Today, I’m over it. (Especially with an exciting recent announcement from Morrisson-Reeves Library here in Richmond – more on that below.)

Not that I don’t still treasure the sensory experience of reading a real book, and not that I don’t still feel a little guilty doing my part to nudge us toward the end of an era every time I pick up my Kindle.  But a few things happend to push me past my reluctance about using e-books and e-readers:

1. I noticed other friends who I thought of as equally or more committed to the authenticity of reading an actual book starting to sing the praises of e-readers, the Kindle in particular.  They raved about the simplicity and flexibility of the Kindle experience, the lighter physical load to carry, the sleep-mate-friendly light built into the case, the wide range of selections available…it was too much for a gadget lover too ignore.
2. I kept encountering books I wanted to read, but that I didn’t want taking up the physical space in my life via a spot on the bookshelf or, worse, packed away in boxes.   Borrowing from a library or a friend can accomodate that to some degree, but there were still enough times where I wanted to just buy a book and have it to start reading when I wanted for as long as I wanted.
3. I found a refurbished Kindle for under $100.  At that price point it was pretty difficult to pass up trying it out, knowing they have good resale value in the worst case scenario.

I’ve had my Kindle 3 for over three months now, and I’m really enjoying it.

There are plenty of other in-depth reviews about the device, but I’ll say my general experience is that it’s been the closest thing to reading a paper book without actually reading a paper book.

The screen doesn’t look or feel like a screen, it feels like a page of a book, even after many hours on the eyes in a variety of lighting conditions.  The “workflow” of reading – browse for book, find book, buy book, start reading book, turn pages, finish book – is largely unchanged from a traditional book-reading experience.  The device barely does anything else, and so I’m not distracted by temptations of online research, checking my e-mail or seeing what the latest headlines are (I would not buy one of the newer Kindle tablets/multi-purpose touch devices for that reason alone).  The battery life is phenomenal – measured in weeks – and I’m driven to make it last longer by keeping the Wi-Fi turned off, further reducing any sense of being “connected.”  And if there are books where I really want the physical copy for whatever reason, I still have that option…for now.

The end result is that I’ve been reading more than I usually do, reading different kinds of stuff from what I might normally decide is worth having in book form, and cheesy as it may sound, really rediscovering the joy of immersing myself in a good book.

For now at least, e-books are not that much cheaper than “the real thing,” to buy new, which is why when I first got my Kindle I created an account on BookLending.com.  Within a day of posting a request to borrow a new release I’d been eyeing, a total stranger had loaned me their copy, saving me a few bucks.  Amazon has also recently recognized the desire for e-book borrowing in launching their Kindle Owners Lending Library for Prime members; I just finished reading The Hunger Games borrowed through it.  They also have the Kindle Daily Deal program, where for a 24-hour period they significantly discount the price of a particular e-book; I’ve bought a few books for $0.99 that I might not have gotten at $14.99.

Perhaps most exciting is that the e-book borrowing experience has come to my local library.  This weekend, Morrisson-Reeves Library announced the availability of e-book lending through their website, as a part of their use (along with other Indiana libraries) of OverDrive‘s digital lending services.

I was able to browse a wide variety of fiction and non-fiction e-books, and within minutes I had a copy of a book that perfectly fit in the “might borrow it from a library but probably wouldn’t buy it” category (George W. Bush’s Decision Points).

Jenie Lahmann, PR Coordinator at Morrisson-Reeves, said in a press release, “it is easy to use the service and best of all its free to use it with your library card. Also, no late fines for items you download.”  From the number of titles where all of the available electronic copies have already been checked out, it looks like this service will be a popular one among Indiana e-reader users.  For those who don’t have such a device, libraries like MRL are also exploring having some on hand to check out for patron use, in the same manner that they make computer labs available for accessing online information.

E-readers and e-books, and lending services like MRL’s, open up all sorts of new possibilities for educational use in homeschooling or in the school system, workforce training and professional development, and self-publishing.  I realize that a number of folks have been on that bandwagon for a while now, but I do think it was only recently that the quality, price and selection of e-readers and e-books made them accessible and reasonable for the masses.

I’m obviously enjoying my Kindle reading experience.  What’s your take on e-readers and e-books?

We of course have the trusty Lonely Planet Guide to Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands.

I’m bringing a book of Daily Meditations that I’m hoping will provide at least a few moments for grounding/centering each day.  It’s a little bulky, though, so it will have to prove its worth quickly.

I’m also bringing The Spell of the Sensuous: Perception and Language in a More-Than-Human World, after a glowing recommendation by a friend.  The subject matter – relationship between human and nonhuman life – seems appropriate for visiting a country that has made the rights of non-human life a part of its constitution.

Kelly is bringing a few copies of The Economist magazine, which is always sure to provide some insight and perspective into news and politics of the day.

She’ll also probably be bringing some reading material related to her NEXT trip to the Middle-East later this summer.

Anything else that we should have along to read?

• The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd. A great, compelling story that is so rich and enjoyable. Reminds me of how I felt reading A Prayer for Owen Meany or To Kill a Mockingbird. I can also recommend Monk Kidd’s The Dance of the Dissident Daughter.
• The Soul Tells A Story: Engaging Creativity With Spirituality In The Writing Life by Vinita Hampton Wright. I couldn’t enjoy this one as much, perhaps because it seemed to define spirituality a little too differently than I do, and the resulting instructions/advice just didn’t feel as applicable. It also wasn’t as tightly structured as I would expect a book on creative writing to be.
• Secrets and Lies: Digital Security in a Networked World by Bruce Schneier. My review of Secrets and Lies is at the Summersault Weblog.
• The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman. Another really fun book that will appeal to fans of the “Narnia” and “Harry Potter” style of adventure-telling. Also coming out in December on the big screen as a motion picture starring Dakota Blue Richards and Daniel Craig – worth a see.
• The Assault on Reason by Al Gore. My review of The Assault on Reason is in my last weblog entry.

Now reading:

• Thinking Points: Communicating Our American Values and Vision and Whose Freedom?: The Battle Over America’s Most Important Idea, both by George Lakoff. If you read this blog with any regularity, you already know I’m a fan of his stuff.
• Codes, Ciphers, Secrets and Cryptic Communication: Making and Breaking Sercet Messages from Hieroglyphocs to the Internet by Fred B. Wrixon. Nothing gets me up in the morning like a Bifid Cipher.
• The Woman and the Ape by Peter Hoeg. Highly recommended by Anna Lisa, and I’ve always enjoyed books with large primates as main characters.

I’ll post reviews of these as I can. Your own reviews, recommendations and comments welcome!

Almost every month, I see the list of themes and think about what I would write about. I start to compose the words in my head. And then I look at the submission deadline for that topic (usually just weeks away) and then at the publication target for accepted pieces (usually many months away), and I tell myself that I’ll come back to it later to actually send something in.

I’ve been a subscriber of the Sun since 1999, and I have not yet gotten around to submitting anything to them. I’m not sure if it’s because I can’t experience the instant gratification of having my writing accepted (or rejected) like I can with a weblog. Or maybe it’s because I still have such a hard time letting myself write about things that other people are writing about. Or maybe it’s because I know I would be submitting something for someone else to judge or value, and I’m not confident or vulnerable enough. Or maybe it’s pure laziness, apathy.

Whatever it is, it’s a form of writer’s block that seems ridiculous and intimidating to me, yet very important to overcome.

So, here I am, answering the questions from this book meme:

1. One book that changed your life?

The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand. Though I have since come to reject most of Rand’s philosophy and writings, at the time it was an incredible eye-opening experience that taught me how to look at the world in new ways I hadn’t even dreamt of as possible. That experience probably laid the groundwork for being able to digest and internalize other works that were life-changing AND that have stayed with me in terms of usefulness, like…(see next question).

2. One book you have read more than once?

Daniel Quinn’s Ishmael.

3. One book you would want on a desert island?

Bill Bryson’s A Short History of Nearly Everything, to help me keep my perspective.

4. One book that made you laugh?

Naked by David Sedaris.

5. One book that made you cry?

Hope for the Flowers by Trina Paulus.

6. One book you wish had been written?

How to Be a Reasonably Educated and Well Rounded Person Without Going Through High School

7. One book you wish had never had been written?

That one bestselling tome that so many people read and base so many life decisions on without really fully understanding what it’s saying or why they should take it so seriously anyway.

8. One book you are currently reading?

Endgame by Derrick Jensen

9. One book you have been meaning to read?

The Woman and the Ape by Peter Hoeg

10. Now tag some other people.

Okay:

• Derric Watson
• E. Thomas Kemp
• Evan Agee
• Damon Hearne
• Justin Simoni

What he does cover is an astonishing amount of detail from seemingly every major conversation amongst the key players in taking the U.S. to war against Iraq. From President Bush to his top advisors to his cabinet to their subordinates, and from the top levels of the CIA down to the special ops agents working covertly in Iraq well before the war started. Frankly, the book reads like a Tom Clancy novel, and it’s sort of simultaneously horrifying and exhilarating that real life has come to imitate that particular genre so closely. The account isn’t just about the action and it tends not to glorify war or violence, though it does end up giving a fairly dramatic glimpse into issues of war machinery, troop deployment, military strategy, etc. and does so without pausing too long to reflect on the death that comes with them. But Woodward also lingers significantly on the words that were used by the key players, the thoughts on their minds, the happenings in their lives that affect their decisions. He wants us to be a “fly on the wall” to witness the simple utterances that trigger billions of dollars being spent, hundreds of thousands of lives being affected, and major events that will shape politics and international relations for years to come.

Though I sneered above that many of these kinds of books are just consolidations of newspaper articles, interviews, and personal recollections, this is a case where the consolidation is the heart of the story. To see all of the statements that were made, internally and publicly, about Iraq, Saddam, war, and U.S. and international foreign policy, and to weigh them not only chronologically, but in the context of the impact they had years down the road, is amazing. There were plenty of jaw-dropping moments where I couldn’t really believe it was admitted that someone said said what they did, but more interesting (and often disturbing) was the smooth and steady manipulation by these folks of the press, the public, and each other to achieve their agendas. Perhaps it has just become accepted as the norm and I am naive, but I was consistently surprised by the amount of deception by the administration about how early it had been committed to a plan for war in Iraq, despite its public statements about commitment to diplomacy. This is probably one of the most important themes that the book documents: Bush & Co. advertised two possible paths in its interactions with Iraq, but they only ever walked seriously down one of them. And so many could read Woodward’s account as a definitive illustration that we went to war for war’s sake, a horrifying thought in itself.

I was going to say that I found the book lacked attention to the role that public protest played in the lead up to the war, but then I realized that the book perfectly reflects the impact of the protests on the plans for attack: almost none at all. Despite the massive and unprecedented international mobilization of those who opposed invading Iraq, the heads of state with the decision making power essentially ignored and avoided their pleas. When the protests came to their doorsteps, they gave vague or nonsensical responses, left town, and scheduled summits on remote islands. This point stuck with me throughout: the people making and enforcing the policies of our countries can take us to war without pausing for one moment to consider the opposing viewpoints of some major chunk of the population. Unless someone is “in the room” with the key players advocating those opposing viewpoints, they are essentially background noise. As Woodward recounted Bush saying to Blair, “We lead our publics. We cannot follow our publics” (p. 296).

Ever rising since his Watergate-exposing fame of the Nixon era, Bob Woodward is one of those self-propagating phenomena in a world where the message coming out of DC institutions is controlled so tightly and only a chosen few are trusted to have a few moments alone with the “people who matter.” Woodward’s popularity has led to credibility, and credibility gets him in the door, and he cashes that back out into more popularity. In this case it got him hours of interviews with President Bush, and the trust of more than 70 sources, some apparently deep in the administration with access to (and a willingness to share details of) very classified information.

One has to wonder what that kind of deep penetration does to any sense of inner turmoil about how he portrays those he writes about. In Plan of Attack, there was certainly little overt favoritism (other than a recurring expansion on Colin Powell’s personal struggles in particular) and I credit Woodward for weaving together the thoughts and recollections of so many players into something that wasn’t completely lacking a consistent voice. But in finding this balance, he may have glossed over some of the abstract qualities and values of those players that often had as much to do with U.S. military action in Iraq as their words or stated policies. He mostly leaves it up to the reader to decide, which is probably preferable given the contentious nature of the topics he covers.

But if I got to sit down with Woodward himself, I wouldn’t be able to resist asking him for his own conclusions: did these people really believe they were doing the right thing for the U.S., Iraq, and the world, or were they blinded by politics, ambition, and bureaucracy, and propelled by a decision-making process that had no room for peaceful resolution? Plan of Attack is a great read, but leaves one shaking ones head at the complexity of our world, the people ostensibly running it, and how we don’t find ourselves in even worse shape when the Plans are formulated as they are.