The Littlest Kobo (An Ode)

Well, I finally had three spare hours and got around to doing this silly thing I wished for awhile ago.

Nerd alert!

Here it is:

Lyrics:

There’s a way to carry many tomes

Millions of them are lying around in our homes.

We call them e-readers or tablets or just phones;

We all are readers, though we live in different zones.

Maybe tomorrow I’ll read an ebook.

Maybe tomorrow I’ll take another look.

All the bookstores are online now, don’t you know?

If you’re buying books, there’s just no place to go.

But if you’ve got a Kindle or an iPad or a Nook,

It’s not a problem; you know where you can look.

Download an ebook; you’ll figure it out somehow.

Upload an ebook; we’re all just authors now.

So if Amazon’s two-day shipping just won’t cut it

Just buy an ebook, because… instant gratification!

Maybe tomorrow we’ll see that print’s not dead…

Until tomorrow we’ll read ebooks instead.

Maybe tomorrow we’ll see that print’s not dead…

Until tomorrow we’ll read ebooks instead.
O, this code! It never seems to end.

This so-called “e-production” drives me ‘round the bend!

Unzip an EPUB from a conversion house and it’s a mess,
So then manually tweak the XHTML and the CSS.

Maybe tomorrow formatting issues will settle down…

Until tomorrow we’ll just keep truckin’ on.

So if you travel or commute or you’re a bibliophile

E-read an ebook; it’ll e-make you e-smile.

Maybe tomorrow we’ll all use EPUB 3…

Until tomorrow, we’ll have to wait and see.

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What I’m Reading These Days

Since finishing my grad school courses and my summer internship, I have had time to read for pleasure again! It is the goal and the dream, my friends. One of them, anyway.

This is what I’ve been working through for the past few weeks:

The Perks of Being a Wallflower is a re-read for me. This photo doesn’t show the truly beaten-up jacket, but I must have read that thing ten times in grade 12, and I passed this very copy around to many friends and relations. It spread like wildfire in my school that year, among the best of us, anyway (I speak as a book snob, momentarily). I skimmed it again recently in preparation for seeing the movie (which, I am happy to say, honoured the book rather well).

Somehow I never read A Wrinkle In Time as a kid. How did that happen? It lauds physics and faith at the same time (among other precious things)! Now I want to read the whole quintet, of course. (Here I come, library website, to put holds on many books….)

I also finally got around to The Book of Negroes. The author, Lawrence Hill, read some of this work to my fourth-year CanLit seminar when I did my undergrad. It was a work in progress at the time, and it has been on the back burner of my reading list (to mix metaphors) for quite a while. Worth waiting for — but if you don’t have to wait, then don’t.

Speaking of CanLit, I read The Sisters Brothers, which won the GG (Governor General’s award) in 2011, and, maybe more importantly, has that cool cover design that I keep seeing everywhere. It turned out to be a simultaneously jolly and macabre romp, with as clear a narrative voice as I have read in years. That voice, I tell you. Worth reading for.

My Kobo needs charging, otherwise you’d also see Paris Talks, a collection of short talks given by ’Abdu’l-Bahá in 1912. I’ve been reading this great book of short talks with a group that meets each week (join us if you’re in Vancouver and it sounds interesting to you!). It has proven a great way to ensure that meaningful conversations happen regularly in my life, and that is a goal we should all strive for. (Paris Talks is available as a non-pirated, free ebook! Or you can read the full text online.)

As for Skinny Bitch, it took me a couple of hours, and it was a fun (if very irreverent) vegan rant. Remember how bad refined sugar is for you? And meat? If you want to remember, this is the book for you.

And I just started The Casual Vacancy a couple of days ago, so no spoilers allowed!

What are YOU reading right now? Is it great? Why? I want to know.

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