Obsessions vs. Goals

Books read January 2009 to May 31, 2009 (pre-Kindle): 25
Books read January 2011 to May 31, 2011: 71

The Kindle hasn't just re-ignited my love of reading books.  It's made me obsessed. (Now as low as $114 new.)

Latest obsession:  Rachel Caine.  I began reading her Morganville Vampires series on May 5th.  I finished with her latest, #10, on May 19.  Now I've begun her Weather Warden series.

Other obsessions: Charlaine Harris...her other-than-Sookie-Stackhouse books; Cate Tiernan (I actually had to Inter-Library Loan a book from her Balefire series, the only one that wasn't available on the Kindle); and um...paranormal erotica.  mmmm werewolves.  The only time growly males in romances are interesting.

Kindle cover pictured was a Christmas present to me from my sweetie's other sweetie. She commissioned it from an Etsy seller.

There's that, and then it seems my obsession over books leaked over into TV obsessions.  My sweetie bought us a new TV and Tivo with the new year, and along with that we finally subscribed to Netflix, streaming only.  If I started watching a TV show that interested me, I watched and watched until all caught up. This happened with Monarch of the Glen;  the Doctor Whoniverse; Jekyll (seeing a pattern here?); and Gossip Girl (library DVDs).

Total fluff, total fun.  Not really conducive to writing.

I want to set up some goals, and I hope you, dear readers (if I have any left), can help me to keep on task.

1. I'll write at least one post here a week.  More would be better, but would be hindered by number 2, below.  Readers' task: leave a comment about those kinds of posts you've liked best.  When I sputtered to a crawling stop, I'd kind of devolved into mostly book-blogging, and I want to get back to the Multiplicity that this blog is all about.
2. I'll catch up on my Dharma School blogging before we start teaching again in September.  I've been postponing for 2 1/2 years.  That's somewhere around 20 lessons to write up. Approximately two a week, here we go!  Unfortunately, with some of these, I won't have the fun details that came up in the lessons...but then, that means I should be able to write them quickly.
3. At the very least I'll blog about the books I read for a book group.  For now that's one per month. Starting in the fall we'll have our Classics book group, so then it will often be two per month.  Unfortunately, the Classics Pageturners is on the third Sunday of each month, and my regular Pageturners is on the third Tuesday of the month.  Here again is where the Kindle comes in handy...very easy to review passages I've highlighted.  I'll have to schedule my book-reading. Maybe I'll do a slow-read series once in a while again.
4. Pick up that novel-in-progress again, and write it.  I think someone needs to set me up in a hermit's cabin with electricity but NO INTERWEBS.

Cougar Cheese and the Kindle

Someone asked me how I like my Kindle. I like it a lot for the ease of highlighting and making comments for later review. It took me a couple of books worth of reading to get used to the new timing of turning a page, but that's no big deal. Once I got used to it, easier to handle than a paper book. So many feel obligated to lament the loss of the feel and the smell of a book. Not me. The Kindle is light, easy to hold, whatever your position. Not so with books. And when it comes to smell, well, if it is musty enough to smell, get it away from me...that means it will spark an allergy response. Some people wish it lit up, but that would defeat the purpose of the electronic ink. The whole point of the Kindle display is that it reads more like paper and less like a luminescent screen.

Here's something I don't like: the only covers they sell for it are freakin' leather. No, I'm not vegan, but if I can help it, I do not buy leather.

But then, here's something I really really like. When you buy WSU's Cougar Cheese, they send it to you in the pictured foam envelope in a box. This envelope is the perfect size, with a snip here, a snip there, for a case for the Kindle.

I have a lot of these foam envelopes, having bought a year's worth of cheese for my sweetie for Christmas for a couple of years now. (Full disclosure, my sweetie's other sweetie first bought it for him one year, and I asked her if I could steal that gift idea in subsequent years.)

This is so much better than a leather or faux leather case. 1. It's free. 2. It's reusing rather than creating new stuff. 3. It is not waterproof, but it is water resistant. 4. The way it looks is only limited by the owner's imagination. 5. If you have this for a Kindle case, chances are you've also had the cheese, which is absolutely fabulous. I'm a fan on Facebook. 6. The foam is slightly grippy, so holding it behind your Kindle while you're reading gives you a little extra holding power. 7. The foam envelope is bendy, so you can fold it over and use it as a prop to hold your Kindle at an angle for reading at a table. 8. If the case wears out, replacement is easy...just buy some more fabulous CHEESE.

My first protective case I created was plain, with 3 simple cuts and a fold-over for a flap. I decided though to try another, creating a loop and stick fastener, using a hairstick for the stick, the "loop" cut into the flap, which is tucked inside. The material is tough, and stretches a little. It could hold, but with the way I handle things, a little duct tape on the seamed edges and the loop fastener will help it last longer. Yes, that's pink duct tape. A person could paint or color this cover with a sharpie or paint pen, but I like the semi-translucent look of the envelope, and you can see colors of the back cover showing through. My sweetie bought that for me separately, a Gelaskins product. There are a whole lot more designs than when I put mine on my wishlist, but I like mine. Each little 'room' on the bookshelves has a theme, and the faux books relate to the theme and classic titles.


Be warned, if you're thinking of buying a Kindle, it is way too easy to buy something on impulse. Keep in mind that you can take a few steps to convert free ebooks to the Kindle format, for free, so anything at the Gutenberg Project is up for grabs. You can also put your own documents on your Kindle...again, with a few extra steps it's free. I like saving paper that way.

Oh, another use for that foam envelope? It's just big enough to fit my CPAP machine, so when I travel, I can use one of those for padding, and put the machine and components in my travel backpack without having to carry another case.