I've been absent from Daily Kos since last Tuesday, returning yesterday to catch up on my online reading. As many of you know, I live a block from the border of the Everglades National Park. As of today, 68,000 acres of Everglades have been consumed by a brush fire believed to have been started by careless thrill seekers riding ATVs in conditions too dry to support that kind of "fun." Brush fires in the 'Glades may not be as spectacular as those in AZ have been, but they are relentless, often burning for weeks, even months, if the organic peat catches. And they produce acrid, stinging smoke that lingers close to ground level all night, dropping ash that coats vehicles, roofs, and vegetation miles from where the active burn is occurring.
As it happens, I'm sensitive to smoky conditions and had to depart my home hastily last week to spend a few days away where the air quality is better. That is why there was no second installment THU to the e-Readers & Book Lovers Club; I'll take care of that in this diary. Now I'm back home, but the smoke lingers, although not as heavy as earlier. I stay indoors as much as possible, and the Everglades continue to burn.
Please turn the page.
Consequently, I've been doing a lot of reading. I've also had time to notice that my Kindle habit is getting addictive, as I've been downloading samples galore, free books, under $8.00 books, and public domain ones. While you're here, let me tell you about the best free book I discovered. It's Pictures of the Mind: What the New Neuroscience Tells Us about Who We Are by Miriam Boleyn-Fitzgerald, published in 2010 by FT Press.
Much praised, its chapters include topics such as "When hope is in vain," "Watching our minds watching themselves," "What counts as 'smart'?" "addiction," "morality," "memory," and a final chapter titled, "Where Am 'I'?: Experience of Self, Other, and Neither." The new knowledge about our invisible minds that we have acquired in the last 10 years has been made possible by MRI and PET technology, which allow us to see the mind in action. We can watch our brains on-screen, healing, adapting, and changing, yet confirmed in their make-up by our genes and early experiences, which science tells us do influence our cognitive and emotional makeup but don't dictate who we become. The term for this neural flexibility and trainability is "neuroplasticity." Haven't started it yet, but look forward to learning about neuroplasticity and "taking a walk" around my mind as I read.
HURRY! Fellow Kindle addicts, you have one more day to enjoy Sunshine Deals at Amazon. Pat Conroy's The Prince of Tides is on sale for $2.99 -- an American classic. For the same price, take home another of my favorite reads, Chaos: Making a New Science by James Gleick. I bought Rebecca West's The Fountain Overflows: Saga of the Century for $0.99 and at $2.99, Island of the Swans by Ciji Ware, the story of Jane Maxwell, the 4th Duchess of Gordon, patroness of poet Robert Burns, advisor to King George, and painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds. No doubt, I'll be talking about them in cfk's Bookflurries diaries one day.
Those of us who read Regarding Ducks and Universes are probably fans of the imaginative and witty Neve Maslakovic. Since finishing the novel, I've been reviewing reviews of it. They're invariably positive -- I think Maslakovic has found a niche market in the scifi-mystery mash-up genre.
Exploring, I found this site, Ebookee that allows registered users to download 150GB of books and audio books for free, including this one. I hope one of you will try out the website and let the rest of us know what the Babylon Usenet online reading experience is like. I finish typing that sentence and marvel about how much the reading experience has changed in the last five years! Where will it go from here?
My question to E-Readers & Book Lovers is: Did you think Regarding Ducks and Universes was more science fiction or more mystery? I thought one of the strong themes in the book was the issue of privacy and the extent to which authority constructed rules to protect it, ranging from personal contact with one's double, to protecting intellectual property, to limiting the souvenirs one can take from one universe to the other. I wonder how long the numerous regulations applied to both universes can keep the genie in the bottle? As for me, I heard echoes of Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy while reading Maslakovic's debut novel.
In two weeks the e-Readers &Book Lovers Club will begin the discussion of the 2010 Pulitzer Prize winning novel, Tinkers by Paul Harding. Meet at 2:00 PM ET, THU, June 30th.
$5.00 Kindle e-book
$3.00 up Amazon paperback used
$8.00 Powell's trade paperback
$6.00 and under AbeBooks.com
Readers & Book Lovers Series Schedule
DAY |
TIME (EST/EDT) |
Series Name |
Editor(s) |
SUN |
3:00 PM |
Science, Math, and Statistics Books |
plf515 |
SUN |
6:00 PM |
Young Reader's Pavilion |
The Book Bear |
SUN |
9:30 PM |
SciFi/Fantasy Book Club |
quarkstomper |
MON |
8:00 PM |
My Favorite Books & Authors |
billssha |
TUE |
8:00 AM |
Calvacade of Words |
aravir |
TUE |
Noon (bi-weekly) |
The Mad Logophile |
Purple Priestess |
TUE |
8:00 PM |
Readers & Book Lovers Newsletter |
Limelite |
WED |
7:30 AM |
WAYR? |
plf515 |
WED |
8:00 PM |
Bookflurries: Bookchat |
cfk |
THU |
2:00 PM (bi-weekly) |
eReaders & Book Lovers Club |
Limelite |
THU |
8:00PM |
Write On! |
SensibleShoes |
FRI |
9:00 AM |
Books That Changed My Life |
etbnc, aravir |
FRI |
NOON |
Pros and Contests |
Alexi Hershey |
FRI |
9:00 PM (every 3rd week) |
A Book, Its Movie, and a Glass of Wine |
mdmslle |
SAT |
9:00 PM |
Books So Bad They're Good |
Ellid |
NOTE: Though not part of R&BLers Weekly Magazine Series, please look for "Indigo Kalliope: Poems From the Left" by various authors republished here every WED NOON by
aravir.
NOTE ALSO: If I don't hear from Alexi Hershey by Friday, June 17th regarding her series, Pros and Contests, I will sadly have to remove it from our weekly schedule due to non-publication.
NOTE ME, TOO!: If you have an idea for a series for R&BLers, please let me know. I can't fathom why we don't have one on mysteries/police procedurals -- so many great authors and books in that genre that need talking about!
Other than that, nothing's happening.