Portal Update Complete

**Guide Plt.2129** · September 13th, 2011 17:40

Kristin, just run with it, you'll feel alot free'r ya know. I remember the day I decided to just speak my mind....lost my job, wife (Thank God), and the urge to swizlzle vodka by the 1/2 gallon, caused a car lot to close and pulled a fire alarm at a fire house just after yelling "MOVIE". You never want to yell movie in a fire house. Then proceeded to pull parking meters out of the ground with a 1959 Plymouth Belvedere at the public library. Reading should be free.
Ya know Steve, reading a book, I mean like a real good book, the one you can't put down, read through dinner , every chance you get, that kind, and the days of book stores where you could actually get engrossed in it till it was closing time, are like you said Kristin, far and few between. And Steve, was it "PT 109" that grabbed you first or Twain's novels, or even "Treasure Island"?
It is a sad thing. It's like having a friend move to the other side of the world when your favorite one closes and is replaced with a Barnes and Questionably Noble Inc. The spastic off shoot of a frozen food company.
I got Chris a Amazon Kindle because our Dr. was selling it dirt cheap, and she could pick out a book without being stepped on and knocked around by rude people in stores like B&Q-N. She won't revenge them by running over their feet with he chair-which really does hurt, I know from when I used to feel my feet, damn it hurts, especially the toes, but would serve no purpose to the would-be book buyer. They are there to buy a best seller that is usually trash dreamed up, romantic ? novel, and printed, sold for 40 bucks and will be worth 99 cents next week at the Goodwill.
They talk about us being the last generation of it's kind in time. We straddled the gap from depression era born children to the disco/punk era. The VCR player confounded us yet we knew how to change a needle on a stereo, and get the right one the first time, "Hi-Fi", for a new thing, stereo. I still have a Rolling Stones album that came in "Mono". Worth nothing but playing it to me.
We straddled a time of internal revolution and the bad rap of being a country that was a war mongering, uneducated and backward nation with alot of money.
The value of a book is about recycle weight for paper/cardboard. The first time you read a book that got you all messed up with things like reading at the dinner table, not wanting to go to some relatives house because you had caught the "reading bug", there is the value that increases with time. The pawn guy's don't really deal with that kind of wealth, and yes I do own some turn of the century books, some 1900 through 1922. Why? Passed along to me. My teacher in the 80's when I graduated college gave me one from 1917 that I gave to a girl down the street who I watched grow up from birth until she graduated college this spring. She's an RN who used to play with my stethoscope when I'd come home and sit out front of the house. "A text book of anatomy for nurses" C.V.Mosby.
Has about a value of a buck some place. It was what led to Mosby"s for nursing everything today. No famous author but the gift was priceless.............................
When you ever hear the phrase "why can't Johnnie read", your reply is "they dont write stories in Hustler Magazine do they?" Seems like the "photo" is really worth a thousand words. some they have to goggle, some guessed, and some just tossed because they have no value....just a thought......
And I just wrote a novel , didn't I? Or maybe a social commentary...but it was good to write this and I could conversate with you guys at the same time instead of snail mail, of which we must now bail out or it will be the end of another era-"junk mail"...................and the spell checker still don't work!!!!

**kmarier2001** · September 16th, 2011 21:55

Hey.....if actual books become obsolete, they may just become collectors items, making them worth some money! How much you think I might get for all my Harlequin Romance books 10 yrs from now???? lol.....just kidding. I don't read that kind of crap. I prefer the "who done it" types or mystery novels.

**Guide Plt.2129** · September 17th, 2011 01:04

Originally Posted by kmarier2001

Hey.....if actual books become obsolete, they may just become collectors items, making them worth some money! How much you think I might get for all my Harlequin Romance books 10 yrs from now???? lol.....just kidding. I don't read that kind of crap. I prefer the "who done it" types or mystery novels.

I was trying to remember where you worked at when I read that, it caused me to think of my Friday evening coffee drinking friend who processes files at the local DHS. He reads "who done it's" everyday: "Who 'dat baby's daddy?" is his favorite...........

...............of books, and I'll always believe this, it's the gift that keeps on giving, whether as a doorstop, or an instigator of the quest for knowledge, or simply something to hold in front of your face to avoid eye contact with everyone from mom and dad, to that priest who would like to see you in his office, to the glaring look of "The Librarian" because you and your buddies are studying the new issue of Easy-Rider tucked into the bigger books, and giggling like a bunch of little girls. (Thats where I caught my 22 year old son when he was supposed to be job hunting)....the value of a Har-licken romance novel? Does it come with pictures? Gotta keep in mind, little Johnnie, he can't read. Me? I just can't spell. And know nothing of "grammar, sentence structure,paragraph stuff, can't spell, and...spelling too.

And the spell checker still don't work!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

**innersanctum** · September 23rd, 2011 20:30

My first book I ever remember reading that I wasn't assigned to read was Clear and Present Danger by Tom Clancy. Then I got into the W.E.B. Griffin series The Brotherhood of War and then the Corps. I went back to Tom Clancy and read all the way up to Rainbow Six. I need to get back into his books. I have been reading a lot of Max Lucado lately and have had a lot of Christian books sent to me unsolicited and for free, which I don't mind at all. I recently read some books on the Kindle that were published in the 1800's and found them very compelling to today's world.

I can get all these books within seconds of purchasing them on Amazon and are available on my phone, iPad, home computer, iPod and my work PC. My library is getting pretty extensive and I find myself going back to read books all the time. I still have a library where I read books the old way but my electronic library has surpassed my physical one.

**kmarier2001** · September 24th, 2011 12:37

I will admit, it's pretty cool how far technology has come. Those Kindles are pretty cool, too. I just don't have the extra money to get one, so for now I'm forced to read books the old way. I don't mind, though

**innersanctum** · September 30th, 2011 10:37

They are getting cheaper. I think Kindle released a new pricing structure. They were $139 when I got my wife hers. They are now $79/$99/$199. Another 6 months and I think you will see them come down even more. don't give up on the possibility of an Android Tablet either. I just saw one yesterday on http://1saleaday.com/ for $100 and that has a lot more uses than just an e-reader. It can be used as a video player (with WiFi connection of course), games, email and ever more than I can even mention. Keep looking out for these things because they are the way of the future in computing, reading and social networking.

**kmarier2001** · October 1st, 2011 10:32

I keep watching for prices to drop and will continue to do so. Right now, though, everything under the moon seems to be breaking down in this dang 6yr old house of mine. Refrigerator broke Tuesday and I had to call repairman as one can't go without a fridge and a new one is not an option (a 6 yr old one should not be breaking down either...dang cheap crap they make these days!). My dryer has not worked in 5 yrs (I've been hauling clothes next door to my Moms all this time to dry...ugh!), so I had him look at that while he was here (why not). Fridge is repairable (defroster thing broke...common in newer fridges as they are cheaply made, per repairman) but part had to be ordered. It's working for now, till frost builds up on it again but he'll put new part in it as soon as it comes in. Dryer is working again, blower wheel broken on it. Part was only $18...dang! This repairman is the best around (IMO) and doesn't charge and arm/leg for service, so I'm going to survive this repair call. My furnace also needs some repairs, soon, but can't do that right now. So, you see, I can't very well get any "toys", no matter how much I wish I could, right now. Some day, though