Thursday, August 28, 2008

Top of the pile.

So, after reading Brigid's post about pies last night and thinking back about all the other times I've seen reference Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged", I finally got off my figurative butt and found a copy. I then read a bit (till 3 a.m.) of it to decide if I wanted it enough to buy it. So, today I went down to my local Border's and bought a copy.

Which, if you believe all the hype the music and book publishing moguls say, makes me a minority of one of purchasing something I downloaded for free. But that's another rant.

I sat down in the reading area of Border's and with my required cuppa I read up to the part I stopped at last night. Now that I'm home, I've placed it on top of my reading now pile. That's not something I normally do. I don't like reading more than one book at a time. And I really hate putting a book down in the middle and stopping to read something else. It's plays havoc with the movie. Right, what do I mean by that you ask? When I read a book, and I think this is by no means unique, once I get into it a movie starts playing in my head. The movie is my minds construction of the book populated by faces and places described by the author. After a while, I'm not reading, I'm watching the movie play, each scene constructed from the pages in front of me.

But every once in a while I'll find a book that forces me to hit pause on my current book and start the new show. So far, this is one of them. I know I won't be disappointed.

On a side note, you might not think that buying a real honest to $DIETY paper book is such a big deal, but when you're on the road as much as my job requires carrying said paper could take up an entire suitcase in and of itself. About 3 years ago I went electronic with my books. That meant that I could carry enough book to read without the associated 2 tons of weight. So, when I like a book enough to actually buy the paper version just to put on the shelf it says something.

5 comments:

Alan said...

Although I like Atlas Shrugged, I think The Fountainhead is better.

I've been on the ebook wagon for almost ten years. I bought a Kindle earlier this year and I'll never buy another paperback again.

Unknown said...

where do you folks find ebooks. I have so many books that I read that I believe that ebooks would be beneficial to me.

What is a kindle?

Kindly,
Anthony

aepilot_jim said...

Anthony, a kindle is a dedicated ebook reader. There was a display for readers right inside the front door of the Borders I went into today. Ironic?

Alan, I like the fountainhead too. I read it after seeing the Gary Cooper/Patricia Neal movie. The book, as usual, was much better. I looked at dedicated readers, but that would have been something else to lug around on the road. Mobipocket makes a nice reader for pc's and pda's

Carteach said...

I recall the first time I read 'Atlas Shrugged'. I finished it in two days... and it sank in deep.

I would liken it to reading a book of future history written decades ago, and realizing the author nailed it all down perfectly up till the day I bought the book..... then starting to read what tomorrow had in store.

Funny.... I read for hours online... blogs and news, etc. But I only like my books on paper.

Alan said...

I read books on various PDAs, using mostly MobiPocket, for years and initially I wasn't interested in the Kindle, but I decided to try it after reading some exuberant reviews on non-Amazon sites. I travel a lot, maybe not as much as a charter pilot, but I logged over 75,000 air miles in 2008 so far.

There are two things I like about the Kindle. It's electronic ink screen is fantastic. It's larger than most PDAs, about the size of a paperback book. It's like reading a printed page.

The other think I love is the built in cell modem that allows you to download books directly to the kindle from the Internet. I can download books from Amazon, or Feedbooks directly to the Kindle. That way I don't have to worry about running out of reading material at an airport or hotel.

The cell service (through Sprint) is included of free with the Kindle and you don't have to sign up with a carrier, it just works when you turn it on.

The Kindle is not for everyone, but if you travel and/or read several books a week like me, you would love it.