Saturday, October 31, 2009

Geographical Restrictions

I am so TIRED of not being able to buy the books I want because of geographical ebook restrictions. I used to get angry about it, but now I’m just tired.

In the last two days, there have been four books I wanted to buy and couldn’t because of where I live. Two I wanted enough to order from my local specialty store that imports books, but that was only because their catalogue arrived the same day and those two were in there. Otherwise I just wouldn’t have bothered. As it is, there go two lost sales. And it easily might have been four.

I’m sick and I’m always tired, lately close to exhausted. My eyes are getting older and more tired. Paper books are just getting harder and harder for me to read. I can lie down on my bed and read on my iPhone and I can adjust the text size, the text colours and it’s small and it’s light. Even then, sometimes it’s too much effort to hold it up and I give up and put on a podcast or some music.

Reading is HARD for me these days. I’m a life-long avid reader, but now it’s HARD. Why do publishers have to make it harder?

It’s an effort for me to get organised enough to go out to the bookstore or the library. And then I have to find the energy to do it. And then I have to cope with the paper books anyway. If publishers keep making it harder and harder for me to get their books (and more expensive, because with the exchange rate and import costs to consider, paper books are much more expensive than ebooks here) I’ll just give up. They won’t be selling me their books.

And I can see myself, a life-long reader, gradually stopping reading.

Now that’s just SAD.

Wednesday, October 07, 2009

I finished a challenge!

mckillipchallenge_300btn Wow, I did it! I actually completed a challenge. The other day I finished reading Patricia A. McKillip’s Harrowing the Dragon, a collection of short stories. In doing so, I read my third book of hers for the year and completed Lennth’s challenge. My updated challenge post is here.

c14278 I have to admit this was far from my favourite on McKillip’s works. I think she’s better at full length novels than short stories.

I usually love McKillip, but a lot of these stories failed to completely satisfy. I think a lot of the problem is that the endings tended to feel weak to me; the stories built beautifully, the writing was lovely and then they just kind of ended. My favourites were "The Stranger" and "The Lion and the Lark" and I think part of that is because the endings were stronger. But I'm left with the feeling that McKillip writes better at the longer length than the shorter one.

All the same, I enjoyed the experience. I’m not really one for anthologies full of stories by different authors, but reading this collection by McKillip and Dreams Underfoot by Charles de Lint earlier this year I’ve discovered that I’m more likely to enjoy a collection by a favourite author where I know I already enjoy their world(s) and writing style.

Harrowing the Dragon
Patricia A. McKillip
7/10

Qualifies for: 100+ Reading Challenge, Patricia A. McKillip Challenge, eBook Reading Challenge

I’ve actually managed a few book comments over on my GoodReads entries lately, so I shall endeavour to add this to the blog over the next few weeks. It’s school holidays here and having Marcus at home for two weeks solid (well 1½ so far) has really knocked me over.