Archive for June, 2009

Jun 30

Is the Kindle the future of books?

     So on http://calitreview.com/category/blog  I would this entry…

     Kindle Joins a Literary Ritual: Authors Can Autograph It: A recent reading in Manhattan at the Strand bookstore by David Sedaris, whose most recent book is “When You Are Engulfed in Flames,” may have offered a glimpse of the future. A man named Marty who had waited in the book-signing line presented his Kindle, on the back of which Mr. Sedaris, in mock horror, wrote, “This bespells doom.”

     Personally I can see both good and bad things about the Kindle.

     I think for the newspaper and magazine feature it would be awesome.  Obviously the cost if you were not doing much wouldn’t add up but if you were traveling or had a job that required lots of media work, this would be so conventiant.  Not only that but it is much more eco friendly then getting a daily paper.  Hey, maybe someone should think about a cheaper version that only does newspapers and magazines.  I would buy that.

     Also I like that you can subscribe to blogs from them.  Let’s face it, we are in an age where blogs are a huge form of comunication.  Lots of phones have applications similar to this but the Kindle is obviously a better format.

     The Read To Me feature would be very helpful in many cases.  Think of the elderly who have trouble seeing books.  Going and getting books on tape is a little inconvenient.  Plus there really is not that many books on tapes that are easy to find.  This makes basically any book available to have read out loud.  I don’t think it would work in the case of someone that is blind because how would they navigate the menu but somewhere who is just hard of seeing this would also be amazing.  Maybe you have a reading disability.  I’m sure there is lots of other examples I’m not thinking of.  This could open a whole new world of books to people that before were limited.

     Something that I think would be nice is if college text were available.  I looked over Amazon a little bit before writing this and it doesn’t look like many (if any) are available.  This is very unfortunate because text books are extremely expensive.  I don’t even want to think about how much I spent over the course of getting my degrees.  I know when I was getting my AA I spent probably close to an average of 500-600 a semester.  With my BA, I was an English major so a lot of my books where available at regular books stores (and thanks to Powells I was able to find many used) so it was more like 100-2oo.  So let’s just say on the conservative side for 500 for eight semesters (4000) and 100 for the last eight (800) which means about 4800.   It looks like most Kindle downloads are about 25% off.  That would have saved me 1200.  The Kindle run about 400 right?  That is still saving 800. That is huge for a college student.  That would have meant that my last semmester of school wouldn’t have had to gone on my credit card.  That would have been so helpful.  I hope someday text are available on the Kindle because of how much it would save students.

     Alright now to switch to the negative.  This would be a hit in profit for authors and publishers.  That would end up hurting the book industry.  That would be so awful.

     Also it is a peice of technology.  This means it will have problems.  It will wear out. I have worked in electronics for over five years now.  I know how frustrating they can be.  If it stops working you would not only be out the price of the device but all the books that you have brought.

     Personally, I have no intention of getting a Kindle because I love books so much.  I love holding a book in my hand.  I love the smell of a new book.  My apartment is actually sort of decorated with books.  I have the Harry Potter series in hardback on one bookshelf.  My fireplace mantle has most the Nicholas Sparks books on hardback (working on getting all).  I have a book/dvd case that has all Stephanie Meyers, Mindy Klasky, Kyra Davis, Caprice Crane, and most Neil Gaiman books.  Then I have a big bookcase in my bedroom full of all different books.  I love the book of books being all over my apartment.  My dream has always been to have a house with a libary.  Obviously if my books were electronic none of this would be possible.  I am a physical book buyer through and through.

     So what do you think about the Kindle.  Would you/ have you bought one? What do you think about David Sedaris writing that?

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Posted in News/Current Issues

Jun 30

Novelist Alice Hoffman going crazy on Twitter

Here’s a link to one of the stories I saw about how Hoffman kind of went crazy on her twitter because she got a bad review…

http://features.csmonitor.com/innovation/2009/06/29/novelist-hoffman-apologizes-for-blasting-a-book-reviewer-on-twitter/

What does everyone think about this?

Personally I think it is completely out of line what she said. You are in a career that your work is going to be reviewed. If you were working a desk job or something and your boss gave you a poor review would you put an email out to everyone in the company calling your boss an idiot? I really don’t think so.

I think in general she should not have commented at all about the bad review but if she really felt the need to she should have done it in a way that did not make her sound like a child spitting off insults at recess. She used very poor judgement.

I know some people are just saying she made a mistake not realizing how much the internet would blow things up but I don’t agree with that. No matter who you are, you can stop and think for a minute before you write anything online. We all know by now how public the internet really is.

The story made me think of this video I watched earlier today…

I LOVE the Green brothers.

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Posted in News/Current Issues

Jun 29

True Blood vs Sookie Stackhouse novels

I often hear people comparing books to movies.  I think something that happens less is comparing books and television shows.  Obviously, there is not a huge market for tv shows based on books but there is some.  It seems like not as many people pay attention to those book series though. 


For example the other day at work I was talking about True Blood with a coworker and I said that I know what was going to happen because I was reading Living Dead in Dallas (if you read TV Guild magazine this week it kind of indicated which story lines are staying with the books).  He has no clue that there was even books.  I found that so weird because I thought it said somewhere before or after the show that it was based on the series.  Not to mention the fact that the first two books which have cover with the actors on them have been sitting on the end caps at Target.

Then last night before a work meeting I stopped at the bookstore.  My boss asked me what I bought and I said Deadly Decisions by Kathy Reichs then explained that it was the series that Bones was based on.  Again, no  one around us seemed to have any clue that the show was based on books.


Why is that? Maybe it is just because I’m such a huge bookworm but I usually pay attention to if a show is based on one.

Especially with True Blood, I have noticed people complaining about it not sticking to the books.  Personally I actually have no problem with that.    I feel that in any case (tv or movie) that there is two ways to do it; you can recreate the book or you can use it as a reference.


In the case of the Sookie Stackhouse novels, the reader really is only getting Sookie’s side of the story.  We don’t see any backstory with Jason, Sam, or any of the other characters.  When you are making a tv show, there has to be more than one storyline going or it gets boring.  The shows writers do a great job as far as I’m concerned with using the characters in a way that is true to the books while still making there stories better for tv.  


Furthermore, I don’t think the books are necessarily amazing pieces of literature.  They are more of a fast and entertaining read.   Along with that though, I think it takes an enormous amount of talent to write a book that is successful and a number one best seller on the New York Times list.  I fully admit, I have every intention of reading the whole series because I do really enjoy them. 


With Bones there is a far bigger gap between the show and books.  Sure the main character is named Temperance (which I named my cat after by the way) and she is a forensic anthropologist that works with the FBI but that basically ends the similarities.  I don’t see people complaining about how different those to are though.  Maybe it is because they are so different that people have an easier time seeing that the tv show is just using the books as a starting point.


The Tempe books are extremely well written.  I don’t read tons of crime series but I do think that Reichs’ novels are among the best I have come across.  They are written on a high reading level but are so good that I can’t put them down so end up finishing them in days.  The story comes together in such an interesting way in each novel.  The show writers do a good job at bringing that element into the episodes as well.


So what does everyone else think?  Have you read a series that had a tv show based on it?  Do you think True Blood or Bones is completely ruining the books or doing them justice?


On a sort of related note, I noticed the other night that the last four books I have read were Deja Dead, Death Du Jour, Dead Until Dark, and Living Dead in Dallas (currently reading).  Do you see something in common? Maybe I should read something not so morbid sounding next, haha.  Actually next I will definitely be reading Deadly Decisions by Kathy Reichs.  Maybe after that I will go for something less dark sounding.

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Posted in Thoughts on books, Thoughts on tv

Jun 24

Alright then

So as you can see I did a lot of updating.   Sorry the links at the top don’t work.  I could not figure out how to reroute them.  Hopefully one day they will be fixed but for now I’m not going to worry about them.  

As for what I’m going to do on this site, it is going to be based around writing with some photography stuff.   I’ll be posting some reviews of music and concerts for sure.  Not sure yet if those will be in their entire form.  I write for www.kingbanana.net now so I might just do excerpts and links.  Still thinking on that.

There will some some writing excepts.  Probably not many.  As I’m writing too I might send out some questions to look for feedback.

I hopefully will do lots of book reviews but I am thinking about doing those in YouTube form. I want to do more on YouTube and I don’t really see many people out there doing book reviews.  Heaven knows I read a lot so I’ll have plenty to update.

As I do them I also want to post writing exerises. If anyone has an suggestions on ones to do, let me know.

There might be some random life stuff too.  We will see.

So yeah, read, comments, enjoy.

~H

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Posted in Blah blah blah

Jun 24

Let the light start

Where did the human race teeter?  Did we mean for it to end like this?  Is it ending?

We stared at the tv all morning.  What did it mean anyways?   I kissed Nick on the forehead. His brown locks curled feriously at the nap of his neck.  His eyes looked worried but he didn’t say anything.  Didn’t want to argue again, I guess.

Last night had been another long fight.  He said we should stay home.  Wait.  I insisted that life had to go on for now. 

Four people called in sick at the office.  That only left three of us.  Jaden and Phillip.  I didn’t care much for Jaden.  She was cold.  Never one to go out of her way to make anyoen else feel comfortable.  She was just there to do her job and go home to do whatever.  I didn’t know anything about her personal life.

“So…” Phillip sat at the seat in front of me.

“Guess we know what the lead story will be for this week,”  I attempted a weak smile.

He looked equally as concerned as Nick. “I would have expected you to spend the day at home.  I’m pretty sure we aren’t going to worry about even putting out anything this week.” 

We wrote newsletters for a big company.  He had a point.  It wasn’t like employees were going to care at all about what was going on inside the company.  Certainly no promotions would be going on this week, if ever again.  How long would it be until everything just closed I wondered.

“Where is Superman when you need him right?”

I nodded.  “Actually I think that Resident Evil girl would be a better bet.”

I was trying to be lighthearted.  Wasn’t exactly easy right now.  Phillip knew that my family lived in Nebraska. There was no doubt that it had affected them already.  Just a matter of time for all of us right?

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Posted in Writing scraps

Jun 24

So impulsive

Yeah so I just deleted everything I had on here up to this point.  How many months of stuff?  Well I hadn’t updated since March.

I changed the URL too.  Lately I feel like what I want is closer so I have to refine what I want to be.  Does that makes sense?  Hopefully.

Writing and ideas have seemed to pour out of me for the past month.  It is a good feeling.   I’m pulling inspiration from places too.  

Sorry I’m trying to write out some kind of introduction to this site but my mind is spinning on wanting to put up some kind of short story before going to bed.  I think that this site is going to have a lot of short stories on it soon. I’m very into writing a particular novel right now (that I feel very confidant about) but there is other little ideas that I want to play with. 

Not sure where this site is going to go for a while but hopefully posting lots. If anyone knows how to get a counter that works well on here let me know.  It would be nice to know if other people are reading once I get something worth while up.

Yeah, okay, I’m done with this intro now.  Not really going anywhere.

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Posted in Blah blah blah

Shelfari: Book reviews on your book blog