Books « A Progressive on the Prairie

Current books:

American Taliban by Pearl Abraham

Recent books:

Kraken by China Mieville
Things We Didn’t See Coming by Steven Amsterdam
Treason on the Airwaves: Three Allied Broadcasters on Axis Radio during World War II by Judith Keene
The Death of the Adversary by Hans Keilson
Red April by Santiago Roncagliolo

Percolating and hunkering

It is true. Sometimes you can have too much of a good thing.

Due to publication dates and other somewhat time sensitive matters, I have three book reviews that are simmering and percolating. Bits and pieces have been written but the summer doldrums combined with the lack of a pressing deadline to push them [...]

September Bibliolust

I actually made pretty good progress on my lust lists the last month. Of the 13 books the last two months, I’ve read eight, am on the library reserve list for two, have one on the TBR shelves at home and gave up on one. Hopefully, I can do as well with this [...]

Library budget proposal troubling

I about fell out of my chair reading the local daily this morning. I knew the mayor had unveiled his 2011 budget but I was shocked when I read he was proposing cutting the library budget by 44 percent. Since I was still on my first cup of coffee, I decided to hold [...]

Just what I needed to hear — e-readers slower than paper

Sure, the same day my Nook arrives somebody’s gotta release some scientific study on e-readers. And what do they find? People who read books on an iPad read 6.2% slower than when they read a printed book while reading on the Kindle is 10.7% slower than print.

Now, granted, the study doesn’t include the [...]

Mid-year reading report card

As usual, my reading personality is split this year. By the end of June, I’d read 52 books this year, 25 fiction and 27 nonfiction.

Of the fiction, nearly half (12) were works in translation with French and Spanish accounting for three each. Of the nonfiction books, 10 were history (if you [...]

July Bibliolust

I’m starting to think I may need to rename this Library Lust. It’s another month where the majority of the books on the list (five of six) will be coming courtesy of my friendly local library and their wonderful online reserve system. And I’m not even including two books I’m not quite lusting [...]

Sipping the e-reader Kool-aid

My wife and kids would tell you I like gadgets, especially electronic gadgets. When you combine that with my book addiction, I always knew e-readers would entice me. It was more a question of when (how long I might be able to resist) than if.

Blame Barnes & Noble. I’m going to be [...]

Should there be a fee to borrow library books?

A British author told the BBC last week that in light of the impact of government budget cuts, libraries should consider charging a small fee for checking out a book. Michael Jecks, who bills himself as “Master of the Medieval Murder Mystery,” suggested a charge of 15 pence (currently about 22 cents). He [...]

Maybe this justifies the cost of an e-reader

Some may recall that retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice David Souter bought a new home when he retired because the farmhouse he lived in wasn’t structurally strong enough to hold the thousands of books he owned. One of his former law clerks took steps to perhaps stop the problem from recurring.

According to annual financial [...]

Afghanistan books email gives a Priceless feel

Just before Memorial Day this year, I did something different. As I noted at the time, I shipped some books off to military personnel in Kuwait, Iraq and Afghanistan.

Early Wednesday morning, I got an email from the soldier in Afghanistan, a staff sergeant originally from Pennsylvania who’s been in the Army for 17 years. [...]

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Percolating and hunkering

September Bibliolust

Library budget proposal troubling

Just what I needed to hear — e-readers slower than paper

Mid-year reading report card

July Bibliolust

Sipping the e-reader Kool-aid

Should there be a fee to borrow library books?

Maybe this justifies the cost of an e-reader

Afghanistan books email gives a Priceless feel

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