The Therapist Takes A Nook

I, Therapist, take you, Nook, to be my E-Reader of choice. To have and to hold, (ok, carry), from this day forward, whenever there are times that the book I'm reading may be heavy or awkward to juggle with my other worldly items. I promise to keep you dry from bath water and your battery charged til death (of your battery or screen life) do us part.
Yes, I have "taken" a Nook. I, who never thought such a day would come.
It's not that I don't have friends with E-Readers; I do. And I have tried not to judge them for their purchase, their mad and reckless departure from all that is holy. And...in the end, it turns out that scripture is right on this topic, "judge not lest you be judged", because here I sit, not alone, but with a Nook. I blame Stephen King for my unfaithfulness.
I have written about Stephen before when his new novel UNDER THE DOME came out in 2010. I believe I called it a "tomb" and may have mentioned Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. A devout King fan since his infamous THE STAND, I was excited to hear that he had written a new novel called 11/22/63.

               

Anyone that has been on the planet for a half of century knows exactly what that date is and I was interested to see how Stephen King would write about the assassination of JFK. Bibliophile bought the book for me right away and when I came home from work, there it sat covering up a large portion of my night stand. This is when the first thoughts of adultery came to me. I thought about how I read in the bathtub every night. I thought about reading Justin Cronin's THE PASSAGE and the aforementioned UNDER THE DOME...it was in that moment that I knew I would become a cheater. It became quite clear to me that my faithfulness could not bear up under the temptation the Nook presented of giving me ALL of 11/22/63 in just 7.5 portable ounces. Three days later the Nook and I bathed together with all 897 pages of 11/22/63...I fell in love.
I wrote the first part of this when I first "took the nook", (that ended up catchier than I intended), and can now look back on my first three months as an adulterer. It turns out that the nook did not steal all my affections as my reading has been evenly divided between those books I can actually (have and) hold and those that are digitized. I have not deserted my habit of browsing through bookstores and caressing a cover or page. I still fill my "to be read" bookshelf with books of the original variety.
So, what I have found is that my divided affections have actually caused me to read MORE, and that is the real beauty of my new reading partner. Although unexpected, I am quite satisfied with this new, open relationship. I hope my real books understand.

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Contest, Books for Vacation (or not), and an Author Collaboration

There is a contest at work (see the March 14, 2011 blog post, "Scent of the Missing, Revisited")...

We're supposed to sell 100 copies of a title we choose. I chose Susannah Charleson's SCENT OF THE MISSING. We're not competing with each other, and there is no time limit on the contest. We're just supposed to handsell 100 copies. While the contest isn't about doing better than the other booksellers, I have to admit that I am a little bit pleased that (so far) I am selling the most copies! SCENT OF THE MISSING is a great book to sell...an easy one to talk about. People are interested!

         

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In the April 1 post, "More Important Than Clothes", I talked about the books I'm thinking of taking on our upcoming vacation. Last week, a co-worker told me about his 100 book, Stephen King's NEEDFUL THINGS. I bought it based on his recommendation, and put it in my "books I'll probably take on vacation" pile.

Therapist saw NEEDFUL THINGS and told me that she thinks it is one of the creepiest of Stephen King's books, really pretty intense. Which may not be the most relaxing for vacation.

And then I went to work today and "Twyla" suggested that I not take P.S. I LOVE YOU by Cecilia Ahern on vacation because it causes much crying. "You don't want to be crying on your vacation, do you?" Well, no, not really.

So I'm not sure if either NEEDFUL THINGS or P.S. I LOVE YOU is going to make it into the suitcase. Hmmmm.

         

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I am reading HEADS YOU LOSE, by Lisa Lutz and David Hayward. Lutz and Hayward used to be a couple, and decided to collaborate on this book, even though they may be, um, less than friends. They write alternate chapters. Unlike most other books with more than one author, this one includes the emails they sent to each other at the end of each chapter, as well as footnotes they wrote in the each other's chapters.

While the story is about Lacey and Paul Hansen (brother and sister) who find a headless body on their property, David and Lisa's relationship also features as a large part of the book. As I started reading I thought it was clever, reading their comments (and commentary) as well as reading the story. And then, about 80 pages in, I thought, "Okay, I get it." It felt gimmick-y, almost contrived. Then I came to the end of Chapter 13. I read their end-of-chapter comments and the beginning of the next chapter and started laughing loud (rare for me).

         

So it's working. I'm liking it. I am eager to see what happens to Lacey and Paul...AND Lisa and David!

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Under the What?

I thought it would be fun to be a guest blogger and be able to embarrass my partner with my less than literary repartee about the books I am reading or have read or might be thinking about reading.
Most recently I dove into Stephen Kings new novel "Under the Dome", which could be called a "Tomb", I suppose. Eleven hundred pages of good versus evil with evil having profoundly more victories that then aforementioned good.
Mr. King has no problem killing off characters that we know and love. In fact, I believe that Mr. King sits at his desk thinking up ways to make the characters he is going to dismember more likable to us, his dear readers.
My favorite part of "Under the Dome" is that he has included three dogs that figure predominantly in the story and he actually lets one of them live to the very end.
The storyline itself is what happens in a community when an impenetrable, clear dome comes down around a city. Let's just say that not being accountable to anyone on the outside of the dome does not seem to enhance the character of those living under it. Stephen writes the story like a contagion of evil was released there and most people neglected to get vaccinated.
I have heard a lot of talk about this book being compared to "The Stand", a book that still haunts me and has characters I will never forget. I can see why the comparisons are being made but can't say that "Under the Dome" is of the same caliber.
The Stand is a classic and Under the Dome a book that will be revered by carpal tunnel specialists everywhere.