A Curious Statistical Anomaly

The other day, I was reading a book while waiting for my husband to get through the check out line and I was so engrossed that I was giggling at all the jokes and funny scenes. I looked up to find several people in the cafe area just staring at me. Luckily hubby finished and came to pick me up to leave.

Okay, is that was weird. I began to wonder, don’t other people react to their reading material? Don’t you laugh at the funny parts? Cry at the sad ones? Get angry when the main character does something so stupid you think they should be sent to Jail and do not pass go…

I cry at movies too, or laugh, depending. But, I’ve noticed that most people don’t react at all. They sit stiff and bland and then leave when the lights come up.

I usually only go to movies during matinee periods, and if it’s a weekend there are kids there (if the movie is rated for them). Children and sometimes teens get involved in movies and react to what’s happening on the screen. Adults … not so much.

Now, I’m thinking maybe it’s the same with books and reading. Do you react when you read? Do you keep it all in if you’re in public? Do you get embarrassed if you react aloud when reading in a public place? Is that why reading is considered a solitary activity? Hmmm…lot to think about here.

I’ve been grappling with a cold or the flu or a just plain nasty combination of the two. What it means, other than feeling like I got run over by a especially large convoy of sixteen wheelers, and as if I ran at least 10 consecutive marathons, is that my brain doesn’t run on all thrusters. In other words, since my life doesn’t make any sense anymore and I can’t seem to wrap my mind around the simplest tasks of living; like cooking, cleaning, or doing the wash; let alone trying to proofread or copyedit (without 30 gallons of coffee per item), I read.

I dip into someone else’s life and universe and just enjoy their adventure. That’s basically what reading is…suspending belief and immersing yourself in some other world/culture/universe/life.  To imagine that soon maybe your life will make sense again.  If fiction makes sense then shouldn’t reality?

So, these past two weeks I’ve read a lot — and taken a lot of notes.  Now that my head is beginning to clear and a bit of coherence is returning, it’s time to tackle my email, proofread the April reviews that are piling up and begin writing my own reviews from my notes.

The end of the month is coming towards me at a pace that seems like a billion miles and hour — the zines need to be done and ready to go live on April 1st and I’ve been out of it most of this month. Sometimes you slay the dragon, and sometimes you’re just lunch.

I’m happy dancing all over the house. I got my Kindle 2 in the mail today — late, very late afternoon.

Then it was Google time to figure out how to get the PDF review copies of books from my PC to my Kindle so I could read them. Many minutes/hours later, I ended up using Stanza (free download).

The resulting files aren’t the greatest but they are readable and they’re on the Kindle so I’m not tied to the PC and desk — so that’s a good thing.

Next will be to actually spend a day using it but now I’m behind schedule — again and the next two days are going to be really, really busy getting ready for the zines to go live on Sunday, March 1st.

For Christmas, I got a Kindle. Well, if you’ve been keeping an eye on the Kindle newsbits, I had a Kindle ordered for me for Christmas with a delivery date in March. Waiting has been difficult and still is.

Then, my hubby got the word from Amazon that the Kindle I’d be receiving would be the Kindle 2 rather than the original Kindle he ordered. I thought about it and looked again at the Kindle 2 features and now I’m all kinds of excited by this news. At first, I wanted to stay with the original because I liked the keyboard better and the sliding bar rather than the new keyboard and joy-stick key. But when I look at all the other upgrades and features, I find that they far outweigh the joy-stick and keyboard. So, I’m psyched again to get it.

I essentially read for a living. Well, I review books and that involves a lot of reading. With the downward spiral of the economy, many publishers are having to cut somewhere to save money and keep the books coming. That means fewer advanced reading copies (ARCs) and several publishers have already contacted me about PDFs. If they send PDFs as ARCs there’s no printing costs. However, many people don’t like reading on screen. I’d asked for the Kindle for Christmas because I could see the changes coming and I didn’t want to be chained to my laptop or desktop to read — not that my desk chair isn’t comfy but I like to curl up in my chair-and-a-half and read with a cuppa tea or sit on the deck or in the garden. Now I can — or I can when I get my Kindle.

The new Kindle 2 has a read aloud feature. I reported here about Text Aloud, a program that reads PDFs and text files to you in a sort of Stephen Hawking’s voice. Well, the new Kindle 2 has a similar feature. It seems that some people (the Author’s Guild) object. I found two articles on this today: BLORGE’s Kindle 2 prompts “reading Aloud” copyright claim and The Wall Street Journal’s New Kindle Audio Feature Causes a Stir. I can’t believe that anyone would take this claim seriously. It’s not like the book is being copied, and hearing it read by a computer synthesized voice is nowhere near the same as listening to an audio version of the book. It’s not like if I have a choice I’d pick the computer synth-voice over the acting and emoting human voice.

What’s next suing parents for reading to their children before bed. What about reading a bit of an article or a few paragraphs to your partner or friend or coworker in the next cubicle — violation of copyright. I’m also a struggling writer and I have a lot of interest in seeing that intellectual property and copyright are upheld but this argument is totally ridiculous and seems more for getting publicity and making themselves look foolish rather than being a real concern for their members. Obviously they haven’t learned from RIAA’s and MPAA’s mistakes — the more you cry wolf and demonize your users/readers/buyers the less respect you get (though in the case of those two their bottom lines prove them wrong in their basic assumptions — but that is another whole copyright rant…) Deep breath, relax…

I’m anxiously waiting for the message that says my Kindle has been shipped. Once I get it and use it a bit, I’ll probably have a bit more to say about it. Meanwhile, I’m counting the days…

I’ve met Jeff at several conventions — doubt he’d remember me. I’ve also sat in on several panels and heard him speak. Occasionally, maybe once or twice a month, I get over to his blog and sort of catch up on what’s he’s doing — mainly because he’s thoughtful, intelligent, opinionated, and interesting. Those are the criteria I usually use when visiting blogs. I don’t have to agree with a blog just be informed and/or entertained.

Anyway, he’s now reviewing the Penguin Great Ideas series by reading and reviewing one book a day for 60 days. Today (1/13/09) he is up to book #26 Revelation and the book of Job. These are the books that perhaps we all should have read at one time or another — we’d be richer for it I’m sure. Having read through VanderMeer’s reviews, I’m certainly thinking I’m going to need to look in on this series.

You can read Penguin’s page about the series and they have this to say about the books:

Throughout history, some books have changed the world. They have transformed the way we see ourselves – and each other. They have inspired debate, dissent, war and revolution. They have enlightened, outraged, provoked and comforted. They have enriched lives – and destroyed them. Now Penguin brings you the works of the great thinkers, pioneers, radicals and visionaries whose ideas shook civilization, and helped make us who we are.

At Penguin’s blog, they have coverage of Jeff VanderMeer’s efforts to read and review 60 in 60 days.

Every now and then I decide I’m going to improve my understanding of myself, the world, and everything. I know the answer is 42, but how did it get there. In my last foray to improve myself, I read Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations. Surprisingly, I loved the book. It wasn’t what I expected it to be — dull as dust and like dragging my eyeballs over sand. Instead it’s simply a man’s thoughts on life and his place in it — what he wishes to be and how he hopes to achieve his goals. It was a bit like reading someone’s diary. Many of his thoughts gave me much to think about in relation to my time and my life. So, it was well worth the effort. This was the #2 of 60 on VanderMeer’s blog.

Some of the classics that they suggest you read in college are really good reading. My belief is that maybe if instructors didn’t tell us how necessary it is to read these wonderful works of philosophy and “deep thinking” then maybe it wouldn’t trigger our “fear of failure to understand” and we’d just read them as we would anything else and find that indeed they are good books well worth reading. For example, I found Herodotus to be a bit of a gossip and when you read his words they’re like reading a travelogue.  On the other hand, the translation notes are a hard slog through a swamp with hidden quicksand pools.

So, pop over to Jeff VanderMeer’s blog and read what he has to say about the books in the Great Idea Series. You may find yourself putting some of them on your reading list — I know I did. Now, if I could figure out how to get the time to actually read them — I’d be golden.