Since the Kindle came out and everyone was banging on about it (even some of my lecturers who have been in this biz for however long) I decided I'm not going to get one for 3 reasons: 1) I dislike e-books anyway, 2) I don't fancy sitting on a train flashing a 150 quid piece of slate while I can get the same book in paperback for £2.50 and 3) I'm a person who prefers to not be like everyone else or one of those generics you see in the high street on a daily basis (i.e. I refuse to upgrade to a Blackberry or buy an iPhone and besides, after hours of research I discovered that my Nokia C3 does pretty much the same thing as a BB minus the messenger and I've not had 1 thing to dislike about it (apart from waking me up at 7 in the morning but that's UEL's fault really, not mine or the phone's).
A bit arrogant, yes, but oh well.
However(!), since starting uni I've been forced to buy a number of books which can cost well over a tenner sometimes and then having to remember which book to take to which lecture etc etc. Now, after a small bit of thought until my head started to hurt I thought it might just be easier and a bit cheaper to buy an e-reader from Asda priced at just £54. Okay, not a bit but one hundred big ones.
People go on about the Kindle using this e-ink which prevents the sun from not reflecting on the screen or some bollocks like that. Why not just block the beam with your hand?
So the Kindle has WiFi, a music player, Wikipedia, 3G (I still have no idea what that is yet everyone bangs on about it) and probably some sort of vending machine - pretty much what that thing in your pocket called a smartphone has. With this in mind, can't you help but wonder why someone would buy this piece of junk?
Rant over. Flame away.
Friday 11 February 2011
Saturday 5 February 2011
Demian by Hermann Hesse
Another one of those rather strange books, the blurb on Hesse's Demian
"In Demian he (Hesse) chronicles with clear-sighted humanity the growth to maturity of Emil Sinclair, who falls under the influence of Max Demian, a strangely self-possessed figure. As Sinclair progresses through orthodox education and philosophical mysticism towards self-awareness, he always has the image of Demian before him - right up to the climatic moment of confrontation with destiny on a blood-drenched battlefield"
This was yet another book I mindlessly picked up off of the shelf and, attracted by the blurb, decided to take it out. And a good decision that was.
As the blurb reads, we are shown (in first-person narrative, of course) the events of Sinclair's life as he grows from a scared child into an adult. However, his life doesn't travel smoothly. He suffers from various -isms, meets strange people and wonders what's going on in his life.
This was quite a fast read with only 150 pages, but the small amount of pages managed to tell a large amount of story with twists, changes, happiness and sadness (no, I didn't cry!)
I currently have another Hesse book on my pile of loans which I only picked up for the name without checking the author so that'll be reviewed soon (hopefully).
With us now being at the end of the review (if you read this far), I'll be giving this book another 4 out of 5.
"In Demian he (Hesse) chronicles with clear-sighted humanity the growth to maturity of Emil Sinclair, who falls under the influence of Max Demian, a strangely self-possessed figure. As Sinclair progresses through orthodox education and philosophical mysticism towards self-awareness, he always has the image of Demian before him - right up to the climatic moment of confrontation with destiny on a blood-drenched battlefield"
This was yet another book I mindlessly picked up off of the shelf and, attracted by the blurb, decided to take it out. And a good decision that was.
As the blurb reads, we are shown (in first-person narrative, of course) the events of Sinclair's life as he grows from a scared child into an adult. However, his life doesn't travel smoothly. He suffers from various -isms, meets strange people and wonders what's going on in his life.
This was quite a fast read with only 150 pages, but the small amount of pages managed to tell a large amount of story with twists, changes, happiness and sadness (no, I didn't cry!)
I currently have another Hesse book on my pile of loans which I only picked up for the name without checking the author so that'll be reviewed soon (hopefully).
With us now being at the end of the review (if you read this far), I'll be giving this book another 4 out of 5.
Wednesday 2 February 2011
Good Morning, Midnight by Jean Rhys
Firstly, apologies for not updating this blog recently, I was reading another book but due to it's deepness I needed a quick break and decided to read Good Morning, Midnight which was very short (150 pages) and quite a light read for it's time so it was a good 'clear the head' book.
Along with this I've been doing a lot of writing for a few websites and trying to sort a few things out.
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The main plot follows a week in the life of our protagonist who likes to call herself Sasha. Through the week she has work problems, man troubles and likes to drink a lot which usually results in her crying. In everyday life, Sasha is a person many people would find extremely annoying and be that person in the pub which you avoid. In Good Morning, Midnight however, I couldn't help but like Sasha.
Along with Sasha we have a few other characters including men who want to be with her, a weird man who lives next to her and another man who she seems to want to be with but chooses not to. Yeah, I was a bit confused here also.
Throughout the dialogue there were many phrases written/spoken in French which I didn't understand a word of. However, sometimes before or after this was said, another phrase was said which, when studying both, could have been the same phrase repeated in English. I guess I'll never know unless I spend hours researching.
When I picked this book up whilst browsing the library I didn't really know what to expect. I thought maybe I'd be reading a piece of trashy chick-lit but I was wrong. This book was on the edge of chick-lit but it also had class and a decent story worthy of being put onto the "literature" shelf in Oxfam. I get the feeling that I'll be reading some more of Jean Rhys' work in the future.
Put simply I'll have to say I really enjoyed this book and despite the protagonist being a person with man troubles, I feel that any changes may risk ruining the book. This one gets a 4 out of 5 from me.
Along with this I've been doing a lot of writing for a few websites and trying to sort a few things out.
---------------
The main plot follows a week in the life of our protagonist who likes to call herself Sasha. Through the week she has work problems, man troubles and likes to drink a lot which usually results in her crying. In everyday life, Sasha is a person many people would find extremely annoying and be that person in the pub which you avoid. In Good Morning, Midnight however, I couldn't help but like Sasha.
Along with Sasha we have a few other characters including men who want to be with her, a weird man who lives next to her and another man who she seems to want to be with but chooses not to. Yeah, I was a bit confused here also.
Throughout the dialogue there were many phrases written/spoken in French which I didn't understand a word of. However, sometimes before or after this was said, another phrase was said which, when studying both, could have been the same phrase repeated in English. I guess I'll never know unless I spend hours researching.
When I picked this book up whilst browsing the library I didn't really know what to expect. I thought maybe I'd be reading a piece of trashy chick-lit but I was wrong. This book was on the edge of chick-lit but it also had class and a decent story worthy of being put onto the "literature" shelf in Oxfam. I get the feeling that I'll be reading some more of Jean Rhys' work in the future.
Put simply I'll have to say I really enjoyed this book and despite the protagonist being a person with man troubles, I feel that any changes may risk ruining the book. This one gets a 4 out of 5 from me.
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