Re: What are you reading?
Posted: April 18th, 2012, 2:22 pm
That's a real good point of a kindle that the classic books are relatively cheap. The kindle touch has only just launched over here, I know that I'm quite happy to spend time reading the kindle at night and let Chris chose the TV programmes, he's not a big reader like me although I think he wouldn't mind a kindle with added extras, he wouldn't shell out for an ipad as they're quite expensive over here and he wouldn't use it enough.
It's truly broadened my horizons in terms of what I read. I agree about biographies and history books, so many have agendas, still if you download a book and don't like the slan you can return within 7 days and be reimbursed.
Does amazon.com have a daily kindle book deal? I've got some really good books from there, books I might not have otherwise have thought of buying, I perhaps buy 2 a month and at 99p they're a steal. The book I'm reading at the moment has really resonated with me as I'm sure it would with many women it's called 'Can Any Mother Help Me?' the title of a letter sent into a woman and baby magazine in the early thirties, from there developed a correspondence magazine with 30 regular correspondents, mostly from middle class backgrounds, the criteria for joining was that they could bring something new to the group so there was a wide variety of backgrounds and a high level of writing. The magazine would circulate from one member to another and each member was encouraged to write articles on both personal subjects and other things that took their interest. Some of the articles were personal, about bringing up children, married life, childbirth, illnesses etc. All of the women had given up work because of the marriage bar that existed which meant that married women could not remain in the workplace causing much frustration to these very erudite women. I'm almost at the end and the magazine is winding up because of death and illnesses of the members. Thankfully, many of the articles were saved and the author did her thesis on the magazine and developed it into a book. What struck me is that it's similar to the friendships that have grown up on this site and the ability to write about what is troubling us and to discuss with people who are far away, that's available to us instantly, for these women they had to wait for the magazine to come around to them but they benefited tremendously from having other women to confide in, it's a history that is more candid than anything that my grandmother would ever have admitted to, like sex lives, childbirth and loneliness and the writing is so personal and candid. Here is the link should anyone want to investigate more
It's truly broadened my horizons in terms of what I read. I agree about biographies and history books, so many have agendas, still if you download a book and don't like the slan you can return within 7 days and be reimbursed.
Does amazon.com have a daily kindle book deal? I've got some really good books from there, books I might not have otherwise have thought of buying, I perhaps buy 2 a month and at 99p they're a steal. The book I'm reading at the moment has really resonated with me as I'm sure it would with many women it's called 'Can Any Mother Help Me?' the title of a letter sent into a woman and baby magazine in the early thirties, from there developed a correspondence magazine with 30 regular correspondents, mostly from middle class backgrounds, the criteria for joining was that they could bring something new to the group so there was a wide variety of backgrounds and a high level of writing. The magazine would circulate from one member to another and each member was encouraged to write articles on both personal subjects and other things that took their interest. Some of the articles were personal, about bringing up children, married life, childbirth, illnesses etc. All of the women had given up work because of the marriage bar that existed which meant that married women could not remain in the workplace causing much frustration to these very erudite women. I'm almost at the end and the magazine is winding up because of death and illnesses of the members. Thankfully, many of the articles were saved and the author did her thesis on the magazine and developed it into a book. What struck me is that it's similar to the friendships that have grown up on this site and the ability to write about what is troubling us and to discuss with people who are far away, that's available to us instantly, for these women they had to wait for the magazine to come around to them but they benefited tremendously from having other women to confide in, it's a history that is more candid than anything that my grandmother would ever have admitted to, like sex lives, childbirth and loneliness and the writing is so personal and candid. Here is the link should anyone want to investigate more