Emails between me and our friend who is a psychologist (my husband and I are fond of him)... To read these emails in their correct order, you have to read from the original email post upward to the top post.
Re: Donna Leon, those are just phrases you’ve heard she’s used for titles as you’ve discovered. RE: Raising Cain, I think it was also the title of a horror movie starring John Lithgow, but I could be wrong.
You should write your memoirs. Add in some alien encounters and past life regressions just to spice it up, and maybe a torrid adolescent relationship with a famous personage, now dead, but preferably this would have occurred while they were still alive. Hey, there’s a good title for your memoirs “A Famous Personage, Now Dead”. Don’t bother to thank me. But I would read your memoirs on my new Kobo. Maybe I would be in there as the cool but often inebriated-seeming therapist-dude who provided a useful object lesson in How Not to Cope With Your Issues.
Please don’t apologise for “selling” me on Kobo, I don’t mind at all. But you could sell them if you wanted because you’re so keen.
-----Original Message-----
From: Holly
Sent: January 4, 2011 12:33 PM
To: T
Subject: Re: Welcome Back
From: Holly
Sent: January 4, 2011 12:33 PM
To: T
Subject: Re: Welcome Back
lol
So I take it you read "American on Purpose" which is an awesome book. I am next going to hunt down "Between the Bridge and the River." I have read a few reviews and I'm deeply intrigued. I hadn't realized "Raising Cain" was about the care and feeding of boys' mental health... I didn't think I'd heard of Donna Leon, but when I Googled her I did recognize at least the titles "Suffer the Little Children," and "Through a Glass, Darkly," ... Unless those are just phrases I've heard before from whence they might have been borrowed. I know I've heard the first from the bible and the second from somewhere, and when I Googled just the title, I found a LOT of authors used the same title for completely different subjects... lol Cool.
It seems I am fascinated about memoirs lately. I've already had a few free tidbits sent to me from my dad's side of the family on weird stuff my mom did when we were little that I didn't even remember, except perhaps in very fragmented bits, and at least one goofy thing that I remember but I wasn't actually in the midst of the action taking place, just sort of an observer and listener of what was going on. It might have had to do with some odd thing that I thought was normal because my mom thought it was normal. lol I did a lot of observing. Anyway, my point is, I am sure I can get a lot of information from at least one side of my family to get some of my memory back, but not from my perspective. Which means I might even write up my own private memoir. I don't think I want to actually try to sell it. It's probably not as interesting as Jeannette Walls' or Craig Ferguson's life. lol It would just satisfy me because I'd know more about what the heck happened in my good old days.
Um, yeah, sorry if I came across like a Kobo salesperson, I just love the darn thing dearly. I was just blurting out what I was thinking about it, not from any manual. Just from what I learned about it in the short time I've had it. And David will probably be getting one soon because otherwise he's got some books downloaded on there. Mind you he can read them while I am at work, so we're testing this arrangement out. Who knows, I may take up reading at work between calls. If there is such a thing.
Anyways, catch you later... I might check out a few of those book titles you mentioned...
-Holls-
From: T
Sent: Tuesday, January 04, 2011 11:57 AM
To: Holly
Subject: RE: Welcome Back
Heidy-Holly;
Oh, oh, oh, I got Craig Ferguson’s book for Xmas, read it in about a day and a half with interruptions. Really enjoyed it. Haven’t been able to stay up as much lately to watch him but it seems like reruns now anyway.
Right now am reading several things at once, including “Raising Cain” about care/feeding of boys’ mental health, a book on repairing Triumph motorbikes, have just finished a mystery by Donna Leon set in Venice (have read about 8 of hers in past few months, current addictive junk food for brain), now trying to decide what to add to the pile. Have this one called “The Great Game” about British and other imperial powers in Afghanistan during the 1800’s, recommended by Christopher Hitchens whose writing I admire from Vanity Fair. He has a book out about his atheism I might have to read as well. I have a bunch of psych reading to do I am putting off, even though it looks interesting.
(My wife) has been reading her Julia Child cookbook (and making things!) and something else the title of which escapes me at present. She’s waiting for “Shopaholic and Baby” to come out in paperback for her collection.
I am not reading any books by drug-addled guitar players, but I thought I would like to read “Keef’s” book once it’s in paperback.
You should be selling Kobos, you make a good case for them. Or are you just typing in the manual to me?
T
-----Original Message-----
From: Holly
Sent: January 3, 2011 4:23 PM
To: T
From: Holly
Sent: January 3, 2011 4:23 PM
To: T
Subject: Re: Welcome Back
Heya T!
lol Sorry, I'm writing again! lol
We got our Kobo at Chapters... I wouldn't read it while out for supper, though, I agree with you, seems like bad form. We have a friend with a crackberry. It's constantly ringing when he's talking to us and he texts on it and such. I don't like texting anyways, I figure if you are going to use a phone to communicate, use the talking end: it's a helluva lot faster and easier, if you ask me.
The practicality of a Kobo is that you can have a thousand books on it that don't clutter up your house, or luggage when you travel, and can fit in your brief case (or in my case, my purse)... It does come with a hundred free books (the classics like Twain, for instance) and the cost to buy newer books is relatively inexpensive than an actual new hardcover book. And our savvy friend showed us a converter called 'calibre' that can convert non-ePub files (that are compatible for Kobo) into said ePub files and therefore you might find even less expensive books. It's wireless. Also saves on shipping if you order, or gas if you go to the store. Oh and you can shop on it without using the computer, or just search for free books on it. It's lovely: it saves your page for you, allows you to show all the books you're currently reading, shows the percentage of how much you've read... It seems pretty user friendly to me, and I figure if I can learn it pretty much anyone can. I read Walls and Ferguson's auto-biographies back to back in three days all told... Or maybe it was four.
I don't know so much about iPad, it doesn't have a USB port so I don't know how you'd download something from the computer if you ever needed to, and I also heard it doesn't have a space for a memory chip. Kobo has both. iPad seems cool, but I have a feeling a better version will be coming out.
You may have heard of those books from when Craig Ferguson had Jeannette Walls on his show. That's where we heard about them, anyway. I think I'm more like Jeannette and Jeannette's gramma, and Jeannette's mom is like my mom. Not sure where her dad and my dad fit in, other than bowing to mom's will and trying to make her happy.
David might have to get one now, because he likes it, too! lol He has 'Life' by Keith Richards and 'The Heroin Diaries' by Nikki Sixx... He's just finished the book by Slash, called, conveniently, 'Slash.' It's similar to what happened to Craig Ferguson's 'American On Purpose' but perhaps amplified somewhat... lol
Currently I've been reading a rather dry, meandering, but somewhat interesting history of Bryson's called "At Home." I wouldn't mind also reading the one he as called "A Short History of Nearly Everything." But it's over 500 pages and I've been reading it for 2 days and I'm only 33% through, so I took a break and read "Mind of the Raven" by Bernd Heinrich that was lent to me.
Have you any books you've read lately, or that you really like? You may have already told me, but perhaps you can remind me.
Anyways, I'm toddling off now, going to get supper on, methinks...
-Holls-
From: T
Sent: Monday, January 03, 2011 2:52 PM
To: Holly
Subject: RE: Welcome Back
I’ve heard of these books, can’t remember why but I think Colette was going to read one of them. So, you like the Kobo? My friend has an ipad and was showing me stuff on it before the holidays. I think I want one of the electronic books but I want to hold actual books in my sweaty hands too, so I am conflicted about technology. I do have a Blackberry, and sort of know how to text and stuff. I am not yet addicted to it, though one person I know calls it a “Crackberry”.
So I go to places, see two people sitting together, both on their phones texting or emailing or whatever to someone else, and I wonder “Why are you here with this person, texting someone else?” It seems rude, but maybe that’s the new standard. Still, an ipod for books has some appeal because I could carry around the Oxford and settle arguments about words for strangers in bars.
Here are some other new/old inventions:
The Toaster--ipod for bread.
The Weasel—ipod for chickens.
or
The Condom--ipod for…..oh never mind.
Stop me now before I go viral. Oh wait, here’s another one. The Virus—ipod for disease. Ha. I could go on and on.
-----Original Message-----
From: Holly
Sent: December 31, 2010 12:31 PMFrom: Holly
To: T
Subject: Welcome Back
Wow... I read Jeannette Wall's 'Glass Castles.' Her mom was a lot like my mom. I wonder if it had anything to do nutritional deficiencies... But they chose to live as dirt poor before they lived that way, so I think their minds (poor judgement) led them to be that poor. I swear the dad reminds me of my brother Chris.
Nice thing is their children certainly were normal. As soon as they made enough money to get out of that hell-hole, they thrived.
I read the book about Jeannette's gramma. Lily didn't act at all like her daughter (Jeanette's mom). Although I got a sneaking suspicion that Lily's sister had something a little wrong with her, too. So maybe it was a bit genetic.
That one about her gramma is called 'Half-Broke Horses.' Both books are awesome. I have a Kobo now, so I can read books where ever and when ever! 8D The iPod for books, I call it.
-Holls-
