If Amazon Didn't Love Me Before, They Do Now

I finally did it--two weeks ago I actually bought two ebooks. I know that I've said before I have so many free ebooks on my Kindle that I probably have the equivalent of a 5-year reading list, but I thought that it was important to start supporting authors whenever I can. Well, at least when I have a gift card laying around...

The two books I purchased were John Lennon: The Life by Phillip Norman and Last Train to Istanbul by Ayse Kulin. Clearly these titles do not belong to indie authors, but indie authors are the ones that offer their books for free, so the support for my indie peeps is still there.

I purchased the first book because it was just $1.99 and I discovered the deal through BookBub (proof that BookBub works--they actually enticed me to pay for an ebook). I'm also a full-on geek about the Beatles, so it was an obvious choice. You'd think I would have learned everything from the dozen or so Beatles-related books already on my bookshelf, but this book has went above and beyond my current knowledge, and I'm only 11% into the thing.



And that brings me to the other reason I really bought this ebook: I've looked at the hardcover copy at a bookstore before, and this is an 800+ page tome. For less that two bucks I saved myself months of neck and wrist pain from trying to read the physical copy. Totally worth it just for that!



I haven't started reading Last Train to Istanbul, but Amazon caught me just at the right time with this one. It was the next morning after I purchased The Life and it was a recommendation in one of my many daily Amazon emails. At just $2, I checked out the synopsis and decided that I had to get it--after all, the next biggest thing I geek out about besides the Beatles is a good WWII tale. I have to get a few other titles read first, but I can't wait to dig into this one.

What was the first ebook you spent money on? 

Thoughts on Salinger

I was sad to hear yesterday that J.D. Salinger had passed. He lived a very long life, but I was also even more interested about him as a person when I heard that he spent most of his life in seclusion -- I never knew that before.

I was unfortunately introduced to Salinger under very unfair circumstances. When I first became a Beatles fan, I learned that The Catcher in the Rye was John Lennon's killer's only excuse for his actions. For years I avoided the book, afraid that it would be a bad influence on me. By the time I got to high school, I was just too curious to continue avoiding it. I picked it up during a free reading time in English class. The book was so compelling that I had to go out and buy my own copy so I could finish it.

Since then I have read it twice and thought that the book captured the essence of teenage angst and confusion. This book and the sudden spotlight on Salinger's life and career will inevitably draw me to his other works, which I have yet to read.

Let's hope this great author will never be forgotten.

Lazy Sunday

Just to start out on a slightly positive note, I'm making my way through articles and edits this afternoon. I just thought I would take a little break and write a post here.

Sundays are lazy for me. I schedule work after 1pm, so I usually have the morning to myself to watch movies, cook, or read. Today I chose movies. I didn't know what to watch, so I first checked On Demand. I picked The Money Pit just because it starred Tom Hanks. Most of his lighter movies bring out my good mood. This one was all right, but not anything special. I knew I really needed something to bring back the joy in my life, so I went with A Hard Day's Night -- an old joy-bringing standard. It was working -- then I realized something. I'm 24 (way closer to 25 now). John and Ringo were about 24 when this movie was made. And they were already rich, famous, and somewhat content with their career path. Hell, John was already a published author! Made me feel absolutely hopeless about my life.

So I went to work. That doesn't make me feel any better, considering the fact that I find every single article kickback a complete and total failure. Now I'm just sitting here, wondering what to do next. There is more work to do, but I really have all night for that. And it's not going to be that hard. Most of the ones this evening will not be rewrites. Just one.

I guess it's just like the Paul Simon demo I've heard:

I'm a groundhog, looking for a hole
I'm a dog whose gone astray
I get the blues all morning
And morning's my best time of the day

This is just wrong...

While I believe in charitable organizations that work to provide laptops for people who may never have access to them, I cannot see the reason for digitizing John Lennon's voice for this ad.



It's putting words into his mouth, and no one should have to worry about sending the world a message they had never said. Again, good cause, but a bad way to promote it.

No one can make me feel bad about my lack of a driver's license. Today, I watched a rerun of Ellen from November, I think. DJ Jonny was featured in a little clip that showed him taking his driving test and receiving his driving permit. At the time, he was 28 years old.

Now my situation doesn't seem so bad. I'm 23 and when I was seventeen, I got my permit. It's of course expired now, and i have no desire to renew it. Even John Lennon didn't get his license until he was 24. And he hardly drove before or after that. So why pick on me?

No one believes me that I'm doing this for the environment. I mean, just one less car on the road is helping. And I have a bike. I can get around most days.

I don't know why I feel so compelled to write about this today, but I'm tired of not having a car or not knowing how to drive just as much as I'm tired of people trying to push me to get it done and over with. Chill out, people. It's on my list of the 100 things I want to do in my life. I'll get to it.