One Half Buddhist, One Half Christian, One Half Pagan

I've pretty much decided that I'm going to get myself a new Kindle by the end of the year.

Right now, the new touch screen model that they just announced is the front runner. On the other hand, the Kindle Fire is calling my name.

I'll probably waffle until some time in December, and end up going with the Touch. :)

It will take some actual staging of pictures, but here's the idea:

Shot 1: a huge pile of books on my nightstand, with the caption "20th century To Read pile"

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Shot 2: my Kindle, zoomed in enough that you can see the text on the screen, with the caption "21st century To Read pile"

Comments? Suggestions? Heckles?

that I need to suck it up and go back to school and get a library science degree:

Yesterday I spent all evening laying in bed stoned to the gills on pain pills (BAD knee day).

Can you guess what activity I decided was mindless/easy enough that I wouldn't mess it up, but interesting enough to be worth doing?

Organizing the books in my Kindle.

(Trying to get back in the habit of posting this every day.)

Body: I've been feeling pretty good lately.

Stress Level: 2

Book Review: The Briar King, The Charnel Prince, and The Blood Knight by Greg Keyes, the first three books in his The Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone quartet. Very good dark fantasy. Too much to try to summarize, so I'll just say it's a complicated story with interesting characters and good world building. Rating: 7 out of 10. Not loanable on the Kindle as of 1-13-11.

Reading: I started The Born Queen (book 4 of the series above) last night.

Hearing: The sound of my co-workers working.

Etsy Find: Beautiful Wool Coat. I don't need a new winter coat, and this one is on the expensive side, but oh is it ever pretty.

Tonight's Project: The usual Thursday night dinner with the gang. Around that I need to stop and pick up the last few odds'n'ends of stuff for Arisia, mix up some honey mustard to take, and do my packing. I also want to wind the yarn for the project I'm bringing into a ball, and if I have time cast on and stitch a row or two.

Randomness: So in addition to getting more exercise, I'm also trying to change the way I eat. For now, I'm just making a couple of small changes. 1) I'm using My Fitness Pal to track my calories consumed, and trying to stop when (or before) it tells me I've had enough. I've told it my goal is to lose half a pound a week, which seems achievable. 2) I'm trying to drink more water. The rule I'm using for now is that I need to consume as much water as soda. The way I'm doing it is that when I finish a soda I refill the container with water and drink that before I let myself buy another soda. At some point I may up that to 2:1.

(In case anyone happens to be curious.)

Step 1: Learn that a given book exists. I usually do this via one of the dozen or so book related podcasts I listen to, or one of the several dozen book related blogs/websites I follow.

Step 2: Find the book on Amazon. If the original source didn't give me enough information about the story, read the description on the Amazon page.

Step 3a: If the book is not available for the Kindle, add it to my Amazon wishlist. Try to remember to check back on a regular basis to see if it has been released as an ebook.

Step 3b: If the book is available for the Kindle, get the free sample chapter(s).

Step 4: Choose what looks most interesting from the last page of my Kindle contents. (When it's sorted by acquisition date the stuff I haven't looked at in longest is at the end of the list.) Read it.

Step 5: If the title from step 4 was just the sample content, make a decision.
Step 5a: "Oh, God. That was awful." Delete the sample content, and try to remember the title so I don't accidentally get it again. Repeat Step 4, hoping for better results.
Step 5b: "Not bad, but not what I'm in the mood for right now." Repeat Step 4, deferring a decision until later.
Step 5c: "I must find out what happens!" Turn on my Kindle's internet connection and buy the book. While it's downloading delete the sample. Read the entire book.

Of course, if I'm in the mood for something specific I just open it up and start reading. Steps 4 & 5 are only for when I'm not sure what I feel like reading next.

Back in September, I asked if anybody had a guess for how long it would be before the New York Times added a E-book bestseller list.

My guess of a couple of years was off. Actually, they'll be starting early in 2011.

...the latest generation has been announced, and they've made more improvements and dropped the price.

Amazon.com: Kindle Wireless Reading Device, Wi-Fi, 6" Display, Graphite - Latest Generation: Kindle Store

The Kindle is better than paper books because:
- easier to carry
- completely searchable
- get more titles instantly
- add your own footnotes and highlights, which are as searchable as the text itself
- 2G of memory, which translates to approx 1500 books

Paper books are better than the Kindle (or other ebooks) because:
- you can't get an ebook autographed
- you can't loan a friend an ebook
- you can't sell an ebook to a used bookstore when you're done with it

(cross-posted to my review blog.)

The Amazon Kindle is, quite simply, the most amazing gadget I've ever owned.

The most wonderful thing about it is that I can carry an entire library around with me, in a package smaller than the average issue of National Geographic. The text is clear, crisp and readable in any conditions a paper book would be readable and gives the reader the advantage of being able to adjust the text size.

Getting new reading material from Amazon's website is as easy a clicking a single link (once you've set up the 1-Click pay system) and buying through the Kindle itself is almost as simple. You can also get free samples of any of the Kindle books Amazon offers.

Converting into the Kindle format from other types of documents is easy. You simply attach the document to an email sent to yourself at a unique @kindle.com address. You have a choice of having the document sent directly to your Kindle for a small fee, or having it sent back to your computer and manually transferring it for no charge.

I do think that Amazon did get a few things wrong.
1) I would have put the USB port at the top or on a side near the top rather than on the bottom. The location they chose makes reading while it's plugged in somewhat awkward.
2) While the ability to view simple websites works fine, you are unable to log into sites that require a password.
3) It's not touch screen. I expect this to change in future versions.
4) It doesn't hold a charge as long as Amazon claims. I have to charge mine about once a week, as opposed to the 2 weeks that Amazon says you can go.

And as for the oh so controversial "Text-to-speech" feature: Yeah, it's a threat to real audio books... in the same way that Engrish.com or Babelfish are threats to real translators.

If anyone has any questions I will do my best to answer them.

(Cross-posted to my review blog)