Category: Books

Goodbye Borders

On By Michel McDonaldIn BooksLeave a comment

I have some very sad news about Borders.  It looks as though they are closing their doors forever.  I got an email from them several months ago – Borders Sad Chapter 11 News – which also had a letter in my inbox saying they are closing some stores but not all of them.  Well, things didn’t work out too well for them and now they are closing their doors forever.  Read the letter that I got from them last night by clicking the smaller image.

This is sad news for readers everywhere who have enjoyed visiting Borders over the last 40 years that they have been open.  They are closing their doors because they couldn’t convince any company to help them stay afloat.  I guess everyone has given up on them.

It’s sad though that people have basically abandoned their local book store to buy e-books from the comfort of their home.  But this is the casualty of electronic evolution.  Although not everyone can afford to buy an e-book reader so there are people who still buy books.  Borders doesn’t just sell books though, they sell magazines and toys and cd’s and movies etc.

Today is the first day of the sale so if you still have a Borders near you, go there quickly because they close their doors on July 29th.  You have exactly 1 week from today.  They have a 40% off sale at Borders locations, unfortunately as you can see from the image below that the sale is only in stores and not on their website.

It’s sad that they are closing and I hope that there is a chance that they will still keep a few stores open to keep the Borders name alive.  Who knows for sure until the end of this month when we find out their final fate.

I don’t want to give my final goodbye just yet because anything can happen in a week…

Good Reads

On By Michel McDonaldIn Books, eBookLeave a comment

I was talking to my favorite e-book author Marguerite Labbe a couple of days ago on Twitter, don’t you just love how I name drop?  She told me about a website called Good Reads.

I joined the website immediately upon her tweet and started adding only the books that I have read and the book I am reading right now.  What I like especially about the Good Reads website is that my list of books can be sorted.  I have been a member of aNobii for years and their website is nice and all but you can’t sort your books.

Like, if you want to sort them alphabetically or by date read or bought or whatever.  I think that has to be my favorite feature only because I have been wanting that for such a long time.  I’m keeping aNobii which means I’ll have to keep both sites up to date whenever I buy a new book.

You can also add your books into shelves, like if you are reading a series like the Sookie Stackhouse series, you can put them in their own shelf.  I read a lot of series books like Xanth, Cique du Freak, Sookie Stackhouse etc. so that is handy.

Your friends can join you so it’s very much like Facebook, but for readers.  You can see on your home page what your friends are saying and what books they are adding to their shelves.  I think that’s a very cool feature.

There are also groups that you can join.  Think of it as a book club but with a message board and with thousands of people.  You can discuss a certain book you are reading or have read with the people in the group.  If you are a member of a book club in your town then you already have people to talk to but I am not in a book club, mainly because I don’t want to be told what book I have to read because I’ll bet you it’s never anything I want to read.  So this way I can read a book that I want to read and then talk to people about it.

It’s a great website and if you are an avid reader I encourage you to join.

Borders Sad Chapter 11 News

On By Michel McDonaldIn Books, News1 Comment

I was watching Attack of the Show today and they spoke for 10 seconds about Borders filing for chapter 11 and closing some of their famous book stores but they didn’t go into as much detail as this email that I got today did.

Click the image to see it full sized to read the sad news.

My guess, and this is just an uneducated guess, is that they are doing poorly because of the rise of eBooks via the Amazon Kindle and the Barnes and Noble Nook. Borders does sell their own eBook reader called the Kobo as well as many other e-book readers like the Sony and Velocity Micro Cruz (which I have never heard of).

The main reason I bought a Nook was because of its online store ability as well as it’s ability to allow me to upload epub files from other websites which the Kindle would not allow. The Kobo and Sony readers were in my pro and con list but unfortunately didn’t meet my criteria due to the lack of an online store which I’m finding out now that the Kobo has. I don’t think it had it when I was making my decision.

Well as far as I knew they were doing great because we’ve been to the Borders over on Stockdale Hwy here in Bakersfield and they are always busy, then again it could’ve been that day but who knows. I’m almost positive that this is just a temporary economical setback and that they will eventually recover from it and be as strong as they always have been because they are a great store to go in to.

It is sad news to hear because I love to read and I think it’s very important for parents to teach their kids the joy of reading at an early age so they enjoy reading in their child, teen and adult years as much as I love to read today. Maybe knowing that they aren’t doing so great people will make the trip to their local Borders store hoping for a sale which might end up boosting their business causing the opposite of what is happening now.

Don’t let your local Borders store go out of business, go shop there for some books, movies, video games, toys and whatever else they sell. Install the Borders app on your cell phone and start buying e-books from them too.  Show them that you want them to stay by giving them some sales and keep those people from being out of a job. Times are tough and the last thing we need is for more people out of work.

My Chrome Apps and Extensions

On By Michel McDonaldIn Books, CR-48, Games, Google Chrome, TwitterLeave a comment

I am really enjoying Google Chrome these days. This is my Google Chrome front page. As you can see I have a few apps and unseen a few extensions.

The apps that you can see are pretty cool. The top ones are what came automatically in the browser and the rest I added. If I can’t use programs on my desktop then I gotta find a way to use them on the browser only laptop.

Typically when you are given things in a new product, the first thing you do is get rid of the junk you don’t want. Well, I did get rid of something. There was an icon for a Poppit game from Pogo but when you click it, it loads the Pogo website with the Pogo logo but the game never loads. So screw it, it’s gone lol.

Entanglement is a really cool game and I like to play it so I kept it. I’m not very good but I’m just a beginner. You gotta start somewhere right?

The Gmail and Google Talk ones I can do without but I’m not going to get rid of them if I may need them one day. Instead of using those, I downloaded the app LiveGO . It allows me access to MSN, Facebook, Twitter, Gmail, Yahoo and AOL/AIM all in one web page. For Facebook MSN, Gmail, Yahoo and AOL, it allows me to get access to my inbox and IM. It doesn’t have MySpace or Skype and I really wish they would get Skype on there so I can use the webcam. The IM’s have the webcam button but it says Coming Soon when you mouse over it. Hopefully they will get that up and running soon. For now I can use Google Talk to video chat, although I haven’t had the opportunity yet as I still don’t have any Gmail friends in all the years I’ve had Gmail.

TweetDeck is great. I’ve used that for Twitter on my Desktop so I now use it on the laptop in browser format instead of the installed version my desktop has. I actually like the browser version because the program takes forever to load and the browser loads instantly.

Autodesk Homestyler is such a cool one. You get a measuring tape and measure the rooms in your house and add rooms in the program according to the measurements. Ok I don’t needthis but it’s neat. I can add furniture to each room so I can make decorating decisions. I’m not a decorator but Darrin is so he can use that.

Google Books I added because I’m a book-worm. Although I have a Nook so I don’t need that but I was using it to look up books. I may get rid of it if I need the space though.

Todo.ly is a to do list lol. Yeah I know, lame. I may get rid of it if I don’t use it that often.

Picnik is for photo editing, although they want you to pay for premium features, I just wanted it so I could use it for the webcam. Since I can’t have Gimp on this laptop I needed something but if I really need to make a graphic I’ll just make it on my desktop.

Spider One Suit FREE … It’s Spider Solitaire lol. I can’t imagine a world where there is no solitaire on a computer.

SoopBook is for writing your own book. You can write it in there and invite people to read it and correct your mistakes. Although I don’t know if I want anyone messing with my autobiography but it’s a good way to write it since I am using this as my primary computer.  It also gives me a backup so if my computer crashes then I don’t have to worry about a backup copy.

I haven’t been writing my book at all lately anyway because I’ve been too busy. When I am ready to write again I have SoopBook and/or my desktop to write with. Although I could use SoopBook when we aren’t home and I have the laptop with me so there’s a good reason to keep it for a while.

Do I really need to explain YouTube, Hulu, Google Maps and Scratchpad? I’m sure you know what those are.

I have a few extensions which are on the very top of my browser, to the right of the address bar. I’m using Glue, AOL, Gmail and Yahoo email notifyer so if I’m not in LiveGO then I can see if I have email or not. Then I have Aviary for taking screenshots for blogging (example above).Amplify extension which I use occasionally for blogging and finally After the Deadline which is a great spell/grammar checker, not just for blogging but anywhere you type on the internet.

I am still adding extensions and apps so this is not all I am playing with. There will be more but for now, this is what I’m up to. Playing with and learning how to live with a browser only based laptop, it’s actually not as difficult as it sounds. I’m sure anyone can cut their ties to programs if they really had to. I guess this is an if you were stuck on an island, what program would you bring with you” type of question. Well, in my case I’d have to say the Google Chrome browser would be the only program I need since I can find a way to add all of my programs as web apps.

Ok that’s it for now. I’m tired and my eyes are too blurry from staring at this 12.1 inch laptop screen for the last 16-18 hours lol.

Dreamland Crocotta by Karl Pfeiffer

On By Michel McDonaldIn Books, eBook, Kindle, TechLeave a comment

If you are a fan of Ghost Hunters and Ghost Hunters Academy, then you are familiar with GHA season 1 winner Karl Pfeiffer.  He’s not just a famous TV personality but he’s also a writer.  He has written this short story called Dreamland Crocotta.

I didn’t know that he was a writer until he mentioned it on Twitter.  I found his book in the Nook store by searching for his name and he confirmed that this was his book.  It was only $1.99 but well worth the price for the 19 pages that it has.  It seems to only be in e-book format but sold on many different websites.

He used Smashbook to publish it but it’s sold on the Barnes & Noble website (through the Nook or the website), Kobo books (for the Kobo Reader) as well as the Diesel eBooks website.  If you have a Kindle, you might be out of luck as far as buying it through the Kindle store but you might be able to convert it to Kindle format in Calibre.

Synopsis:

“A short story. Overcome by insomnia and depression, Mitch Haloa passes his days alone in his neglected home until he begins speaking to a mysterious voice that creeps within the forest behind his house; A voice that soon haunts his every thought, that prods at the cracks in his already fragile reality; that calls for Mitch to lose himself, to leave one darkness in favor of another…”

It is listed in these categories: creature, dark, horror, insomnia, paranormal, psychological

It is pretty dark but as you read it more you will begin to understand Mitch’s plight, why he is so depressed and why he is hearing voices in the forest behind his house.  You will start to understand a little better why his life has turned in this dark direction.  It may be a short story but it is worth the read.  I applaud Karl on his efforts and look forward to more of his short (or long) stories.

(y) (y)

On a side note, Karl is who got me into wanting to learn how to make those Hemp beaded chokers.  When I first saw him on Ghost Hunters Academy I saw his choker and thought it was so cool.  It wasn’t until he was on Ghost Hunters International that I remembered his chocker.  That night I got on Google and started researching them; what they are called and where to buy them.

I found out that they were hemp and macramé so I started researching that too.  I went to several different websites with macramé patterns until I found a similar necklace.  Then we went to Michael’s where I spent nearly a fortune on hemp and beads trying to recreate his.  Although, it was nearly impossible since I had already forgotten what his looked like, I ended up making my own design.  I also learned how to make the rings and bracelets.  Pretty soon I started looking like a hippy with all my hemp jewelry on.  What I was missing was my tie dye t-shirt and my bald man hippy long hair in the back.

Anyway, I want to thank Karl for broadening my [craft] horizons by wearing his choker on Ghost Hunters lol.  If it wasn’t for him, I probably would’ve never had an interest in adding Macramé to my list of crafts that I do.

The Vampire’s Assistant

On By Michel McDonaldIn Books, MoviesLeave a comment

I watched The Vampire’s Assistant last night.  This movie was very strange.  Instead of being for 1 book it seems like it was for all of them†.  It just seemed like they were jumping around too fast, the movie didn’t explain anything.  I mean, it summarized a lot of stuff and even changed things around.  Although, I only say that because of how and where Steve was bit by Madam Octa and when he found out that Darren was still alive.

I do know for sure that I am definitely going to continue reading the books now because I feel like I have to find out what really happened in the storyline.  The movie was good visually but not so good at explaining things.  It was too fast.

I rented it from the Red Box but I think what I want to do is buy the DVD.  Better yet, I’d like to eventually get a Blu-Ray player and who knows, Santa might have his little elves building one for me right now as we speak.  I’d love to get it on Blu-Ray because I know the Blu-Ray has better extras to watch.  Once I’ve finished reading all 12 books I might go back to the movie and watch it again.

Madam Octa was cool in this movie, she was blue and red, just like Spiderman hehe.  I love the books but the movie for me was just a tease.  Also, is it just me or was John C. Reilly hot in this movie or what?  It’s true, being a vampire makes you hotter.  I never even gave him a thought until now.

†I was wrong about this.  I have read the first 3 books and only the first book was in the movie, the 2nd and 3rd were not even anywhere close to being a part of the movie.  I assumed only because they seemed to be rushing through all of these stories.  I will continue to read the entire series to get more out of it.

Cirque du Freak

On By Michel McDonaldIn Books, Movies, NookLeave a comment

(This is not a book review)

I have wanted to see this movie since it was first released in theaters but since one us in the house doesn’t like horror, the other (me) never gets to see it until it’s either on DVD, HBO or Showtime. Although, I still have yet to rent it from the Red Box at the grocery store. I seriously don’t know why I haven’t seen it yet. But right now at this very moment as I sit here typing this out, I’m glad I haven’t seen it yet.

This morning I wanted to start reading a book and I had chosen to start reading the 2nd book of the Belgariad but then I decided it wasn’t going to fit with the theme of this very day, Halloween. I mean sure it has witches and lots of magic but is it Halloween worthy? I think not. I have a queue of books that I want to buy and read and so I searched through the queue and remembered Cirque du Freak.

I got on the Nook store and found the first book for $1.99 for the e-book version. Perfect! I don’t have that much money in the bank for another few days but I have just enough that if I could buy a few of these volumes at $2 each. But I only bought the first one which is called Living Nightmare.

I started reading it after breakfast. It has fewer pages than the paperback version does as mostly all ebooks do but it also had way less than my regular books do. I can usually read 50 pages of a book which probably equals out to 75-100 regular paper back book pages and since this one was 149 pages, I thought, this is going to take 3 days, no problem. If I read half of it then I can shorten it to 2 days no biggy. But, after the live Ghost Hunters investigation was over I figured I’d at least give it a shot and see if I couldn’t just finish this book. And you know what? I did.

The story reeled me in, hook line and sinker. Whatever that means, some fishing term I don’t know. Anyway I was immediately hooked.

Here I am typing this out so late at night after spending so many hours reading, my eyes are tired and blurry and I’m having to squint to read, closing one eye making it easier lol. But I want to make my point before I go to bed and forget about it in the morning.

It was the most awesome $2 book I have ever taken a full day to read. Actually, it’s the first book that has taken me a full day to read. I love it and I can’t wait for the next one.

I wonder though, should I just go ahead and rent the movie or read the next book tomorrow and can I read the whole thing tomorrow like I read today? And is this a new trend for me? Reading these books one a day? How many are there? Do I need to read the entire series before seeing the movie?

Ok I’m too tired for all these questions since it’s 1:30am. I need to rest my eyes. I just wanted to let it be known that my dyslexia, ADD and learning disability didn’t prevent me from getting through this book, well, it was touch and go but other than that it was pretty easy to read and that is the kind of book I like.

I will start with part 2 tomorrow and hopefully the DVD will either be at the red box tomorrow or I can go into the HBO or Showtime on Demand and find it. I like to watch the movie first, it makes voices in my head for each characters easier so I cam impersonate their accents easier.

To be continued…

Finished One Book, Onto The Next

On By Michel McDonaldIn Books, eBook, NookLeave a comment

Well I finished reading the 9th Xanth novel today “Golem in the Gears” and that was the final Xanth novel that was sent to me a few years ago. My friend Alyce who sent them to me didn’t ask for them back, otherwise I probably would’ve put more of a rush into reading them. I’m not going to sell them on Yardsellr though because I don’t know that she won’t want them back eventually.

I have a lot of choices for my next book since I’ve been getting tons of free e-books from Barnes & Noble through the Nook store. Every Friday I go into “The Daily” on my Nook and see their “Free Fridays” from the Unbound Nook and BN EReader blog. I think that I have gotten 3 free e-books so far from the Free Fridays. And actually, you can get tons of free e-books as you are browsing for whatever subject. I can’t count how many free e-books I have gotten that way. This Nook sure has paid for itself with all the free e-books I got out of it.

I have a lot of choices for my next novel to start reading tomorrow and I think it will be the 2nd book in the Belgariad which is “Queen of Sorcery” by David Eddings. I read the first one last month and I think that it’s only right that I read the 2nd one this month and then one every month until I have finished the series. I’ve had these books since 2007 and haven’t even touched them.

I have until next week to finish it so I can buy the 3rd Sookie Stackhouse novel which I plan to read 1 every month until the next season of True Blood starts. I figure it would give me a better insight into the show and the characters. Although, the show is a not even the same as the books. They changed so much for the show by adding or deleting characters and story lines. Even if I do read all the books I’m always going to be surprised in the new plot so the show is actually more of an alternate reality from the books.

You know, ever since I bought this Nook I have been reading every single day. I actually skipped 1 day and it was torture to skip it too, I really genuinely wanted to read lol. It’s so unusual for me to read this much but I guess I figured since I spent so much money on all these books and the Nook I might as well read them.

A friend says she is proud of me for reading so much but is that really something to be proud of someone for? I mean, it’s just reading. Well, I guess her reason for it is more because I refused to read for the first 35 years of my life then all of a sudden I decide I wanted to start reading and now look at me, I’m a book-worm. I know it’s not much but in the last few years I have finished reading 32 books, 10 of them in the last couple months since I bought my Nook. I think it’s pretty good since it takes me 4-5 days to read a 200-300 page novel.

Next month after I read the 3rd Sookie Stackhouse novel I’m going to start to re-read the final Harry Potter novel before I go see it in theaters. That should take longer than 4-5 days unless I spend 8 hours a day reading it just like I did back in 2007 when I read it originally. Although, I’m pretty sure I remember everything that I read the first time so who knows if I really will read it again. I’m not much into repeating the same book.

My aunt says that her daughter-in-law re-reads books all the time, sometimes about 5 times because she always misses stuff the first time. I personally think that if you pay enough attention to the details and not try to read it so dang fast, you might not miss anything. That’s the trouble with reading so fast, you are in such a hurry to read it that you miss a ton of stuff. If you read at a normal pace which takes longer then you will get more out of it. The time it took to read it 5 times, she could’ve just read it at a normal pace one time and gotten more out of the experience of the story she’s reading.

It’s not a race. Who are you trying to impress? Because I’m not impressed when a person tells me that they read an entire book in a few hours because I know they missed a ton of stuff that is important to the story line. If you’re going to be a book-worm then be passionate about what you are reading, not about how fast you read.

Wow, I feel like an after school special.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1

On By Michel McDonaldIn Books, MoviesLeave a comment

When Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows came out in 2007, I read it for 8 hours a day for 4-5 days.  I was just so into it that I couldn’t tear myself away.  What I love about these books is that they are so easy for me to wrap my brain around it despite the disabilities that I have to reading.  The Harry Potter books are truly what gave me a passion for reading so when I see a Harry Potter movie after I’ve read the book I get very emotional about it.

I was watching the commercial for this in the living room and you would’ve thought that I just lost someone by the way I was crying lol.  If you haven’t read this book then I don’t want to spoil it for you but someone dies in this movie and someone else loses an ear.  Yes, I was crying over an ear too lol.

I’m afraid to go see this movie in the theater because I know I’m going to be making a scene.  When we went to see Lord of the Rings Return of the King, you could’ve heard 1) a pin drop and 2) me crying.  I am such a big baby, I don’t know why.  I get so wrapped up in the characters that it makes me emotional.

Part 1 of Harry Potter and the Deathly is in theaters on November 19th.  I might have to bring my sunglasses and a box of tissues when we go see this because I have a feeling I’m going to be crying so I’ll need the sunglasses to hide my red eyes as we’re leaving lol.

Nook Color with Touch Screen

On By Michel McDonaldIn Books, eBook, Nook, Products I Like, TechLeave a comment

I think I’m going to have a heart attack and die right now.  I just got an email from Barnes & Noble with this subject:

“Introducing NOOKcolor — The Amazing Sequel to the NOOK You Love.”

Oh really?  Are you joking me?  If they could’ve told me this in September BEFORE I spent $150 on the Nook Wifi, I would’ve had an incentive to wait a little bit longer.  This new NOOKcolor is $249 and has many more features than my current Nook doesn’t have.  Such as it’s a color touch screen, you can see magazines and newspaper in color, kids books come alive at the touch of a finger (like I care) and one thing I saw in the video when I clicked the link in the email is that you can have it read to you and it’s NOT a robot voice like the Kindle.

This one is way better than mine because it can do portrait and landscape which the Kindle can do but the Nook I have can’t.  It has an 8GB card along with the ability to add another.  Mine only has 1GB but I can still add to it.  Although, I don’t see that I would ever need to but with the NOOKcolor I can see needing a bigger card because I’m sure the books with audio are bigger files.

Another cool feature is videos in your books…  In the video they showed a cookbook and you can read the recipe but then the image for it is a video where you can see how to make the recipe.  That would be so cool.  What would be even cooler is newspapers where the image for the article is an actual video of what happened.  The newspaper could set up a news station type set with anchors who read the articles with video of what happened at the scene, just like the news on tv has.  Or a magazine could have a video of the interview with the stars and their ads could be a video commercial.

I see in the Barnes & Noble website a new newsstand which is “coming soon” so I think they are going to add more magazines finally.  Right now they only have a few.  I subscribe to PC Magazine for $1.49 per month (or per magazine) but I was hoping they would have a broader choice.  With the NOOKcolor they might have more magazines and I think that would be great for Darrin who loves to get the magazines from the grocery store.  I think if he had a subscription to them then he would save so much money.  But that means he has to get the new NOOKcolor, or he can use Nook for PC.

Well, it’s obvious that I can’t afford to buy it, I can barely buy groceries right now but who knows, maybe by this time next year they will have a NOOKcolor 2 for $149 that I can save up for.  Hey it could happen.  Last year the Nook was $249 and then it came down to $149 this year and that’s the one I have.  So maybe I’ll bide my time for another year and save money so I can get the NOOKcolor for Darrin for his birthday, that is if they go down.

I don’t have to have color, I really like my Nook.  I think that the new NOOKcolor is an LCD screen, it looks lit up like the little LCD screen at the bottom of mine.  I don’t think I can read from an LCD screen.  It’s too much for my eyes.  Darrin would like that I think, last night he went to read a book on my Nook and he asked me when the screen was going to light up for him to read it.  I had to tell him that it doesn’t light up, it’s e-ink, not LCD.