BOOKKEEPING: The Reading Status Report
Guess who bought a Kindle?! (My mother-in-law let me try out hers first, and when I decided I really liked it, she offered me one of my own. Thanks, Peggy!) It’s scheduled to arrive early next week, and I’m open to suggestions for my first e-books – if you have any, comments please! This may be my way around the whole “waiting for the paperback” problem…
Reviews posted this week: Certain Girls by Jennifer Weiner
Currently reading/next review scheduled: Fool by Christopher Moore
(2 in a row for the RYOB 2009 Challenge!)
New additions to my “to be read” collection in LibraryThing:
Bought: A Novel, by Anna David (but I didn’t buy it – another blogger sent me her copy! Vanessa‘s review)
Best Friends Forever: A Novel, by Jennifer Weiner (blog) (for review – thanks to Emily at Engleman & Co.)
Thanks for the Reviews! Books I noticed on the blogs this week:
The Widow’s Season, by Laura Brodie
Sleepwalking in Daylight, by Elizabeth Flock
Author interview of the week: The inimitable Anna Lefler talks with the also-inimitable Beth Kephart about Beth’s latest novel, Nothing But Ghosts
The winner of my giveaway copy of The 19th Wife was Wendy of It’s Really Only a Purple World – congratulations, and I hope you enjoy the book as much as I did! Your information has been forwarded to the author.
Tuesday Thingers, hosted at Wendi’s Book Corner: “Do You Have Glue?”
Wendi says:
What is Get Glue?
From their Website:
Developed by AdaptiveBlue, Glue enables you to connect with your friends on the web around the things you visit online. Glue is powered by semantic recognition technology that automatically identifies books, music, movies, wines, stocks, movie stars, recording artists, and more. Glue works hard to make it easy for you to find out what your friends think about things you’re visiting online.
Questions: Have you gotten Glue yet? If so, how do you like it? Do you follow Glue Genie on Twitter? Won anything in their quizzes?
My Answer: I’ve seen a lot of my book-blogging friends really take to Glue and Glue Genie, but I’m still resisting it. I seem to get plenty of entertainment and product recommendations already, and I don’t feel quite up to yet another social-media site at this point, so I’ll probably keep holding out for a while.
If you’re a Get Glue user, tell me what you like about it and why you’d recommend it to me!
Booking Through Thursday: “Celebrities?”
I read a lot of memoir and personal essays. They’re probably my favorite form of nonfiction. But most of the ones I’ve read have been written by journalists, novelists, or other writerly types. They may have recognizable names, in a “big-fish-in-a-small-pond” way, but they’re not necessarily household names or “celebrities” in the supermarket-tabloid sense. Even if the memoir is the first book by someone who has made a name in some field other than writing, it’s probably not a household name.
There are some celebrities whose books just seem unnecessary, because their stories have been all over the mass media already. Many celebrity memoirs have a “co-author” listed in small print on the cover, and that’s usually the person who did all the writing, based on interviews with the subject – and too often, the writing’s just not that good. And I realize this is some form of book snobbery, but the glossy covers with big pictures of the celebrity actually put me off; I read in public, and I don’t necessarily want to make it obvious that I’m reading so-and-so’s tell-all. It feels too much like reading the tabloids, which I actively avoid. (That’s not a “guilty pleasure,” that’s just guilt.)
I’ll read a celebrity memoir or biography if I’ve had a long-standing interest in the person’s life and/or career, but I don’t really seek them out. I might also read one if I’ve gotten some good recommendations about it, especially if they come from other people who don’t make it a habit of reading celebrity memoirs either – “but this one’s worth it, it’s really interesting.”
Having said all that, though, I do have a couple of “celebrity memoirs” in the TBR shelves right now, although I don’t really think of either book that way. I got Steve Martin’s Born Standing Up for my husband a few months ago (he’s already read it, and liked it), and I’ve had Barack Obama’s Dreams From My Father in the stacks for a while, but I think he wrote that back when his political career was still pretty new – and I have a hard time thinking of the President as a “celebrity” for some reason. And I’ve almost bought Valerie Bertinelli’s memoir a couple of times now, just because I’ve always liked her.
What celebrity memoirs do you think would be worth reading?
Friday Fill-ins #131
1. When I heard the first news report I jumped on Twitter to see what people were saying about it.
2. A big hug is the best medicine.
3. It’s late, but in a few hours it will be early.
4. Reading always.
5. My eyes have seen with the help of glasses (and later, contacts) since I was three years old.
6. Defend your beliefs strongly.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to seeing the kids again (they’ve been at Grandma’s all week), tomorrow my plans include something Fourth of July-related and Sunday, I want to get home in time to get a few errands done!
(No post tomorrow – see you back here on Monday!)
Your mother in law sounds like a gem! (Isn't she behind your BlogHer trip too?). I subscribe to Books on the Knob in my Google Reader and have found some good free books for the Kindle because of it.
Wow! You're getting the Kindle as a gift? That's awesome.Your mother-in-law is pretty great.
Have a great 4th! Don't blow anything up. 🙂
What a wonderful gift! I'm sure you'll enjoy your Kindle!
On other notes … like you, I've resisted Glue. It used to be that I was on IE, and my browser was incompatible. Now I'm just not ready to add another gadgety thing to my laptop.
Kathy (Bermudaonion) – Yes, the BlogHer trip was my Christmas gift from her, and she is a fantastic MIL. Thanks for the recommendation about the e-book source!
Mike – Yes, and yes. 🙂 Any 4th of July blow-ups around here will not be literal ones, trust me.
Dawn – I pretty much feel the same way. The ones I already have take enough of my attention as it is, and all of them ending up claiming more time and attention than you think they will, don't they?
Most people are pretty glad I'm not inimitable.
But I'm SUPER glad that Anna is Anna (and a friend).
Thanks for this!
Beth K – I don't know, I think you're one of a kind. Loved the interview!
You have a Kindle! So cool! I can't wait to hear what you think of it.
Congratulations to Wendy for winning a copy of The 19th Wife. I hope she enjoys it as much as we did. 🙂
I haven't given Glue a try either. I looked into it at one point, but decided it wasn't for me just yet.
Your comment in your BTT response about some celebrity memoirs being unncessary because their stories already are out there in the media came to mind as I was writing my response too, although I decided not to mention it. I think your reasons for shying away from them are much my own, actually. It may be an unfair bias, but it's there, nonetheless.
LOL I've done that too. Jump on Twitter to see what everyone's saying about the latest breaking news. Hugs definitely do count as the best medicine. Especially one from my husband. 🙂 I hope you had a great weekend, Florinda. Have a good week!
Wendy (Literary Feline) – I don't have it yet, but I think it's supposed to arrive in another day or two!
Yes, that bias against celebrity memoirs may be unfair, but there are a few areas in my life where I try to keep my standards a little higher :-).
My weekend didn't exactly go according to plan, I'm afraid. We were down at my mother-in-law's for the holiday, and she was taken to the hospital on Saturday. They're still running tests to diagnose the cause and come up with a treatment plan for her severe vertigo, and she won't be home before Tuesday at the earliest. We're staying at her house until all the arrangements are set, because she may need in-home help for awhile, but we should be back home and at work later in the week. (Meanwhile, I'm glad the Internet connection at her house works :-).)