So my second audiobook experience is Dune by Frank Herbert. I began reading this book when I was in middle school, but never managed to get through it. I loved the made-for-tv movie, though. I'm definitely into a sci-fi/fantasy kick right now, so this seemed a perfect bet for my audible experiement.
This particular audiobook is far more exciting than The Screwtape Letters. For one, the narrator is better; Dune includes a whole cast of narrators to help move the story along and to differientiate between characters. There's also some well-composed mood music that plays behind the narrators. Overall the effect is one of listening to a radio broadcast as opposed to a lecture. I also found that, if I get in a comfortable seat and take up my knitting, I can listen for hours on end, which is quite beneficial considering this book is more than 20 hours long!
I must mention as a sidebar: I find it quite facinating that Audible is a part of the Amazon family. It seems that Amazon is finding all sorts of ways of taking my money. I keep getting emails about the Kindle and it's starting to drive me batty. I have to tell myself that it's simply an expense I can't afford, now or in the near future. I told myself I would cancel my Audible subscription once the "trial" was over, but like so many things, I've let it linger on, despite the fact that I'm so unsure about it. The only excuse I can come up with is that it does give me space to knit for extended periods of time, without the distraction that watcing TV brings. But, really Amazon? Why do you insist on taking my money? They should have perks for loyal customers, because loyal I am. I truly am.
Going back to the topic of reading, now that I've started Dune, I have a worrisome number of books I'm reading at once: Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman, The Dispossessed by Ursula Le Guin, On Writing by Stephen King and Steering the Craft by Ursula Le Guin. I generally like all of these books, and I don't know why I kept picking up new ones even though I'm not even halfway through any of them. I'm honestly feeling oversaturated by reading these days. It's a pastime I heartily enjoy and I truly believe it helps with my writing, but honestly when am I supposed to write if I'm reading all the time? I've decided that I need to cut back and focus on one book at a time. I think that I don't want to focus too much on the advise books until I have made significant progress with The Education of Gareth. I really enjoy The Dispossessed, and Le Guin is one of my favorite authors, so I think that one's the winner.
I have a lot of books in my queue for after this first group is done. I bought the Jan/Feb edition of Science Fiction and Fantasy Literary Magazine which I wanted to read through. I also have The Drawing of the Two, the second part of the Dark Tower Series.
Next time I'll give an update re: the last writer's meeting I attended and progress with EoG.
Monday, February 22, 2010
Monday, February 8, 2010
Back on Track
The Education of Gareth continues on.
I am very thankful that I was able to find the hard copy of chapter one. Transcribing chapter two was very time-consuming. I read very fast, even when out loud, so I was having to pause the video every few phrases to ensure that I wouldn't forget. But, it is done, and I have continued on.
I have been reminded throughout this process of my college days, when I worked at Mortensen Library. Especially during the cram periods, the computer lab was always filled with students frantically trying to finish up papers. I worked at the Circulation desk, and more than once I had a student run up to me to report that their paper had suddenly been deleted, or their computer had mysteriously crashed. "I'd been working on that paper for 6 hours!" one might say. Or, equally heart-rending: "I just lost 15 pages of my term paper!" My answer was almost always the same, and, as I recall, I always said it with a sigh.
"Did you save the file to the desktop? Never save it to the desktop."
Now, this story doesn't quite equate to my situation. No, I didn't save EoG to the desktop, I saved it to a flashdrive. But, I was transferring that flashdrive between my modern, updated, Windows 7 laptop and the piece of crap they make us use at work. Which has since been sent away for a rather funky malfunction. Still, I can still hear my own voice echoing in my head. Why didn't I save it to multiple places?! It's a habit I gained while in college, in the midst of hearing horror stories and having computers crashing on me while I tried to get my own work done. I have four or five different saved copies of Snow Falls Slowly. The problem with this is that it becomes rather difficult to figure out which one is the most recently updated, and then to go back and update the rest, or copy over them. It's very time-consuming, and I thought, "hey, I'm not in college anymore, I shouldn't have to worry about such things anymore." But clearly I'm still having this problem.
I think, however, I have found a solution. I had fixed up the first chapter of EoG at work. Instead of pulling out my trusty (or not so trusty) flash drive, I simply emailed the document to myself. That way, it's always on gmail, and therefore easily accessible should something (G Forbid!) happen to it. I'm thinking that, every so often, I'll burn all the copies onto a cd and label them as I do my versions of reports I do at work: EoG2.8.10, EoG2.11.10, and so forth. All I can do is hope nothing happens to my gmail account.
I am very thankful that I was able to find the hard copy of chapter one. Transcribing chapter two was very time-consuming. I read very fast, even when out loud, so I was having to pause the video every few phrases to ensure that I wouldn't forget. But, it is done, and I have continued on.
I have been reminded throughout this process of my college days, when I worked at Mortensen Library. Especially during the cram periods, the computer lab was always filled with students frantically trying to finish up papers. I worked at the Circulation desk, and more than once I had a student run up to me to report that their paper had suddenly been deleted, or their computer had mysteriously crashed. "I'd been working on that paper for 6 hours!" one might say. Or, equally heart-rending: "I just lost 15 pages of my term paper!" My answer was almost always the same, and, as I recall, I always said it with a sigh.
"Did you save the file to the desktop? Never save it to the desktop."
Now, this story doesn't quite equate to my situation. No, I didn't save EoG to the desktop, I saved it to a flashdrive. But, I was transferring that flashdrive between my modern, updated, Windows 7 laptop and the piece of crap they make us use at work. Which has since been sent away for a rather funky malfunction. Still, I can still hear my own voice echoing in my head. Why didn't I save it to multiple places?! It's a habit I gained while in college, in the midst of hearing horror stories and having computers crashing on me while I tried to get my own work done. I have four or five different saved copies of Snow Falls Slowly. The problem with this is that it becomes rather difficult to figure out which one is the most recently updated, and then to go back and update the rest, or copy over them. It's very time-consuming, and I thought, "hey, I'm not in college anymore, I shouldn't have to worry about such things anymore." But clearly I'm still having this problem.
I think, however, I have found a solution. I had fixed up the first chapter of EoG at work. Instead of pulling out my trusty (or not so trusty) flash drive, I simply emailed the document to myself. That way, it's always on gmail, and therefore easily accessible should something (G Forbid!) happen to it. I'm thinking that, every so often, I'll burn all the copies onto a cd and label them as I do my versions of reports I do at work: EoG2.8.10, EoG2.11.10, and so forth. All I can do is hope nothing happens to my gmail account.
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Thwarting Disaster!
This week was poised to start off with me lost somewhere in Dante's Inferno. Somehow I managed to corrupt the word document that contained the story I've been working on for the past two weeks. It was the only copy I had (obviously the perils of college life have been lost on me) and no matter how much I tried, I couldn't get it to open. The only copy I'd printed I had given away, and that had been only after the first day of writing. Here I was, ten minutes before having to leave for work, freaking out as I stared into the precipice that would possibly have been my undoing. Could it be re-created? Do I remember it well enough to capture all of the little things that actually made it sort of brilliant?
My first instinct was to call up the person who had the only hard copy, incomplete as it was. My hopes were on her, my possible angel. But, it seemed that perhaps there was some curse put on me, for the copy was missing.
Then I had a moment of clarity. I've been video-journaling! And for my last entry, I remembered with waves of euphoria, I read the entire story out loud to myself in an attempt to spark inspiration. So now I'm faced with the prospect of sitting in front of the computer, transcribing from a video file, which I've never done before.
Luck seems to have returned to me, however, in the form of the missing hard copy. So now it's only a matter of two or three pages that will be transcribed. I'll do it tonight so that I can get back into the groove of the story and then just keep on going. In the end, I was screwed and saved by technology...somehow it reminds me of the U2 song, "With or Without You". Huh.
My first instinct was to call up the person who had the only hard copy, incomplete as it was. My hopes were on her, my possible angel. But, it seemed that perhaps there was some curse put on me, for the copy was missing.
Then I had a moment of clarity. I've been video-journaling! And for my last entry, I remembered with waves of euphoria, I read the entire story out loud to myself in an attempt to spark inspiration. So now I'm faced with the prospect of sitting in front of the computer, transcribing from a video file, which I've never done before.
Luck seems to have returned to me, however, in the form of the missing hard copy. So now it's only a matter of two or three pages that will be transcribed. I'll do it tonight so that I can get back into the groove of the story and then just keep on going. In the end, I was screwed and saved by technology...somehow it reminds me of the U2 song, "With or Without You". Huh.
Monday, February 1, 2010
Book Review: Cinnamon Kiss
Cinnamon Kiss: A Novel by Walter MosleyMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
Walter Mosley provides another great Easy Rawlins tale. This time Easy is racing the clock to save his daughter's life, but nothing seems to be going right for him. It's one plot twist after another, and by the end I was so enthralled I wanted it to keep going. I think it'd be great if there was another Easy Rawlins movie, if only because all of the books in this series have great story lines that are sure to transfer well to film. There's a magic to Mosley's writing that I wish I had.
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