Yes, a rare blog entry.
Mystery: Having plundered the catalogs of P.D. James and Ruth Rendell, I have moved on to the more macho stylings of Edinburgh’s Ian Rankin. Just finished The Black Book. (St. Jacob’s market, The Crossings book store $3). It seems as if I need an index with his books, who was “Big Ger” and “Jocko” I ask myself deep into the story. Harder or easier to do with an e-book reader or not? With an actual book one can flip back and look for a name. I’m still hesitating about getting an e-book reader, let’s face it, I like paper.
History/biography: I started a biography of Lyndon Johnson, called LBJ, by Randall B. Woods. (Elora book sale, one dollar, mint condition). It’s a single volume, which is far less reading than the Robert Caro series, which is now on its fourth volume. Caro has a certain political stance which doesn’t necessarily work for me (i.e. liberal) but the second volume was excellent (Means of Ascent), where the words “vote early vote often” could have applied to LBJ’s Democratic primary win in the Texas 1948 Senate race. That’s also where the term “Landslide Lyndon” came from (as in one or two stuffed ballot boxes may have taken him over the top).
Also, Pierre Berton’s Marching As To War (Hershey Centre book sale, Mississauga, one dollar): The late great Berton covers Canadian war history through the Anglo-Boer War, two world wars and Korea. In between he writes of some of the great political figures in this country, refreshing us a bit on events like the King/Byng affair of 1926 (one of those events we had to learn in school that we forgot about immediately afterwards, see also the Durham Report and the Reciprocity campaign of 1911). Berton’s great gift was in popularizing Canadian history, showing us that Canada had enough interesting characters that we didn’t have to look elsewhere for colourful historical events.
Some thoughts I have on Kobos and Kindles:
- It popularizes book series, certain writers churn out familiar characters every year or even more often. If readers find comfort food in certain writers they want more of the same. This is not necessarily broadening one’s reading scope, but it requires less effort.
- E-books used to be cheaper. Now they seem to be catching up with paper books. Dark mentions of collusion and price fixing are starting to cloud the publishing world.
- If you buy a Kindle, you’re stuck with the Kindle store. Same with the rest. One can’t just lend out an e-book. Will the Napster of book files emerge and repeat the upheaval in the music business? Will Apple win in the end?
- I wouldn’t even need Wi-Fi, I don’t think I have the urge to immediately buy a book for $15, on impulse, when I’m away from home.
- The humble e-book reader is now just an entry point; Amazon and the rest want you to move up and get a tablet. Same concept as garden gnomes, if next door has one, you have to get a bigger one.
- Get the price down below $80 and I might buy one anyway.
