Reading
So, when it's raining, I can do "inside" things. I have always loved to read — the opportunity to be transported to another place and time in the hands of a good writer magical.I've read more books in the past weeks than I have in a long time, and I am reveling in it!
**** Thanks to Rebecca, who loaned me The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell, I got to visit the alien planet Rakhat with a Jesuit party of scientists and missionaries, with all of the excitement but none of the real danger. It was a thought-provoking book, on several levels, and I highly recommend it.
** Thanks to Linda, I read Drive Me Wild by Christina Nealson. Linda had lent it to me because the author (and her husband) similarly sold everything they owned, bought an RV and embarked on a nomadic lifestyle. Their journey lasted five years, from Baja to the deserts of the Southwest to the Colorado Rockies and visits with friends all over the US. Sadly, their marriage ended, and with it their trip. Christina is continuing to travel though, now with a pickup and trailer.
I've also been reading books about Alaska.
Pretty much anything I can get my hands on, from personal stories to crime fiction and even romance. Hey, a little bit of everything!
So how do I get books on the road?
(1) PAPER BOOKS: Real, honest physical paper books from friends, thrift stores, etc.
(2) DIGITAL BOOKS: When I don't have "real" books to read, I read on a Kindle paperwhite. It has a long battery life, and I can read it without having any additional light on. It's also easy to read outside without the awful glare that you get on shiny so-called "smart" devices. It even has 3G, so I can download books without wifi. (I don't know what prescience made me get that, but I'm glad I did!)
On it, I can read books:
- borrowed from my "home" library
- borrowed from Amazon's Kindle UnLimited (which, for $10 per month, I'm really enjoying— it's like a lending library from which you can have 10 books "checked out" at a time)
- purchased from Amazon (but with all the other books out available, there are very few of these.
I could read on the iPad, but I find it too heavy to hold; it takes up too much power; and it's too shiny. The only advantage it has is color (for illustrations), but since I'm reading words and not looking at pictures, there's really no advantage to using it for reading. Just IMHO.
(3) AUDIBLE BOOKS: I also listen to books, either through Audible on the iPad or on my little AGPTEK mp3 player, which I'm totally in love with — it replaces a SanDisk Clip player whose battery wore out. A small mp3 player allows me just to listen without using up a phone battery: I don't need any reading glasses or or any additional light. It's light and tiny and has a countdown sleep timer, so it just goes off after a set amount of time. This new AGPTEK mp3 player has an incredible 70 HOUR play time — so I can go almost two weeks without having to charge it up again. Plus, it has a micro SD slot, so I can really load it up. I haven't even mentioned the books I have on it, as they are mostly popular books downloaded from the library.
There are so many ways to get books now, it's almost an embarrassment of riches. I'd read all day if I could!
Here are some of the books that I've read so far, with ratings (***** = the best)
There are more on the list, but if I just read and write I won't be doing anything!
**** Fire and Ice (Dana Stabenow): a Liam Campbell mystery. Liam Campbell is fictional Alaska State Trooper (policeman), posted to a backwater Alaska town that (like Midsomer Murders) has a disproportionate number of difficulties for its size. There's a great cast of characters, from the drunk native shaman with powerful insights into the people of the town, to the magistrate/bar owner who knows everyone and is a source of information for Liam's quest to solve the murders, to the sexy pilot with a past relationship, the fishermen and native peoples. This book had that rare blend of being a "whodunnit" with characters you come to care about, and the added fillup of being set in a bush town in Alaska, and all of the flavor you might expect. I will be reading more from this NYT bestselling author! Reading a book like this is like having dessert!
**** From a Bush Wing: Stories of An Alaska Wildlife Trooper (Stephen Santiago Reynolds): Really liked this book. The author flew for Fish & Game, patrolling from the air, nabbing poachers and helping people in trouble. Really gets you to understand the importance of planes in the Alaska wilderness. And the fierce independence of the people who live there.
*** Mrs. Mike (Bernard & Nancy Freeman): Did anyone else read this years ago? When I was young, I found it on my parents' bookshelf, and was captivated by the young girl who (like Clara in "Heidi," another favorite book), was sent to the North West Territories (NWT) to live with an uncle for her health. There she meets a handsome Mountie, and they fall in love and get married. It's a fairly simple tale, but told well, and the adventures: from forest fire, to meeting the Indians and giving an impromptu "tea party," to watching beaver and other animals and the dangers of illness away from civilization... the book still has magic, pulling you into the adventures and story. A little like Anne of Green Gables. While not strictly Alaska, the book is set in Canada, where I'm traveling through and I wanted to re-read it to see if it was as good as I remembered, while having some more appreciation for the places written about.*** Stories I've Heard, Characters I've Met & Lies We've Told (Tom Brion): Totally amusing and easy to read, these are almost like very short vignettes about life in the bush. This has the real flavor of the wackiness and derringdo, often seen as commonplace that must be found in the bush. There's the Turkey Bomber, survival of plane crashes, tales of duct tape and plane repair. Probably most of it is true.
** Alaska Up North & to the Left (Steven Swaks): An EMT and his doctor wife, who are from Los Angeles, transplant themselves to Bethel, Alaska, and become invested in the town. Good for seeing what a year in Alaska is like. Things to consider, like having a heated garage. I liked that it went through an entire year. It was okay.
** 40 Years the Wilderness (Dolly Faulkner): Quite captivating from the aspect that the author homesteaded in the Alaska wilderness along with her sometimes-there husband. Interesting for all the things one must consider: fuel during long winters, all supplies have to be flown in by plane, learning to shoot and living with wild animals, and issues with government and native people. Well written in parts but with annoying jumps along the way, the one thing that lit the book up was the evident love this woman had for her home in the wilds of Alaska.
** Becoming Frozen: Memoir of a First Year in Alaska (Jill Homer): A twenty-something writer/editor and her athletic boyfriend try out Alaska. In the cold of winter, the writer decides to try snow-bicycling and eventually rides in a 200-mile race in the dead of winter. Interesting because it was true, and certainly had lots of information about weather and surviving in the cold in Homer, Alaska, it just didn't gel for me. There was too much personal angst and too little about the land itself.
* Alaska Heart (Christine DePetrillo): Forgettable romance between a New York magazine writer and an Itiderod dogsled musher. Yeah. Well, the title was good.
Alaska (James Michener): I'm now into the grand-daddy of them all: Alaska by James Michener. I admit that the first chapters have put me to sleep, but I know it will get better.
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