I'm not very good at reading as a member of a book club.

Generally I find that I simply read much more quickly than everyone else.
If I try to keep apace with everyone else I tend to lose interest.


But, hey, even if I've been looking forward to reading a title I tend to lose interest once I "have" to read it. 


That's a bit different this summer. Actually, it's really different and I'm happy for it.


I told my best friend about a book I knew would be perfect for her. She said "I'll read it if you read it again, with me." And so I am reading it a second time. I am really enjoy it. It's the right time for me to reread it.


I am rereading another title. This one is because my husband and I decided I would homeschool our 16 year old in literature and writing this summer. I gave him ten titles from which to chose two or three depnding on their length. We are in the midst of the first selection. We'd be finished but we postponed our reading while he took a summer Russian course at the local university; his first college course. We are both really enjoying the book; him for the first time and me for the second.


Our daughter has a summer reading assignment for her upcoming sophomore Honors Literature course. She's been assigned a book that I previously read and really appreciated. The book was on my list of books that I would suggest our kids read during high school. That would be a "must read" list if I were still homsechooling. 


The results of all of my joint reading adventures will eventually be posted here!


Titles:


A Fraction of The Whole by Steve Toltz


I Am the Messenger by Marcus Zusak


The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak


(It's just a coincidence that two of the titles are by Zusak! In fact, both titles were given to my son as part of his ten titles for choice. The two titles are so very different from each other in writing style. Both were really terrific books in their own, differing ways.)

For the love of words...

Reading is all about the creative use of words. Words convey messages between people. They allow a person to speak their thoughts or to convey their imagination to people across time and space. They're about the closest thing we have to time travel.


I not only enjoy reading, I also enjoy words in general. I love the creative use of words. I love wordplay. I love words.


Do you have favorite words? I know I do. Sometimes it is simply the sound of a word that garners interest. Often, for me, my love of a word is attached to its ability to convey deep meaning.


Developing a list of those words would be a challenge. I think I will just list my top favorite word.


Comment and tell us your favorite word/s.


serendipity ~ I love the meaning of this word:   the phenomenon of finding agreeable things not sought for...

The man behind the curtain...(at Barnes and Noble).

I had no knowledge of the exact genius behind Barnes and Nobles' successful move into the ereader market. I have been impressed by their transition into the market though.


My search for information led me to this article:
RobertBrunnerAndBarnesAndNoble


Robert Brunner was director of industrial design for Apple in the late '80s and early '90s. 


It is interesting that he wants to make ereading more of a social event; possibly allowing people to connect with other people who are reading the same book, or even the same passage. I love the teaser in the final paragraph about the lack of corners on human beings and his wonder at why ereaders seem to require rectangular formats! What alternate shapes can you imagine? I can't wait to see something develop from this!

Ereader news...

Some interesting facts gleaned from the link I'll give at the lower part of this page:

Ereader sales have increased 105% over last year.

NOOK Color has ousted the Kindle as the top-selling ereader; this being the first that Amazon has lost that distinction.

Rumor is that Amazon will release its own version of a tablet device in a few months.

http://venturebeat.com/2011/07/08/idc-tablet-sales-slow-nook-color-ousts-kindle-as-lead-ereader/

If Amazon comes out with a tablet and it's priced right I will have to try to determine if our 10 yr old son would be better off with the Amazon product or with the NOOK Color that tops his Christmas wish list...

If You Ask Me...And Of Course You Won't by Betty White

I love reading memoirs and autobiographies and biographies.


I think I prefer autobiographies because  I think there is a greater chance you will pick up on the feelings of the person the book is about.


I didn't learn a lot about Betty White from her book... The book seemed like a long chat with a friendly person more than anything. It progressed easily and without compulsion other than her obvious compulsion regarding animals. She loves animals.





I also learned that she never had children but does have step-children who she enjoys very much. She deeply loved her husband who has passed away.


(I mostly post only books that I would give four or five star ratings to but as memoirs go this will suit some and not others and that's okay. For me it was about a 3.5 out of 5*. I didn't love it, but I also didn't despise it. If you love and fight for animal rights this book will have greater appeal for you.)

Have you heard of "Make a Reading Promise"?

Alice Ozma's father promised to read to her for 100 consecutive nights. 
Eventually the number of nights they read together reached 3,218 nights!




Alice wrote a book documenting their reading adventure:
The Reading Promise: My Father and the Books We Sharedby Alice Ozma
(I hope to read her book at some point!)

She also has a website:
http://www.makeareadingpromise.com/




I try to frequently read to our kids.
We have five.
Life sometimes gets in the way...but sometimes reading is the thing we are most looking forward to so it sometimes happens during the busiest of times and when it really is least convenient.


I can become somewhat compulsive with such quests so I think I am not going to make an unretractable promise to read with/to our kids. I think I'll just keep on keepin' on... I set a good example. I buy them books. I help them find books that will be interesting to them. Right now our three youngest children are reading frequently on their own as well as appreciating it when I read to them. I like that they look forward to the times that we read together.


Our second oldest, our almost fifteen year old daughter, has been taking a summer course in history to claim extra credits for high school. We've just decided we have to pull her from the course though, due to a health problem that will require many physical therapy appointments and doctor visits. It became apparent that she would have to miss more than the allowable two classes or portions of class. This means that her schedule is suddenly more free. She will use her time to begin reading the book she has chosen for her summer reading assignment for school. She is going to read The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak, a favorite of mine. I will try to reread that as she reads it (where will I find the time!)


Our oldest, our sixteen year old son, has a lot of my attention right now!
I am homeschooling him in literature for this summer. I'll be posting about that soon!

Want to upgrade your ereader?

Barnes and Noble is offering an upgrade promotion that began 1 July 2011.


If you take in an old ereader and purchase a new one you will receive thirty free ebooks on a pre-loaded microSD card. No choice, but hey, it would get you started, especially if you were going to give the new ereader as a gift.


I haven't found anything on Barnes and Noble's site about this but I've seen it posted on other sites; here are a couple:


CNetNewsDigitalHomeB&N


GeekDotComB&N


Since I haven't seen this deal on B&N's site I can't discern any real specifics about it.


It looks to me as if you only have to prove that you own an ereader and wish to buy another ereader.
It does not appear that they are taking possession of your old ereader as a trade-in.
It appears that the deal really consists of the incentive of thirty free digital titles of B&N's choice.


I'd post a direct B&N link if only I could find one...




(I wrote this post late last week but have been too busy to post it online.)

The Sex Lives of Cannibals by J. Maarten Troost

I enjoyed this book though it wasn't quite what I expected. It was fun and light reading and taught about a culture with whom I was not familiar. I just bought the sequel. Getting Stoned with Savages. His writing style is one I enjoy.


The book follows Troost through two years of life on a South Pacific island; Tarawa, an island of the Republic of Kiribati. He headed there with the belief that it was a hopelessly romantic thing to do...


What he really found was disillusionment: bugs, heat, danger...you name it. I still laugh out loud when thinking of the bug incident he wrote up in one of his books. 

Here's a bit of the blurb from the back of the book:


"He and his stalwart girlfriend, Sylvia, spend the next two years battling incompetent government officials, alarmingly large critters, erratic electricity, and a paucity of food options (including the Great Beer Crisis); and contending with a bizarre cast of local characters, including "Half-Dead Fred" and the self-proclaimed Poet Laureate of Tarawa (a British drunkard who's never written a poem in his life).


If you've ever though of moving to a tropical island or you've just had any really, really bad vacations...you might enjoy reading this book. 


(I read this in Jan 2007 and did not note whether it includes any gratuitous sex or language.)


Troost's follow-up project is "Getting Stoned with Savages" in which he chronicles his time on Vanuatu and then Fiji. 

Do you read at the pool or the beach?

I read at the pool. I read at the beach.
I love the water and I love reading.

The two do not seem very compatible. At times they certainly aren't.

Previously I decided the risk of the cost of a ruined book was worth the pleasure of combining the two activities. 

Here is one of my favorite photos of my brother doing just that:

Here's what my hubby likes to do at the beach.

...and I can't really argue with that either!

Now that I have an ereader I still want to read when I go to the beach or the pool.


Here is how I handle my ereader so that I don't ruin it when I am near water:

Yes, it's just a gallon-sized Ziplock baggie. That's all that's necessary, right?

Kindle sells a waterproof cover but I think it is even uglier than my simple and inexpensive Ziplock.

Anyway, the point is that there are options available to users of ereaders who want to enjoy reading while near the water.



A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers

When you were young did you ever wonder what would happen if your parents died?

   


I did.


When I was about 15 or 16 my dad became quite ill; he was hospitalized for a while and almost died. We knew that the possibility of is death was a very real thing. The tension was staggering. I was the oldest of six kids. 


What do you think the second thought on  my mind was at the time? 
~"What if something happened to Mom too?"


Thinking back on it now I can't believe that there wasn't some sort of plan in place and 
I really believe there wasn't. By that point we either had no grandparents living or just one who was old and very ill. We had one aunt on my mom's side and she was divorced and pretty frazzled with the raising of her only son. We had one uncle on my dad's side who seemed like a possibility as they were raising three kids as old or older than myself; but we weren't really close to them emotionally and I can't imagine the financial burden of raising six kids on top of the emotional strain.


Really...who's going to raise SIX kids that aren't their responsibility?


I was certain that I'd do it. I really thought I could. I was also certain that the only possible solution I could imagine was for us kids to be split up among different people; family...close family friends... I was determined that if that had to happen due to my young age, I would work to be able to take custody of everyone as soon as I was old enough.


Dave Eggers' Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius explores a very similar situation that really happened.


Yes, he works very hard to convince the reader that it is fictional, at least only based on truth; his truth. My friend and I both feel that he doth protest too much though. We believe it is autobiographical. 


At the age of 21 Dave and his older siblings expected their mother's death; sooner than later. What they didn't expect was a death-sentence-diagnosis for their dad that resulted in his almost instantaneous and previously unexpected death.


Their youngest sibling was 7 years old. It was decided that Dave would take on most of the responsibility of raising Christopher ("Toph").


Dave gives word to feelings all parents experience at one time or another. It seems that perhaps he experiences them more frequently though. 


As the mom of five kids ranging in age from 5 to 15 I admit to having experienced most of the concerns he explores. In truth, I've wondered as he did whether or not something horrifying might happen to one of my children due to the awful selfishness I've exhibited by needing a bit of "me time" or "us time" for my husband and me. Overall, I've always been able to keep those feelings from ruining life for all of us. They are crippling thoughts but I've never allowed them to cripple me. Can you imagine the "case" I'd be if I did. Five kids, remember?


So, Dave explores all of this.
He does so with a book that is mostly written as a string-of-consciousness-sort-of-thing. My brother pointed out that such writing can become exhausting or annoying. I felt that due to the subject matter it really worked though. I liked it. I could feel what he was feeling.


Dave really cornered my market when he was thinking about how lucky Toph was to be hanging out with him and how lucky he was to be exposed to the great music Dave enjoyed... Oh yeah. He even explored the idea of homeschooling Toph because he was envious of how much time the teachers spent with him.


As a mom who homeschooled all of our kids until our oldest was finished with sixth grade, and then some others longer, I attempted to expose our kids to the best of everything from all time periods: books, movies, music. There is so much more to life than today's available choices. Still, one worries about recreating yourself via your children (if we're honest). That is not something we wanted to have happen. We only want for them to be well rounded individuals who can related to people of all ages.


Here is a quote that expresses part of Dave's obvious concern:


"...when someone noticed him (Toph) for being him(self), we would all have to stand back a second and see him for what he actually was, at least superficially: a seventh-grade boy. Of course, he had a difficult time discerning, himself. He had recently made this clear, when he and Marny and I were driving back from the beach. She and I were talking about one of the new interns, who, at twenty-two, was much younger than we had assumed~
"Really?" said Toph. "I though he was our age."


Sure, mistakes were made in the raising of Toph.
We ALL make mistakes. All. The. Time.


The real point is the great love fostered between the two. They grew and they grew together. They were a team, united. They made the best of a horrifying situation. they made it work.


I appreciated Eggers' raw honesty.


Oh...I also appreciated the sense of humor he exhibited in the titling of his book.
He acknowledged the fact that everyone who would read his book would be able to pick it apart. They'd be able to find a million and one things wrong with it; and so he poked fun at the self-inflated idea of writing a book about yourself, about your own loss, and expecting others to read it.


I read it.
I liked it.