So, I downloaded it a few months ago but never really used it. I mean, reading from the laptop just isn’t ideal. Then I downloaded the Kindle for iPhone and then downloaded a few free books from the Kindle store.

Then one day I’d forgotten my paperback books and was stuck in a waiting room when I remembered that I had the Kindle on my iPhone, so I pulled it out, loaded a book and started reading. It was surprisingly comfortable.

When I was about halfway through the book, I decided I wanted to continue and fired up the Netbook. When I figured out how to change the background color from white to pale yellow, we were in business.

One thing I noticed, however, was that it took me longer to finish the book than if I’d read it in dead tree form. It wasn’t horrible, but I did put the book “down” more often and forgot about it for longer periods of time.

But at any rate I did enjoy reading the eBook more than I anticipated and while I can’t say I’m an eBook convert, I can say that I’m likely to read more short eBooks. In the future I’ll probably wind up with a dedicated eReader (or an iPad…but the eInk displays sound more comfortable on the eyes).

Right now, I’ve started reading The Man Who Was Thursday by G. K. Chesterton. Since I’m only a few pages in, I haven’t formed a solid opinion of the story, but have formed a solid opinion about Chesterton’s writing: That man has a wonderful way with words. It’s playful and adept.

I’m curious now how many out there have a Kindle or other eReading device and how they like it.

Do you use the Kindle or Kindle for PC or iPhone (or any other iteration of the Kindle software) and what has been your experience with it? What about another eReading device?

Now’s your chance to convince an eReading novice to pull the switch.

Pharos was an intriguing read. The best part about the book was the prose. It was evocative, (usually) spare, and eloquent. The story itself wasn’t bad, but I still need to digest it a bit before I try to express my opinions coherently.

Stolen. Oh, Stolen. What can I say about that book? Well, first I’d say that it’s agonizingly slow in the beginning and although it does pick up somewhat around the later middle and end, it’s still relatively slow throughout. That said, I did like the story. Basically, I kinda wish it was written by someone else. But that one is also digesting so I can write a cogent review.

I’m about two thirds of the way through Plain Kate and I’m enjoying the journey. There is so much to love about this book so far: it’s a fairytale without gratuitous sugarcoating, there’s talk of witchcraft, there’s a blood-sucking ghost, and the protagonist isn’t handed all of her heart’s desires on a silver platter—she actually has to work for it. That said, I’ve spotted a couple of (minor) problems which I’ll address in the review, but as of now, this one’s a winner. (I’m totally in love with Taggle, Kate’s cat, because he’s just plain hilarious.)

Assuming I finish Plain Kate today (which I’m positive I will), I’ll take in a few short stories or possibly read one of the new books that came home with me today.

And speaking of new books, I’m now of the belief that it’s darn near impossible to leave the house without coming back with a bucket-load of books. This morning while grocery shopping, I noticed that they were having a 75% off sale, so I decided to rummage through the remains and have now added 3 new books (technically 4, but one of them is a craft book) to my library. I’m not really complaining though because they were only a buck apiece.

I hadn’t realized I’d picked up two books by the same author, but I’m hoping that I really like her style because she’s a new to me author (both of them actually).  Also, I hadn’t realized that The Wire in the Blood is the second book of a series, so I’ll have to scout out the first one before reading it.

If anyone has read Flynn or McDermid or these books specifically, I’d love to hear about your experiences with them.

Have you ever started reading a book and then paused because one of the characters did something entirely out of character?

Don’t get me wrong, a good story will challenge a well-established character to step outside her normal boundaries and push the limits, yes, but that changed behavior rarely has an Invasion of the Body Snatchers feel to it. You’ll see the character is being tested and her actions will typically be in line with her personality.

For an example, I was reading a book (which shall remain nameless) wherein the main character was said to be independent, strong-willed, and an honour student. And every single one of her actions throughout the story contradicted these established personality traits. Every single one.

It was as though the author was trying to wedge the character into a mould which simply didn’t suit her. What it really boiled down to was the character having no motives for her actions and it screamed this author doesn’t know the first thing about who I am. And it made for painful reading.

This is something I see more of in contemporary Young Adult literature and I have to wonder if it’s because the authors believe they can “get away with it” because the young are less inclined to look beneath the surface? It also plagues some contemporary mainstream adult fiction and I have to wonder if it’s because the masses in general are less inclined to look beneath the surface, too.

Then again, maybe I’m the only one to notice this, or care. Maybe it is only all about the plot. Maybe characters don’t matter. Maybe I’m asking too much when I ask for both good characters and an entertaining plot. (But I believe strong character development can make a weak plot better and a good plot great. I could be wrong about that, too.)

OK, rant finished.

This is something I’ve been curious about for a while, but never actually gotten around to discussing.

At the end of a book I was reading, the author had published a playlist.

Interesting, I thought, but wouldn’t the music distract from the reading experience?

Of course, this thought process comes from my own desire to read in silence or with light (usually classical) music since lyrics tend to distract me.

Then I realized it’s probably because I imagine how each of the  words sound as I read (aka subvocalize). This gives me a feel for the rhythm and flow and tone of the prose. Listening to music, especially if there are lyrics, interferes with that. It’s like listening to two sometimes incongruent songs at the same time.

Now writing is a different story. While I sometimes prefer to write in silence, I almost always require music while editing or rewriting. A particular song can even inspire an entire scene. In that vein, I can certainly see the usefulness in a playlist.

But it still comes back to the original question…as a reader, how inclined are you to listen to music (or the author’s designated playlist) while reading a book?

It’s a relatively quick read and a touching story, if a bit angst-y for my tastes. Sarah has a crush on Ryan. Problem is, Ryan is dating Brianna, Sarah’s best friend. But eventually Sarah learns that Ryan has feelings for her too. What ensues is a lot of self-doubt, guilt, and general emotional messiness.

As the story progressed, I found myself realizing that Brianna was the true star of the book although it was narrated by Sarah and essentially was about the relationship between Sarah and Ryan. I hope to have the full review written and posted inside this week.

Books next in the TBR queue include:

Stolen by Lucy Christopher: Yes, I’m still trying to slog my way through that one. From everything I’ve heard, there is a pay-off…it’s just a matter of making it that far. Right now, I’m up to page 89 (just shy of the halfway mark) and the pace is still rather slow, but I’m crossing my fingers and hoping it picks up soon.

Rumor Has It by Jill Mansell: While this book is also a slower read, I find that the pacing is appropriate for the unfolding story (or, rather, stories). I’m about halfway through and it’s just starting to pick up, but the Anglicisms are still throwing me for a loop.

Shade by Jeri Smith-Ready, Claire de Lune by Christine Johnson, The Deadly Sister by Eliot Schrefer, and Silent Scream by Karen Rose.

The rest of this very clear and sunny day will be spent catching up on housework and if there’s time, curling up with a good book and a pint of Ben & Jerry’s Cherry Garcia ice cream. (Wish me luck because I’m really looking forward to that ice cream.)

My review queue is still a little backlogged, but I will set aside some time this week to go through it. In the meantime, here’s a quick rundown of some of the books I’ve this week.

Kin and Kith, Books 1 & 2 of The Good Neighbors, by Holly Black and Ted Naifeh are graphic novels about a girl named Rue discovering her faerie heritage. To make things more interesting, her grandfather (on her faerie mother’s side) wants to take over her city and she’s the only one who can stop it. Although I’m not overly fond of the illustration style (it’s not bad, just not my preference and I’ve run into a few consistency issues), and although I’m not fond of the sometimes stilted prose, I find the overall story to be entertaining—so much so that I can’t wait to see what happens in the third book.

wtf by Peter Lerangis was a romp with a darkly humorous twist. If you’re into character-driven novels, then this really isn’t it, but it’s great mental popcorn. The story is told in short vignettes that follow the actions of six prep school teenagers over the course of one night involving a car accident involving a deer, drug deals gone wrong, and horny couples hooking up in front of strangers. Even with that tidbit, I should mention there’s nothing entirely explicit. Yes, those things are on center stage, but many of the gritty details are left out. Overall, good read.

The Clearing by Heather Davis is my favorite read this week. It’s beautiful and sweet and a bit sad. After leaving an abusive relationship, sixteen-year-old Amy moves in with her great-aunt Mae. While in her care, she discovers a mist lining the forest and through it a clearing where she meets the eighteen-year-old Henry. Over time, the two fall in love, but there’s one problem: Henry (and his mother and grandfather) are stuck in 1944. It’s then up to the two of them to decide if and how they will be together.

Planned Reading

I think I may have strayed into book limbo; a place where I want to read, but have hit a reading slump. In any event, I hope I get out of my little funk soon because there’s a busy reading week ahead.

Pens & Other Cute Things

(I love those little index tab stickers!)

I went shopping at JetPens again. I only needed to get some pen refills, but I came away with seven new pens and some adorable index tab stickers. You can read all about it (and see pretty pictures) at Today, I Wrote…

I’ve read so many reviews that I know what makes a review helpful to me:

• Overview of the story (beyond the back cover blurb, which can sometimes be deceiving)
• Overview of the writing style
• Overview of the plot and character development

And I know what doesn’t make a review helpful to me:

• Blanket statements, such as I LURVE IT!! or I HATEZ IT!!!1, with no supporting explanations
• Spoilers with no warning*. EPICFAIL.

Yes, I indeed know what’s useful and less so for me, but I’d like to see this subject from different angles. I ask, what makes a review a good, helpful review? What’s important to you in a review?

(* As a supplementary question, what constitutes a spoiler of the EPICFAIL variety?)

By the way, if you feel compelled to include examples of reviews you’ve loved, I will not stop you. In fact, I will likely thank you and offer you cupcakes.

For a little while, I was sick (think delirious and semi-conscious) with the flu. It’s an experience I’d rather not repeat and luckily I’m all better now (yay!). The downside is that I’m racing to catch up with everything that’s fallen behind…

Writing

I’m now nearly 16,000 words behind on my NaNoWriMo project, but I hope to fill most of the gap by the end of the day—cloud inspiration permitting.

I did, however, manage to get most of my NaNo board finished and discovered the face of my female lead along with a few secondary characters. Since I promised to bring this blog back to all things bookish, you can read all about the NaNo board (and my writing progress in general) at Today, I Wrote….

Reading

After finishing Wuthering Heights, from which my head is still reeling (Kidnapping and extortion? Really?!?), I’ve moved on to The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame and Fallen by Lauren Kate. I’m about a third of the way through both.

The former I remember from childhood; reading it as an adult brings some new perspectives. The latter is interesting so far, but I’ve already found a few items of contention—here’s hoping it will redeem itself by the end.

Reviews

My review queue is backlogged a bit, but I hope to have that sorted just after the holidays. Some of the books awaiting review include The Man Who Loved Books Too Much by Allison Hoover Bartlett, Dawn by Kevin Brooks, and Soulless by Christopher Golden.

The Man Who Loved Books Too Much was enthralling. I thought I was in for a true crime read, but it was more a journalist’s memoir of the book collecting world and the misguided lengths to which one man would go for his passion.

I managed to get up a mini review of Dawn since I read it for the 24 Hr. Read-a-Thon, but I do need to get a proper review online. This book certainly deserves one.

I expected to like Soulless a bit more than I did. Don’t get me wrong, I did enjoy it. Then again, I’ve always been fond of those B zombie movies with cheezy overacting and that’s the feeling I got from the book. Plus, it had an original premise in how the zombie apocalypse started. There are some book notes up (and a Sunday Sketch depicting a scene), but like the others, this deserves its own full review.

Arrivals

Thank goodness the book fairy didn’t forget about me while I was infirmed. A number of books made their way across my threshold and I’m excited to read all of them. The list includes:

• Finch by Jeff VanderMeer
• Defenders of the Scroll by Shiraz
• i sold Andy Warhol (too soon) by Richard Polsky
• Raiders’ Ransom by Emily Diamand
• Madapple by Christina Meldrum

Soon I’ll get a proper “recent arrivals” post up along with synopsis for each of the titles. But for now, that ends my Sunday Salon week end round-up. You have been updated.

Anyhoo, moving right along.

Just got back from the store and since it’s so difficult to leave the store without purchasing at least one book, I decided to get four. (There was some logic in that sentence when I heard it in my head, but it escapes me at the moment.)

I nabbed the Norman Rockwell and Michelangelo books because I like art and I figure someone who likes art can’t have too many books on the subject. The Real Life Renovating I picked up, not because I plan on renovating anything (as if getting electrocuted installing a new ceiling fan wasn’t fun or anything), but because the pictures were phenomenal and it would help greatly in visualizing homes for my characters. And I got the Baby Animals book because…well…they’re baby animals, *squee*.

I’ve already read both the Norman Rockwell and Baby Animals books and discovered that I really would have loved to share a cup of coffee with Mr. Rockwell and that baby giraffes, when they’re born, drop seven feet to the ground—what a way to start your life.

Sunday Sketch 0.7

I’m going to cheat a little bit…

Instead of doing a scene from one of the books or stories that I’m reading, I’m going to do a sketch from the Baby Animals book because…(do we really have to go over this again? They’re baby animals, *squee*.)

I wanted to draw the baby rhino because 1) he’s adorable, and 2) they rarely receive love for their cuteness because they kind of stop being cute when they’re all grown up, but then I saw the baby field bunny.

I was tempted to color it, but I decided to save that for another day.

RIP IV Short Story Sunday

In order to get my short story fix, I incurred a book avalanche. Yeah, you heard me correctly. You remember that neat stack of books I created for my 24 hour read-a-thon book pool? Well, the book I wanted to read was halfway down the second stack and I decided it might be fun to try my hand at Jenga. It didn’t work out so well. At least I’ll have an easier time restructuring my book pool should the need arise.

Since I was out and about for a bit today, I only had enough time to read one short story: The Case of the Four and Twenty Blackbirds from M is for Magic by Neil Gaiman.

Scary this story was not. It was, however, quite charming in a cute way. It took all the familiar nursery rhymes we heard growing up and transformed it into a noir whodunit featuring Little Jack Horner as the private dick and Humpty Dumpty as the victim.

Tomorrow I’m hoping to get in at least a few more tales from this book, if not all of them.

Now…I’m going to watch The Nightmare Before Christmas and going to bed.

I’m about halfway through and it has been smooth sailing. I’m soaking up the spooky—and oddly romantic—atmosphere and I’m surprised at how much I’ve learned about New Orleans. I’m mentally booking a trip.

For this week’s sketch, I decided on Anton Grey and Rebecca Brown because I’m liking their dynamic so far. (And it’s super quick because I’m anxious to get back to the book. )

Next week, I promise to spend a bit more time and create a more detailed sketch. For now, I’m off to read!

P.S. If you haven’t already entered, I’m holding a Book Giveaway—5 winners will receive a copy of this book.