I had all of these bullets in my Random Thoughts Thursday draft for tomorrow, but it was getting way too long, so I will give this content its own post!
- I finished City of Girls and started The Alice Network, which is the first book I’m reading on my Kindle! I like:
- how lightweight and small the Kindle is – it doesn’t take up much space in my purse!
- that I can lie on my side to read with it (since it’s “one page” instead of two)
- that I can look up words by clicking on them
- that I can read it with the lights off
- that it can store so many books (I would sometimes bring two library books on the train if I thought I’d finish the first one – that got heavy!)!!!!!
- There has been some user error with the Kindle. Of course, I didn’t read much for instructions and just dove in, looking up how to do things as I go along. It’s mostly intuitive, but a few times, I’ve somehow skipped way ahead in the book and had to find my way back to where I was. I’m getting better at using it!
- As for the book, it’s funny to me that I finished one historical fiction novel set in WWII then started another in the same era (set in WWII and WWI)! <— that was NOT planned. The Alice Network goes back and forth between one female character in WWI who’s a spy, and one female character in just post WWII who’s looking for her missing cousin. Like many reviewers, I have a preference to one story over the other. I’m not in love with this book, but will finish it – the WWI character is involved with the WWII’s character’s story and I want to see what got her to the point of her life she’s in. (update, I read that part on the train this morning!)
- I liked City of Girls, especially reading about all the seamstress work the main character did, and all the details about NYC in the 40s-60s. SPOILER I didn’t love how a major character was (re)introduced at the very end, and given so much importance, but so few pages. I actually liked the story best until that character was introduced. <— I may be in the minority with that opinion!
- I met my 2019 Reading Challenge of 30 books when I finished City of Girls! I will probably extend it by 10 or 15 books. Weeeeeeeeeeeee!
Glad to hear you like your kindle! I have an Ipad mini that I use as an e-reader when I travel and it is a lot lighter than carrying around a thick book.
Well done on your reading challenge – it sounds like you are going to have to raise the bar for next year!
I will see if I can get City of Girls from the library…it sounds interesting.
Yeah, it’s so nice that it’s light and takes up less space!
Thanks! I did bump this year to 40!
City of Girls was interesting, and an easy read! 🙂
I’m glad you’re loving your Kindle! I don’t know what I’d do without mine. It makes reading so convenient!
I really liked The Alice Network, but I can also see how some people don’t love it. It’s also REALLY long! It was a hefty book (I read the print copy) so it’s probably good you were lugging both City of Girls and The Alice Network around!
It does!!! Especially how fast books upload on WiFi!!!! So, I was googling and couldn’t find this – does the Kindle say anywhere how many hours it takes you to read something?
Ha, it WAS long. Man, I liked the characters but there were some cheesy parts I hated (all the dumb math “equations” that Charlie would ponder) and SPOILER I really had a hard time believing Charlie would want to have sex with someone after seeing them be so brutally violent. That was unrealistic to me.
The BIGGEST gamechanger of starting to use Libby (aside from, you know, reading again) was no longer having to carry heavy books with me to/from work. I didn’t realize how much weight they were adding (and space they were taking up), so not having to do that anymore because my books were on my phone was huge! Physical books are great, but if you’re constantly taking books places, I think eBooks are the way to go.
RIGHT! It’s making a huge difference already, in the two days I commuted this week! It’s insane. Books are heavy!!! (duh, ha)
Re: reading on your side, I also like that when I doze off while reading my Kindle, it doesn’t hurt so much if it falls on my face (like a big book would). I’m glad you’re enjoying it! It makes travel and commute-reading so easy.
Did you sync yours up with Good Reads?
Ha! I’ve never had a book hit me in the phase, but good point!!!!!! Ouch!
I think I did? I logged in on there, and so I can tell Goodreads to put a certain book on a certain shelf. However, it doesn’t update my progress to Goodreads. I need to figure out if it can do that.