Mainelife...thru the eyes of someone from away

Continuing Thoughts on the Kindle

The Kindle and I have now been together for four months and 15 days, and I'm happy to report that the love affair continues.  I've not cheated on the Kindle and it's been awfully good to me, giving me more than I'd hoped for in this relationship. And I continue to love the green-ness of it; professionally, I'm a forest's worst nightmare (although we've moved to recycled paper for many of our books) but I don't have to make the same personal choices.

I did notice that I missed the bookstore.  I missed watching other readers pick up a book, read the back cover copy and make a decision to hold or put back the book. I missed picking up a book and reading back cover copy.  I missed book covers. So, now I visit the bookstore to browse and take in the atmosphere (bookstores are to me what shoe stores are to Celine Dion) and make purchasing decisions for the Kindle.  90% of what I want to read is available in Kindle format and that's more than enough to keep me occupied. 

But summer is almost here and I've found that the Kindle can't fulfill all my reading needs. First, my tennis group is also my book club, so almost every time we play tennis, books are being exchanged.  When one of us finishes a good book, we pass it along to another and we discuss it while we sweep the courts or while we're warming up.  I miss sharing books with my friends.  I can still recommend a good book (like Olive Kitteridge, an excellent novel in short stories by Elizabeth Strout) but it's not as fun as physically passing it to someone I just know will enjoy it as much as I did. 

Secondly, now that it's beach weather, I've started to wonder about the wisdom of taking the Kindle to the beach where sand and water and other beach-goers might create an issue (like a missing Kindle or a gritty, sandy Kindle).  I also can't imagine taking it down to the float  (in Cushing) to read. There are some wide spaces between those boards and I don't think the Kindle floats.  I've enough paper books on bookshelves around the house to find something to read at the beach or on the dock, but  it's a limitation that I think will bother me more as time goes on (don't want to take the Kindle on the boat, in the kayak, on my bike, etc). 

A Million Little Consequences, Or Not

Have any of you been following the case of Margaret Seltzer, the most recent author to fabricate a memoir? 
Initially, I didn't find the situation to be very compelling.   First, I'm not huge fan of the memoir genre, and this comes right on the heels of a fake holocaust/living with wolves memoir and not all that long after the entire Million Little Pieces debacle.  So my first thought was "big shock; another embellisher of details who will be forgotten by next week." 

But then I heard a bit more about it and two things about this latest case have piqued my interest.  First, what's up with the sister who exposed the fraud?  Her motives haven't been disclosed and while I'm not passing judgment, I'm enormously curious to hear her reasons for doing this and her reasons for the way it was done (e.g. calling the Times verses talking to her sister). 

But my real curiosity about this situation now has to do with the publisher.  Riverhead Books, it just so happens,  also published A Million Little Pieces.   It's shocking and wrong that a highly respected publisher should be struck by the same bolt of lightening twice, isn't it? How tragic for them. 

Or is it? Nah.  I'd say this is a case of Riverhead embracing a model that's been profitable for them--the Don't Ask, Don't tell Model  of Memoir Publishing:

• Does something about this manuscript seem hinky?  No worries.  Even if it's a complete mound of bull doodoo, there's a really good chance we'll never be caught and if we are, so what?  After all, we're not accountable for the accuracy of what we publish.   
• But if we are caught, won't our reputations be ruined and we'll be fired?  No worries. After Nan Talese appeared on Oprah to defend the decision to publish, she's hailed as a returning hero by her publishing colleagues and welcomed back at the office with a standing ovation.  She received a call of support from her boss.  That doesn't sound like a woman scorned and ruined, does it? 
• But what about sales?  If we're caught, sales will plummet.  Relax, my friends.  After Frey's true story was revealed,  sales of his book rocketed  up.  Again.  Do you know how much Riverhead paid out in bonuses on that book?  I heard Nan bought a new house in the Hamptons with cash from that check.....

In this case, Sarah McGrath, the editor of  Love and Consequence said, “In the post-James Frey world, we all are more careful,” Ms. McGrath said. “I had numerous conversations with her about the need to be honest and the need to stick to the facts.” 

How about in the post-Margaret Seltzer world we hire fact checkers and take corporate responsibility for the accuracy of the non-fiction titles published? Publishers say fact checking is too costly for trade publishing.  Isn't it time that not fact checking becomes too costly? 

Free Book!!

Given that I make a living publishing books and the protection of intellectual property is such a huge concern for us in this digital era, I feel a bit guilty passing this along. But I've read the disclaimer. And the site has an email link so that I can tell my friends, so it's clear that this is a marketing strategy and they want the word to get out.
So, I'll help them:

Beautiful Children by Charles Bock (a heavily reviewed and the current must-read book of the month) is available to download free of charge from Random House. 
The download is PDF format, but the list price is $25.00 so if you don't mind reading a novel on your computer or you have a PDF loving mobile device, you get a best-seller for free. 

I downloaded it, emailed it to my Kindle and Amazon.com converted the PDF to kindle format for 10 cents.  Who said there's no such thing as a free lunch?

I'd love to post something interesting....

...and I know I owe Lori that meme, but I'm reading The Commission and I can't put it down....it's a fascinating dissection of the 9/11 Commission.  It's as exciting as any spy novel and shocking in what it revels about the level of cover up by so many different agencies in Washington.  The author makes  bureaucracy riveting. 

I highly recommend The Commission, especially if you still have any concerns about which party is better able to lead the war on terror.   This book makes it pretty clear that W wasn't anywhere near ready for a terrorist attack on American soil and was completely incompetent in the months before the attack. 

The Kindle

I'm an early adopter.  I bought my first Palm Pilot in 1994.  I bought four new and improved models before I moved to the Blackberry. I had a Sony MD Walkman in 1997.  No one else was crazy enough to buy one, but I had one and I spent hours making mixes that I listened to on the subway  long before the ubiquitous iPod headphones became the must have accessory on the 1 and 9. 

The list goes on, but you get the picture. I'm a gear head, and a fickle one at that.  I'll buy and abandon what I don't like and I'm devoted to any gadget that meets the needs it's supposed to meet (7 iPods later, I'm still a believer).

Strangely enough, I wasn't seduced by the Kindle at first.  I surely wasn't going to buy one for myself for many reasons: too expensive; the State of Maine has very little good cell phone coverage including  our village and most especially our house.  From all I've seen and heard, the Kindle is a clunker without WhisperNet coverage to allow wireless downloads of books, blogs and newspapers; and most importantly, the books I want to read won't be available.

I lasted 10 days.  I read all the reviews and articles that were published.  I visited the Amazon site and I coveted.  A week and a half after its release, I caved.  Amazon.com kindly informed me that I'd have to wait.  I kept reading the latest reviews and articles and almost canceled my order about a thousand times. 

My Review: I've now had my Kindle  for 23 hours and I'm so very glad that I didn't cancel the order.  In that time, I've bought books from Amazon--real books that I want to read. I've subscribed to the trial subscriptions of The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post, as well as an Ohio State Football blog and an LSU football blog --gotta prepare for the title game on January 7th. WhisperNet works in every room of the house and down at the Bagel Basket.

I've downloaded three (In The Country of the Pointed Firs, Vanity Fair and Jane Eyre) public domain books and loaded them onto the Kindle from my mac.  I've emailed a PDF document (a riveting study of the impact of used books on publishers) to my Kindle using Amazon's file conversion system); and I've copied a few .txt documents directly from my computer to the Kindle. Each process was easy, seamless and wicked fast.  No waiting for delivery.  No standing in a checkout line.

Like everyone else, I've got a few complaints: I can't read it in the tub; as every other Kindle owner has already noted (and which I doubted could be as annoying as they said) the buttons for page forward and backward aren't avoidable.  It's hard to carry the Kindle without paging forward or backwards, but even more frustrating is that it's hard to hold the Kindle with one hand without changing a page (and it's every bit as annoying as has been suggested by others); Amazon recommendations seem to believe that I'd like to purchase books that I've already purchased from them for my Kindle.  In rare cases (The World is Flat and Freaknomics) this is true, but in most cases, it' s not. I want recommendations for books that I've not already bought;  there is no ability for me to "gift" a great book to a friend from the Kindle;  lastly, there still aren't enough good titles available to purchase:  No Phillip Roth; no Michael Chabon;  no older Richard Ford titles. 

Still, none of this is enough shatter the absolute wow factor--and as I reminded myself once or twice yesterday when the Kindle fell short of my expectations--a lot of what we love about iTunes and the iPod has evolved since the first generation iPod was introduced, including the number of titles available on iTunes. 

The Kindle, as has been suggested, will do for reading what the iPod did for music. 

No, it won't allow me to scan the 7500 volumes of paper and ink books  I've got lying around the house (like the iPod allowed me to import my CD collection), and it won't change the way we read like the iPod changed our music habits with the concept of the shuffle.

But this morning, on a rainy, foggy, horrible Maine Saturday,  it did allow me to read the Entire NYTimes and Washington Post  and one chapter of my new book without getting out of bed--and without putting on my glasses. The e-ink technology is much easier on the eyes than a regular book and it allows for a variety of font sizes.   

I won't be forced to choose which current book and which magazines to take on my business trip.  With the Kindle there is room to take them all.   I'm always on the first flight out of Manchester, so I usually have to wait until my first connecting airport to buy a newspaper.  No more.   My Times will be on the Kindle before I leave for the airport.

I won't be in a panic prior to the next blizzard. If I run out of reading material, I can buy a new book without leaving the house.  Maybe this isn't a factor where you live, but here in Maine, it's a major plus.

The Kindle kills no trees to deliver reading goodness to you. 

Most importantly, I do believe that it will force publishers (trade book and textbook, magazine and newspapers) rethink their business models (goodbye $35.00 hardback books discounted 40%);  it should change the way college students (and possibly high school students) get their educational content. With a built-in dictionary, links to Wikipedia and a search function, it's already pedagogically superior to a paper and ink textbook--and it can only get better; as more content is loaded into Kindle format, it will free us from the mass marketed 'best-seller' model of selecting books that we've been forced into by Barnes and Noble and the other mega-chains.

The Kindle isn't perfect, but it's going to get better and cheaper.  As an obsessive reader,  it's going to be fun to watch. As a publisher, it's going to be fun to participate.   

 

 

Best Maine Books

If you're looking for gifts for that special someone, might I suggest my favorite Maine books?

By far and away, my most favorite Maine (and near the top of my list for any book)  book is The Wooden Nickel by William Carpenter.  A third generation lobsterman Lucky Lunt is caught between his roots and a world moving into the future.  A great story, full of authenticity and great snippits of lobstering. 

A Year in the Maine Woods by Bernd Heinrich is his story of a year spend in the Maine woods. The author is a zoologist at UVM and an excellent writer and he combines science with beautiful descriptions of the changing seasons. 

Leeway Cottage by Beth Gutcheon.  A historical novel, anchored by the family's cottage in coastal Maine.  It's a great beach book/curl up by the fire book and recently released in a Kindle version as well as paperback!

We Took To the Woods by Louise Rich.  A classic Maine book, recently reissued.  Rich and her husband moved to the woods in the 1940's and raised a family.  The book is one of the most wonderfully written stories you'll ever read and one of the most uplifting. 

Maine Living: a lovely, artistic coffee table book that makes me crave cottage living.

Oh, and if you're wondering what to get me, I'd like a Kindle. 

Winter Reading

There's something about December and January in Maine that makes me want to read good, serious books.  Maybe it's sunset at 4:09 pm  and single digit temperatures. Maybe it's the glow of the Christmas candles and the snap of the fire. 

Summer is for the literary equivalent of People and US Weekly--books that provoke little more thought than a hunk of Hubba Bubba.  It's for books that entertain for the time it takes to read them, but that are forgotten as soon as they're finished. 

But winter is for meaty books; books that keep the cold and dark at bay by wrapping me in language and thoughts that last long after the book is finished. 

And because the Cushing Cottage has no TV and no Internets and because it's winter, I've been reading like a woman possessed, and I've found a few gems:

Matrimony: An elegant, beautiful mediation on relationships and what makes a marriage, a lasting love and an enduring friendship.  I loved this book and will read it again, very soon.

Last Night at the Lobster:  A novella that manages to pack a big whollop in a few pages.  In an era of downsizing and job loss, it's a human story.

The Uncommon Reader: Another novella that reminds us why we read and why books matter.  The Queen of England accidentally becomes a voracious and discerning reader and all sorts of mayhem ensues. 

The Ghost: A story to  get lost in.  Once I started Ghost, I woke early, stayed up late and  had a difficult time putting it down.  A Harris novel captures time and place better than any other (Pompeii, wartime London as example), and this isn't an exception.  And it's a wicked good yarn.

The Yiddish Policman's Union: A Jewish Noir, a tip of the cap to hard boiled detective tales.  There's none better than Michael Chabon and this one isn't an exception.  It requires a bit of the willing suspension of disbelief, but oh, my, it's well worth it.

World Without End: It's not The Pillars of the Earth, but it's a worthy sequel.  Religion, sex,intrigue, politics, cunning, knights, kings and bishops; it's all in there.  And it's all good. 

Talking With Stephen King

Maine's leading author shares his thoughts on current affairs and other stuff. 

Some nuggets include a discussion on determining whether waterboarding is torture:

So I said something to the Nightline guy about waterboarding, and if the Bush administration didn't think it was torture, they ought to do some personal investigation. Someone in the Bush family should actually be waterboarded so they could report on it to George. I said, I didn't think he would do it, but I suggested Jenna be waterboarded and then she could talk about whether or not she thought it was torture.

And Britney:

But Britney? Britney Spears is just trailer trash. That's all. I mean, I don't mean to be pejorative. But you observe her behavior for the past five years and you say, "Here's a lady who can't take care of her kids, she can't take care of herself, she has no retirement fund, everything that she gets runs right through her hands."

On writing:

They give you the keys to the playground and they say, "That's your job for now on, you play for the rest of us. You're the designated kid. Make up stories,"

A New Maine Book And Other Odds and Ends

Oh, yea, this is a Maine blog.....Between the Sox and the Bucks, I almost forgot. 
The Bangor Daily news has reviewed a new novel by Peak Island resident Elinor Lincoln Morse, called An Unexpected Forest. 
I'm always looking for fiction set in Maine and this book sounds like it's worth reading:

Morse is a vivid writer. She is especially strong when writing about Maine, whether it is the unworldly appeal of the bogs and lakes of northern Maine, undercut by mud so deep it seeps into the top of boots and flies so thick they are breathed into mouth and eyes, or the tidal power of Maine’s coastal waters, surprising even the strongest of men.

A Maine legend returns.  We wish her much success.

UMaine is launching a study to gauge the impact of global warming on the state in order to help us prepare for the effects.  Our  economy is as fragile as the arctic  tundra so this isn't just a good thing, it's essential to our economic viability.  Especially in light of this report.  More thoughts on Maine taxes and tax reform over at Speaking in Maine.  (hat tip to Lisa for that link).

We're off to A-Squared for THE GAME. Wish the Buckeyes luck, as we'll need it.  Lloyd Carr is expected to announce his retirement after the game and that should ensure a Michigan Victory.  This game is never about who's better. It's about who is more inspired.  Game time weather is to be 40 and snowing.  Yessuh.  Now  that's football weather!   
If you'd like to catch up on some Michigan-Ohio State history, here's a little more linkage:
Bo's Last Ride  compliments of the best college football blog in America, the MZone.
Game Preview via Eleven Warriors
The Greatest Catch in Ohio State History
All's Fair in Love and War

Go Bucks!