This week, I remembered that Iowa City has a library. More accurately, I remembered that the library has books. (We'd been using it for DVDs occasionally already.) So I checked the website, gave the husband a list (like I'm going to go out in a car with no air conditioning when the heat index is 114F/46C, get real), and have been happily reading things since.
The point in mentioning this is that one of the books I've gotten was Inside of a Dog, by Alexandra Horowitz, which someone (don't remember who, sorry) recommended in the comments here, one Saturday after I said I wondered what sorts of things Sheba thinks about. I'm not done with it yet, but it's been educational so far. 
I've also read Oryx and Crake (Margaret Atwood). For some reason I'd been unable to get into the first time I picked it up, but I pushed through this time and wound up reading it all in less than a day.
I love Atwood in general (Cat's Eye and The Robber Bride are both very important books to me), and I didn't dislike Oryx and Crake, but it bothers me in some way I can't quite put my finger on. Or maybe more than one way. I don't mean I find it unsettling in the way Atwood meant it to be (it is, after all, more or less a dystopia that turns into an apocalypse, which are things that should be unsettling), more that it feels like Atwood skipped important steps in the plot or the world-building or something. I don't know what it is. (Anybody else happen to read Oryx and Crake recently and want to talk about it by e-mail or something?)
Anyway. I'll let you know about Inside of a Dog.
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6 comments:
That was me! I really hope you like the book.
Awesome picture of Sheba!
Great shot of Sheba!
Sheba looking so dignified. LOL.
Have you thought about getting an ereader? I keep toyng with it. A buddy of mine has a Nook and likes it a lot. The $ is what holds me back.
Paul:
Well, I have essentially no income, so that's pretty much a non-starter. Even if I had the money, I'm not a big fan of any situation where the company that sold you the product can also take it away for any reason they feel like. At least with paper books, you actually own them when you buy them, and you continue to own them even if the publishing company goes bankrupt or decides they're not going to print books anymore.
I'm reminded of the Groucho Marx quote: "Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read." ;)
I agree with you about the DRM in Kindle and Nook books. The solution is to get an Android-based ereader and only buy books in the epub format. If you even bother to buy books -- there are a ton of free ebooks out there. I found a full-color Android ereader on sale for $99 (Velocity Cruz) and haven't bought a single book. Between Gutenberg, Baen, and free Kindle books (there's a free Kindle app for Android), I've had no shortage of reading material. And I haven't even begun to explore my library's collection of ebooks.
Dystopian fiction happens to be my favorite. I read "Oryx and Crake" sometime last year. I agree that it was distubring. I also read "The Year of the Flood," which is loosely tied to O&C.
Ironically, I am currently reading "Timbuktu" by Paul Aster - narrated by a dog.
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