Magical Memoir Moments

Adventures with eReaders: The Kindle Part 3

Here’s what Amazon calls “Shirley’s 2nd Kindle.” They gave me this one because I called their customer service department when my first one, an earlier model, died. Pretty impressive, eh? How many other companies offer you a newer model of a product valued at $149 for free without kicking and screaming? A more cynical person…

Read More...

24 Hour-Only Memoir Bargain: William Styron's Darkness Visible on Kindle

We all get spam and the next thing to spam–email from companies we have done business with in the past. Amazon just sent me an email, something that happens without my response several times a week. But this one caught my attention. Here is the link to an offer I couldn’t refuse: an electronic copy…

Read More...

Audio Books v. Kindle v. Old Fashioned Book–Which is Better?

One of the best rewards of blogging is discovering a new or old friend in the comments section. Fun! Since I spent 28 years interacting with undergraduates at Goshen College, I love encountering them and hearing about their lives. Several of them commented on the review of Mennonite in a Little Black Dress I wrote back…

Read More...

Ben Yagoda's Memoir: A History on the Kindle–A Double Review

Ben Yagoda’s history of the memoir genre should make any other survey redundant. He’s performed a great service, not only to readers and writers but also to the new field of nonfiction/memoir studies. As promised previously, I will describe not only what I learned from reading the book but also from reading it on the Kindle. First,…

Read More...

Why I am Loving My Kindle: And a Request for Readers to Report on Their Own E-book Experiences

A few weeks ago I posted a list of 18 books I had blogged about in the last six months. At the end of the list I included two books I have not yet read, pictured here. Today I got out my six-month-old Kindle and spent 20 seconds ordering the two books–Mary Karr’s Lit and Ben Yagoda’s Memoir:…

Read More...

The Amazon Kindle v. Barnes & Noble's Nook and iPhone App: Five Things the Kindle Gets Right and Five It Gets Wrong

Last August, The New Yorker published Nicholson Baker’s extensive, very mixed, review of my brand-new birthday present–an Amazon Kindle 2. The article mentions a YouTube of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos laughing freakishly hard. I thought it appropriate to find and share the freakish laughter video with you on Halloween, just after Barnes & Noble has announced their competing…

Read More...