My Love-hate Relationship with My Kindle

I own the Kindle Touch. It's light, it's small (it fits in my tiny purse!) and books are generally cheaper on it. Not to mention all of the Indie books that you can find for, say, 99 cents or less. For example, one book I'm really pining for is The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater. At Walmart (basically the only place in my city that sells books, besides one Indie bookstore that is scarily expensive) the book is $16.99. On my Kindle, it's $9.50. That's a big difference, especially for me, someone who hates spending money.
Yet, I refuse to buy the book on my Kindle.
Why? I'll get to that soon enough. First, I'm going to list all of the pro's and cons of my Kindle Touch.

The Kindle

Pros

• It's cute. 
• It's portable. 
• Books are more affordable. 
• No one can judge what you're reading.
• You can look up the definitions of words within seconds. 
• It's easier to hold when you're trying to read in bed. 
• You can make the fonts bigger so you don't have to read with your glasses on. 
• You can put music on it. 
• You can buy a book from anywhere and be able to start reading it within seconds. 
• You can read samples of books.
• You can take your entire library with you wherever you go. 
• You can buy writing books without people asking you about your writing. 
• It connects to Wi-Fi, so yes, you can use the internet on it. 
• You can play word games on it (for free!)
• You can highlight and make notes whenever you want and they don't harm the book. 
• The e-ink stuff is really cool. 

Cons

• It moves really slowly. 
• The notes and highlights you make? Yeah, they all go into one gigantic confusing file. 
• It's really easy to lose your place if you just accidently touch the screen.
• It takes forever to get back to whatever place you were at. 
• You have to charge it. (Not very often, which kind of makes it worse because it runs out of charge when you want it most.)
• It's not a book. 
• You can't look at the pretty covers. 
• You can't stroke the pretty covers. 
• You can't admire how many pages the book has. 
• You can make notes, but you can't find exactly where you made those notes so it's kind of hard to understand what you were talking about. 
• It's cold, hard technology. 
• There's no paper. 
• No ink (that you can feel). 
• No new-book-smell. 

Overall, if you like reading, I'd suggest getting a Kindle. It's a good investment. If you're a writer, however--or just a bibliophile--owning a Kindle can be quite dangerous. You can own every book EVER with just a few swipes of your finger. You don't feel the cash leaving your pocket because it's all electronic. If you're not careful, you could go into some serious book-debt. 

You can also get tricked into buying some really awesome books electronically rather than physically. You've been wanting to read this book forever. It's cheaper and easier to get...so you press buy. You devour the book in a day. It's even more awesome than you'd thought it would be. 

But then what?

You can't admire the cover. You can't add the book to your shelf. You can't open it up and easily go to your favorite parts. It's difficult to study the pages if you're a writer trying to learn from the book. The book on your Kindle does not physically exist. 

I don't know. Being a person who collects books like trophies (because I'm not really the athletic type), this can be really distressing. There are several books that I bought on my Kindle that I really wish I hadn't. 

Too name a few:

The Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins

Divergent and Insurgent by Veronica Roth

Across the Universe and A Million Suns by Beth Revis

Graceling by Kristen Cashore

I regret purchasing all of those books digitally because they were too amazing not to have a physical copy. I love my Kindle, but that is why I hate my Kindle. I love being able to look at the samples of all the amazing books, and to be able to buy the books that are still good, but I can live without seeing them on my shelves. However, if I read a sample to a book that looks like it's going to be another Best Book Ever, I won't buy it. I'd rather wait and go crazy over it until I finally get to get it at a bookstore than not have a physical copy of it. 

What about you? Do you have a Kindle? If so, do you like it better than the physical book? If you don't have a Kindle, are you considering purchasing one?

Okay, I know. I know. I know. I used the word "awesome" at least a gazillion times in this post. Sorry.

Scary Business

Well, the world didn't end, so I guess I have to keep up this whole blogging resolution I made. ;D
Since I'm sure many people were scared yesterday, despite NASA's reassurances that the world is, in fact, in no danger of ending any time soon, today I'm going to talk about fear and how it relates to writing. Yeah, I know, so appropriate for the holidays, huh?
When you're starting a new novel, you're starting from scratch. Always. And that can feel like you're looking up at the longest flight of stairs in the world.

Daunting, huh?

It feels like you're never going to make it to the top. But then, you start climbing (in this case, writing--or plotting) and you stare at your feet the entire time until you finally look up and you're already half way there!

But being halfway there doesn't always feel like a good thing. You're at the point of no return. It's either do or die. You have to convince yourself not to look down because if you do, you'll get intimidated by how far you've come. You don't want to be that far off the ground. You want to go back, retrace your steps, make it better. But you can't, because you're dangling. And you can't look up, either, because then you'll realize how much farther you still have to go. You're tired, you're scared, and you're kind of regretting your decision to do this. 

Then, after a couple of scary slips and a few tears, you make it to the top.

You're a god. You actually did it. You can do anything now. You look back at all you've accomplished--and it still scares you--but that fear is mixed with huge senses of pride and relief. You walk around, telling everyone you know, "I climbed a mountain!" ("I wrote a novel!")

And then you slip. 

You fall all the way down to where you started. The mountain, or flight of stairs, is no longer a beautiful thing that you've accomplished, but just a big old jagged rock. You're bruised and battered, your confidence is shattered. How could you make the mistake of slipping? Now you have to start all over. You cry a bit. You cry a lot. You research better ways to climb the mountain. You look at all of the mishaps you made before and figure out how to avoid them this time around. You start climbing again, and the mountain isn't as bad as it was the first time. You know what to expect, you're even more determined, and you make it back to the top in no time. 

Your climb still wasn't perfect, but it was better. You know you can do this now--it wasn't just luck the first time. You go back to the bottom and start climbing again, and again, and again until you're like freaking Spiderman. 

Writing is a long, treachorous journey that no one but a writer can experience. All of this climbing, these accomplishments--they're all inside of your head. No one else notices but you. We writers are alone in our long battle with our manuscripts. Being alone and not knowing what you're doing is scary. Sometimes it can scare you out of doing it. Sometimes it can destroy you. But, if you start and you're stupid enough to fall in love with it, you'll get better over time. It's a long uphill battle and we don't have anyone behind us to catch us if we fall. We are alone, but we are strong. We can do this: we're writers. It's what we're made for. 

Do you get scared when you're writing? What are the scariest parts of writing for you?

I Love YA

That's supposed to have two meanings: "I love yah," and "I love Young Adult." I don't know if it came across that way, but whatever. Both are true.
When I was younger, I read a mixture of Middle Grade and Adult books. The Middle Grade books I checked out of my elementary school's library and the Adult books I stole from my mother's library. So...yeah, let's just say little kid me read some stuff she shouldn't have. My favorites were the Maximum Ride Series* by James Patterson, the Underland Chronicles by Suzanne Collins, When the Wind Blows by James Patterson, The Tenth Kingdom by Kathryn Wesley (when I discovered this was actually a mini TV series, I spent an entire day watching it on You Tube), Suzanne's Diary for Nicholas by James Patterson, Ida B by Katherine Hannigan,  From the Files of Madison Finn by Laura Dower, and Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine.*
 I also used to write back then. Granted, I didn't know anything about writing. I basically took ideas from a bunch of books I read and mushed them all together in a 5th grader's handwritten (unfinished) novel. The story was all over the place. It featured a main character only slightly older than I was, side characters based on people I knew, an adult theme of murder and mystery, and a touch of magic here and there. It was a train wreck of genres.
And then: Twilight. In 6th grade, my teacher lent me the book that changed my reading interests forever. It introduced me to YA, the genre I'd been looking for. It wasn't too adult for me to comprehend, and it wasn't too juvenile for me to wrinkle my nose at. It was beautiful. It is beautiful. Reading transformed from a hobby to an addiction. I started writing again, this time with the knowledge of what a specific genre included and with the absolute freedom that comes with YA.
It's hard for me to express in words how much I love Young Adult. Some emotions just can't be described accurately. I will say that I doubt I'll ever grow out of YA. It's perfect. It's growing up without actually having to grow up. I am forever Young Adult.


*I know that Maximum Ride is technically classified as YA, but I consider it aimed for a younger audience than most YA's.
*I'd add Harry Potter, but I actually didn't read the entire series until last year. I started reading it in 3rd grade (mostly because the librarian kept the big books off limits to most kids and I wanted to rub it in her face that I could read them, and it was worth A LOT of A.R. points) and I got the first two for Christmas, but then I had trouble getting the rest of them and I lost interest in checking books out of the library (I like to buy my books and collect them like trophies)...and I just stopped reading them. Which sucks.

This graphic has me drooling.

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/9ac44a13/

The Raven Boys

Maggie Stiefvater's next book will be released soon, as evidence of this new trailer. Watch it. It's pretty, isn't it? And the book looks so unique, unlike anything I've ever read, and very Maggie-esque. I'm pretty excited. The first couple of chapters are up somewhere, too. I haven't read them yet because the anticipation would quite literally kill me, but if you are the patient type (or impatient, either works) you should definitely check it out!

Everyday Mysteries

Six score and two years ago, a young boy sat in a sweltering, crowded, and musty classroom, doodling in his grammar book and paying no mind to his struggling teacher. For why should he care about grammar and the rules of English? He had no plans of writing anything other than his name on his future paycheck after he graduated from school--if he graduated from school. The farm was his dream, not the fading words in a book. 

A few weeks ago, a young girl with high dreams of writing something publishable one day was wandering through a dim flea market. As she passed by an overbearing bookcase, she paused, running her fingers over the spines. She wasn't exactly sure why she paused-- she had no interest in these yellowing pieces of nonfiction-- until her fingers stopped on a brown cover. She pulled out the fading tome and flipped through it curiously, stopping on the second page where the copyright information was printed. It read: "Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1869, by WILSON, HINKLE & CO." Suddenly intrigued, the girl payed for her find and took it home. 

That girl was me. 

And this is the book:

It's beautiful, isn't it? Just look at the swirling design, the faded edges, the ancient font. 

That's not why I'm making a post about it, though. I want to share what I found on a page inside the book.

It says: "Don't steal this book for fear of shame, for in this book is the owner's name."

Well, I have no shame. I payed for this book fare and square -- a whole ten dollars. The original asking price was $20, but I convinced the man to give it to me for less. It wasn't difficult. He was slightly wary of me. I can't imagine the impression I gave him, a teenage girl bartering for some old book. 

Anyway, that doesn't mean that someone hasn't stolen this book in the past. Maybe the man I bought it from even stole it. Maybe I'm under a curse at this very moment because I bought stolen property. 

That could explain all of the people dying in strange ways around me. 

Kidding, just kidding. This isn't going to be that kind of blog, remember?

Well, I've searched the entire book a couple times, and I've found no legible name. I did find a couple of pages where the kid filled in every "o" with blue pen (or pencil-- can't tell). Which I find amusing to no end. There's also this page, which is probably my best bet for the name:

There seems to be a name scrawled near the top, along with the poem again. And what looks like the words, "Holmcock Co." Don't Google it. The results weren't pleasing. There's also something that might make it say, "greenfield, I'm of Holmcock Co." I'm afraid I don't understand what that means. This person has very swirly cursive. I have no clue what the first letter in the name is supposed to be. It looks like it could be a backwards J. Or maybe an I? Or a B? I don't know. 

My first guess was Isaiah Griffin, but it's definitely not that. There are two s's and no i's. To me, it looks like Jsso H Joffin. Or whatever that first letter is. Seriously; I'm doubting it's even a real letter. He made it up, just to spite me, a girl 122 years into the future. 

Oh, I forgot to mention the second date, didn't I? This page also says he had it on November 14,1890 (over twenty years after it was published). 

Remarkable how it survived this long. The pages are in relatively good shape and his handwriting is still (mostly) visible. Whoever wrote it is either dead now or immortal. This would make for a lovely novel or short story, huh? I may write something about it one day. Feel free to use it for inspiration if you wish (don't copy my words at the top, please). 

This doesn't have much to do with writing. I just am really interested in it, and thought someone else might be as well. I really want to know what his name is. (Or her? Who knows?)

TTFN!(: