As a crazy bibliophile I am always curious about people and their reading habits. How do people read? What do they read? Are they reading? Why aren't they reading more? Why aren't people more excited to talk to me about what I'm reading and to tell me what they're reading... So, I find this whole new wave of ebooks, namely the Amazon Kindle thing really interesting. On the one hand, I would love to carry many books without carrying many books. On the other hand the idea seems insidious, a great gap in the digital divide and another vehicle for advertising. Also the name 'Kindle' is sort of evocative of Farenheit 451.

Here's Steven Levy's Newsweek article on it: http://www.newsweek.com/id/70983

and 'On Point' did a show about the Kindle with Steven Levy and some sweet old bibliophile dude: http://www.onpointradio.org/shows/2007/11/20071120_b_main.asp

I'd love to know if people are considering Kindles for their libraries and what they think of them. Are you drooling for one, or vaguely disgusted.

Look Me in the Eye—John Elder Robison—

This was a pretty good book. Nothing terribly exciting, but on the other hand, it wasn’t too poorly written. It was a quick read. However, I must admit this new thread of ‘tell-all’ memoirs about adults with Asperger’s syndrome are becoming a bit redundant. And in reading this one, I carefully looked for the battery of neurological/psychological testing that the author took to determine the diagnosis of Asperger’s Syndrome and found none. Mr. Robison was told by a social friend that he exhibited some of the traits of Asperger’s Syndrome. And the author read a lot of literature about the subject, but it seems that he was not diagnosed by a professional. This was disturbing to me. The parts about KISS concerts were fun.

Born Standing Up—Steve Martin—

I got an advanced readers copy at the Book Expo last June. It was a nice book. Quick read, not very funny. I do hope they did another bout of editing before the actual publication.

The Spiderwick debacle

Oops. Bad Libarian, no big cookie! It would seem that Max and I started the second Spiderwick series (Beyond the Spiderwick chronicles) before reading the first. Color me ashamed. So, we've corrected this, bought some of the earlier ones and even listened to all of the first series on a car trip to NY. For anyone who is interested the series is:

1. The Field Guide, 2. The Seeing Stone, 3. Lucinda's Secret, 4. The Ironwood Tree, 5. The Wrath of Mulgrath

The audiobooks are read by Mark Hamill of Star Wars fame. Very enjoyable!