The End of Books? I hope not!

This seems to be a reoccurring theme. Over the last week or so, several of the blogs I follow have had entries on the move away from the printed word. We have "information" now. We don't need "books" anymore.

See here and here to find out what I'm talking about.

Call me an old fart (I'm in my late 20s), but I'm not sure if I'll ever want to read a book off a computer screen. I love sitting in a chair, breathing in the smell of pages. Frankly, I'm sick of doing absolutely everything on my computer. No, I don't want to do my banking or buy my stamps online. I'd go absolutely stir crazy if I couldn't get out of the house sometimes - and going to the bank or the post office often makes a pleasant excuse.

I'm not saying I don't like the convenience of being able to check accounts online, but some things I just want to do in person. I'm a writer. I read blogs. I spend a lot of time in front of my computer already. But I'm not the sort of person who can spend all day there happily. I get more exhausted spending 9 to 5 at a computer screen than I do actually moving around in the world.

This may be one of the reasons that my account at Second Life lasted less than a week before I told them to cancel me. I just could not see myself spending hours at a time in a fantasy world when there's so much to do out here in "First Life"...

... Like read a book.

Top Ten Books I've Been Meaning to Reread

It's been a busy fall, going back to school and all. Not only has my fun writing fallen to the wayside, so has my entertainment reading. I have a whole stack of unread books by my chair and a list of dozens more that I'd love to find the time for.

Still, as much as I want to read new material, I'd also love the chance to go back and read some old faves.

Here (in no particular order) are some I've been thinking about a lot lately and just haven't gotten to yet:

1. The Chosen by Chaim Potok
2. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
3. The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery
4. Avalon by Anya Seton
5. Cheaper by the Dozen by Frank B. Gilbreth Jr. and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey
6. Ride the Wind by Lucia St. Clair Robson
7. The White Mountains by John Christopher
8. Ex Libris by Anne Fadiman
9. A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett
10. Les Miserables by Victor Hugo

This is why I always liked Captain Picard better...

Now Jean-Luc, he appreciated books. He'd keep his leather-bound copy of Shakespeare sitting on his desk while he worked - even though he could have called up anything he could have possibly wanted to read on the 24th Century version of Project Gutenberg. But, James T. Kirk apparently was anything but a bibliophile.

LibraryThing's "Unsuggester"

Here's one of my new favorite ways to waste time: LibraryThing's "Unsuggester".

Just like it sounds, it's the opposite of a "book suggester". It gives you a list of books you probably won't like, by comparing the book title you input to the shelves of LibraryThing users. You don't even have to have an account to use it; it's just for fun.

So far I've learned I probably shouldn't invest in fantasy novels, technology manuals and Christian non-fiction. I probably knew that already - although I do happen to own The Purpose-Driven Life and Captivating: Unveiling the Mystery of a Woman's Soul.

"Bestselling" Out of Print books

Now here's something interesting. My daily e-newsletter from Publisher's Weekly, just alerted me to this "Bestsellers List" for out of print books.

Actually, it's just a report on what out of print titles were the most requested on BookFinder.com during the last year. I'll have to see if anything I've ordered shows up on the list. Probably not. I have a hard time imagining there's much of a demand for Fortune Made His Sword by Martha Rofheart or My Lord John by Georgette Heyer.

What a great idea

I just found out about this new blog today. Inspired by Evil Editor's "New Beginnings" feature, this blogger has decided to post the first 150 words of contributor's favorite novels.

That falls under fair use, right?

In any case, I'm dashing off an e-mail about Katherine right now.

Reading Lists

Someone asked me the other day how many of the BBC's Top 100 books I've read. So, I sat down and made a list:

2. Pride and Prejudice
5. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
6. To Kill a Mockingbird
7. Winnie the Pooh
8. Nineteen Eighty-Four
9. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe
10. Jane Eyre
12. Wuthering Heights
17. Great Expectations
18. Little Women
21. Gone With the Wind
22. Henry Potter and the (Sorcerer's) Stone
23. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
24. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
30. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
33. The Pillars of the Earth
36. Treasure Island
38. Persuasion
40. Emma
41. Anne of Green Gables
43. The Great Gatsby
46. Animal Farm
47. A Christmas Carol
51. The Secret Garden
62. Memoirs of a Geisha
63. A Tale of Two Cities
70. Lord of the Flies
74. Matilda
75. Bridget Jones's Diary
82. I Capture the Castle
95. Katherine

That's 31, in case you were counting. A piddly 31 percent. And this is a reader poll, based on a survey the BBC took in April 2003. If you post an"expert's" list of 100 great books, I fare even worse:

2. The Great Gatsby
13. 1984 (Do the Brits spell out the title while Americans don't?)
18. Slaughterhouse Five
24. Winesburg, Ohio
31. Animal Farm
41. Lord of the Flies
74. A Farewell to Arms
86. Ragtime
88. The Call of the Wild

Uh, that would be nine. And most of them I didn't even like all that well. It seems just as heavy on old, white dudes as the first list was on Harry Potter. And The Modern Library's "reader list" seems to have been highjacked by Ayn Rand and L. Ron Hubbard fans. I didn't do a whole lot better on that one:

2. The Fountainhead
5. To Kill a Mockingbird (the "experts" didn't pick this one??? What???)
6. 1984
13. The Great Gatsby
20. Animal Farm
23. Slaughterhouse Five
24. Gone With the Wind
25. Lord of the Flies
53. The Handmaid's Tale
75. The Call of the Wild
77. Farenheit 451
81. The Hunt for Red October (but the movie's better *g*)
91. A Farewell to Arms

I can't believe what books weren't on any of these lists. Where was Pearl S. Buck's "The Good Earth"? Chaim Potok's "The Chosen"? Alex Haley's "Roots"? Heck, if "Gone With the Wind" made the lists than "Outlander" should have too!

Maybe one of these days, I'll have to come up with the definitive "Poohba's Top 100."