What are you reading?

[CineMaven]

Red...you're incorrigible. Girls can't like smoking ol' Stogies? How sexist. Get a book, man.

[charliechaplinfan]

I must have missed this thread last week, I hope you enjoyed Vienna ChiO. We were in Austria a month ago but in the mountains, it's a beautiful country. I think Marlene had a wit about her and a cigar, what a vision I now have in my head, I'd forgotten Clinton's cigar.

Well, I have succumbed to the Kindle, without really meaning too, I simply love books, too much, if I love them anymore I might just have to live in the garage. Looking into it, it makes sense for me, I have a huge collection of classic literature 90% of which can be downloaded free. Plus there is the back breaking load of books I take on every holiday, the space will now be used to bring home wine or goodies. My movie books will stay as they are as I don't feel that photographs can ever look as good on an electronic device but it's struck me for a while now that more books are coming to market and maybe we'll get to a point where kindle books outsell normal ones and then one day, normal ones will go up in price. Another consideration is that my daughter us a bigger bookworm than me and despite having two good sized bookshelves, she needs more room. I'll still buy the odd book but I seriously have to look at another way of collecting.

[RedRiver]

E-books are a great idea. I'm in a financial crunch right now. But someday I'll get one. What am I saying? We'll all have them!

[JackFavell]

I bought one too I'm ashamed to say. I like that if you want a book, you can get it immediately, if they have it for your particular brand of reader.

[Lzcutter]

Kindles are great for traveling. I love mine for just that reason. I can sit and read it while at the wine bar or at the gate and it fits in my purse and doesn't weigh as much as a hard back.

MrCutter got it for me last Christmas in order to lighten my book collection. We have boxes of my books in the garage because there just isn't enough room to have them all in the house.

But he hasn't converted to digital yet, so I still buy him books.

Shhh!!!! He doesn't realize that we are still collecting books. Yet.

Shhhhh!!!!!

[charliechaplinfan]

My husband doesn't much like books as possessions, that's what libraries are for, which is right. Maybe I'm a hoarder at heart, books are one of my favourite things though. If it's anything like my ipod it won't take me long to find things to put onto it.

[RedRiver]

I think we should put relationships on Kindle. Download them when we want them. Click them off when we're done. E-friends!

[charliechaplinfan]

I've been reading my kindle and books from the library

Heidi, I'd never read this book and having visited the Alps in August I wanted to be transported back there, a lovely book but too young for me. Nice though as many of the classics are free.

The Drinker by Hans Fallada - the man who wrote Little Man What Now and remained in Germany through out the Nazi period, a colourful character who had been addicted to alcohol and drugs through out his life and this book is based on his own experiences in a sanatorium.

The Diary of Lady Murasaki - the writer of Genji who was part of the Heain court, an interesting look of court life at the time 1000 AD, however I'd recommend the Genji books more but any literature that has been around so long is a miracle.

The Lonely Empress by Joan Haslip about the life of the Empress Elizabeth of Austria, I'm half way through and gripped by the history although not as much by the woman who seems to have been capricious and demanding and extremely beautiful. I've just read through the segment that deals with Jaurez a film I watched only a week or so ago, for once the film is very close to the actual history only there was nothing heroic or justified about what Jaurez did.

[charliechaplinfan]

I've finished Joan Haslips' book on Elizabeth of Austria, for me it was a real page turner, I love European royal history particularly of the 19th and 20th century and Elizabeth is one of it's most romantic and shrouded figures, she hadn't the temprement to be Empress of Austria and her whole body seemed to revolt against it, yet she loved Franz Joseph, at least at first and he adored her right until the end and gratified her every whim, of which there were many. My only critcism is that the book ends with her death, I would have liked some tidying up, a quick precise of history up to Franz Joseph's death and to know what happened to her daughters.

[JackFavell]

It sounds really interesting, Alison. I wish I had as much time for reading as I have greed for new books.

[charliechaplinfan]

It's the one good thing about being ill, I can indulge my passion for reading and like films I go off at all tangents.

[ChiO]

It's not a book; it's just an essay...in a local alternative, freely distributed weekly. But it is why I love Jonathan Rosenbaum.

http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/jo ... id=4795139

[JackFavell]

That article was way too short! I wish he had expanded on the subject.

[RedRiver]

I lived in Chicago for years. It was only when I moved away that I learned Jonathan Rosenbaum is nationally known! Some people complain that The Reader gives everything a bad review. Well...if the shoe fits. If I were a film critic, I wouldn't be handing out gold stars.

[Rita Hayworth]

Kindles are great for traveling. I love mine for just that reason. I can sit and read it while at the wine bar or at the gate and it fits in my purse and doesn't weigh as much as a hard back.

As a man, I love to travel and you don't have to pack much and I like the portability aspects too!