Gargoyle Giveaway

I've heard rave reviews about "Gargoyle" by Andrew Davidson and have it on my TBR list. Now, blogger readerville is giving away her ARC copy at her blog at So many books, so little time…. Check it out! And check out her blog, while you are at it. It's really great, and I am envious of her creativity, but also inspired. Maybe next time you stop by here, you'll see some cool stuff too!

To Kindle or Not to Kindle

I'll be going on a cross-country trip in less than a month to visit my daughter for a week. The airline I'm flying charges $15.00 to check one piece of baggage (highway robbery!), so I'm stressing over what to pack.

No, not clothes ~ I've got that covered (my bathing suit and a couple of summer outfits should do me just fine). When I travel, the question of what books to bring with me takes precedence over such mundane things what to wear while I'm there. I usually carry an iPod filled with audiobooks in my purse, two paperbacks tucked into my carry-on bag, and 6 or so paperbacks in my checked bag, but, with all the current restrictions, and now the price of checking luggage, I may have to rethink my strategy.

So, I was wondering whether to buy myself a Kindle so I can leave all those paperbacks at home on the bookshelves, but, well, I like real books ~ the crisp sound of the pages being turned, the way they feel warm and solid in my hands, even the smell of them. It doesn't seem like an e-book will be quite the same. And how is it on the eyes? After a day of staring at my computer monitor, my eyes feel like I've been rubbing them with sandpaper ~ and I can read for hours and hours at a time! On the plus side, I've heard that Kindle's have no backlighting, so they're easier on the eyes than a monitor. I've heard that you can get hundreds of books on that one little machine, and that alone is a pretty compelling reason to buy one. I've also heard they feel like a book in your hands. Well, maybe, but I bet they don't make that neat crackly sound when I turn the pages. And what happens when I'm reading while eating and spatter spaghetti sauce all over the screen? With a book, I swear at myself and wipe the sauce off as best I can with a napkin, then continue reading. How will that work with a Kindle? Worst of all, you know how when you're reading a book that infuriates you for being so awful that you feel you've just wasted all the time you've invested in it, you can throw it at the wall? How awful to forget you're holding a Kindle instead of a real book. Broken Kindle and dented wall. Yikes!

Besides, they're still awfully expensive.

Well, I have another week or so to decide what to do about this trip, whether I'll cave and buy a Kindle ~ or maybe I'll decide to buy that 8MB underwater digital camera I've been lusting after instead.

Stuck in a Rut?

Have you ever gotten on a kick, where the only books that seem to appeal are in one particular genre? I seem to find myself on a mystery thriller kick this week. It all started with "Conspiracies" by F. Paul Wilson, my first Repairman Jack mystery, with elements of the supernatural in it. After that, I read "The Turn of the Screw" by Henry James for the 1001 books-to-read-before-you-die challenge. It also contained a mystery with possible supernatural elements in, though I couldn't quite tell for sure, it's so ambiguous. All I know is that the ending is a stunner. Next came "The Lincoln Lawyer" by Michael Connelly, with a sleazy but likeable lawyer (I know, I know, how is that possible?) and a pretty good story. As soon as I finished that, I went straight into "Serpent" by David Wiltse, about a psycho killer who'd been abused as a boy. I don't think there's anything wrong with these kinds of novels, but they can get pretty gory and too much could get depressing, but so far I'm not depressed, only obsessed with reading more of them.

Some Great Book News

I had some great news from LibraryThing a couple of days ago ~ I managed to snag an advance copy of "Miami and the Siege of Chicago" by Norman Mailer! It's a memoir of the wild days of the Republican and Democratic conventions back in 1968, and I am particularly excited about it because I lived in Chicago then and experienced some (though not all) of the craziness! Not that I remember all that much about it, because I actually did live through those heady days ~ the peace marches, the student demonstrations, the blind hatred and terrifying violence that surrounded the civil rights movement, the soul-wrenching murders of Dr. King and Bobby Kennedy, all perceived through a kind of purple haze. Anyway, what few personal memories I have of that time are sporadic and perhaps even a bit distorted. It will be interesting to learn what was really going on then while I was doing, um, my thing.

Ten minutes later, another email arrived telling me that there was a problem and I wouldn't be getting an advance galley copy after all ~ not, in fact, until after the book goes on sale. At first I was disappointed, but I've gotten used to dealing with disappointment. Besides, the anticipation will make finally getting the book all the sweeter!

A Journey Begins with the First Step

I've never blogged publicly before, so I'm a little nervous about starting and really don't have any idea what I'm going to write about, so I hope that anyone who honors me by stopping by will feel free to jump in with some advice or opinions on how to make it better.