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eReader Update
Well, thank you so much to everyone who suggested eReaders for me! It was really helpful to see all of the different opinions, especially from people who use eReaders a lot for the same purposes I want to. Since it would be difficult to respond to all 18 of the comments I received from you awesome people, I thought it would just be easier to announce my decision here on the blog.
I’m getting a Kindle Paperwhite. It seems to be the best choice and was the most frequently recommended one in the comments section. It’s also far below my budget of $200 and has great memory capacity for my purposes. I won’t be buying many ebooks from the Kindle store, but it will be so useful to take my reading with me wherever I go rather than being glued to the computer for hours at a time. With the amount I read I doubt it will have the 8 week battery life that they say it does, but that’s not really an issue at this point. What matters is that it’s light, small, has an easy to read screen and it’s the most convenient for my purposes.
When I’m getting the Kindle I’m not really sure, but it will be sometime this year. But let me say thank you so much to everyone who put in a suggestion. It was awesome to hear suggestions from people I trust! I don’t honestly know how I could have done it without you.
Books I Want to Read
I have an enormous To Be Read pile, both in a physical sense and in a more technology-based sense. But here are some books that I just know I won’t be able to resist the call of:
I absolutely loved Grave Mercy by Robin LaFevers and I can’t wait to get my hands on the sequel. Seeing things from another person’s point of view in the same world will be fascinating, especially with all of the politics going on behind the scenes. I’ll miss Ismae, but seeing more of Sybelle will be awesome. It’s also nice to see things from a completely different perspective sometimes and I think Sybelle will have a very different worldview than Ismae. She’s had different life experiences and I think she’ll add a lot more to Robin LaFevers world-building because we’ll be able to see more of the political machinations that are more implied with Ismae’s point of view.
After reading and thoroughly enjoying Prince of Thorns, I need to read King of Thorns immediately. With my current schedule I won’t be able to, but I can’t wait to dive into Jorg’s world once more. Will Jorg become ‘good’ or will he continue on his awesomely ruthless path, defying traditional YA sensibilities of what good and evil are.
Firelight, a novel of the descendants of dragons, draki, was a surprisingly good read. With Jacinda in the situation she’s in now (spoilers!), returning to the Pride I’m hoping Sophie Jordan won’t do the love triangle trope. If she doesn’t, I will be ridiculously happy because it will allow Jacinda to grow out of the whole forbidden love trope.
The First Man in Rome, the first book in Colleen McCullough’s classic Masters of Rome series was a long read, but it was so good. It’s nice to be able to curl up with a long book that you need to actually engage your brain to enjoy. That’s why I’m definitely going to continue the series with the next book that chronicles Sulla’s rise. The only problem is finding the time to read the 1000+ page book.
Well, those are some of the books I really, really want to read. But now I want to know: what do you guys want to read? What’s stopping you from reading them? (Unless they’re not out, of course!) See any books on my list that you’d like to read?
Why no Writer Wants to Tackle Chronic Pain
Warning: depressing article ahead.
As I sit here in my computer chair, there are constant stabbing pains all the way from the base of my spine up until between my shoulder blades. I have a lingering stiffness in my right leg from a little unplanned hike earlier in the week and my knees are starting to ache because it’s late in the day. Even though it’s only around 8:00pm on a Sunday I’m exhausted, despite sleeping in until noon.
This is a good day for me.
My as yet undiagnosed chronic pain has taken so many things away from me, mainly the sports I used to enjoy and are still listed on my ‘About’ page because they’re too painful to take down. I have no social life and just surviving a full day of work takes enormous effort. And you know what? Compared to some people with chronic pain, I have it easy.
Yes, I’m trying to go somewhere with this rather than having a pity party. My point is that chronic pain is hard because it’s, well, chronic. As in you’re in pain for every single waking moment. That’s what makes it so hard for normal people to even begin to understand, let alone feel comfortable talking about.
So how does this relate to books? Well, in YA you see all kinds of different people being represented and that’s awesome. It’s nice to see LGBT people and people of various races finally being represented in fiction, even though we still have a long way to go in regards to fair representation. I think it’s amazing that YA authors are able to talk about things like terminal illnesses such as cancer or self-harm and suicide. But as someone with a very limited support group trying to deal with chronic pain, it would be nice to be represented in even just one book. Yet I also have a practical streak, so here are the reasons why no author wants to tackle chronic pain:
1. It would be a tough balancing act. Continue reading
I Need an eReader
I’ve given you guys lots of book recommendations over the year and a half I’ve been blogging, which is why I’m turning to you now: I need an eReader. In light of my little health problem that makes it hard to sit in one place for a long time, I can no longer stand to read books on my computer. Therefore, an eReader is the perfect solution. But to be perfectly honest, I have no idea where to start. All I really know is that I have a few pre-requisites for an eReader:
1. It must be a Kindle because indie authors who contact me are generally selling their books through Amazon.
2. It must be light so I can hold it even on bad days.
3. It must be under or only slightly over $200.
So, what do you think I should get? Why?
Things I Want to See in YA
Young Adult is now a firmly established genre and it’s not going away anytime soon, believe me. However, it’s also a fairly new genre, and as such has a little more growing up to do. There are possibilities that haven’t been explored yet, there are ways authors can still push the boundaries of the genre without creating an entirely new genre, etc.
Of course this means that I have to add in my two cents. (Or is it 5 cents now that we’ve gotten rid of the penny?) Anyway, here are some things I’d like to see more of or see done at all in YA:
1. Characters with chronic diseases/pain.
Yes, this is an incredibly uplifting way to start off an article, isn’t it? It’s still true: when was the last time you read a YA novel with a character that had a chronic disease and/or chronic pain. “But Carrie,” you say, “young people can’t be in pain!” Continue reading