I’ve often joked around about how you really need to know yourself before you can choose a ring tone or commit to wearing a pair of jeans with the word “skinny” on the tag. (I still don’t know myself well enough to go outside of the AT&T suggested ring tone box. This sad phone of mine will never sing a song or cluck like a chicken. It simply says, “Ding” when someone is trying to reach me. With that said: My Butt is not a subset of Skinny, HOWEVER, I now own two pairs of skinny jeans. I am a jelly-bottomed enigma!)
I received a Nook Color for my birthday. (If you click on that link and watch the video, please know that I wanna be Kate, and that I’ll use just about any opportunity I can create to give a shout out to Ben Folds.) Anyway, after having the Nook for nearly two weeks, I’m finding that I’m getting to know yet another snobby side of myself. (This one is located in my frontal lobe!) My swollen-headed side will NOT allow any mundane books to be placed on the Nook. Goofy romance novels have no place on my Nook. If I can get a book at my library and continue to check it out over and over again? I’m not going to spend nine bucks to put it on the Nook. My Nook has enough room to hold something like 6,000 eBooks, yet absolutely zero space for authors like Sean Hannity or Sarah Palin. (I know! I’m horribly mean! And such a LIBERAL!)
Currently, my Nook is holding the following: The McSweeney’s Joke Book of Book Jokes, The Namesake, 25 novels that I was able to purchase for ninety nine cents, and a sample from Appetite for Reduction. Here is where you come in. What else do I need? What have you been reading lately? (I know at least three of you will mention The Help. I own that in both hardcover and audio. I loved it, too!) Also, I just finished Bossypants and adored it. I collect books of letters, and am looking into the Thurber letters. What else? What books do you love? Do you want to be my Nook friend? (I’m not even sure what that means, although I know it’s a possibility!) Get all up in my Nook, people!
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The Hangman’s Daughter and South: the story of Shackleton’s 1914-1917 expedition. Those are the two books I could not step away from recently.
Nook friends? How does that work?
It’s hard to believe that it’s only been a little over a year since I bought my nook (B&W first gen, I’m old skool like that.) because it is such a huge part of my daily routine, or more succinctly, my life.
2 Nook programs you must get (both free shareware)
1. Calibre. Awesome tool for organizing your ebooks that you download (especially from sources other than B&N) It lets you add tags to your books & edit the files, will convert files (PDF to ePub, etc) and has a handy sync feature with the nook. When it’s open & the nook is plugged in there’s a little green checkmark if the book is on the nook. Check the box & sync to add, uncheck & sync to remove.
2. Adobe Digital Editions. This is the program you use to download books from the library and then authorize them to play on your nook. You have to create an adobe account, and then authorize the nook with that account, but after that you’ll be able to drag & drop library books onto your nook to take with you, or you can use the program to read the books on your computer. This was a little trickier to set up, but I just googled it and found a few helpful pages that walked me through it. It was a while ago so I’m sure there are even better sites to hold one’s hand now than there were then.
I also recommend nook-look.com for fun screensavers, or for info on what specifications your pix need to be if you’re going to make your own. (I personally have all of the calvin & hobbes files in a screensaver folder and they rotate through each time I turn it on or off.)
Happy reading!
A little nook-friendly tip – StL County library has an online service to check out books that you can put on your nook. You only get them for 3 weeks, but it’s free. And no big book to lug around.
I have also heard that the other municipalities that are not part of the county library (U City, etc) also have this service through a different provider, but I haven’t checked it out yet. :)
I love my Nook!
Ask your librarian if they have an ebook service for you — we subscribe to ebooks for our users through OverDrive. I love being able to borrow ebooks and then return them, it’s perfect for fluffy romance novels.
I load a lot of classics on my Nook, things I love to re-read like Austen.
Oh, I love Jhumpa Lahiri’s books! Did you already read “Interpreter of Maladies”? I just finished Aimee Bender’s “An Invisible Sign of My Own,” which I really liked. Also “The Boys of My Youth” — the author’s name escapes me right now, but it was really good. I’m looking forward to seeing other people’s recommendations, although I just read old-fashioned library books and am without a Nook.
Nook Friends!!!!! I’ve always wanted those!
I recently read and enjoyed the Cookbook Collector, and loved Blood, Bones, and Butter (so much that I’m afraid to start a new book, because it won’t be as good – yay logic!)
I don’t have a nook, I have a kindle but I’ve decided it’s the perfect time to read all of the classics that I haven’t gotten to yet. I’m currently reading Madame Bovary.
I will be of no help to you. All of my reading material comes in paperback form and involves vampires and/or some other supernatural creature. Though I am insanely jealous of your Nook! I just added it to my Amazon wishlist the other day (is that ironic?).
Anything by Flannery O’Conner – there’s a great book of her letters too. Also Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons, all the Jane Austin books, the Millinium series by Larson – ok I’ll stop.
Thank you for NOT supporting idiots like Palin and Sean and Rush. They make me just want to hurl large heavy object at their little head and crush them.
I want a nook color BAD!
I recently finished Ape House by Sara Gruen (?), that lady who wrote Water for Elephants. If the last two chapters don’t make you bawl like a baby, then you have shriveld up, black heart.
I love my Nook too. I have all sorts of stuff on it though since I’m usually lugging it around while I’m with the Kiddo. Don’t forget Free Fridays! They are not always books I want but sometimes there is a good free book offered.
If you love books of letters get Dear Writer, Dear Actress, which is the letters of Anton Chekhov and his wife, Olga Knipper. They lived a 2 or 3 day journey apart for their whole marriage so the relationship is recorded in their letters. It’s fabulous.
I don’t have a Nook, but I have some book suggestions!
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, Ella Minnow Pea, Room, The Rice Mother, Two Kisses for Maddy, The Internet Is a Playground
I am saving for a color Nook right now! I am also currently halfway through The Help (so good). AND I just finished Tina Fey’s book (my favorite part is the prayer for her daughter – Hollister!)
I recommend the interactive books for children for those long waits in dentist/doctor offices and other establishments that require waiting while entertaining children.
I don’t understand. Are we talking about literature?
(I think she smokes pot.)
Have I already recommended Jack Handey’s collection of essays What I’d Say To the Martians? I recommend it to everyone who asks what they should read because it made me laugh so hard I had to literally put it down so my husband could hear what the people on the television were saying. Not to build it up too much!! In fact, it’s not that funny. You probably wouldn’t even like it… (jk it is hilarious)
I am not a reader, or I guess I am lately. I’m currently reading other people’s favorite books – friends, online people I respect… Have you read Lolita? It’s dense stuff – subject matter aside – but the annotated version was recommended to me and the annotations were such a help! Plus, great book.
Right now I am reading two (two! at the same time! unprecedented!) books: Lonesome Dove, which is amazing, obviously, and Charlotte Bronte’s Villette, a real hidden Bronte gem. It’s available free through Project Gutenberg: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/9182 Lonesome Dove you’d have to buy, and watch out for the new 25th anniversary edition if you don’t know anything about the storyline – like I didn’t – ’cause the new preface by Larry McMurtry totally spoils you on, like, who dies and stuff! Jeez.
Anyway, happy reading!
Well, let’s see…..
Machine of Death
Unbroken
The Hunger Games
The last one is a trilogy. The first one is a short story collection of unsurpassed entertainment. The second one is just plain amazing non-fiction.
Like historical fiction? Elizabeth Chadwick’s The Greatest Knight…
Want self-help? Dave Ramsey’s Total Money Makeover
YA Action/Romance? The Hunger Games trilogy
Love historical US documents? The Essential American
Parenting Advice? Po Bronson’s NurtureShock and Dr. Dobson’s Bringing Up Girls
Local Beer Company Takeover? Dethroning the King
And you know *my* list goes on and on :-)
OH! And of course, anything Louis L’Amour is always a good, safe bet…
Oh, girl, you gotsta come on over to Goodreads. I just sent you an invite. It’s great – you can see what your friends are reading currently as well as what they have read and rated in the past. Loooove iiiit.
I am reading the latest Sookie Stackhouse book (the series upon which the True Blood show was based). It is not huffy intellectual literature by any means, but I totally love it and devour each one as soon as it comes out. The only reason I have put this most recent one off for a month is that I told myself it would be a reward for finishing my laceweight shawl. :D
OF COURSE you’re already there! :)
See now that’s funny because I’ve always thought of my Kindle as the perfect place to hide all the brain candy trashy stuff I’m way to book-snobby to whip out in public.
OK if you liked BossyPants, consider Stories I Only Tell My Friends – the Rob Lowe book. I would never had read it myself if the book folks on NPR hadn’t raved over it. It actually is very good and brought back so many 80s memories. He has a unique view and perspective that I found surprising.
For fun summer read – try Attachments. A first novel from Rainbow Rowell long time Tulsa columnist. It too was a bit nostalgic in that it’s set in a 1999 20-something workplace newsroom & IT department where Y2K angst was all the rage. I have the feeling Lincoln is the kind of guy you could fall for.
And if you haven’t read The Paris Wife yet shame on you. Go now, Hadley is waiting, go listen.
And to round it out something different try – The Lover’s Dictionary by David Levithan. It’s a novel in a very different format. A bit odd at first but once you get the rhythm you’ll love it.
Well, I read a lot of kids books, bedtime stories. That’s about all I have time for these days (other than glancing at a blog or two). My favourite bedtime story book for now is: “When We’re Together”: a nice rhyming book with beautiful illustrations. In the middle of the book, it makes the kids excitable and bouncy, but for some reason, by the time we get to the last page, EVERY TIME, and I read the “snuggle in bed” part, the girls yawn, and are ready to go to sleep.
I love this book.
So, I didn’t scour the above comments to see if this was already mentioned, so I hope I’m not being redundant in recommending a book (of letters, no less!) called P.S: What I didn’t say. I’m in the midst of reading it right now (maybe about half-way through?), and I love it (and not just because I can only stay awake for a “story” that only takes about 5 pages to finish!!). It’s a collection of “unsent” letters between girlfriends, and it covering a wide spectrum of emotions. Since I don’t really *know* you per se, I can’t really know if you’d like it or not, but since you mentioned you collect books of letters, and this is a book of “letters,” I just thought I’d throw it out there as a recommendation.
P.S. On a previously related topic, my kids (and me!) are now totally hooked on the music from the Clerkenwell Bathtime video you posted, My 10-year old asked me to buy the song off iTunes, so he could put it on his iPod. Sure beats some Eminem, eh?! Thanks for sharing!!
Ben Folds has the cutest dimple!
Yes, I second, the Paris Wife. Though I’m readin’ it old skool (hardback). That sounds way dirtier when I type it out loud.
DAMN I Love Ben Folds! He looks like a baby in that video! One of these days I am going to go see him live, maybe next time he comes to the Pageant. (If I’d had a daughter I’d have named her Kate just so I could sing that song to her all the time.)
I just ordered a Kindle (went for the special offers one) for a birthday present for myself. Was considering a Nook Color, but a) it was more than I wanted to spend, and b) my 4 and 7 year old boys already fight over the gadgets we have pretty much nonstop, and I don’t want anything else for them to whine about. And 3) I like the e-ink technology, don’t want a backlit screen.
OH-for borrowing books, someone told me that if you get a library card for Kansas City Library, you can borrow from their e-book library, which is the second biggest in the world. And it’s free for Missouri-ans. Can’t wait until that capability is available for Kindle later this year.
As far as books, I was going to say Flannery O’Connor… her book of letters is legendary. Short stories are incomparable. (I loved Jhumpa Lahiri’s Interpreter of Maladies too.) But my favorite author for the last few years has been Joshilyn Jackson. She writes sort-of southern gothic stuff (I think of her as a modern-day Flannery O’Connor) and she is fantastic. And writes a hysterically funny blog. I’d read either Backseat Saints or Gods in Alabama, they sort of share characters, but once you read one of her books you’ll want to read them all. Love, love, love her.
Click here to apply for a KC Library card
https://www.kclibrary.org/library-card-form
I just finished reading “The Graveyard Book” by Neil Gaiman and I loved it. Don’t let the title deter you – it’s a great read.
I covet the Nook Color. I got a Velocity Cruz ereader for Christmas and it works, but it’s very slow. I’ve been trying to catch up on all the popular titles that everyone seems to be reading. I’ve been thinking of getting a basic cookbook for mine. I have cookbooks in the kitchen, but it would be nice to have one I could carry around with me that had basic ingredient lists – in case I’m away from home and have a hankering to make flan or souffle or something. Have you read Frauen? It’s one of my favorite all time books. I also finished A Helmet for my Pillow and loved it.
You might enjoy “As Always, Julia,” the letters of Julia Child and Avis DeVoto. I’m finding it fascinating–politics, cooking, friendship, the business of book publishing.
Send me your email so I can send you a copy of my new book!