The Kindle

This may sound like a contradiction but I love technology while being extremely technophobic. Our household has a laptop, a netbook, a desktop, 2 blackberrys, an ipad, 3 ipods – you get the picture. I am on Facebook, Gregg on twitter. However, we both worry about the impact of technology. I worry about the lack of distinction between public and private; about the death of print media; about the inability of kids to learn without visual entertainment etc. This is why I was hesitant about getting an e-reader – they seem convenient but another step along the road to the death of print media. Plus, I do not travel a lot and so their best feature (portability) is not really an attraction. But my tech-loving, curious and very acquisitive nature overrode the technophobic part and I decided to get a Kindle. Before I could acquire one, Gregg’s parents presented me with one for my birthday/Mother’s Day. I have to say that it has been a wonderful gift. Here are the things I like best about it:

1. Cheap: I love old classics and they are sooooo cheap. I bought the collected works of all the Brontes (including Patrick) for $0.75. No way I would get that in hard copy.

2. Portability: OK, I know what I just said but as I said before, I tend to prefer classics. And works like War and Peace, A Suitable Boy, collected works of whoever are heavy. Add a diaper bag, a huge purse and a baby and car seat and it is like practicing for a weightlifting competition. The Kindle is lighter and holds hundreds of books.

3. Convenience: I bought the Bronte collection at 3am after Asha had kept me up all night and I was tired but could not sleep. I also LOVE their “Sample” feature which allows you to read the first few pages (sometimes up to 50 pages of a book) without paying. Then you can buy it if you want like it.

4. Lack of Clutter: Though I am not an adventurous reader (I tend to stick to classics), I do buy books from time to time which turn out to be less than stellar. Then they sit on my bookshelf adding to the almost 500 books Gregg and I already possess (we counted when we moved last June). Now I feel like I can experiment without cluttering up my house.

5. Other Features: Instant dictionary access is wonderful – just point at a word and click. Also love that it has two dictionaries – American and British English. I have used their “Notes” feature too but not yet tried to export to MS Word. I love the nightlight which my Kindle cover has – perfectly bright but never wakes Gregg when I read at night (not that Gregg wakes due to much – he can even sleep through a screaming baby sometimes). Love its long battery life too.

I promise that Amazon is not paying me to promote their product and I do have some things which I dislike:

1. I miss holding and touching actual books. I miss the new book smell and turning the pages physically. The Kindle is easier to read with Asha because she crumples any paper near her but books have a feel to them which cannot be reproduced.

2. I miss turning pages as I said. Ibooks actually lets you turn pages but it is a silly imitation and much more problematic when you have a 8 month-old constantly touching the screen and changing the page. However, I still sometimes reach out as if to turn the page on my Kindle and then catch myself.

3. I have promised myself that if there is anything I read on the Kindle which strikes me as a classic or even particularly good, I will buy a copy of it for the bookshelf. That way, I feel like good books get rewarded.

Having said all this, let me say that I am still against the voice-read (Text to speech) feature. The one on the Kindle is awful but I would never use it anyway. The only time it would be useful would be on long drives but I would prefer books on tape for that. Otherwise, I think it is best to avoid those features and learn to actually do the difficult job of reading for oneself. I saw these books in a toy store that reads to babies. Now, if you like these books, fine!!! Each parent is different as is each child and I am not the one to teach anyone parenting. But I refused to buy those because a) I can read to her and b) she should learn to read for herself. Use of such gadgets sometimes when the parents are busy and the baby is fussy is one thing but often it becomes a habit instead of a last recourse. I like the idea of looking at words and trying to figure them out instead of letting the spoken word wash over you and absorbing some but not all of what is said. I see students who really do not know what reading entails and it worries me that having recorded books only reinforces that lack. So the Text-to-Speech feature will probably never be used on my Kindle.

Do any of you have e-readers? Would you get one? Why or why not?

The Relevance of Aristotle

Have you ever started reading something and then seen how EVERYTHING applies to what the writer is saying? I frequently have this experience and usually discount it as my overactive imagination. But I have been reading Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics recently and I am amazed at how observant Aristotle is (and how hard it is to convince my students of this). This is what Aristotle says about skills:

“Virtues…we acquire by first exercising them. The same is true with skills, since what we need to learn before doing, we learn by doing; for example, we become builders by building, and lyre-players by playing the lyre.” (Nicomachean Ethics, 23, Cambridge edition)

And this statement applies so directly to my life. In the past month, I have been doing a ton of driving. I drive Gregg back and forth from the train station, I run errands, I go to school and back. In the process, I have had to master my fears about a number of different driving conditions: driving on the highway, driving at night, driving in the rain, driving after the rain, driving with cars on the road (just kidding), parking!!!! The reason is that you learn by doing, and I am learning driving by driving. However dangerous this sounds (for other drivers as well as for me), it is nevertheless true.

Having said that, which professions would you think would not/should not fall into this category? How about surgery?
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To-Do List:

Class Preps: Doing two and a half class preps this semester has been difficult and time-consuming. I changed some aspects of my Intro to American Government class and that is my half prep. The full preps are for Intro to Political Theory and American Political Thought

Grading: I have 120 students this semester and just gave 60 of them their first test. Promises to be a fun grading weekend.

NPSA: Gregg and I are both going to Northeastern Political Science Association’s November conference. I have to write a draft of a chapter for it – which has not been started yet.

Moving and Books

Gregg and I are driving up to Lancaster this weekend to collect the keys to our new apartment there. We are also taking a U-Haul with us but it is a small one with most of the really big furniture. Since we still have to live in Farmville till exams end on the 8th of May, we are leaving most of our books and a lot of the kitchen equipment here.

This got me thinking about books. Gregg and I have an unseemly number of books. We divided our books into ones we have to sell and ones we will keep. We have about 165 books that we have to sell. This number is down from 250 which we had when we moved here - we have been selling them on Half.com. We also have over 400 books which we are keeping. This brings up the question of storage. How many bookshelves should we buy and where do we put them? We do not have space for a library. Is it OK to put bookshelves in the bedrooms, living room, den etc? My only problem with that is that there seems to be little separation in our lives. Most people have a work space and then a space for relaxation. I see the books as symbolic of the lack of separation between home and work lives which academics constantly face. Anyway, at this rate, we will need to buy bookshelves for the kitchen and bathrooms as well.

Gregg will be driving a U-Haul and I will be following him in our car. This is my first 7-hour drive by myself on the highway and I am nervous. Merging onto and off highways is not my strong suit!!!!! Wait for a blog about this experience.