Bibliophilopolis

Well, in a moment of weakness after work Thursday, I popped into the local Barnes & Noble and shelled out the “big bucks” for a nook.

I purchased and downloaded the newest Stephen King book (Under the Dome) as my innaugural read via this method. I’m about 110 pages in (out of 800+) and, as a simple, portable reader I have no complaints. I am pretty disappointed in a couple other functions that I had high hopes for (and this may admittedly be partly because I just started using it and am not that savvy a user yet).

The dictionary: I was surprised when I highlighted the word “trundled” (yes, I already knew the meaning) and it said ‘not found’. Now, would it have found just ‘trundle?’ I don’t know. And I don’t know yet if I can look up a variant of a word; all I know how to do is highlight a word on the page and look that up.

Selecting (highlighting) a word to look up: This process is AGONIZINGLY slow. It automatically starts you at the uppermost left word on the page and you have to navigate down and across to the word you want one word (or line) at a time. Is there no faster way to do this?? If the word you’re interested in is in the lower right, well, you’ve got a lot of tapping to do.., and its reaction to each tap seems awfully slow. Exasperating. I may be too spoiled due to having used the touch screen on my iPhone for so long now. (and my iPhone is a quicker way to look up a word via Merriam-Webster than using my nook)

Highlighting and notes: this has the same problem as navigating to look up a word. I am inveterate ‘underliner and note-taker’ when reading, so this may also be a major disappointment as well.

Maybe future upgrades will help my issues. I hope. Any other nook owners out there that can help ease my pain?

Not surprisingly, I always make an effort to check out this section of our sunday paper, which usually includes a few reviews of new releases, and the top ten bestseller lists in fiction and non-fiction.  They also have a feature where a reader writes them telling who they are and what they are currently reading, with a couple paragraphs on why they like it, etc.  I’ve often noted that those readers featured are almost always listed as “retired” under profession, and have thought about writing in myself to break the monotony.  This past sunday, however, the featured hoosier reader was nine year old fourth grader who has the goal to read all 89 John Newbery Medal winners.  Very ambitious for one so young.

She also has her own blog chronicling her efforts, which I would like to take a moment to applaud.  Nice going Laura!

I re-read this book because it was discussed last night by the “Shared Pages” bookclub (held at “Bookmama’s” bookstore in Irvington); it is a short book and appears on many “top novels” lists.  As doubtless many already know it is set in a future where books are illegal and fireman do not put out fires (houses in this future are fireproofed), but instead start fires to burn books (451 degrees is the temperature that paper is said to combust, but I think that’s 451 celsius, and I read “Fahrenheit 451” just ‘sounded better’ to Bradbury).

Guy Montag, the protagonist, is a fireman who begins to question things after meeting a new neighbor, a young girl (Clarisse) who has somehow thus far avoided being ‘numbed’ by the dystopian society.  There are many ‘futuristic’ things in the story that were correctly anticipated by Bradbury, including ear bud speakers (they are ‘shells’ in the story), and big screen tvs, and assassination drones (like the unmanned many aircraft being used in Afghanistan & elsewhere now) are not all that different from the terrifying Mechanical Dogs in the story.

I last read this book in 2001.  It was also made into a movie in the 60s.  A remake of the movie was investigated by Mel Gibson, but plans eventually fell through, partly because – with the advent of computers – it was thought it would not be as powerful in today’s society.

It only took four days to get through this book.  I think I enjoyed it just as much the second time around.  I had forgotten about his interlude in the ‘deep south’ and the distasteful encounters with racism found there.  He also spends a little too much time on Texas.  I particularly liked the passages where he discussed the intelligence of Charley (that’s his dog – in case you didn’t know); I think we’ve all known dogs that share some of his characteristics.  I also liked his comments on the great redwood trees, even saying how no portrait or picture can adequately convey the sense one gets when standing next to one.  This reminded me that recently – I think it was in National Geographic – there was a big deal about a fold-out picture of one of the Sequoia trees and how it was photographed in using a camera that panned down the entire length of one.  I just did a quick search and here is a link to where one could purchase that photo, or browse through some others.

Overall, I highly recommend this book.