catch up
I’m super excited to be knitting again - Penny has been blocked and I’m seaming her up and going to buy a ribbon for the wrap ties this afternoon. I’m also working on a pair of socks for my friend James that I promised him way back in the middle of December (!). But while my left hand was in a splint I had the time to catch up on some books I’ve been wanting to read. I’d been in a reading slump for months and it was nice to find that I can still enjoy a good book:
Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
Color by Victoria Finlay
The Know-It-All by A.J. Jacobs
Talking to the Dead by Helen Dunmore
Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
Lucky Girls by Nell Freudenberger
The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory
The Complete Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
and I am now most of the way through A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson.
Lucky Girls and Talking to the Dead excepted, I really enjoyed and highly recommend each of these. The Other Boleyn Girl is complete fluff (perfect summer beach reading) but very good entertainment. Eat, Pray, Love is just as good as everyone says. And The Complete Persepolis was beautiful and absolutely changed my preception of graphic novels; I can’t wait ’til the movie comes to me via Netflix sometime in June.
Does anyone have one of those Amazon Kindle digital book-reader things? I think I want one (I’m envisioning a sort-of ipod for books in terms ease of use and portability), but I also think I might miss the physicality of turning pages and holding paper. I suppose if I started carrying that everywhere I wouldn’t get to do much subway or in-line knitting… audiobooks (especially on my ipod - which is many years old but still running like a champ) would allow me to do both, but audiobooks are so expensive compared to hard copies!
May 2nd, 2008 at 4:31 pm
You might like to try http://www.booksinmyphone.com - they give away books you can read on cell phones. Depending on you phone model it can be a really nice reading experience. If you have internet access on your phone then finding and installing a book is just a few clicks from mobile.booksinmyphone.com, even if you don’t you can install via your PC.
May 7th, 2008 at 9:52 am
What a great selection of books! I’ve seen those Kindles online but I don’t know of anyone that has them. Have you googled for reviews?
May 12th, 2008 at 9:09 am
I really want to read Freaknomics. It is supposed to be an amazing book. Let us know what you thought of it.
May 13th, 2008 at 4:59 pm
Have you looked at audible.com? They have some kind of deal where you can get at least 1 free audio book. It didn’t seem like it was too much more expensive than other books, and it works with itunes.
It’s scary about your hand — I’m glad you’re back without a splint. I always worry about that when I cross streets!
June 8th, 2008 at 12:27 am
Hello,
just a quick note to introduce myself.
I am the Quickstep Team Leader for the Tour de France KAL and I shall be following and blogging your progress along the way.
Have fun.
July 4th, 2008 at 12:07 am
hi Lauren, hope you’re ok. I was just wondering what you had decided to knit during the Tour de France KAL?
Ang