Category Archives: blather

How my iPad Mini 2 turned me into even more of a reading fiend

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It wasn’t so long ago that I was full of angst over whether I should get an e-reader. Having set a challenge for myself of reading at least 20 books in a year, and finding it awfully hard at times, I wasn’t sure if an e-reader would make life easier or just take me farther away from the printed page. My first job–ever–was as a page in a library, shelving books, and I truly enjoy the tactile experience of holding a book, turning the pages, and reading the book as the author intended. Still, it’s hard when you run into storage issues, as we have. We have seven 7-foot-tall Ikea bookcases filled to the gills with books, stacked up and shelved so thickly that there’s barely any space for new additions (and that doesn’t even include the bookcases in our living room or the kids’ rooms, all of which are also full).

Last Fall, I bought an iPad Mini 2 after much internal deliberation of iPad Mini versus Kindle Fire HDX. Ultimately, I didn’t want something as large as a traditional iPad, but I wasn’t impressed with the Kindle native app–and the iPad Mini seemed to be the most compatible with my environment (where I already have an iPhone and a MacBook Pro). Staying with an Apple product also meant little to no learning curve.

I took my iPad Mini 2 with me on a trip to California, and it seduced me immediately. I wasn’t excited by the movie options on the plane but–lo and behold!–I had downloaded “Captain America: Winter Soldier” onto my iPad Mini 2 before I left the house, so I was able to watch that on my way westward. Reading became simply a matter of flipping open the case, jumping into the Kindle app, and going for as long as my eyes would stay open. Even before I could finish my current book, Amazon was RIGHT THERE with an email offering a free book (their “Kindle First” program) or deeply discounted Kindle books (often $1.99-3.99 per book). Unsure of what I wanted for Hanukkah or Christmas, I asked for Amazon gift cards to feed my addiction.

Using Goodreads to track everything, as I aimed to get to 23 books this year, I’ve found myself flying through my reading list. Not having to wait to go to the bookstore (or stare endlessly at our shelves of books to see what I’m up for reading from dh’s collection), I’ve been consuming books at a nearly alarming pace. We’re just barely three months into the new year and already I’ve finished 12 books. That’s incredible.

There’s a part of me that pines for the days when I read paper books. I still have some, and occasionally I’ll get handed a new one to read (or there will be a book coming out that I insist on acquiring in print), but our storage problems and the far too few barriers to acquiring more e-books have sucked me into the e-reader lifestyle all too easily. There’s a part of me that rationalizes this as, “Well, at least I’m still reading and at least I’m still supporting the writers that I like and discovering new writers more easily”, although it’s hard for me to imagine how much of the $1.99-$4.99 that I typically spend per e-book actually makes its way back to the author. Then again, I don’t know how much of a $9.99-$29.99 printed book gets back to the author, either, so it’s possible that it’s all just publisher and bookseller margin with roughly the same pennies thrown at the writer.

I also have a terrible time justifying spending much more than this on e-books. After all, it’s an electronic file that’s distributed to thousands of people without the additional cost of printing presses, binding machines, and shipping/freight. So, really, perhaps $1.99 is closer to what the publisher actually spends per item (based on a projected number of units sold), before you factor in the costs of the book’s physical presence?

I don’t know. There’s a lot I don’t get about all of this, but what I do know is that I’m reading almost incessantly. I’ll probably be posting some more book reviews than I previously had–and anyone who wants to see what I wrote about any of the books I’ve read thus far is welcome to check out my Goodreads feed. Some of the ones I’ve read have been really good. Some have been meh. I’m discovering more about my personal tastes and how they have or haven’t changed in the last few years, like how I will occasionally read what could be classified as “chick lit”, but I still shun traditional romance as derivative pandering. Sci-Fi/Fantasy will always be a sweet spot with me, but I also love biographies, and historical fiction is an area I’m interested in exploring more.

At $1.99 per book, the barrier to entry is low. And now I’m sucked in, exactly as I’d feared. It’s almost as if I should set a goal to read a certain number of paper books per year, just to make sure I don’t completely and literally lose touch with that medium.

I don’t know why I feel so guilty for using an e-reader, but there is definitely a part of me that feels like I’m cheating on the printed page. It’s a first-world problem, to be sure, and one I’m not likely to resolve anytime soon. I adore my iPad Mini 2 (and not just for its e-reading capabilities), so this is likely the path I’ll tread for years to come, if not the rest of my life.

It took almost two years to get here (and still Boston Strong)

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After weeks of hearing witness testimony, seeing horrific photos and physical evidence, and visiting the boat where he holed up during the latter portion of the manhunt in Watertown, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s jury has found him guilty on all 30 counts related to the Boston Marathon Bombing of 2013.

It’s been almost two years.

I still remember the day vividly, how I was in a conference room at work with a co-worker when frantic texts started pouring into my phone, a friend checking on me and asking if I was at the Boston Marathon. I had no idea why the concern until she told me there had been explosions. My blood ran cold.

My co-worker and I immediately stopped working and started pounding away at our laptops, trying to get any kind of news we could find that would tell us what had happened. I was panic-checking Twitter constantly, because I had friends working and hanging out at or near the finish line and I was terrified they would number among the dead and injured.

In the days that followed, the world became very strange. Boston became the Hub of the Universe for others, with reporters and federal agents flooding the city and surrounding suburbs. Work was stopped for many on the fateful day the Tsarnaevs went on the run in earnest, as Cambridge and Watertown were on lockdown. No one was to go anywhere. DH and I worked from home, checking the news websites, checking Twitter, hoping for news.

And then it happened: one brother dead, one captured. The stories that emerged of their attempt to escape are nearly as horrifying as the bombing that started all this madness: one brother running over the other with a car as he desperately tried to get away from law enforcement, and an MIT Police Officer, Sean Collier, shot dead.

It makes me sick thinking of it still.

The Boston Marathon is a symbol of hope. It’s the hope that you can be and do more than the average human should. It’s the hope that we can persevere in the face of pain, frustration, hills, and our own limitations as people.

We can’t and won’t let anyone tarnish our hope with their evil. The Boston Marathon will continue, and the route from Hopkinton to Boston will remain as storied and hallowed as it ever was.

And as for Tsarnaev, the guilty verdict was necessary and proper. He admitted to the bombing, and his lawyers were positioning their messages only so they could help him avoid the death penalty. He can be put to death or allowed to rot in the deepest, darkest hole in our Federal penitentiary system–either will suit him just fine. Nothing will bring back the four lives lost, the hundreds of limbs ripped from bodies, the peace of mind in the souls of those terrorized that fateful day.

He can now become a footnote in the annals of history.

The Boston Marathon will run on, and all those amazing runners and wheelchair racers will continue to be the symbols of hope they’ve been for decades. We will always be Boston Strong. Period.

Ice, Ice Baby (or “Please make it stop”)

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Penguin sleds in too much snow

Is this New England or Antarctica?

This has been a rough few weeks. I’ve been pretty quiet online, mostly because my days have been spent either doing snow removal or plugging away HARD at work that is neglected while performing said snow removal. We’ve had more than 70 inches of snow over the last few weeks, and I can tell you that I didn’t sign up for THIS when I moved to New England.

Being from DC, where snow is feared and reviled, I always wished we could somehow legislate away the snow…but no such luck.

Like so many of our friends, co-workers, and neighbors, our lives have been turned upside down by this frozen mess. On the days when we’re not fighting an in-progress snowstorm, DH can’t get to work because the trains he takes keep getting canceled–or the entire rail system shuts down for the day. (The MBTA is an old system that’s been chronically underfunded, systematically mis-managed, and generally neglected, so do the math on whether or not big diesels that are 20+ years old can pull 6+ cars in sub-freezing temperatures and FEET of snow.)

I used to rely on the train to get me to work on the days when I felt driving wasn’t the safest option, and even that’s taken away, so I’ve had quite a few WFH (“work from home”) days. It also doesn’t help that the kids have had school closed enough days that if they have more than 1 additional “snow day” called this winter, they’ll end up having to eat into their April school vacation week or start to go on Saturdays.

In other words: this is just nuts.

Pile on top of that the fact that the weather cleared just long enough for me to go to my mammogram this morning (which I hope won’t result in a diagnostic ultrasound, as has happened the last couple of times), and I’m a ball of stress.

Oh, and did I forget to mention that we now have water coming into the house in ds’ bedroom and our basement?

Yeah, I’m a hot mess. Actually, I’m a cold mess. It was about 8ºF when I walked the kids to school this morning.

So wah wah wah for me, but that’s where my head is at, for the moment. The glimmer of sunshine is that I have a hair appointment this afternoon, so at least my hair will look pretty. And, thanks to our wonderful insurance company (LOVE YOU, Amica!), we’re not dealing with the costs of repairs and such all on our own; they’re even paying for the nice crew of guys who are going to steam off our ice dams so that we can try to stop more water from getting in. So there’s that.

But I’m still a wreck. I’m just internalizing it a lot and letting the stress eat away at me bit by bit. And I’m hoping, praying, wishing that this winter from hell will finally come to an end. I want my life back, and this frozen caricature of domesticity is making me crazy.

Queen Elsa, go home: you’re drunk.