THE INTER-CONNECTED LIFE

It is a good thing I don't have any abnormal fear of COVID-19.  I am lucky so far, only lost my job and nothing else.  The week before the public library shut down until further notice, I borrowed an audiobook by the name of Lone Wolf, by Jodi Picoult.  Audibooks are normally loaned out for 21 days but because of the pandemic the library gave long extension.  For some reason, I never got around to listening to the 11-disc "book".  Probably partly because computers nowadays don't come with optical drive.  I do have a USB DVD drive but the extra step of connecting it to my laptop somehow discouraged me from start listening to the book.

With the public libraries scheduled, perhaps already, to open this week, I finally decided to start listening to it.  I thought maybe I only have another week or more of the extension.  The audiobook has at least two narrators, a male and a female.  From Disc 1, I learned that the male narrator is someone named Nick Cordero.  Or maybe I should use the word "was", because in the news recently there was a Broadway actor, young person too, just 41 years old, who just died because of complications from COVID-19.  A few searches in Google and Bing do not confirm my suspicion that it's the same person, but I do know actors, singers etc sometimes narrate audiobooks.  Maybe if I stumble upon some Nick Cordero Fan Club, if those things still exist, I can confirm it's the same person.

A major part of Lone Wolf involves a person who suffered severe injuries to the brain and had to be kept alive with breathing apparatus.  Yup, a VENTILATOR.  Years ago, I may not pay much attention when the word VENTILATOR is used, but nowadays it makes me shudder, based on what I read it's a painful process to be put on a ventilator.

Sometimes you just cannot avoid the news.  I don't try that hard to avoid it, so while I find it interesting that COVID-19 still makes its way into my life, just as I try to forget it via an audiobook, it's no big deal.

RUNNING AND FREECYCLING

I don't watch much TV so what little I watch I remember well.  One commercial that I remember well is that of Ryan Hall for AT&T cellular network, shown during the recent London Olympics.  Originally I thought it was a commercial for Audible.com, to show that Mr. Hall can go for a long run and have many audiobooks to keep him company, right?  Whatever.

For my run today I decided to give my Bose portable CD player a try.  It was late in the day so even if I wanted to I wouldn't do a long run.  My long run these days are at most 15K anyway, no match for Mr. Hall's cross-country journey.  I just went for a run along the waterfront near Cesar's Bay, along the Belt Parkway.

I sweat a lot and rarely carry earphones because I don't like to get them wet.  I don't need music to keep me motivated either.  But the idea of "reading" books while running is attractive.  I already do that with walking and dish-washing, or even floor-sweeping.  I used to have to use a portable DVD player to listen to audiobooks and the device is cumbersome to carry around.  The battery dies pretty quickly, too.  Thanks to Freecycling, I got myself a portable CD player, Bose brand.  Someone was moving to another state and saw my request.  It just happened that she came across this barely-used CD player.  I met her shortly later and gave her a "Thank-You" sonobe.

Size really matters as far as the CD player is concerned.  It fits smugly in my winter coat's chest pocket, even in my trousers front pocket.  It runs on AA batteries and they go a long way.  Green that I am, I am actually using rechargeable AA batteries, which cost a lot up front but can be reused over and over.  Alas, running and listening to audiobook on the Bose didn't work out.  Even though it clearly says "anti-skip" on the player's cover, it did skip during my run.  It skipped so much before reaching 2 km I decided to run without listening to the book.  I do a lot of walking for Charity Miles, usually a mile a day, so that's when I can make use of the Bose.

My new electronic toy - a Bose portable CD player.  Thanks to its compact size, I was able to sail through "Sharpe's Siege", by Bernard Cornwell, in a short time.  I started listening to "The Keepsake" today, while on the run.  I prefer historical fiction, the older the better, to learn how people deal with the lack of technology.

"Thank You" in various languages, even sign language.

HOW DO I READ THEE, PART 2

In this day and age, I still prefer physical books, mostly because the public libraries still carry them and that they are less prone to damages.  They also do not require much else beside the strength to carry them and a pair of good eyes to read them.  I do not totally shun ebooks and such, especially when they are free.  Books, movies, and such have copyrights that expire after so many years.  I have heard of Project Gutenberg but somehow was not interested in reading classic books on the computer.  When I am at the computer, there are so many things to do and reading is the last thing I would consider doing.  But one day on the iPad there was a sale of the aptly-named app called Classic and I bought it.  Right within the app, classic books are downloaded for you, available on the iPad and to be read whenever you have the time and the device itself.  It did get me started with 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne but like the computer, there are too many things to do with the iPad when in possession of it.  It also does not help that I share the device with my son and my wife.  I fear being robbed of the iPad on the subway so bringing it for the commute is out of the question.


Thanks to my recent, belated adoption of the smartphone (just some Android thingy instead of an iPhone, but it does its many jobs), I have given ebook-reading another go.  The phone came with many apps, one of which is Books 1.4.5.  The app can fetch out-of-copyright books (read: free) as well as those whose copyright are still in force and thus carry a price.  Being the frugal person that I am, I only downloaded some classic books, like Great Expectations by Charles Dickens and Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen.  Lately, reading Expectations is how I sometimes while away the time.  But wait, isn't a smartphone much like a computer in that you can do much with it and thus have no desire to read while using it?  Yes and no.  Like the typical smartphone, my phone's keyboard is a pain to use.  Sure I have been using the phone lately to write draft versions of blog entries but it is an unpleasant experience that I try to avoid.  Also, thanks my limited (read: 200 MB/month) data plan, I consciously avoid using the phone to access the Internet, except for the hourly or so checking of email and Facebook.  The phone can play music and such but there are times I want to use it without having to untangle the headphone.  So reading is actually a preferred use of the smartphone albeit the tiny screen is not that great for long period of time.


On the audiobook front, I rely solely on LibriVox.org, which is somewhat like Audible.com and other audiobook services/sellers, but the books on LibriVox are classic that are freely distributable.  I somewhat randomly picked The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky.  The files I chose are in MP3 format and the sound player has no intelligence to bookmark my listening progress.  The story itself sometimes has entire chapter devoted to religion or philosophy, which I find boring, so I have been plodding along slowly and only up to Book 8 Chapter 8.  To make things worse, the few characters in the book are often referred to by different names, which I find confusing.  Ugh.  I should just delete the files and move on to something else but I hate to leave a book not completely read.  Maybe Dostoyevsky wrote a sequel called The Brothers Kalashnikov and it has more actions and no preaching.


Brooklyn Public Library and such has downloadable media for borrowing.  My last brush with the service was a few years ago, involving movies and the use of OverDrive software.  It was a major hassle, what with no player for the Mac and some other technical issues.  Things may be simpler with ebooks and such so I think I will give it a shot.  Eventually I will run out of classic books to read/listen so borrowing the latest best sellers would be a sensible next-step.

HOW DO I READ THEE?

I often wish that I re-kindled my interest in running sooner than 15 years after completing the 1994 and 1995 NYC Marathons.  Life sometimes gets in the way, I guess.  Reading is another old interest I wish I got back with sooner.  I cannot recall when a I got back with reading but I know there was a period of time after 1997 that I did not even know where the local public library was.  I was in a new neighborhood in Brooklyn, with a new life.  I am one of those people who rarely buy books and instead rely heavily on the public library.  Not knowing where the library was meant I did not read much, although it is possible that I borrowed from NYPL since at the time I worked in Manhattan.  Still, I am pretty sure there was a block of time during which I did not read books at all.  How did I while away all those hours commuting in the subway to and from work?

LET ME COUNT THE WAY

I cannot recall when I jumped back into reading but I am doing it avidly and in a few different ways.  In this electronic age, a computer geek like me should embrace ebooks and such but the frugal person in me decide otherwise.  The down side of buying ebooks is not that much different than physical books.  They cost x dollars and most likely will be read only once, at most twice.  I am talking fiction books here, which is what I mostly read.  With ebooks, you cannot even pass them on to others, say, by donating to the public library or leaving outside your front yard in a box with a note that screams FREE.  Of course with ebook you also have to have the reader, sufficiently charged, with you, be it a Kindle, a Nook, or some other gadget.  What is more, the readers can be damaged if dropped whereas the typical physical book can take much abuse and remains usable.

Physical books are still my preferred medium.  Nowadays, I borrow from both Brooklyn Public Library and from Jersey City Public Library.  I mostly take whatever large-print books that catch my attention, although I prefer stories about the old days before technology makes life goes fast.  I especially hate books about over-stressed office workers, whether in a law firm or in a police precinct. Occasionally I would go back to paperback books, with their tiny letters, usually for the sci-fi series, especially Star Wars. Since I usually do not have time to watch movies or TV series, I also like to read whatever books based on the movies or shows, whether original or spin-off.

Regular readers of this blog may recall from posts like The Eyes Are the First To Go that I am a believer in audiobooks. Again, although there are great services like Audible.com out there, I do not like the idea of buying a book and listening to it just once or twice. You do not end up with old books taking up space in the physical world but instead the "used" audiobooks just clutter the gadget you put them in. Again I count on the public libraries to provide me with audiobooks, in the form of audio CDs. You do not have the convenience of digital books but the price is great. I do not have a dedicated CD player so end up carrying a portable DVD player but it is not so bad. Surely I can buy one for $30 or so but why buy if the DVD player works fine. Maybe I will ask around, perhaps someone I know has a CD player that he no longer uses.

Physical books and audio CDs, all from the public libraries, are just two medium I consume reading materials. To a smaller extent, I actually read ebook and listen to audiobooks, both on the iPad and the Galaxy cell phone. But let's save the discussion for next time. In the mean time, here are the books and audiobooks I read recently. I was initially disappointed that The Navigator was not about the old days of Vikings and such but it turned out to be a good thriller. The Wrecker was a good book about the old days when steam engine ruled the world. Storm Cycle is somewhat of a chick lit, which I do not care for, and involves too much computers but it was OK. I actually tried to read Cry The Beloved Country years ago on audiocassettes but never went far. South Africa and apartheid, talk about the unfairness of life! Last but not least, Impact was an interesting story about boating, covert government actions, and astronomy.