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Kindle me, baby

With brand new e-books buzzing around the place in all their techno-awesomeness, looking down on the regular book readers with eco-friendly superiority, this avid and old-fashioned reader is wondering whether it’s worth taking the leap.

The apparent market leader is the Kindle, however there are alternatives.

kindle

I understand the benefits of these little readers. They’re convenient. I was book shopping with my friend on Wednesday, and when I left the house, I had 3 books in my bag, plus one borrowed book that I was returning to her. This is a typical occurrence. A Kindle-like reader (Sony has one, too) or even an iPhone with the appropriate application (birthday in 2 months hint, hint) would save me suffering from an even more lopsided shoulder, and would remove the possibility of being stopped at the gates in the airport because my hand luggage exceeds 7kg.

However, call me stubborn and call me unreasonable, but I just cannot imagine sitting and reading a 400 page book on a tiny electronic device. Millions of pairs of eyes around the world are this very second becoming more damaged due to extended periods of time in front of a computer screen. Isn’t this the same, only smaller? If you’re right in the middle of the latest “page”-turner by Matthew Reilly *cough* or completely absorbed in a stream of consciousness masterpiece of Virginia Woolf, are you really going to think to yourself “Oh dear, much time has passed! My eyes are now due a 10 minute break.”? Okay I’m sure nobody actually thinks to themselves like that. And if you do, I apologise.

This issue has been bugging me for some time now, but what better time to write about it than when I have two 1000 feature articles due in less than 72 hours. To those who use these devices, please share any pros and cons you’ve experienced, of saving up for one of these expensive little babies. I will need some convincing.

Is this a fad that Australians just haven’t caught on to yet, with the vigour of say, Americans clamouring to get their hands on Version 2 and what not. Does it really replace the feeling of seeing stacks and stacks of books overflowing from your personal library?

More importantly, could it possibly be more nostalgic than cracking open an old favourite for the first time in years, to breathe in the scent of years gone by…

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July 9th, 2009General Literary musingsRead More >7 Comments


The Perils of Reading Bronte

The Perils of Reading Bronte:

1. Other books really cower in the shadow of it. I haven’t found a book as captivating as this since finishing it yesterday.

2. Unlike Pride & Prejudice, which fills women with an unrealistic hope of the existence of “gentlemen”, this just crushes you, the reader, with the heavy truth that sometimes even the most perfect of loves is doomed. DOOMED.

3. The book itself is frustrating as hell: The actual story of Catherine and Heathcliff is teasingly short and we are left with the remnants of their offspring, barely a notch on their parents’ belt (in dislikeability as well as strength of character).

4. While reading Wuthering Heights, you, the reader, will become so absorbed in the smokey, romantic scenery of the moors, that upon finishing, you will return to reality to find it bland and harsh in comparison.

5. It inspires one to write, while dangling in front of them the essence of perfect writing - unattainable in all its glory.

6. Once completed, the experience of reading it for the first time is lost forever.

7. It makes the most stoic of us cry (not that I’m stoic by any means but you get the idea). People I know to be non-criers have cried from this. And when reading in public, it’s a terrible cause for embarrassment.

8. It’s a terribly depressing book. I love a good downer as much as the next person of melancholy humour, but not even P.G. Wodehouse could get me out of this funk. I growled at anybody who came near me while I had this book in my hand, and for the rest of the day afterwards.

9. I HATE Catherine. So much so that I sometimes forget that she is a character, not a real person. This is hardly the type of emotion one should walk around carrying inside them.

Thus ends my list of perils.

Rather than round it up to an even ten, I’m going to leave it at that. This definitely goes up on my pedestal of life-changing books, for all its perfect phrases and infuriating characters, and is currently headbutting against Jane Eyre for my favourite Bronte book. I’ll let you know the result after this round.

A few more tidbits…

I cannot possibly begin to review Wuthering Heights purely because I would not do it justice. The book deserves one of those literary criticisms usually written by Honours or PhD students.

I was warned by the friend who lent it to me that its exquisite literary fineness causes many other books to shrink in comparison. I laughed, maintaining that my mind isn’t usually changed that easily.

I finished the book in about 7 hours, and managed to cook dinner with one hand while my nose was still buried in the pages.

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June 10th, 2009Literary musings ReviewsRead More >5 Comments


Monogamy

The other night I was chatting to a close friend of mine about books and boys, things that we each have very different tastes in, and discovered frightening parallels.

We discovered that my friend is not only a serial monogamist when it comes to the opposite sex, but she shares similar relationships with her books, i.e., reading many or all books by the same author, almost successively sometimes. According to my friend, the familiar writing style is safe, comfortable, and reassuring. She has read almost every Stephen King and Dean Koontz book out there, but doesn’t necessarily enjoy them all. This doesn’t stop her from going back for more.

I, on the other hand, am quite the opposite. I feel restless, sometimes even guilty, reading a second book by the same author, because I know there are so many more writers out there I’m yet to discover (thank you towering TBR piles). I know Jack Kerouac has written other books besides On The Road, but until I have tasted a few more beat writers I won’t go back to him.

Is it more rewarding to intimately come to know your author’s distinct writing style? I can see how: It allows you to compare their stories, find out what works and what doesn’t, and generally expands your literary knowledge.

On the other hand, is it more adventurous to cast your net wider, taste test as many different authors as you can, have workable knowledge in a little bit of every author/genre? This is what I prefer: The excitement of a new author, having to adjust to the narrative style peculiar to them, the particular sense of journeying into the unknown.

There are few authors whose books I will loyally return to, and I quickly get bored, even if I thoroughly enjoy them. I hope this isn’t reflective of my dating life….

Are you a monogamous reader? Or do you like to spread your love around?

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May 8th, 2009General Literary musingsRead More >1 Comment


Musing Monday

Monday MusingHow many books (roughly) are in your tbr pile? Is this in increasing number or does it stay stable? Do you ever experience tbr anxiety in the face of this pile? (question courtesy of Wendy)

My literal tbr pile (the pile sitting on my desk) is not that big anymore - unemployment has helped me plough through them at an insane speed. So now I have a handful left. They are:

Elmore Leonard’s Rum Punch
Fay Weldon’s The Cloning of Joanna May (Currently reading)
Mikhail Bulgakov’s A Dead Man’s Memoir (A Theatrical Novel)
Veny Armanno’s Strange Rain

It will increase the next time I make a trip to my local second-hand bookshop and pick up another 10 books.

However, my mental tbr pile grows longer and longer every day. Especially reading other people’s blogs, where I get more ideas of what to read. And seeing movies that are based on books, so I can see where they screwed up the movie (yeah books ftw!!) Currently watching Into The Wild, so that’s going straight on the list.

Into The Wild by John Krakauer

My brain is a mess and there’s no way I can keep track of this pile. I rely on luck of finding exactly what I’m looking for at the bookshop, which so far has worked well for me.

I get anxious about a lot of things. My TBR pile is not one of these.

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May 4th, 2009Literary musingsRead More >9 Comments


My First Monday Musing

Oh I’m nervous! This is my first Monday Musing! Let’s see how we go:

Do you read non-fiction regularly? Do you read it in a different way or place than you read fiction?

This week’s question is courtesy of Dianne.

blink
After three years of nightmare-inducing academic essays and such dribble (thank you University of Queensland!) I am not too fond of non-fiction. However there are some exceptions (such as Malcolm Gladwell’s Blink and The Tipping Point or Leadbelly by Silvester & Rule but apart from that most non-fiction bores me to tears. If I need to know something really badly, I use the internet (yes, I’m of that generation).

My non-fiction book collection includes piles of textbooks which I haven’t been bothered to sell yet, but will soon, seeings as I’m slowly running out of money. If anybody wants a copy of Political Ideologies or The Daily Miracle (journalism junk), let me know!!!

Cheap sales pitches aside…I don’t read to learn. I read to escape, enjoy, relax, and live through fictional characters. Blah. Fiction rules, non-fiction drools.

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April 28th, 2009General Literary musingsRead More >1 Comment


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