I'll show you my support if you'll show me yours!

Paper books or e-books? Paper books or e-books? The debate goes on and on and on. Independent bookstores are closing left and right. Newspaper offices are either closing or firing staff members at enormous rates. The Times Picayune, the oldest continuous newspaper in the country, has decided to cut back not only staff members, but how many days a week they publish! The residents of New Orleans are deeply saddened over this. Apparently the newspaper office didn't get the memo during Hurricane Katrina that not everyone in the city has access to t.v. and internet. Many people's only means of getting the news is through the newspaper. I was let go from my local newspaper a couple of years ago due to lack of budget, so I know how it feels on the other side of the spectrum.

But I digress. What now has me torn up during this whole paper or electronics debate is in my search for some mass market paperbacks, of all things. I recently started Southern writer Ace Atkins' Nick Travers series. I had gotten the first book, Crossroad Blues, from an online book swap. So, now I'm finished with this book and would like to continue reading. I, personally, like to keep series books in the same format. All of them being either paper or Kindle or Nook. I look on Barnes & Noble's website hoping that I can locate the other 3 books in the store and then use the "Pick Me Up" option to have them waiting on me in the store.  Fail. So I look on Amazon.com for the books. Only available on e-book it says. Fail. So I decide to just go to Barnes & Noble anyway, hoping that the website just didn't know what it was talking about. Customer service could only find the most recent two novels by Ace Atkins, those not being the same series I started. Ugh!

That night, my husband and I watched the movie The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Afterwards I decided that I would finally like to read the books. Seeing as I just had surgery on my neck to repair the nerves leading to my arms and hands, I am excited about being able to hold a book in my hands pain free. I would like to get a copy of the paper book of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo...no dice unless I want to order it online. My local B&N doesn't even have the first book in mass market paperback. (I highly recommend the movie, by the way)

I support the independent book industry in full. I also enjoy my Kindle and Nook and take turns about with both e-book and paper formats. My argument is this...how can consumers effectively support independent or even chain book stores when the only things on the shelves are Fifty Shades of Gray and Twilight? I live in Shreveport, Louisiana and author Ace Atkins lives in Memphis, Tennessee. Is is such a stretch to carry his books? Why is there such a hype over The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo but then you can't even find the first novel in the series except in e format? Come on people! It's a vicious cycle, I know. Publishers have to actually print the books in order for the bookstores to carry them. Seeing that so many good books are out of print, what does this say about readers in 2012? Apparently the Twilight fans outweigh the fans of classics, if you call 1998 classic (when Crossroad Blues was published).

A Text That Everybody Knows

So, I've been spending a lot of time recovering from surgery and what-not...knowing that I want to start writing again but not knowing what in the world to say. I've browsed through piles of Cheezburger photos, listened to a lot of music, and watched hours of music videos while stuck in the hospital. It seems that everyone but me has something to say. I find it interesting that the different entertainment mediums are now crossing into each other. For instance, one of my favorite songs, Somebody That I Used to Know by Gotye, has been parodied all over the internet for it's popular line "But you didn't have to cut me off." The line has been added to numerous photos of traffic jams, Vincent Van Gogh's self portrait, and many more. Isn't it funny that there's no escape from reading, even if it is fun?

Writer's Block

What would you do if you could never write again? What would you do if you could never convey your thoughts again? I encountered these questions first hand two days ago during a medical scare. These were questions I never thought I'd have to ask, especially at my age.

Even if I don't immediately put it on paper or in type on the computer, everything I encounter in my life, I think about how I could tell it in story. There are family stories that I want to tell. Fiction that I want to share. Travels that I want to write about. For a few hours this week, I thought I would lose it all. The ability to think, speak, and share. It was terrifying. I am hoping that this experience will give me a new lease on life, on writing. The importance of putting pen to paper. Of sharing what I know. Let the adventure begin!

Waking Up Slow

So, the book I am reading on my Nook is Karen Thompson Walker's The Age of Miracles. It is a debut novel that I think is appropriate for adults and YA alike. Apocalyptic books and movies abound...people getting diseases, people turning into zombies, etc. etc. Of all of the "end of time" scenarios, I have never thought of what would happen if the Earth began to slow. Slow being the key word. In this book, (Spoiler! my shout out to Kevin Smith's new Hulu + show Spoilers) the Earth slows it's rotation at a small rate that continues to build until birds crash to the ground, gravity no longer works as we know it causing accidents, and sickness from the extended hours of the day and night develop. People don't know whether to panic or remain calm causing a state of constant confusion. The story is simple and straight forward, from the eyes of teenage Julia who is dealing with the slowing as well as the happenings in her every day life. I've been reading this at night before I drift off to sleep. There are only a few novels that have ever left me dwelling on them after I have finished. I am only half-way through this novel and I seem to wake up in the morning and have to remind myself that the Earth is not slowing. Yes, I could read it during the daytime, but if reading is about experiencing through words, isn't waking up thinking the Earth has slowed a pretty good indicator of a book's character?