Friday, February 27, 2009

Reading Here

Reading a Bestseller here ... can you guess what book this page is from?


Currently reading: a novella by Stephen King. English professor Wesley buys a Kindle, and gets a pink Kindle with special powers. Is this mutant Kindle an evil device? We shall see... A fun read so far. In this story Obama is President and Mickey Rourke is up for an Oscar. I hope King keeps this up, because it's fun.

The Kindle 2 arrived yesterday and is smugly superior to my Kindle. I'll post about it later.

14 comments:

R.L. Bourges said...

"Smugly superior" - there you go. Soon your Kindle will be telling you what to think Avid Reader. Soon it will take over your thoughts and turn you into a mindless bot spewing pages of Stephen King endlessly in long, pinkish whorls of... sorry, where am I?

Hm...wild guess on the first one: Dr Spock. (But whoever it is, I agree with the message - and letting your kids make their own mistakes is probably one of the hardest parts of loving them.)

Barbara said...

I really like touching the pages of a book.

Anonymous said...

I am curious to know what you think of the Kindle 2.

Looks like an interesting read by King- is 'Conscious Suffering' the title?

Avid Reader said...

Barbara, I love touching the pages of a book too-- and old typewriter keys as well, the sound they make is nice.. clackety --very satisfying to type on an old manual typewriter. -- but I like my computer and Kindle too!

Cinnamon--the Kindle 2 has a lot of improvements, but the "old" one is still reliable and very user friendly.


The Kindle pays for itself quickly, but the price will go down in a few years as all electronics seem to.

My friend just bought a used Kindle for 100 bucks from someone who upgraded and she's insanely happy with it.

The book SK title is UR

JGH said...

OK, I'm dying to know who the Bestseller is by!! Is it a current one?

So you're reading about an evil kindle on a kindle?! That's a new one. When I read Stephen King books I get so scared that I can't even have the books in the same room with me where I sleep. How would I get any reading done ??

Chris Wolf said...

My visually impaired friend is anxiously awaiting his Kindle 2 too. He says it will read books verbally. I haven't done any research on it. Do you know?

Anonymous said...

Chris--
The Kindle reads two kinds of audio books:

1. The quality audio books that are read by author or a good "voice" (Audible Store at Kindle)

2. "computer voice" books--any book can be read by the Kindle including books you create yourself and send to your Kindle.

Good Audio books are much cheaper via Kindle too, the gadget really pays for itself quickly and it was not invented to replace books--it was created mainly for intense readers (the kind who can't leave the house for five minutes without a couple of books) by an intense reader who walks around every day with multiple books. Of course Bezos wants it to be as customer friendly as is possible, so he thought about visually impaired readers too--each version of the Kindle will be better no doubt for all readers.

Your friend can go to the park and have several dozen audio books with him--like carrying one paperback book around.

--avid R.

Anonymous said...

JGH --meet me next week, & the bestseller is yours! Plus I have your horticultural dictionary as well.

Avid

Avid Reader said...

Chris-- the Kindle has built in speakers so earphones are optional.

tut-tut said...

Avid: you should use "Personal to JGH"; very 50s advice column. I can almost see the avatar, too. I'll cogitate upon it.

Anonymous said...

I vote for Spock, too.

Anonymous said...

Dr. Spock. I gave my brother a copy, tho' I don't think he read any of it. And that kindle would work great for Mom( her being legally blind-can see somewhat ). She's a few audio books but this seems way cooler.

Megan said...

My copy of Doc Spock is Boxed, so I canna check...

Avid Reader said...

It isn't Spock, but a current guy and his books are "rilly rilly" popular. He says he's saying nothing new, but gathering the best ideas from everywhere.

My Classic Fiction Book List -Partial List

  • Austen, Jane: (Complete Works)
  • Balzac: Cousin Bette/ Eugenie Grandet / Cousin Pons
  • Best Russian Short Stories
  • Boyle, TC: Short Works
  • Brennan, Maeve : Short Works, 1 Novella
  • Bronte, Emily, Ann, Jane (Complete Works)
  • Brookner, Anita ( Complete Works)
  • Cather, Willa (Complete Works)
  • Chekov: Short Works
  • David Copperfield (Dickens)
  • Dickens:A Tale of Two Cities
  • Dickens:Great Expectations
  • Dickens:Nicholas Nickelby
  • Dickens:Our Mutual Friend
  • Dickens:The Old Curiosity Shop
  • Doyle, Roddy (some novels, memoir)
  • Drabble, Margaret (4 Novels)
  • Drieser, Theodore (Complete Works)
  • Fitzgerald, F.Scott (Most Novels & short works)
  • Hardy, Thomas (Complete Works)
  • Hemingway, Short stories
  • Hemingway: The Old Man in the Sea
  • Hemingway: The Sun Also Rises
  • Hugo: Les Miserables/Hunchback Of ND
  • James, Henry: Daisy Miller
  • James, Henry: In The Cage
  • James, Henry: Portrait of a Lady
  • James, Henry: The Golden Bowl
  • James, Henry: What Maisy Knew
  • James, Henry: Wings of a Dove
  • James, Henry:The Ambassadors
  • James, Henry; The Bostonians
  • Kerouac: Dharma Bums
  • Kerouac: On The Road
  • Kerouac: The Subterraneans
  • Kerouac: Tristessa
  • Lardner,Ring:Short Works
  • Larsen: Quicksand
  • Lewis, Sinclair: Arrowsmith
  • Lewis, Sinclair: Free Air
  • Lewis, Sinclair: Main Street
  • Lewis, Sinclair: The Job
  • MacGill, Patrick (Complete works)
  • Mackin, Walter (novels)
  • Maupassant: Short Works, novels
  • McGahern, John (novels of)
  • McNulty, John (Short Works)
  • Norris, Frank: McTeague
  • O'Brien, Edna (3 Novels)
  • O'Donnell, Paeder : Novels of
  • O. Henry
  • Potok, Chaim (4 novels/1 non fiction)
  • Salinger, JD : Nine Stories
  • Salinger: Franny & Zooey
  • Salinger: Raise High the Roofbeams
  • Salinger: The Catcher in the Rye
  • Sinclair, Lewis: Dodsworth
  • Sinclair, Lewis: Elmer Gantry
  • Sinclair, Upton: King Coal
  • Sinclair, Upton: The Jungle
  • Steinbeck, John: Sweet Thursday
  • Steinbeck: Winter of our Discontent
  • Steinbeck: Cannery Row
  • Steinbeck: East of Eden
  • Steinbeck: The Grapes of Wrath
  • Theroux, Paul (3 Novels )
  • Toibin, Colm: (Novels of)
  • Tolstoy: Anna Karenina
  • Tolstoy: Short Works
  • Turgenev (2 novels)
  • Twain: T Sawyer, Life on the Mississippi
  • Vonnegut: Early Works (1950s-60s)
  • Wharton, Edith: Novels of/Short Stories
  • Women & Fiction (Edit. Cahill)
  • Zola, Emile ( 10 novels)