Off my reading feed.
20 March 2011
I am off my reading feed again.
With the exception of Bill Bryson's fun history At Home: A Short History of Private Life*, I didn't really get anything read last week that I enjoyed. More depressingly, I've got a pile of library and other books sitting around here, and I've perused their titles now about a hundred times, and I don't feel like reading any of them. Time for a big clear out, I think, and then to the library to try and find something for which I'm in the mood.
It didn't help that today we dropped in at our local Border's, which will soon be our shuttered local Border's. God, it was horrible. "Everything Must Go" and "Clearance" signs and the unhappy vibe of soon-to-be-unemployed booksellers everywhere. Their coffee shop was closed too, which just gave the place an even more desperate air. (No matter how bad things are, I find, if I can smell or hear coffee being made nearby it at least makes me feel like civilization still has a shot at making it.) CRjr was enjoying looking around but we couldn't get out of there fast enough. It made me sad, once again, about the future of print books.
Yes, I know there will always be reading. But I want there always to be BOOKS, goddammit. When I think about leasing my books from Amazon**, I want to choke somebody. (The next person who tells me to buy a Kindle is in for an unpleasant and violent surprise.) Last week my home wireless stopped working, mysteriously, for some reason, and it took me at least an hour to get it back up (I've only got so many hours to work when CRjr is napping, these days, so my hours are becoming increasingly precious, every single damn last one of them). All I can say is, I hope Mr. CR doesn't have a Nanny Cam planted anywhere, because if he heard the words I was using during that hour (and in front of CRjr) he would be APPALLED. So you can see why the thought of dealing with one more device that is just another electronic ticking time bomb of nonfunctioning has me thinking about giving up reading altogether rather than succumbing to the e-book madness.
Wow. As a friend of mine put it last week (about herself): I am feeling snarly like a little chihuahua. Welcome back to another work week, everyone.
*More on this one later.
**Fuck you, Amazon. I just can't say it enough lately.