Sunday, November 12, 2006

Technology and Reading

If I don't clean my house and do some laundry, the dust bunnies are going to take up arms against me and I'll have to wear my pajamas to work tomorrow. So, naturally, what I've actually done is go to the library and curl up on the couch and read. This is arguably the perfect Sunday afternoon activity, especially when there are plenty of other things to be done.

But now I'm musing about talking about books with other people. I do not not NOT have the energy to organize (or attend, for that matter) an in-real-life book discussion group. They're lovely and important, but I just can't commit to that right now. So.... what can technology offer me? There must be on-line book discussion groups where I can drop in, leave oh-so-pithy comments about some book or another (sarcasm there, in case you missed it) and have a conversation of sorts on a schedule that works for me.

I peeked at the Barnes and Noble book groups, but the interface just stinks. What else is out there, oh wise ones? And do on-line book groups have the cozy feeling of real-live groups? It would be a serious blow to my soul if books and the yumminess of the Sunday afternoon read-a-thon gave way to sleeker technology.

...must get back to Emma and her antics. I think I hear the dust bunnies arming themselves.

edited due to egregious grammar error -particularly inelegant in a post about reading :(

5 comments:

jill said...

Oh -- you're reading Emma? One of my favorites...

Andrea Rusin said...

Re-reading for about the jillionth time!

Anonymous said...

I find reading on the computer screen a little tiresome. If the article is fairly big, I will usually print it out and read on the couch or on the train. I just don't like staring at computer screens that long.

Having said that, I'm ashamed of the trees I use just so I don't have to squint.

Anonymous said...

I figured you were on another journey to Minnesota when I didn't run into you at Mass this morning.

The good news for you is that one of the unheralded results of the Democratic victory last week is that we've negotiated a perpetual truce with the dust bunnies. So you can re-read Emma in peace. (And believe me, I wish I were reading anything half so interesting--this week's seminar book is deadly dull, and badly argued to boot.)

Andrea Rusin said...

I only WISH I were in Minnesota. Well, what I really wish is that the long-suffering spouse and I were in the same state. Florida would do just as well. The kid had my car and I didn't feel like riding my bike. So I was just a slug about church this morning and have no (good) excuse.