Do you think it’s a fluke that, in the middle of the worst economic downturn in recent history, the world of books is flourishing? Towns may reduce the size and hours of their libraries, big-box book stores may fail, but the deluge of fiction keeps rolling to meet the demand of escape-hungry readers like me, who live for their daily dose of unreality delivered either on paper or through cyberspace.
All this is a lead up to tell you I finally broke down and bought a Kindle DX, then got my husband a Nook for his birthday. I’m sick of lining more and more walls with bookcases. Today, we keep those digital rascals keep humming, especially on nights when there are no Law and Order reruns available on the tube.
Like many, I suppose, I was afraid a Kindle would ruin my reading experience. Quelle surprise! Instead, it has added to my pleasure immeasurably. Plus, I get the added advantage of not having more tomes to dust, and knowing I’m not killing off perfectly beautiful trees every time I open a book.
Still stuck in the dead tree world? Check out this website for interesting bookshelf ideas.
Wondering what to do with that old set of encyclopedias that take up half your bookcase? Here’s a clever idea for how to recycle all that knowledge.
My big grey e-reader sits quietly next to my favorite chair in the living room or on my nightstand, all charged up and ready to do its thing. Since it’s loaded with 20-30 books, the most recent Sunday New York Times book section, the New York Review of Books, German Word-a-Day and Reader’s Digest (of all things), there’s always something fun to dive into for five minutes or several hours, depending on the hour and the mood.
I’d like to share a few titles of my favorites among the 20 books or so I’ve read in the last few months. You’ll also find them listed in the GoodReads section located in the right hand column of this blog. If you’re interested, click on that site to read my reviews as well as comments from many other readers, or to get more information on the books.
Here are a few keepers from my Kindle:
Freedom: A Novel by Jonathan Franzen
State of Wonder by Ann Patchett
Suite Française by Irene Nemirovsky
Cut Short, Dead End and Road Closed (three mysteries) by Leigh Russell
By Nightfall by Michael Cunningham
Stay tuned to Birds on a Wire Blog for an exclusive interview with Leigh Russell, one of England’s hottest mystery writers. I'll post it early this week.
Authors and authors-in-waiting, take note: Five years ago, Leigh was a full-time English teacher, but not anymore. With a multi-year contract from No Exit Press, she now writes every workday, then spends her spare time developing a following at book signings and speaking engagements.
I, for one, love her books, in spite of the prodigious body counts. (Remind me to steer clear of Woolsmarsh, England. It must be a murderer’s mecca, like Cabot Cove, Maine.) If you liked the Prime Suspect series (the one with Helen Mirren that ran on PBS a decade ago), you will also like Leigh Russell’s DCI Geraldine Steel, a younger and less cocky version of Jane Tennison, who drives the storylines in spite of herself. Geraldine – if I may be so bold to call her that -- was recently named one of the great crime sleuths in contemporary literature on Lovereading, and is cited for popularity among die-hard mystery readers on many Amazon book sites.
Someday, I’d like to start a Birds book club based at GoodReads. As moderator, I would pick a book. Anyone interested in participating could read it by a certain date, then enter a running conversation on the book set up on a private site on GoodReads. Or, we could have an invitation-only, password-protected live discussion using the GoodReads platform. Any takers?
All this is a lead up to tell you I finally broke down and bought a Kindle DX, then got my husband a Nook for his birthday. I’m sick of lining more and more walls with bookcases. Today, we keep those digital rascals keep humming, especially on nights when there are no Law and Order reruns available on the tube.
Like many, I suppose, I was afraid a Kindle would ruin my reading experience. Quelle surprise! Instead, it has added to my pleasure immeasurably. Plus, I get the added advantage of not having more tomes to dust, and knowing I’m not killing off perfectly beautiful trees every time I open a book.
Still stuck in the dead tree world? Check out this website for interesting bookshelf ideas.
Wondering what to do with that old set of encyclopedias that take up half your bookcase? Here’s a clever idea for how to recycle all that knowledge.
My big grey e-reader sits quietly next to my favorite chair in the living room or on my nightstand, all charged up and ready to do its thing. Since it’s loaded with 20-30 books, the most recent Sunday New York Times book section, the New York Review of Books, German Word-a-Day and Reader’s Digest (of all things), there’s always something fun to dive into for five minutes or several hours, depending on the hour and the mood.
I’d like to share a few titles of my favorites among the 20 books or so I’ve read in the last few months. You’ll also find them listed in the GoodReads section located in the right hand column of this blog. If you’re interested, click on that site to read my reviews as well as comments from many other readers, or to get more information on the books.
Here are a few keepers from my Kindle:
Freedom: A Novel by Jonathan Franzen
State of Wonder by Ann Patchett
Suite Française by Irene Nemirovsky
Cut Short, Dead End and Road Closed (three mysteries) by Leigh Russell
By Nightfall by Michael Cunningham
Stay tuned to Birds on a Wire Blog for an exclusive interview with Leigh Russell, one of England’s hottest mystery writers. I'll post it early this week.
Authors and authors-in-waiting, take note: Five years ago, Leigh was a full-time English teacher, but not anymore. With a multi-year contract from No Exit Press, she now writes every workday, then spends her spare time developing a following at book signings and speaking engagements.
I, for one, love her books, in spite of the prodigious body counts. (Remind me to steer clear of Woolsmarsh, England. It must be a murderer’s mecca, like Cabot Cove, Maine.) If you liked the Prime Suspect series (the one with Helen Mirren that ran on PBS a decade ago), you will also like Leigh Russell’s DCI Geraldine Steel, a younger and less cocky version of Jane Tennison, who drives the storylines in spite of herself. Geraldine – if I may be so bold to call her that -- was recently named one of the great crime sleuths in contemporary literature on Lovereading, and is cited for popularity among die-hard mystery readers on many Amazon book sites.
Someday, I’d like to start a Birds book club based at GoodReads. As moderator, I would pick a book. Anyone interested in participating could read it by a certain date, then enter a running conversation on the book set up on a private site on GoodReads. Or, we could have an invitation-only, password-protected live discussion using the GoodReads platform. Any takers?
