To Kindle or not Kindle, that is the question

Answer of the (yester)day:

I stuck to the two-volume-set of Richard's Julia Ward Howe offered at abebooks and paid the 50 bucks. For that I will even get a first edition which is, acording to the description, in very good condition. Unfortunatelly, acording to the seller, the volumes will, mainly because of Christmas, only be delivered on January 6th. So give me just a day or two to think of what to do, to keep the starting date originaly set on January 1st.

That I ordered a printed copy does not at all mean, I opose e-books in general. I do even own a Kindle (the very basic kind, but with a nice black leather cover). To  tell you the truth: I didn't really buy it. It came as a give-away for buying a tothbrush at Amazon...

Today the question wether to use ebook readers or not kind of kindles the mind of readers. Ask two people and get three opinions on the question. As for myself, I think that Kindle&Co. present the modern way of reading and surely open the field for young people to read. That's the good thing. Furthermore, one should keep up with the times anyhow, for if you are not, you get old quite fast. However (and that's a big however), I am one hundert percent sure that the good old printed book will endure, maybe in the very long run it will even prevail. There are several reasons that make me so sure about that: First, it's the feeling of holding the book in your hands and turning page after page that an ebook will never be able to satisfy. Secondly it's simply question of perdurability. There are books in our libraries that are over 300 years old. Something makes me doubt that a file, may it be e-pub or kindle-format, will ever last that long.

As a result I can promise you, that one or the other book in this enterprise will be read as e-book. In principal I will, as far as my funds permit it, try and gain printed copies of the books to be read. The main reason for that being, that in the end, I would like to stand in front of the bookshelf and say: "I read 'em all!"

Question of today:
As the first book to be read will be late, what's the alternative?

"Let's get started planing" or "The W-Questions"

The idea being in my head, I started "advertising" the blog to my goodreads-friends yesterday. Hopefully one or the other will – from time to time – check in to see how my first trial as a blogger goes.

After the messages were out and the blog is now known to the outside world, I immediately started to pose the W-Questions (Note to myself: Next time, first start planning, then advertise!!).

As the start date is already set on January 1st, the When already answered itself.

To answer the Why you just have to scroll back to yesterdays post.

That basically leaves us with:

Where to start?

and

Where to get the books?

Question 1 seems quite easy: Let’s get off at the beginning. That means of course the first book awarded the Prize. According to the official list this would be

Julia Ward Howe

by Laura E. Richards and Maude Howe Elliott

Being awarded in 1917, that leads right to question Nr. 2. There are quite a few reprints available on Amazon. One of the shops even offers a Kindle-Edition! Abebooks offers a two-volume- first edition but guess what, it’s 50 Euros!! (for those readers that are not so familiar with Europe’s chaos-currency: That equals about $ US 68 or $ CAN 73). That’s kind of a pricy start. Perhaps I should call uncle Santa to bring a gift certificate. But even then... The books ship from the US, so I am not sure, they will get here in time.

Next idea: Public Libraries!
But damn!! According to Karlsruhe Virtual Catalogue (by the way a very good instrument for searching libraries ‘round the globe), the next library that has the book available is the one of the University of Tübingen, but they don’t lend…

Question of the day:
Should I start spending money on a “real” copy or will the Kindle-Edition for only 2,34 Euro (USD 3,20; CAD 3,40) suffice?

P.S.: If there is anyone out there Who knows where to get rare books for reasonable prices, just let me know!

An idea is born

As an  avid reader of biographies I recently came across the Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography. This coincided with becoming a member of Goodreads. These two taken together formed the idea: Why not try reading the Pulitzer Price winning (auto-)biographies?

First I thought of shaping the whole thing as a bit of a challenge to myself. But how should such a challenge look like?

First suggestion: Try read the books in 2014!

Answer: Noooooooo!!! As the Prize in this category is awarded since 1917, 2013 markes the 97th year of bestowal (okay, it's only year 96 but we will come back to that kind of backround information later). So there are definitely way to many books to fit them all in one single year!

Second suggestion: Try read one book a month!

Answer: Maybe... The problem here is, I'm not a full-time reader. As the guys from the tax and revenue office are quite used to get a part of my salery as monthly payment, stop working and start reading is also not an option. Besides, from time to time my job is quite demanding. So I just can't promise to read one awardee per month.

My Solution

I will start reading January 1st 2014 with the first book and just keep you posted as I go along. Just tune in from time to time and you will see how it goes!!


One last thing on keeping you posted:

Why the heck write a blog about all this, you ask? Sure, I could just post my reviews on Goodreads.  But my hope is, that these will just be the final outcome of it all. The main reason for blogging about this is, that I hope for more than a few interesting experiences and encounters on the way. To put it simple: Might the journey be the reward!!

So if you like, come and embarke on this journey with me!