Words of Redemption

I had planned on writing a long post this morning summarizing the wild world of air travel Sarah and I experienced in the last week, along with a summary of our great trip back to Texas, but I can’t seem to get it sorted it my mind or started on the page. So it will have to wait another day or so. In the meantime, my AA Haiku in the April Poetic License post well summarizes our flight to San Antonio in only seventeen syllables. And the weather Haiku does the same for the climate differences here and there¹.

Instead, how about an update on my pre-Kindle reading list?

A few weeks ago, I posted about my decision to hold off on purchasing a Kindle and shared a list of fifteen books I intended to read while I wait for the Kindle backlog to clear. I thought it might be fun to post a regular update on both how the reading list is coming along and where I stand in my decision to buy or not buy a Kindle once I complete the books on this list.

Oh, and there’s a better than average chance that the original list of fifteen will grow. I’m really, really trying my hardest to avoid adding things to the list, especially those titles available on the Kindle. But I am already making an exception and adding one more book to the pre-Kindle list:

“Born Standing Up: A Comic’s Life” (Steve Martin)

This book was already on my mental list, I even had it on reserve at the library. I just forgot to add it, even though this one is tops on the anticipation scale. I love Steve Martin and I’ve heard that this book is just fantastic. And yes, I know there is a Kindle version, but the library version is free. And I reserve the right to either use that particular argument or dismiss it as I see fit.

And I also forgot to mention that the list of fifteen didn’t include audiobooks. I have about an hour commute each day to and from work, which is a perfect place to cram in even more reading. And even though this update is for the pre-Kindle list, I’ll probably share my audio list as well just for fun.

I’m going to try and shy away from actually reviewing or rating any of these books, mostly because you shouldn’t really take my word for anything. If I really like a book or think it’s worth a read, I’ll probably say so at some point. If I don’t, that doesn’t necessarily mean anything, though it might.

So here we go:

Books completed in weeks 1 and 2

“The Polysyllabic Spree” (Nick Hornby)

“Self-Editing for Fiction Writers, Second Edition: How to Edit Yourself Into Print” (Renni Browne, Dave King)

“A Long Way Down” (Nick Hornby) (Audiobook)

Books started in weeks 1 and 2

“Stone Crossings: Finding Grace in Hard and Hidden Places” (L. L. Barkat) (Page 35)

“My Name Is Russell Fink” (Michael Snyder) (Page 220)

“Duma Key: A Novel” (Stephen King) (Hour 5 of 20)

Without going off track too much, I wanted to share an interesting story about LL’s book, Stone Crossings. Even though SC started at number four on my original list, I wanted to take the book home with me and finish it while it Texas so that I could share it with family and maybe even encourage them to buy a copy or two². I started the book on the plane flight to Texas and was thoroughly enjoying it when, a mere 35-pages in, I left it on the plane.

Now this is very odd behavior for me. I don’t even place my books in the seat pockets for this very reason. Chalk it up to the fact that I was watching the Spurs get pounded by the Suns on the Frontier flight and was very, very annoyed at their poor performance³.

In any case, I left the book on the plane. Which, when you think about it, is kind of cool. I can only hope that someone picked it up and is both reading and loving it right now.

Not to be deterred, I ordered three more copies of the book, one for myself, and two others to pass around. Thirty-five pages in, I know enough to say that you should buy and read this book.

So do it already.

The Kindle Go-No Go Assessment: 7

This is a number between 1 and 10 guaging the likelihood that I will purchase a Kindle once I’ve read all the books on this list, with 10 meaning I’ll be buying one, 5 meaning I can probably wait until the next version or an Apple model and 1 meaning I’ll stick with print for good.

Considering I was in line for a Kindle before canceling my order, we’ll say I started this exercise at an 8.

It looks like Amazon is catching up on orders and might actually be caught up with same-day shipping of Kindles by the time I plow through this list. That 7 means that there’s about a 50-50 chance of me either buying or waiting.

The (Remaining) Reading List

“A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier” (Ishmael Beah)

“Stone Crossings: Finding Grace in Hard and Hidden Places” (L. L. Barkat)

“My Name Is Russell Fink” (Michael Snyder)

“Orthodoxy” (Gilbert K. Chesterton, G. K. Chesterton)

“The Stories of John Cheever” (John Cheever)

“The Shack” (William P. Young)

“Characters and Viewpoint (Elements of Fiction Writing)” (Orson Scott Card)

“The World Is Flat 3.0: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century” (Thomas L. Friedman)

“Peace Like a River” (Leif Enger)

“Writing the Breakout Novel” (Donald Maass)

“Notes From Underground” (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)

“St. Thomas Aquinas on Politics and Ethics (Norton Critical Editions)” (Aquinas Thomas)

“On Eloquence” (Denis Donoghue)

“Born Standing Up: A Comic’s Life” (Steve Martin)

More on this next week. In the meantime, what are you reading? And what’s on your Kindle, Phil?

Popularity: 13% [?]

1. It snowed in Colorado again last night. Is it spring? Is it winter? Who knows… It’s Colorado! [↩]
2. Consider me part of your marketing team, LL. [↩]
3. But the new season begins on Saturday! [↩]

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