Clearing the brain so it keeps working
Books
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Jun 10th
Oh no a bad e-book The story sounded so good. Man tries to investigate the mysterious death of his father. Father died when the son was young. Nobody wants him to look into it. Leave the past alone.
Where did it go wrong. I really gave up counting the ways. The prologue was good, and I thought the rest of the book would be another page turner. I was wrong. I forced myself to read a few chapters, maybe it would get better. Nope.
The mystery and plot to drive that was given in the prologue. Up to chapter 7 were all the things that were going on in the main character’s life. His business was having problems, he had problems with his mother, brother, daughter. He had problems with his business partner. Maybe if I continue reading he would have problems with his wife. I’m not sure, I quit. Except for finding some of his father’s sailing journals (his mother than burned them), there was nothing happening about discovering the mystery death.
Quite frankly, I’ve been using this book to help me get to sleep. I stopped doing that because I was afraid I would drop my nook off the bed. That got me to the start of chapter 7. Yawn… I’m getting tired writing about it….
If you need an insomnia cure, run out to the library and see if they have Timothy Frost’s “Final Passage”. Cheaper than sleeping pills. Just don’t load it on a book reader, you may fall asleep and then break your reader when you drop it.
Good point — It was free… 
Not just a book reader
May 24th
Yes, I realize you may be getting tired of my Nook posts. But I am discovering new things about it all of the time.
The kind folks that do the programming for the Nook gave it a few updates recently. I don’t really play the games, but I did find the web browser useful in scanning my email. Don’t think I will use it to reply to email, but reading it was fine. That is not what I wanted to write about.
This summer Barnes and Noble is running a free e-book promotion. Go to a B-N store with your Nook or some other electronic gear with the free Nook reader installed, and you can get a free e-book. Since I was picking up my daughter in Fort Wayne, I stopped to get the free e-book. And then I noticed there was a coupon on my Nook. I could go up to the coffee bar and get a free 7-layer bar. Not knowing exactly what it was, I went over to find out. It was a chocolate/coconut desert bar. Very tasty. So in addition to more reading than I will ever be able to finish, I get desert with my nook. Who know what it will be next time I am in.
As far as the free book. I haven’t read it yet, I was still reading the Friday Free Ebook. Someday maybe I will buy an ebook, but not yet. 
And of course while visiting a B-N store, you can read ebooks for free. They even tell me that your place is saved for the next time you go in.
And I also heard that more libraries are getting into e-book lending. I think I will have a full summer of reading ahead of me.
I didn’t know that.
May 6th
A few years ago a movie came out and was release to critical defeat. As for myself I enjoyed the movie except for a few minor problems. I found it to be an enjoyable waste of time (just what I like in most movies).
The movie was The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. One of the biggest things that bothered me was the introduction of Tom Sawyer into the movie. On top of that he was a Pinkerton agent. I kept saying to myself, why bring in that character as a detective. Didn’t make much sense to me. Of course Dorian Grey wasn’t in the original comic either, but that didn’t bother me as much.
Then I got my Nook! (Yep, another Nook post. Think I could get money to write reviews for my Nook?) I just finished a short story, from Mark Twain, that I never read or heard of before. The story was called Tom Sawyer, Detective. While he was not a Pinkerton agent, he did use observation to solve a crime. So now after the years I’ve complained about Tom Sawyer being a detective in that movie, I guess that following the path that Twain left, it isn’t that far out into left field.
There is another story that I have yet to read about Mr Sawyer and Mr. Finn called Tom Sawyer Abroad. Tom and Huck are on a balloon expedition in Africa. I guess that allows the trip to England for Tom anyway.
Just one question about the movie, if the film people actually knew about these stories: Where was Huck?
Nook again
May 5th
I currently have around 200 books/stories on my Nook. I have read or started to read about 20 of those books/stories. I also have a number of MP3′s. So I do have a wide selection to read or listen to. I can add research books that are available. I have new authors who started by publishing free books. I have old authors whose works are now being digitally archived an made available on the internet. A wonderful array of things to keep this old mind busy.
There is no physical way that I would have been able to read the past few selections in paper. Living in rural America, our local libraries can not be expected to have complete libraries of old classic books, they can’t be expected to have all of the latest authors. And if a book is out of print? How will the get it? That doesn’t even include books that are found only on the web. Stories only found in back issues of old magazines. Nope, I would not have been able to find all of the things I’ve read.
In my lifetime, I’ve had to move a ‘library’ of books from place to place. I’ve moved, my children have moved and we all have had books. A box of 20 hardbound books is heavy. 200+ books would be almost a truckload. I can carry them in the palm of my hand. And I can and will put more books on the Nook. I’m not sure I will ever read all of them, but it will give me something to do.
And I am assuming that in the years to come, more books will be available in electronic format. I will probably still buy books, go to the library or borrow a book or two from friends. Hard copy books and the feel in my hand are things I don’t want to give up just yet. But I’m thinking if the improvements to the reader itself and the books available, I may be able to carry a complete reference, entertainment library wherever I go. I think that is a wonderful thing.
