A bookworm journalist blogs on literature and life
From the category archives:
This is just a quick post to let you know that I’ll be unplugged for the next week or so. I’m moving this weekend, as I mentioned in my Sunday Salon post, and getting ready has been more work than I anticipated. I’ll also be without internet at home from Saturday until the middle of next week.
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My reading has slowed pretty dramatically the last three weeks because, like always, I’ve gotten addicted to a new tv show. I love tv on DVD or from Netflix, but try not to start new shows because I have this personality where if I start one I cannot stop watching it even when I have more important things to do.
The last show this happened with was Damages. I basically stopped doing anything for three days and watched an entire season. It’s that good.
The current show is Avatar: The Last Airbender, an Americanized anime series that originally played on Nickelodeon and was just recently made into a (controversial) feature film.
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I didn’t like Bill Bryson’s travelogue The Lost Continent because I thought his sense of humor was too dark, mean, and inconsistent for my tastes.
I decided to give Bryson’s travel writing a second try by listening to an audio book of In a Sunburned Country, a travelogue about Australia. While I liked In a Sunburned Country better than The Lost Continent, I’m not sure that I’ll ever love Bryson as a travel writer because he travels a lot like me, and I travel pretty boring.
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This is a guest post from Amanda Ochsner, a good English nerd friend from college, future roommate, and avid gamer and journalist. This fall, Amanda will be starting a graduate program here in Madison where she’ll be studying video games and learning. In this post, Amanda is talking about a recent conundrum she came across related to her book future. Enjoy!
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Today is my 24th birthday! And what do I want? Books!
Now, I’m not much of a new book buyer. It’s probably blasphemous to say that, but it’s true. I’m much happier perusing used book stores or seeing what kinds of cheap reads I can snag online rather than getting them new. If I do buy new, I almost always wait for the paperback and then try to use as many coupons and deals as I can. After spending 19 years as a student, I’m still cheap.
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As the image and lame songish title suggest, I did in fact take the plunge and get myself an ereader — the nook from Barnes & Noble!
I got my nook a few weeks ago, actually, but was waiting to post until I had pictures and some stuff to say about it other than “Ohmigod it’s so cool!” I picked it up in a B&N store in Madison, which was cooler than ordering online and then waiting for it to come. The sales people were helpful, and as part of a month-long nook promotion, I got a $50 giftcard to B&N! I see ebooks in my future!
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In order to celebrate my recent graduation, I decided buy myself an e-reader. But I’m stuck as to which one to get and need your help.
Right now I’m debating between the Kindle, the Nook, or a Sony E-Reader (I don’t know which one yet). I’m not getting an iPad because I can’t stand the glare from the screen for reading (that’s why I don’t read on my computer).
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There are, I think, two schools of thought about summer reading. The first is that summer is a time for light, fluffy, beachy reads. Sunshine means pulling out your Patterson novels or Picoult melodramas, then laying back in the sun with a floppy hat and a margarita.
Other people think of summer as a time for reading projects — using time and vacation to really delve into something intense. That’s what I did last summer when I read Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace. I didn’t always love it, but I got done and felt proud of what I’d accomplished.
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I don’t generally like reading books by the Nicholas Sparks of the world because I find them melodramatic and overwritten in a way that tugs at your emotions using clichéd and obvious methods. I’m not opposed to tugging on heart-strings (The Time Traveler’s Wife made me cry like a baby), I’m just opposed to it [...]
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