Electronic or not?

I got a kindle for Christmas, and though I love it dearly, it has in no way stopped me from buying and reading physical books. The kindle is certainly convenient. It's much easier to read on the metro. I'm usually wearing three-inch heels and hanging on to a pole to keep from falling over, so being able to read one-handed makes life easier. But that hasn't turned out to be a good enough reason for me to forsake physical books.

I find myself continuing to buy physical books. I just can't stop. I still take books on the metro and am capable of reading them one-handed, for the most part. And I actually prefer physical books on planes because I can read them during take-off and landing. This is at constant war with my need to pack fewer books on vacation. I'm the kind of person who took two books and a kindle to Las Vegas for a weekend and actually read both books and used the kindle (at a night club).

I've finally come to terms with the fact that I will probably never stop buying physical books, despite the convenience of my kindle. It simply doesn't meet all of my needs as a reader. I have managed to find a decent balance for purchasing books in different formats. Here's how I generally divide things up.

Reasons to buy the physical book

It's a graphic novel - The kindle is black and white. But even if I had an iPad, I think I'd still buy physical versions of graphic novels and comic books. My experience reading comics on a screen has never been wholly satisfying. Unless the screen is big enough to show a full page at time, you have to zoom in. And then depending on the layout of the page, you have to scroll all over the place to read the whole thing. Generally, the author/artist put a lot of thought into the layout of a page and expects you to take in the entire thing as a whole. The kindle doesn't even handle basic illustrations very well. I read The Book Thief on is, and the illustrated sections were incredibly frustrating. They took longer than normal to load and there were random blank pages that had me worried I was missing part of the story. E-Ink technology just hasn't caught up with this yet.

I already own part of the series - There are some series that I'm only partway through. I started them with physical books, and I want to own the entire series in the same format. I currently own 30 of the 39 published Discworld books and I intend to keep buying the physical copies so they can all sit on the shelf together

I think Boyfriend or his mom would be interested in reading the book - If I expect I'll lend a book to someone, I'm going to buy a physical copy. It's just easier that way.

I want the book on my shelf - There are some books that just look cool. I want them sitting on my shelf to show that I've read them. Or for easy reference. Things like Isaac Newton's The Principia (which was a Christmas gift years before I got my kindle) fall into this category. Yes, this is a bit pretentious. But I still dream of having a library in my house one day. A library full of awesome books.

It's a collection of short stories - The kindle is really geared to reading a book cover to cover. While it's possible to jump around in a book, provided it has a linked-up table of contents, the interface really isn't optimized for it. When I read a collection of short stories, I rarely read them in order. I jump around. I skip stories. I come back to others. This is easier to do with a physical book than a kindle.

It's not available on the kindle - This happens more often than I expected. Some authors are surprisingly resistant to electronic readers. Some just haven't gotten around to converting their works yet. Either way, it makes the decision easy.

Reasons to buy the electronic book

It's free - This is the big reason. I got all of Sherlock Holmes, Charles Dickens, and Jane Austen on my kindle because I was able to download them without paying anything. I actually grabbed a lot of classics this way. I was mostly buying the cheap versions of these books before. I'm still hoping to one day inherit my grandfather's awesome collection of beautifully bound classics, so I don't feel a pressing need to get copies of these books for display. I can always buy cool versions in the future without being out any more money than I would have been in the first place. You really can't argue with free, and since the kindle's memory is huge, I have no real fear of filling it up. That said, the free versions (from gutenberg.org) aren't always formatted the best. I had to delete The Complete Works of Shakespeare because I couldn't click directly to any given play. You get what you pay for.

It's really cheap - Amazon has started releasing cheap versions of classics that are still covered by copyright law. $3 a pop for anything by Kurt Vonnegut, for example. I haven't bought these yet, but that price tag is enough to tempt me away from a physical copy. At least for a first read-through. I had actually expected e-books to be the cheaper option for the most part, but this hasn't been the case. Especially for new releases, Amazon.com will generally offer the physical book at a lower cost than the e-book.

The physical book is huge - Sometimes a book is just too big. I do most of my reading away from home - on the metro, in the waiting room, on vacation - and I don't want to lug around a huge book just so I can read it. Infinite Jest is 9.1" x 6.1" x 2.1" and weighs almost three pounds. Each book in A Song of Ice and Fire is roughly 1000 pages long. It's easier to carry these beasts around on my kindle.

I want to be able to carry the book around with me - There are some books I love and want to be able to have on my person at all times. Good Omens falls under this category. I own the physical book, but it's hardcover and I'm always a bit worried I'm going to ruin it. If the electronic book is ever made available, I'll buy it in a heartbeat. (It currently isn't available because the kindle inexplicably can't split up hyphenated words to appear on separate line. Thus the name "Things-Not-Working-Properly-Even-After-You've-Given-Them-A-Good-Thumping-But-Secretly-No-Alcohol-Lager" destroys the formatting of the book.)

The book is a bit embarrassing - If I had owned a kindle a few years ago, that's how I would have consumed Twilight. I do get a perverse sort of pride from having those books sitting on my shelf, but it was a bit embarrassing to read them in public. This is also why I bought Amber Benson's most recent book on my kindle. I want to read these things, but I don't want to risk being approached about them by strangers.



Each book is a special case, of course. While I definitely want to physical copy of some and the electronic copy of others, I occasionally have trouble choosing a format. Ever since Dead Reckoning came out over a month ago, I've been going back and forth. The e-book was shockingly more expensive than the physical book, but I wasn't sure I wanted to carry a hard cover around. Or pay $15 for a book that will probably take me three days to read and hasn't gotten stellar reviews. I'll probably end up waiting for either the kindle price to drop dramatically or the paperback to come out next spring. We'll see which happens first. In the meantime, I'm excited to get back to my kindle for the next installment of A Song of Ice and Fire.

Cooking with Alcohol

Just now I discovered this YouTube series called "My Drunk Kitchen". And then I watched the whole thing. There are only eight, so it didn't take long. But I want to let you know that you should check this out. I laughed so hard. Also, this is a girl after my own heart. We have similar views about white wine and cheese. Also her ability to cook closely resembles mine. I pretty much just throw stuff together and then declare that it tastes good. But here's the first episode. And then go check out the rest. Just google "My Drunk Kitchen".

Random Geek Stuff

First there's this video. Except insert Eliza Dushku for S Michelle Gellar.

She's such a dork. It's adorable.

 Apparently American Gods got picked up for SIX seasons on HBO. Tom Hanks' production company is funding this with a huge amount of money. But I'm not sure how they're going to turn one novel into six seasons of television, 10-12 hour-long episodes each. Unless this is true

I really hope this is true. And maybe one season will be dedicated to Anansi Boys as well.

I've been watching a whole lot of Supernatural lately. Like, a lot. It's basically two hot guys driving around the country slaying demons. It's very fun and kind of addicting. The guys are really hot. And it's a surprisingly smart show when it comes to knowing the ins and outs of the genre. It's less smart about women, but that's okay. It's mostly about the guys and the demons.

I've been re-reading the Sookie Stackhouse books in preparation for the True Blood premiere. It's in two weeks; I can't wait! I'm also planning on picking up the next book in the A Song of Ice and Fire series as soon as Game of Thrones ends (finale next week). I thought there was a nice bit of symmetry to that.

Finally, I saw this and kind of want one:

It's a trap door in your floor that leads to a mini wine cellar. Someday when I'm rich...

How To Eat M&Ms

Or is this just me?

Gaming

I went to game night again last night. It was...alright.

I actually spent most of the day arguing with myself and trying to convince myself to go. It was like part of me was a petulant child who just wanted to collapse in front of the TV after work, and another part of me was a stern parent, putting her foot down. Anyway, I went round and round in circles all day and finally dragged myself off to game night.

Everyone was already involved in a game when I arrived, so I wandered around the comic book section of the store for a while. Then I joined a game of Dominion with a couple who had almost every Dominion card ever released. They were missing only the "con-cards" because they hadn't gone to the convention. There were still a ton of cards, each in a protective plastic sleeve. I got to try a few that I had never seen before. If I had just had one more turn, I would have won. Oh well.

I did find it interesting that the expansion we played with included both a higher value treasure card (platinum, worth 5) and a higher point card (worth 10 points). But the game simply didn't last long enough for anyone to even think of going for those cards. Those cards probably come into play in games that encourage players to collect more money or games that last longer. It would have been fun to try those cards out, but we had a fairly low stakes game going. Only three of us even managed to get provinces (worth 6 points) before the game ended, and the winner ended with 23 points.

After we finished our game, I watched some guys playing a game where it looked like the main objective was colonizing a planet. Even they didn't seem to really understand what was going on. One of them was incredibly awkward and tried to hit on me in an amusing way. He told me twice that he had spent all weekend at some convention I didn't recognize, but which was clearly intended to impress me. He also informed me that he doesn't usually make it to game night because he spends so much time working out.

The guy I met last time was there again. He was engrossed in a pretty complicated game the entire time I was there, but he did invite me to another game night this Friday. And I agreed to go. Sitting home alone on a Friday night with my cat and DVDs is no way to make friends. At least, it hasn't worked up til now. Since making friends is one of the main goals this month, I need to do things to work towards that goal.

Buffy's Eighth Season

Here be spoilers.

I finally got the last comic book in the Buffy Season 8 series and read it last night. Overall, I have to say, I think this season was kind of a mess. It turns out Joss Whedon doesn't do so well with an unlimited budget (and this has me slightly worried about The Avengers). He needs something to reign him in. Otherwise you get Angel and Buffy with the dimension ripping sex giving birth to a new universe. No one needed that.

Parts of this season were just ridiculous. The big bad was named Twilight, which they swear was a coincidence. I don't buy it. Harmony brought the vampires "out of the coffin" ::cough::TrueBlood::cough:: Meanwhile vampires were seen as good guys with the world condemning the slayers for genocide. I don't think that's how it would play out. I'm also not sure how this ties into Angel's 6th season, since he seems pretty far past redemption now. And I didn't remember anything about Spike's arc in either season, though I think he had his own set of comics. Hmmm, I'll have to go back and re-read some things.

That said, there were some things that I liked. Mostly little character moments. I'm getting behind the Xander/Dawn paring. It really does make sense, and they're kind of adorable together. Oz got closure and his happily ever after with a wife and kid. Willow finally dumped Kennedy. Faith seemed to come into her own. It's all those little character things that really make Buffy special.

This does seem to be a lesson Joss Whedon learned. He dialed things back a lot at the end of the season. Buffy has managed to cut off the slayer line once and for all. Most of the slayers are just pissed at her and don't want to be slayers anymore. So she's living in San Francisco, working as a waitress, and going back to basics. One vampire at a time.

Despite this mess, I'm excited for the 9th season. I feel like a similar thing happened on Angel. Joss let things get a bit out of hand with the soap opera aspects of the 4th season and the constant cliff hangars. The show lost the ability to do one-offs. But then they hit the reset button, wiped everyone's memory, and had a really good 5th season. I think something similar could happen with Buffy's ninth season. Hopefully Joss and Co have figured out that just because they *can* tear the universe apart doesn't mean the *should*.

I am excited to go back and re-read the entire eighth season now that I own all of it. I want to see how it stands up as a whole. My guess is that, like Angel's 4th season, it will hold up a bit better on the re-read, now that I know how it ends.

Oh Vegas

I spent Memorial Day Weekend in Vegas for a Bachelorette Party. And for the most part, it was a whole lot of fun. I even got a new purse!

My beautiful new purse

So here are the highs and the lows of the weekend

Highlights:

• Seeing friends I don't see nearly often enough
• Awesome new purse that fits my laptop.
• Fat Tuesday. It's not really a trip to Vegas without a stop at Fat Tuesday
• The Oxygen Bar - $20 for a drink, a massage, and half an hour inhaling pure oxygen? Yes please!
• Dinner the first night at Koi, where the Bride-To-Be's fiancee proposed. My duck was delicious, as was my lemondrop
• Met a guy at the pizza place because BFF and I were geeking out about Game of Thrones. He had even heard of Harvey Mudd
• Thunder From Down Under
• I thought the weather was great (70s, cloudy, windy), though I don't think anyone else did. It put a damper on plans to lounge by the pool, but it was a nice change from the heat and humidity back east.

Lowlights:

• Nightclubs and I do not get along. Too noisy, too crowded, and the light show was disorienting. I had to leave early both nights
• For some reason my tattoo is considered an invitation to touch me. A guy started tracing it while we were standing in line for one of the nightclubs. It's still really bothering me. I wish I had yelled at him.
• Bride-To-Be was sick and unable to take full advantage of Las Vegas' party atmosphere. It was sad, but she handled it with a whole lot of grace.
• Hangovers and air travel do not mix well