During the summer months of June, July, and August vacation time is the next big to do item. It is during vacation time that information professionals may reflect on family, next steps of their professional career, and/or curl up with a nice book/ipad/e-reader. Whether for personal or professional growth, books from a series or a particular author can provide another realm of reality which allow us to escape for a brief moments in time.
This month’s theme is books and authors. So here are three simple questions to kick start a discussion:
- What are you reading today?
- What format are you reading from, e.g. book, ipad, or e-reader?
- Would you recommend it to others?
Thanks for starting this discussion! I’m looking forward to finding out what others are reading so I can check them out for my own reading list.
For my daily train ride to San Francisco, I’m currently reading the 4th book in the Mary Russell & Sherlock Holmes mysteries. Also reading “Getting Things Done”(needs to be finished by this Friday as four of us are discussing its premise at lunch). Reading Madeline Albright’s autobiography, Madam Secretary, for my book group.
All my current reading is in print although I have a Nook which I love and use to read borrowed library books. Since I strive not to acquire more books regardless of format, the borrowing philosophy works best for me.
Yes, I would recommend print and e-readers!
What is the series you mention in the Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes mysteries? Thanks!
1. I’m currently reading John Palfrey’s “Born Digital.” It’s much more fascinating than I anticipated.
2. I started reading the book in its print physical format. After I finished chapter 2, I realized that I wanted to make numerous notes and emendations. So I scanned the entire book (for myself only!) and made it into a pdf. I’ve continued to read it on my laptop, while now making notes, and even adding links where warranted. I can enlarge the text when my eyes are getting tired. (I am fairly anti-ebook mainly on principle, because I feel if you pay for a book, you should own it, not license it.)
3. I thought I knew plenty about digital natives and such, but the book has opened my eyes to many more issues and topics. It is well-written and is actually humorous in places. I enthusiastically recommend it to practically everyone who is engaging in life on the Internet.
I’m reading Salted: A Manifesto on the World’s Most Essential Mineral with Recipes by Mark Bitterman. It’s an interesting history about the economics, “farming”, science and culture of salt. While it is something we take for granted today, it was the stuff of survival and trade not that long ago. There are still artisans out there making salt as it has been made for hundreds of years. The author and his wife have opened a salt shop in Portland: http://www.atthemeadow.com/shop/. I will never take salt for granted again and hope to find a shop in the SF Bay Area where I can get sel gris and fleur de sel to get started on this salt adventure.