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Books

Another book finished

A Discovery of Witches

Just finished A Discovery of Witches last night–loved it! Even skipped pool league to finish it. The plot moved verrrrrry slowly, but I was ok with that, possibly because I really enjoyed the peek into a scholarly life. I work at an arts institute that includes a research library, and I’ve never really understood what goes on there, but I feel like this book let me explore a world I’ll never be a part of (and that’s not even counting the witches and vampires).

And speaking of worlds I’ll never be a part of–Oxford. I totally need to get myself to wikipedia now to get a better understanding of colleges vs. universities, ’cause it sounds a lot different there than it works here in the U.S.

I loved the blending of science and history, the different locations that the characters visit, and the ever-expanding cast of characters (although not necessarily the timing of adding said characters–certain additions seemed rushed). It reminded me vaguely of The Historian, only far more readable. I can’t wait to start the next book (Shadow of Night–already downloaded from Amazon, of course).

A warning, though–it does seem to be a ‘love it or hate it’ kind of book. I know a lot of people who were bored with the slow pace and never finished it.

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Books

The Silent Girl by Tess Gerritsen

The Silent Girl

I read The Silent Girl this weekend–first book I’ve finished in awhile, for whatever reason. I really enjoyed it (more than the previous book, Ice Cold), but it made me think of all the tropes that it seems like every series–be it book or tv–feels the need to cover at some point or other. In this case, it was Chinatown, but on the bright side, it didn’t have anything to do with Asian mafia groups. I loved the character of Iris Fang and totally want to be her when I grow up (which will be never). Rizzoli’s male family members continue to drive me bug-nuts crazy and I really wish pianos would fall on the lot of them. And sadly, Isles was just a peripheral character in this one (although at least we weren’t subjected to (too much) moping about her affair with the priest).

My goal this month is to finish four novels, so that’s one down, three to go. To that end, however, I probably shouldn’t have started A Discovery of Witches, which appears to be as long as a hefty Harry Potter adventure. We’ll see how that goes.

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Books

Am I ready for a Kindle?

I have been obsessed with Kindles lately, and it doesn’t help that every time I go to Amazon.com, Kindle promos are front and center right above the fold on the homepage. I have thirty gazillion physical books in my to-be-read bookcase, I do not need to be purchasing digital books too! And yet, I drool over the Kindle Fire every day. Is it the tech of it? The instant gratification of being able to buy a book from anywhere at any time? Knowing I can get to my book from any computer?

I’ve been borrowing my department’s Kindle to try to get the temptation out of my system, and so far I’ve finished one book on it (Scepter of the Ancients (Skulduggery Pleasant)) and am about a quarter into my second (Unholy Ghosts (Downside Ghosts, Book 1)). I’ve also purchased several ebooks from Amazon, when they’ve been cheap enough that I couldn’t resist.

So far, it’s cool. I’m reading just fine on it. Any more than with physical books? Maybe not so much, but it does help curtail spending in physical bookstores (not necessarily a good thing, though, since I don’t want physical bookstores to go *poof* like Borders *sniff*). But in 2011, my reading volume went down significantly from previous years, and I believe part if it can be attributed to me trying not to buy new books, yet not being particularly interested in the books I’d already bought.

This post is all over the place, isn’t it? What is it even about? Not sure. Let’s try to break it down to bullet points:
1. I’m not buying a Kindle yet because I can’t afford it.
2. I’m borrowing a Kindle, so I can buy books by new to me authors without spending too much or taking up space on my already crowded bookshelves.
3. I’m newly inspired to find new authors.

i.e., I’m trying harder to spend more time reading, whether it’s an ebook or a physical book. (Finished three physical books this year already.) So, there’s that.

Whatever, I think I’ll just go read something now.

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Books

Kindle

I’ve been wanting to buy a Kindle since Christmas, but have been holding off since I still have so many page-and-spine books on my TBR shelf to get through. I can’t use the Kindle to read them, so I’d just have to buy more books to get any use out of it, and let’s face it, I really don’t need to be buying more books right now.

So instead I borrowed a Kindle from my boss for a couple of weeks, to see if it’s as cool as it looks, and if I can get any use out of it while I still have so many other books to read; or if I get over the novelty quickly once it’s actually in my hands.

Well, I’ve had it for two days now, and I’m starting to lean towards the latter, since I haven’t really looked at it other than to read a few pages from the user manual. Of course, that’s not really giving it the old college try, so I think I’ll download Sherlock Holmes later and actually test out what reading on it is really like.

Is there anything else one can do with it other than books? Guess I’ll have to google that later.

Relatedly, I created an Amazon wishlist specifically of books I’d want to get for the Kindle, only to find out later, when I went to the wishlist, that you can’t really ‘list’ Kindle books! All the books on the list had a button to “see buying options” instead of specifically including the Kindle information I’d been trying to save. WTF?? So much for trying to sort the books by Kindle price.

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Current Events Links

Closing bookstores :-(

Deep sadness–Borders is in Chapter 11, and they’re closing a bunch o’stores. Here’s the list (sortable, so you can find the ones in your state easily). Looks like the one closest to me is safe, at least.

I know big box stores are evil and blah blah blah, but I loves me some Borders. There’s something about it that’s comfier than (most) Barnes & Nobles.