Comments on My Kindle

As I mentioned before, I was gifted a kindle as a present a few months ago. I have been using it almost nonstop since then. I thought I would give a little feedback on how the experience has been.

I was a person who always scoffed at the idea of buying and using a kindle. After all, I'm a heavy fan of the library/borrowing books and kind of a purist (my god that sounds snotty!) about books. I'm one of those that likes the weight of a book in my hand, the rustle of pages, etc.

That being said, I really, really appreciate this gift. There are some things that the kindle excels at. One is space saving. Books are bulky and heavy. If you're constantly on the move or travelling (as my family has been for the past three months) lugging around lots of books is a rather painful option. Along the same lines, it's a small device (I'm not all that excited about micro devices - that spells headache for me!) and really light. There have been many times when adding the kindle to the travel bag wasn't a space problem and saved me hours of boredom. One more thing to note. Anywhere you can access the internet, you can buy books. India is still in the dark ages in terms of libraries. The ones you do find, are small, private, cost money to belong to, and require that you have transportation to and from. It really is a lot of pain value. Need a new book? Bam. Shop and kindle will deliver instantly as long as you have wireless internet. One more positive thing about the kindle is that Amazon offers many, many free books/excerpts. You don't even have to shop from a computer, kindle has that feature built in. Like I mentioned, most of this won't be brand new novels, but you can find some really amazing and interesting reads. They also offer a lot of free classics.

On the other hand, there are a few things that are disappointing about the kindle too. Because it is so small and light, I worry constantly about breaking it - especially when travelling with it. I suppose you could buy a case for it, but I did not. Another thing to note is that the kindle isn't backlit. Unless you have a good source of light in the room, reading quickly becomes impossible, as I found out to my chagrin on a train. I was trying to put my kids to sleep without the light on and tried to read. No reading for you! Also, if you are a reading junkie like me and get tired of the free books, buying books adds up quickly. Our family is earning in rupees, so we're trying not to spend in dollars. This makes every purchase on Amazon debated as to the necessity. It also is really just another electronic device to stare at. I used to really contemplate which books to take home from the library because of time and space constraints. On the kindle, I feel like I should download and read anything and everything free. This leads to quite a bit of wasted time for me. I also get really frustrated when I like something I'm reading and find out it's just a teaser of a few pages. This gets really annoying. I also am finding many more fiction stories on Amazon than non, but that's an amazon problem, not a kindle one. I didn't find any effective way to sort the books on the kindle. There wasn't a way I found to tag books and keep track of what you read. I have some 500 books on there right now (I know, some collecting behavior going on there!) and it's a pain to have to sift through to find the ones I've not read yet.

What's your favorite/not so favorite features?

A River Runs Through It - Norman Maclean

I borrowed this book because my dad really liked the movie when I was younger and I happened to catch my husband's brother in law reading it and he recommended it.

This piece of fiction is written around a Scottish Presbyterian male familial group of fly fishermen. It has been hailed by critics to be a great work and even more exceptional as the author finished the book in his 70's and it was his first work.

To be completely honest, I'm not sure why he did recommend it. My husband's brother in law is Indian and not all that into fishing. This was the major problem I had reading this book. In the interest of disclosure I didn't finish it. I have read many books that have nothing to do with my interests, experiences in life, or background and enjoyed them. For some reason, this wasn't one of them. I'm not sure if it's the author's writing style, the heavy "this is a man's book" feel, or if fishing is just too far out of my interest range, but I just lost interest very quickly.

Verdict: I don't know that I would recommend this to anyone who's not a man that's into fishing. I'm not saying it wasn't bad, but it is a niche book and not to my tastes.

Mahabharata - R.K. Narayan

I know that this post will most likely come off as incredibly nerdy and/or snooty. Not much to be done about that.

Mahabharata was next on my list because I've been trying to dig a little deeper into the Indian experience that I find myself living at the moment. That and my husband was nagging me (in a good way sweetie!) to read it. We picked a simple version by R.K. Narayan as a starter. For those unfamiliar, the Mahabharata is an old Indian text that is a commentary on how society should function together. For the uninitiated to Indian culture, it's like a delightfully frustrating maze in which you have to go back and try again a few times, even though it seems simple. Much like learning Hindi. Thankfully, this version is short and features simple language. There are as many authors of the Mahabharata as there are authors that wanted to create it, and it has been a constantly evolving text, changed more than a few times over to suit both the times and the location where the author was from. The Mahabharata is beautiful because it's so deep. If you want to get progressively harder (all the way up do damn, this is impossible), there are many, many versions that become progressively longer and more complicated to understand. Seriously. You can wander all the way up to the Sanskrit version. Unless you're a Sanskrit professor, you probably won't be able to read it though. I'm not going to be arrogant and declare that I'll get just below Sanskrit, because that's just ridiculous. I do, however want to get a slightly more complicated version. One of the things I found frustrating about R.K. Narayan's version of this book was that while it challenged me to pay attention, it also glossed over many, if not all of the story and kept it very superficial. My husband and I have on many occasions gotten into discussions about this story and I can feel aspects of it that are missing in this book.

Verdict:

Amazing version for beginners if you have any interest/inclination to dig into Indian culture and ethos. For those who already know the story or have already read it, this won't cut it.

Hey...what's up?

Sorry to have just jumped down a rabbit hole. Life does that to me occasionally. I haven't been reading all that much lately. I have been working on a historical fiction series that my husband bought for me that I'll review when I'm finished with them. I've also been quite taken with Amazon's kindle for PC. They have a number of free books offered, but be aware, you aren't going to find any new titles for free, mostly older and obscure stuff. Still some good finds if you have time to sit and hunt for them.

So please hang in there until I get my writing groove back!

Becky

City of Veils - Zoe Ferraris

This book is a fictional crime novel set in Saudi Arabia.

I enjoyed it just because this is not your typical stereotyped book about Saudi Arabia. In fact, one of the main characters is not only female, but she is employed at the police station too. Due to the fact that it is Saudi Arabia, there are some things to be overcome. A single woman is fired because she said she was married in order to get a job. A woman is dismembered because she was exposing some of the unsavory aspects of society and trying to go against religious dogma.

Verdict - a very refreshing take on a novel from Saudi Arabia. The author, who lived in Saudi Arabia for a while manages to balance reality with not forwarding stereotype. Also interesting as a detective story in Saudi - something very unexpected. Read it!

Mennonite in a Little Black Dress - Rhoda Janzen

I picked up this book because my folks used to attend a Mennonite church when I was little and I thought it might be interesting. Not many people are familiar with Mennonites today, as there are rather few of them out there, and it provides a very interesting look.

I liked Rhoda's sense of humor. She is unapologetic about who she is and where she came from and takes a humorous look at some of the stereotypes people have about Mennonites. She also addresses that even if you change a lot from when you were a child, you still can't escape your roots and where you came from, even if you try. And it isn't necessarily a bad thing.

Verdict: Read it.

Welcome to the Jungle (Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Bipolar but Were Too Freaked Out to Ask) - Hillary Smith

I initially picked up this book because I am an absolute freak for Guns N Roses, but once I read the bipolar hook I was interested also.

This book is written by a bipolar author trying to make this disease accessible to both the general public and people with bipolar trying to better understand their disease. The author has a frank style and matter of fact writing that makes the disease seem easy to understand and deal with .

Verdict: Even if you don't have Bipolar, this is still an interesting read for anyone looking to improve their general knowledge or their knowledge of bipolar.

How Did You Get This Number? - Sloan Crosley

I'm pretty picky when it comes to humor because it's highly subjective, like music, but I did like Sloan Crosley. Her refreshing, ironic take on her travels and New York life had me hooked and enjoying the ride. 

Verdict: Pretty wide appeal - read it.

Portraits of a Few of the People I've Made Cry - Christine Sneed

This was an interesting book. It is written as a series of short stories about people in the author's life and the type of relationship they had. Most of the stories are rather sad, but still very interesting to read.

Verdict: A bit much with the Chick Lit flavor, but still a good read.

All New Letters from a Nut - Ted Nancy

Unfortunately, this trip to the library was a little heavy on the sophomoric humor, and not the good kid. The crappy kind where immature guys just annoy the crap out of other people. That would be this book a nutshell. I'm all for a good practical joke, but reading a whole book of essentially the same joke where the punchline takes forever to appear and greatly wastes people's time is just rather sad.

The author apparently thought it was funny enough to write a sequel to the first book, which is just one too many. This book has the author writing annoying/fake letters to businesses and stringing them along for a while.

Verdict: I'm not even going to recommend this one. I refuse.

In 50 Years, We'll All Be Chicks - Adam Carolla

Yes, this is written by the same Carolla who used to be on Dr .Drew.  Just keep that in mind, the humor and tone hasn't changed at all. I wanted to see if he had any different sides to him but the answer is "no" according to this book.

So Adam Carolla contemplates different experiences and issues. In typical sophomoric fashion. Even enjoying that type of humor, I found this funny for all of 5 pages, then it just got rather old.

Verdict: Rather disappointing. I guess if you enjoy Adam Carolla, a lot, you may enjoy this. Or frat boy humor. Otherwise, it just leaves you feeling like brain cells were escaping.

The Virgin Widow - Anne O'Brien

As promised, I don't review too many fiction romance novels. To be fair, this wasn't exactly a romance novel, it was more of a period novel. There was romance, to be sure,  but it definitely wasn't the soft-porn type Harlequin novel I was expecting. 

Well written, the author goes into detail of politics during the time of Kings in England. The main character is the daughter of a political advisor to the king who ends up being killed for plotting against the king. She is married off to a very unwilling family, widowed (hence the title), and then finally reunited with her childhood love interest.

Verdict: A very well written period piece about a strong woman trying to dictate her own future in a time very unamenable to that type thing. Read it!

Grow Your Own Drugs - James Wong

Ok, so a disclaimer, this book is much, much less interesting than it sounds. The author is describing methods of growing your own herbs (and no, not that herb) and making them into homeopathic type medicines. Even after I figured out that distinction, this was still too hippy - granola-ey - organic for me. Many of the herbs are difficult to find and I really didn't find enough time in my schedule to make potions. I also am rather leery of using herbs for drug purposes as it is in a medicinal capacity and a doctor is not involved.

If you're interested in this type of stuff, this would be a nice book for you, it just wasn't for me. You would have to have a pretty heavy interest in homeopathic made medicine and a basic knowledge of herbs and where to find the lesser known ones.

Verdict: Read if you're interested in this type of stuff.

Luka and the Fire of Life - Salman Rushdie

This book is the sequel to Haroun and the Sea of Stories, another excellent read. In this tale, Luka, Haroun's younger brother goes on an adventure of his own.

I would highly recommend reading Haroun and the Sea of Stories if you would like to read Luka and the Fire of Life because it provides a lot of background on this family that provides useful when reading. Remember - when reading Rushdie, it's always best to have as much information as possible, or you will be lost. That being said, both Haroun and Luka are comparatively easy reads as far as Rushdie goes, Luka even more so than Haroun.

For what it's worth, I found Luka and the Fire of Life even better than Haroun. Even though it's written for adults, this would be an excellent book to read to your kids at bed time, with a little additional explanation added.

Verdict: A definite read it. An excellent introduction to Rushdie for those interested in his work.
Becky

Buddha's Orphans - Samrat Upadhyay

Buddha's Orphans was a very nice read. The book is about a lower class Nepali woman who finds a baby in a town market and cares for him until a richer family comes along and pulls some strings to adopt him because the mother is crazy and needs a son. A few reasons why this book is interesting: How many people in the west are familiar with Nepal? Not too many. This story was also a multi generational look at the consequences of people's actions, which I find interesting. It also took a look at the impact of an even in a family (in this case the orphan's mother's suicide) impacts generations at a time. The book was familiar in a way that neighboring cultures are. It seems familiar but a few things are definitely different. One more interesting thing to note: For a country so close to the heart of pessimism in writing, the author of this book is notably absent of the pathos that rules Indian writing. The themes in this book are not easy ones, but are approached with a very Zen Buddha philosophy. 

Verdict: Read it. Even if you don't care about learning about Nepal, there's still plenty to be taken from this book and contemplated on.