Sunday, January 23, 2011

David Copperfield

As some of you may know, my car was broken into in Seattle a few weeks ago, luggage was stolen, and I lost the computer I was borrowing (which was fortunately fairly old and unwanted so the replacement cost won't break me). I had already been seeking a light computer with 3G or 4G capability so I wouldn't have to set up a home phone or cable account, and I was pleased to be introduced to the Samsung Galaxy at the Verizon store.

It works on the same google droid operating system as my phone. I use google for mail, contacts, documents, and calendar, so the ease of use is beautiful (and, as a colleague noted when a computer was stolen, I lost no files. I did go and update all my passwords). It looks like a Droid phone but is bigger, about the size of a Kindle from Amazon.

I thought I would be one of those people who never caved in to Kindles and would always read books, but I have been incredibly pleased with the free Kindle application on my tiny computer. I can download classics like Dickens' David Copperfield for free. I had heard that this was Dickens' greatest novel (Virginia Woolf and others wrote so) and had checked out a copy from the library. The print was tiny, the book was unwieldy, and some other would be literati put the book on hold so I had to return it when I was barely into David's childhood. Now I have it on my computer, it is easy to read in light or dark (I know mothers will council me not to read in the dark), the font is easy to read (I could make it bigger if I want), and I am happily marching my way through the 15000 pages or so of the Kindle version of David Copperfield. There is defintely something about great literature.

I also just finished listening to Frank McCourt's Angela's Ashes, narrated by the author. It tells of his life in poverty in Limerick, Ireland. He is a great writer, and it was incredible to hear him read his own prose. I remember being at the University of Iowa and listening to books on tape. I remember listening in particular to Ethan Frome, a depressing story. But the narrator sounded as if we were more depressed and lifeless. It has been refreshing to hear how enlivening good audio narration can be--I feel my experiences of Rushdie's Midnight's Children and McCourt's memoir were greatly enhanced by the wonderful narration.

No comments:

Post a Comment