done well. 

So this book isn’t great, but I also don’t want to discourage anyone, because the talent is there.  I would just say that readers are fickle so slow down, take time to get it as close to perfect as you can, and invest a bit in your product.

Ah, The Fly in the Ointment

I knew nothing technical could be as seamless and easy as I would hope.  Although, I guess that isn’t really my complaint here.  Kindle books from the library are as easy to download and read as I said, but I just discovered that a few days before your book expires you get an email from Amazon reminding you how easy it would be to buy the book from them. 

That’s right… A crummy commercial.

True Love

I love the library.

I love the smell.  I love the endless shelves.  I love wandering and finding a treasure.  I love the big comfy chairs.  I love that there is a kid’s section.  I love that the last time my dad went to the library he took out his wallet to pay.

Books for free are magic to me.  They give anyone willing to read the opportunity to learn about anything that interests them.  Continuing Education at your fingertips for FREE!

As a kid, I remember walking up the glassed in ramp of the Boulder Public Library, my heart rate rising from both my speed and my excitement.  I wanted to stop and look at the artwork that lined the walls but I was too excited to get to the books.  Many were favorites and many were brand new.  There were beanbags to sit on and librarians to help.  But in the end it was up to me to decide how I would spend my time, what books I would choose to take home.  I checked them out with my own card.  Really it was my first foray into the adult world, as it was also up to me to treat the books well and get them back on time so that I could go through the experience all again. My first taste of freedom and responsibility; power.  The library has since been remodeled but I will always remember it this way.

Library for Kindle

I own the first generation Kindle, in all its quirky wonder, and it became my most prized possession when I was breastfeeding Darren.  One of the many things I didn’t know about breastfeeding was that it usually leads directly to nap time and it is very hard to turn pages in a book with a sleeping baby in your arms.  So my Kindle and I were connected and it was invaluable to me to be able to escape in to a book during that time.  But since I haven’t even picked the thing up.  I guess I just like regular books better, and quite frankly I want Darren to see me reading books not machines.

I discovered that my library is now lending books for the Kindle and I thought I would check it out just to see how it worked, and I have to say it works incredibly well!  I think a lot of things with technology are needlessly invasive.  You have to provide email and credit card numbers to do just about anything anymore and so I had my doubts, but this was a very simple thing.  No different than putting a book on hold, except that instead of an email saying your book is ready to be picked up you get an email saying it is ready for download: you click the button, sync your device, and voilá!  I know I won’t limit myself to this service because I love actually going to the library, but I have to say that I think I will use it frequently because of the ease.

An Unexpected Surprise

49. The Fall

 

This book was a totally unexpected surprise that I devoured in two days.  It also marks a return to reading on the Kindle and I have to say that I really enjoyed the experience and think it lent itself to me progressing so quickly. 

This is the sequel to The Strain, and the third in the trilogy comes out at the end of the month.  It has been well over a year since I read the first book and I didn’t think I remembered much but I found myself right back in the swing of things without much trouble, and the authors made the transition very easy.  There wasn’t a lot of rehashing of plot points from the first book, instead a new plot was introduced that I thought was a lot of fun.

And how does one keep a girl like me hooked on a doomsday vampire book?  You introduce Nazi vampires and an ancient book that holds secrets.  Do that and you have me hook, line and sinker!  I love that the bad guys are really bad and the good guys are really good, and all seems lost but then you find yourself chuckling over one-liners.  This isn’t some great piece of literary writing, but it sure is a heck of a lot of fun and a great way to spend a rainy weekend.

Feeling Dumb

For the past week I have been in a funk of sorts. A technological funk.  A time wasting funk.  A worthless feeling funk.  Instead of striving to be something I feel like I have decided to give in and be nothing.  So I sit and surf gossip sites, going back again and again to see what is happening in other people’s lives instead of being present in mine.  And the worst part is, I stopped reading and that makes me feel dumb.

While surfing, I stopped by a favorite web site of mine, Out of Print, and found that they were going to be trying out an online book club reading of Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 and they had a little video of him talking about his life.

He is passionate and happy and excited.  All the things I am not; but I watched, and I smiled, and I listened:

"Things that you love should be things that you do, and things that you do should be things that you love."

"Libraries are people; thousands of people."

"But if you don't know how to read, you don't know how to decide."

And now it is up to me.  I can decide to be nothing, or I can decide to continue to be imperfect.  So I will pick up my book and write about it because I love it and not worry about the fact that the writing isn't prefect because how can it improve if I don't keep trying?

**The part with the cat is the capper!

TBR Pile(s)

My TBR piles are infringing on my life!  They make me feel guilty and mock me for wasting time.  They have become a source of stress instead of comfort.  In fact, I feel like I no longer enjoy what I am reading because I feel like I need to just get it over with to get on to the next one.

My main pile resides in the bookshelf directly across from my place on the bed.

The TBR are those laying on their sides, the ones behind have been read (mostly!).  The shelves are BOWING!  BOWING PEOPLE!

My more immediate TBR pile resides next to the bed.  It has limited space which makes me feel like it is more under control.  See it even has space for a new addition! 

My final TBR pile is a new addition.  It consists of library books.  The library is truly a magical place, I mean books for free!  However they come with an expiration date which makes me antsy.  These are always at the top of the list because they have to go back, so they are the most stressful pile, when really they should be the most celebrated and enjoyed.

I would need several lifetimes to get through all of these books (and they don't even include all the other unread treats residing on the many bookshelves in the house, or the many books I have on my Kindle and iPad!) and I wouldn't have it any other way, but I wish I wasn't letting it stress me out!

Crap, I just remembered the stack of New Yorkers...

VICTORY!

"I know something of a woman in a man's profession." - Shakespeare in Love

This quote kept playing through my mind as I read #15 Middlemarch.

Mary Anne Evans felt that for her writing to be taken seriously she needed to write under the guise of a man (the name also helped to hide her adulterous affair, but tut-tut we do not speak of such things.)  But clearly the reason she is known as such an effective realist is that she wrote what she lived, and unfortunately many women still live the same way.  Marry as well as you can, often for love that later turns to duty, bear children and care for them, while continuously standing by your man.  Often the man took the ideas of the woman and made them a reality, also gaining all of the accolades. Of course, many things have changed, but at the moment life for these women rang pretty true to me.

Middlemarch was originally published as a serial and thus suffers from being far too long.  My mom and I decided to read it together since we could both get it free on our Kindles (I ended up reading on the iPad) and we started to read on January 4th.  I have read 13 other books during the course of reading this; one because I needed a break but also because I needed to slow down since my mom has a job and a life!  So my reading suffered because of that but in the end I really enjoyed the book.  The last third is quite good with a lot of revelations and interesting plot twists. The characters are not terribly likable but they are absolutely memorable and I was very sad to see them go.

**Side note - Shakespeare in Love is one of my favorite movies with many wonderful, witty, and brilliant lines, including the most romantic I have ever heard: "Write me well."  I think of this often as well.

Power Struggle

14. The Radleys

I had promised to not read anything else until I finished Middlemarch, but on Saturday I needed a book for the bath and started this.  Then on Sunday we lost power for 12 hours and since MM is on the iPad I tucked in and finished it.  What a treat!

It was surprising.  It is about a family living in an English Village, trying to live through gossip and innuendo and their own doubts about one another.  Quite similar to Middlemarch actually!  One difference, the Radleys are vampires.  Abstaining vampires, but vampires none the less and the kids find out when the daughter murders a boy at a party, so things get sticky quick.  In the end, they are a family, a family full of faults, but a family none the less.  It is an interesting plot twist but a very accessible story about a family who is stuck and need to work together if they want to move forward.

Power is back and MM will be conquered today!

Gadget Overload!

12. The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher

This book was boring. I didn't like any character and I just wanted it to be over. What I really need to talk about here is not what I just read but how I read it.

For my birthday Chris bought me an iPad.  I needed this like I needed a kick to the head.  Now I have another machine to answer to every day.  As if I am not always looking at my phone as it is, now I have a brand new, giant, really expensive one, that I need to use or feel guilty about having!  Anyway...

I noticed that my library now has eBooks that I can download to my iPad to read, so I thought I would try it out and I have to admit that I really hated reading on it.  I have a Kindle, and it was my best friend when I was breastfeeding Darren, but honestly I haven't used it in months.  I use my computer everyday, I have my phone with me all the time, and books are my escape from all of this, and reading on the iPad is not allow me the escape. I was constantly distracted by what else I could be doing on it instead of reading this boring book!  So the book may have been part of the problem but the real problem is my addiction to technology, it is ridiculous!

The first thing I look at in the morning is my phone, the last thing a book.  Until this week, now the first thing is a phone and the last is a giant phone.  All day I am clicking on something: checking for email, playing some dumb game, ignoring my kid.  And that is the worst part.  At least with a book he sees me reading.  With the iPad he just sees me fiddling again.  So I have guilt; guilt about Darren, guilt about the time drain, and guilt about the fact that my husband bought me this for my pleasure and it has become my pain.  Too dramatic?  Probably.  The answer for now is clear, Dead Tree Books are the way to go for me.