A little for readers

I am a member of a reading group that meets at a local pub on a Monday morning (just coffee, I'm afraid) once per month. There are nine of us right now, which is the limit we set in order to give everyone a voice. We really read a very wide variety of books, mostly fiction, but occasionally non-fiction. Our books come from the local library, so unfortunately we seldom get the "latest and greatest" books. We're limited to what the library can get for us, nine copies at a time. In the past, I've belonged to two reading groups that were sponsored by bookstores and we each bought (at a very slight discount) the books from them. Although I prefer that method as it gets the newer books, it meant that I ended up with a glut of books on my home bookshelves!

This month we reviewed The Dark Net, by Jamie Bartlett. He writes about the "dark" side of the Internet — the websites for pedophilia, self-harming, anorexia, pornography, and racial and political extremism. Now before you say ugghhh, we found this fascinating. No he doesn't give website addresses for these places, but instead discusses the psychology of the people who do visit them. Honestly, this is the most engaged I've been with a book in a very long time. Not because I am interested or even especially curious about these sites, but because Barlett is able to write simply and understandably about the people who do — their motives and mannerisms, and I think in many ways the psychology can apply to many of  us. He also spends quite awhile on the future of technology, it's positive as well as negative applications and the visions of many Internet pioneers.

As you can see by all my little orange sticky tabs, I made lots of notes. I also made up a list of discussion questions for the reading group meeting. It certainly gave us all lots to think about! If you are at all interested in human psychology, I highly recommend this book.

The second thing I want to bleat about today is my new Kindle Paperwhite (7th edition). I just received it today but already I'm very impressed. I had the original Kindle but it's not so versatile (my new one has 3G and is much easier to read) and the battery is beginning to "leak". The new one is supposed to hold a charge much longer. Here are a couple of reviews, if you're interested: this one

and here. Coming from the old, original Kindle, I find this one is much lighter and smaller (perhaps I'd prefer it to be slightly larger, actually), so it will fit nicely into a briefcase, handbag, or tote bag. It's readable in the sunlight (a plus for my upcoming cruise) or in a darkened room. I splashed a little extra for the 3G, just because I was afraid I'd regret it if I didn't.

I actually prefer paper books, although I've found dozens of free books for the Kindle (I have 47, mostly free!), so it will be a perfect travel companion or just something to carry when I'm waiting in the dentist's office. The eBooks will never replace paper, at least in my lifetime. But then that's what we used to say about digital cameras versus film cameras!Ah, but that's a subject for another day.