Allison's Favorite Read Books of 2009

With just a few hours left in 2009, I wanted to post my top books of the year. According to Goodreads, I read just 15 books in 2009 so rather than do a top ten list I thought I would just highlight a few of my favorites. And speaking of the number of books I read, my one and only resolution this year is to read more -- hopefully at least two books a month.

Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide is the book that stands out to me the most this year. What should be very depressing subject matter is actually uplifting and inspiring. The book is very readable and offers practical suggestions for what the reader can do to help. I hope this book becomes a part of high school and college curricula.

Most of my other non-book club reading this year was mysteries and I read two excellent ones this year: The Likeness and What the Dead Know. I heard the word mysterary somewhere once (mystery + literary) and that is a perfect description of these two books. The ending of What the Dead Know actually brought me to tears.

Happy New Year! Hold me to my New Year's reading resolution!

List Time! Liz's Favorite Books Read in 2009

The New York Times released its Ten Best Books of 2009. I have not read any of them. (Although I do have Kate Walbert's A Short History of Women checked out from the library.)

For my top 10 list of 2009, I have to consider all the books I read this year. If I counted only 2009 releases, there would only be 1 or 2 on the list. But here's my list, in order (#1 is my fave of the year). What's on your list?

1. Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell (friendship, Victorian, magic)
2. The Host (body snatcher, not Twilight, love)
3. The Girl who Played with Fire (trafficking, justice, Sweden)
4. Dead and Gone (Sookie Stackhouse #9) (southern, vampire, blondes)
5. From Dead to Worse (Sookie Stackhouse #8) (see #4)
6. The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical (Jesus, charity, poverty)
7. Whatever it Takes: Geoffrey Canada's Quest to Change Harlem and America (schools, cities, equality)
8. What Happened to Anna K? (not Tolstoy, New York, modern)
9. NurtureShock (parenting, science, chatty)
10. Intuition (postdocs, cancer, truth)

Update: Inspired by Sasha Frere-Jones' best shows of 2009, I added three word descriptors to my book list.

Kindle's Competitor

Now that Kindle is a hit, Barnes and Noble is offering the Nook. When I saw the ads for it (while Cyber Monday shopping) I was barely intrigued, having decided an eBook reader is not for me at this time. However, I subsequently had a conversation with a friend at work who noted that with a Nook, you can actually loan out your books to other Nook users! You enter the other user's email address, and they are notified that the Nook-book is available to them. It's downloaded to their Nook and off the original owner's Nook. It's available to the other user for 2 weeks, after which period it gets sent back to the owner's Nook. The Nook then restricts the borrower from being able to borrow that title again.

It's still not going to replace my library card. But I'm slightly more intrigued now.

The Book Thief: Final Results

didn't like it - 0

it was OK - 0

liked it - 0

really liked it - 3

it was amazing - 1

4 votes total

SciFi and Philosophy

I recently came across this article from 2008 on "Why Science Fiction is the Last Bastion of Philosophical Writing." I think it's a little overstated, but I share some of Clive Thompson's sentiments, especially the following statement:

"I studied literature in college, and throughout my twenties I voraciously read contemporary fiction. Then, eight or nine years ago, I found myself getting — well — bored.

Why? I think it's because I was reading novel after novel about the real world. And there are, at the risk of sounding superweird, only so many ways to describe reality."

Meanwhile, I'm reading a fabulous fantasy/alternate history which was shortlisted for the Booker: Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. One thing that shines in JS&MN, that Thompson doesn't highlight in his piece, is the ability of science fiction (or in this case fantasy) to present very lucid examinations of questions of morality, by taking us out of our day-to-day prejudices and contexts. My favorite science fiction novels create parables that have stayed with me and inspired me to try to live a more just life - books like the Ender Saga, and The Sparrow, for example.

5 Minute Chocolate Mug Cake

This post is on the food side of things but I was so excited by it, I had to share. Tonight I was craving something sweet but didn't have anything in the house. I remembered seeing this single-serving chocolate cake recipe all over the internet this summer and I decided tonight was the night to try it. There are all kinds of variations but the basic premise is that you scale a chocolate cake recipe to one or two servings, pour it in a mug, and microwave it for a few minutes. I chose this recipe randomly and it was a success! It wasn't the best chocolate cake I've ever had but it was very good for taking less than 5 minutes. It would have been even better with ice cream -- maybe next time.

New Approach to Teaching Reading

Last week I read about a new method of teaching literature in middle school where, rather than teaching a common novel or story that all students read as a group, students choose their own reading material that they then discuss with the teacher individually and with one another. The reasoning behind this method is that if students have a personal interest in what they're reading, they will be more likely to develop a habit of reading. For one teacher profiled in the story, her students even fared better on standardized reading tests after adopting this method.

Critics of this method say that these students may miss out on works of quality and complexity and the common body of knowledge that comes from reading literary classics. But maybe by reading books of their own choice and becoming habitual readers, they will eventually choose more "difficult" books down the road.

The article also mentions a school district in NY that sets aside 40 minutes every other day for all sixth, seventh, and eighth graders to read books of their own choosing. Where was that when I was in middle school? I used to race through assignments and tests so that I could have a few free reading minutes before everyone else finished and we moved on.

North Carolina Literary Festival

Coming up the weekend of September 12th is the North Carolina Literary Festival, being held at UNC. I really enjoyed it when it was last held in 2006, at Duke. I believe a group of us went to listen to Barbara Kingsolver. I think it would be fun to do something similar this year. There are several evening keynotes, including John Grisham, but most of the authors will be speaking throughout the day on Saturday and Sunday. One of my favorite sessions at the 2006 festival was a conversation between Allan Garganus and Ann Patchett. Garganus is speaking several times at this year's festival so he's definitely on my list of must-see authors. Take a look at the schedule and let me know if you'd be interested in making this a group outing.

Eat, Pray, Love: The Sequel

Another memoir from Elizabeth Gilbert is coming out in January. Titled Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace with Marriage, it's a follow up to the previous book, exploring her marriage to "Felipe," the man she met her "Love" chapters.

What do you think? Was Eat, Pray, Love enough? Or are you ready for more Gilbert?

First the Food is on Twitter!

We have recently started tweeting. I think it is a good way to share and keep track of news/public debate on items of personal interest. We will mostly tweet links to interesting literary or book club related articles. Perhaps a few on women's relationships and on politics! Or local NC/RTP area goings on. Please follow us if you're interested in these topics. And let me know: what would you like to see us tweet about? What do you think you would use it for, if at all?

The Lace Reader: Final Results

didn't like it - 1

it was OK - 5

liked it - 2

8 votes total.

Yay, we had a lot of people voting this time!

Monica Ali

Has anyone read anything by the author Monica Ali? The New York Times recently reviewed her latest book. Brick Lane and her new book, In the Kitchen, both sound really good. And In the Kitchen seems like it would have a nice culinary theme for a book club meeting.

Where's Spike?

You may have seen this week's cover of EW, with the 20 best vampires of all time.

The list includes Lestat, several different versions of Dracula, Edward Cullen, Bill, Angel, and Keifer Sutherland from The Lost Boys! But I was dismayed to find that you-know-who did not make the list. This is so wrong. It is obvious that Spike is the best vampire ever! Angel whines, Edward pines, Lestat attempts suicide. But Spike is the only vampire who ever has come to the realization that he is evil, and then gone out and done something about it. He's the only one who fought Hell demons to get his soul back, and won. And then, he became a hero. Sure, Spike was the comic relief and Buffy's man stud for a while. But he saw his flaws and tried to make himself a better man, much like another favorite hero of mine.

It's a shame that Spike only made EW's list of hottest vampires. But at least he got something.

The Girls from Ames has a local connection

I'm becoming more and more intrigued by this book, especially as many of my friendships are now in their second decade, along with this book club. It turns out one of the Girls lives here in NC and is a cancer survivor- http://unclineberger.org/news/2009/release0730/

Two Questions

With which to start a book club meeting, per Book Group Buzz:

“If you particularly enjoyed this book, what did it offer that you found most satisfying?” or “If the book disappointed you, how would you define its most glaring weakness?

I like the idea about asking what was the most satisfying aspect of a book. Or the least satisfying.

The Monsters of Templeton: Final Results

didn't like it - 0

it was OK - 1

liked it - 1

really liked it - 0

it was amazing - 0

didn't finish it

2 votes total

The Hobbit: Final Results

didn't like it - 0

it was OK - 1

liked it - 0

really liked it - 0

it was amazing - 1

didn't finish it - 0

2 votes total

Nine

That's the number of books I packed for a 1 week trip to Poland. Not a vacation. A business trip. Five are packed in my suitcase. Four are in my carry-on. Only 2 are for work. (1 each in carry on and in suitcase.) The five in my suitcase?

1. A Song for Summer by Eva Ibbotson
2. Swimming Lessons by Mary Alice Monroe
3. the last Sookie Stackhouse book (#9)
4. Coming of Age in Second Life (work book)
5. The Believers b (Zoe Heller)

The 4 in my carry-on?

1. Infinite Jest (all 1000+ pages)
2. the 8th Sookie Stackhouse book
3. The Survey Interview of the Future
4. the 7th Sookie Stackhouse book (already finished, on the flight from RDU to JFK)

Posting from the JFK airport.

Buffy vs. Edward

I kinda love this in theory. From Bookshelves of Doom.

You can also buy this T-shirt:

Case Histories: Final Results

didn't like it - 2

it was OK - 3

liked it - 0

really liked it - 2

it was amazing - 0

didn't finish it - 0

7 votes total.

Harry Potter: A Romance

Meg Cabot has a hillarious blog post (please, just click through to look at the comments on the pictures) on how the new Harry Potter movie promotional materials make it look like (gasp!) a romance.

What Would Irina Do?

Remember Irina McGovern, central character of The Post-Birthday World? The book hinged around her choice between contentment with one partner and passion with another.

Well, Irina was the first person I thought of (after my husband and myself, I guess) while reading this NYT review of the new book, A Vindication of Love: Reclaiming Romance for the 21st Century, by Christina Nehring. According to the Times Review, her book is an argument for a "darker, more demanding vision of love."

Nehring thinks the contented happy ending of a stable marriage is too tame. The choice to stay in such a marriage is less a sign of emotional health than of insecurity. She praises famous "great lovers" like Frida Kahlo and Heloise, women who had the confidence to entangle themselves in demanding or unorthodox relationships. (Does this mean that when I find my husband a challenge I can credit my mental fortitude?)

Nehring might be wrong, but I'm fascinated by her argument and want to read the book. I especially admire how she seems to present the willingness to love at great risk as the woman's choice - rather than the woman "falling in love" and losing control the way many novels seem to do. What do you think? Does this sound like a good selection for book club? It might lead to some great discussions.

Infinite Summer Reading Challenge

When David Foster Wallace died last fall, I kept reading articles about his life and his writing and I became intrigued in particular with his novel Infinite Jest. Coming in at 1000+ pages plus extensive endnotes, it has been featured on best of all-time lists like this one from Time. Yesterday I saw several links to this website, Infinite Summer, which is challenging people to read Infinite Jest from June 21st to September 22nd, 75 pages a week. This seems doable and kind of fun to me. I like the idea of reading a book with a large group of strangers. In addition to the blog, which will have daily postings by guides and forums for discussing the book, there is also a facebook group and a goodreads page dedicated to the project. Anybody in with me?

The Kindle

Does anyone have a Kindle or considered buying one? I've been firmly anti- e-readers in the past but I think I'm warming up to the idea of a Kindle. A few people at work have them and love them. I'm impressed by how close the text looks to book text and it would be so nice for travel. I recently realized you can subscribe to magazines through it too. I'm all for reducing book and magazine clutter in my house. At ~$360, it's still too expensive for me but I can only assume cheaper, better versions will continue to roll out as it gains in popularity.

Charlaine Harris in the NY Times

The NY Times has an article on Charlaine Harris and the Sookie Stackhouse mysteries. The latest novel, Dead and Gone, is going to be No. 1 on this Sunday's hardcover bestseller list. You can read the first chapter here.

She seems like a neat lady and I'm glad to see the NY Times devote space to her particularly since in the past they have been guilty of ignoring genre fiction.

2009 Agatha Awards

March is Mystery Month is one of my favorite months of book club. However, it's always a challenge to pick an appropriate mystery. The format of the meeting requires that it be a whodunit novel that lays out all the clues and offers the reader a fair play chance of identifying the murderer and motive. Occasionally, we pick a book that doesn't really work.

However, the Agatha Awards are here to help us out! The Agatha Awards go to novels that:

• contain no explicit sex
• contain no excessive gore or gratuitous violence
• usually feature an amateur detective
• take place in a confined setting and contain characters who know one another

I'd be willing to bet that Agatha winners are almost all fair play whodunits.

The 2009 Agatha winner is The Cruelest Month by Louise Penny. It looks charming!

Wolfpack

Last week, this photo of the "wolfpack" from New Moon was released.

Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: 2009

The Pulitzer Prize winners were announced this week. The winner for fiction is Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout. LitLovers (the website that featured our group last year!) has a good compendium of summary, biography, and reviews. This book was first brought to my attention through a rave "You Must Read This" review on NPR by Melissa Bank, author of The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing.

Update: Omnivoracious also posted a list of the top 15 most likely winners (regression analysis alert!), before Olive Kitteridge was announced. It might be a good resource for making book selections.

The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo: Final Results

didn't like it - 0
it was OK - 1
liked it - 0
really liked it - 4
it was amazing - 0
didn't finish it - 0

5 votes total

Who are the Girls from Ames?

They are 11 women from Ames, Iowa who have sustained a 40 year-friendship. A new book, The Girls from Ames, has been written about them by Jeffrey Zaslow, who coauthored The Last Lecture with Randy Pausch.

The book highlights their ground rules:

Don’t brag about husbands’ jobs or incomes. Don’t gloat about children’s achievements. Make every effort to be with each other for key events. In addition, Zaslow observes, “Ames girls learned early that the way to keep female friendships alive was to listen and talk, in that order.”

One compelling comment from Jeffrey Zaslow featured in the Christian Science Monitor review:

Men’s relationships take different forms. “Men tend to build friendships until about age 30, but there’s often a steady falloff after that,” Zaslow states. “Men’s friendships tend to be based more on activities than emotions. They connect through sports, work, poker, politics…. Women talk. Men do things together…. Women’s friendships are face to face, while men’s friendships are side by side.”

I think I might have just found my next book pick.

Discussion Guides for Case Histories

From Reading Group Guides

From Transworld Publishers

"Atlas Shrugged is absurd but strangely compellling . . ."

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand is one of many highly read, often cited books that I have never read. I read The Fountainhead in high school and liked it, but then later learned that Rand was a brutal capitalist and haven't been as impressed with it since. Has anyone read Atlas Shrugged? This review certainly makes me interested. Maybe it would be a good choice for the January book one year? I must admit one reason I'm interested is because every now and then it gets discussed on Mad Men!

YA News

Judy Blume's books have been given new covers. What do you think? It's making me want to re-read Deenie. The copy I had was dated even when I read it.

Blindness: Final Results

didn't like it - 0
it was OK - 1
liked it - 0
really liked it - 1
it was amazing - 0
didn't finish it - 4

6 votes total

What do you do in your succissive moments?

That is, your spare time.

I read.

I found Save the Words while blogreading today.

And I did not want to temerate my recent public commitment to updating the blog every week.

Lost Boys of Sudan

Has anyone read What is the What, Dave Eggers' novel/biography about Valentino Achak Deng, a Sudanese refugee? I've heard great things about this book but have not read it myself. Today at work I received an email that Deng along with some other refugees will be in the area early next week to talk about their experiences and the nonprofit they've started to build schools in Sudan. Below is the schedule of their appearances which can also be found here. I'm thinking about going to the one Monday night if anyone is interested.

March 23: UNC-Chapel Hill, 12:30-2:00pm in the Blue Cross Blue Shield Auditorium located in the Hooker Building.

March 23: Judea Reform Synagogue 7:00-9:00pm

March 24: Wake Forest University, 11:00-12:30pm in the Pugh Auditorium in the Benson Center.

March 24: Duke University, 4:30-6:00pm at Fleischman Commons in the Sandford Institute for Public Policy.

March 25: Meredith College, 10:00-12:00pm in Jones Chapel.

The Time Traveler's Wife: The Sequel

Not a sequel, but Audrey Niffenegger, author of The Time Traveler's Wife, will have her second book out in the fall. It is titled Her Fearful Symmetry and according to this article it is "supernatural story about twins who inherit an apartment near a London cemetery and become embroiled in the lives of the building’s other residents and the ghost of their aunt, who left them the flat."

Speaking of The Time Traveler's Wife, Liz informed me that the movie version has been pushed back to February 2010. In other book/movie news, I read in Entertainment Weekly that Julia Roberts will star in "Eat, Pray, Love."

Best Fashion Blog Post Ever

You must, must look! Storybook inspired fashion. I especially love the Nancy Drew outfit.

Facebook

I love this top 10 list of why Facebook is for old people. I'm cutting and pasting the list so you don't have to, but it came from Time magazine.


1. Facebook is about finding people you've lost track of. And, son, we've lost track of more people than you've ever met. Remember who you went to prom with junior year? See, we don't. We've gone through multiple schools, jobs and marriages. Each one of those came with a complete cast of characters, most of whom we have forgotten existed. But Facebook never forgets. (See the best social-networking applications.)

2. We're no longer bitter about high school. You're probably still hung up on any number of petty slights, but when that person who used to call us that thing we're not going to mention here, because it really stuck, asks us to be friends on Facebook, we happily friend that person. Because we're all grown up now. We're bigger than that. Or some of us are, anyway. We're in therapy, and it's going really well. These are just broad generalizations. Next reason.

3. We never get drunk at parties and get photographed holding beer bottles in suggestive positions. We wish we still did that. But we don't. (See pictures of Beer Country in Denver.)

4. Facebook isn't just a social network; it's a business network. And unlike, say, college students, we actually have jobs. What's the point of networking with people who can't hire you? Not that we'd want to work with anyone your age anyway. Given the recession — and the amount of time we spend on Facebook — a bunch of hungry, motivated young guns is the last thing we need around here.

5. We're lazy. We have jobs and children and houses and substance-abuse problems to deal with. At our age, we don't want to do anything. What we want is to hear about other people doing things and then judge them for it. Which is what news feeds are for.

6. We're old enough that pictures from grade school or summer camp look nothing like us. These days, the only way to identify us is with Facebook tags. (See pictures of a diverse group of American teens.)

7. We have children. There is very little that old people enjoy more than forcing others to pay attention to pictures of their children. Facebook is the most efficient engine ever devised for this.

8. We're too old to remember e-mail addresses. You have to understand: we have spent decades drinking diet soda out of aluminum cans. That stuff catches up with you. We can't remember friends' e-mail addresses. We can barely remember their names.

9. We don't understand Twitter. Literally. It makes no sense to us. (See the top 10 celebrity Twitter feeds.)

10. We're not cool, and we don't care. There was a time when it was cool to be on Facebook. That time has passed. Facebook now has 150 million members, and its fastest-growing demographic is 30 and up. At this point, it's way cooler not to be on Facebook. We've ruined it for good, just like we ruined Twilight and skateboarding. So git! And while you're at it, you damn kids better get off our lawn too.

Michelle's Arms

Is this ridiculous, or do people have an opinion on Michelle Obama's bare arm style?! I really like Maureen Dowd's essay.

Favorite First the Food Pick of 2008

I guess it's on the late side, but what was your favorite book club book of 2008? As a reminder, here were our selections:

January - Anna Karenina
February - Water for Elephants
March - The Virgin of Small Plains
April - Kate Vaiden
May -Ghostwritten
June - The Post-Birthday World
July - Dreams from My Father
August - Suite Francaise
September - The Alchemist
October - Dracula
November - The Blood of Flowers

The Blood of Flowers: Final Results

didn't like it - 0
it was ok - 0
liked it - 2
really liked it - 1
it was amazing - 0
didn't finish it - 0

3 votes total.

I've been bad.....

Ok everyone - I finally put a shortcut to this site on my desktop.
So maybe I will post here more often. Someone please hold me accountable!!!!!
Glad to be back!
Katie

The Stand: Final Results

didn't like it - 0
it was OK - 1
liked it - 1
really liked it - 1
it was amazing - 0
didn't finish it - 0

3 votes total.

The Best of the Best: 2008 Books

This blog post creates a sort of meta-analysis of the best books of 2008 and ranks them in terms of the number of votes they got from all the best of the year lists that went around. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is on the thriller/mystery list.

NY Times Review of Blindness

This review (of the book, not the recent movie) contains many spoilers, so you may want to hold off reading it until you've finished the book.

Link here.

The Alchemist: Final Results

didn't like it - 0
it was OK - 3
liked it - 4
really liked it - 3
it was amazing - 0

10 votes total

Dracula: Final Results

10 votes total

didn't like it - 0
it was ok - 1
liked it - 1
really liked it - 4
it was amazing - 0
didn't finish it - 4

March Mystery Nominations continued

A nomination from Marina:

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson: Cases rarely come much colder than the decades-old disappearance of teen heiress Harriet Vanger from her family's remote island retreat north of Stockholm. This first of a trilogy introduces a provocatively odd couple: disgraced financial journalist Mikael Blomkvist, freshly sentenced to jail for libeling a shady businessman, and the multipierced and tattooed Lisbeth Salander, a feral but vulnerable superhacker. Hired by octogenarian industrialist Henrik Vanger, who wants to find out what happened to his beloved great-niece before he dies, the duo gradually uncover a festering morass of familial corruption—at the same time, Larsson skillfully bares some of the similar horrors that have left Salander such a marked woman.

March Mystery Nominations

Since March is coming up, we probably need to pick our mystery soon. I've been doing a little research and have a few nominations below. Please feel free to offer others in the comments or a separate post.

1. What the Dead Know by Laura Lippman: A driver who flees a car accident on a Maryland highway breathes new life into a 30-year-old mystery—the disappearance of the young Bethany sisters at a shopping mall—after she later tells the police she's one of the missing girls. As soon as the mystery woman drops that bombshell, she clams up, placing the new lead detective, Kevin Infante, in a bind, as he struggles to gain her trust while exploring the odd holes in her story. Deftly moving between past and present, Lippman presents the last day both sisters, Sunny and Heather, were seen alive from a variety of perspectives. Subtle clues point to the surprising but plausible solution of the crime and the identity of the mystery woman.

2. In the Woods by Tana French: Rob Ryan and his partner, Cassie Maddox, land the first big murder case of their police careers: a 12-year-old girl has been murdered in the woods adjacent to a Dublin suburb. Twenty years before, two children disappeared in the same woods, and Ryan was found clinging to a tree trunk, his sneakers filled with blood, unable to tell police anything about what happened to his friends. Ryan, although scarred by his experience, employs all his skills in the search for the killer and in hopes that the investigation will also reveal what happened to his childhood friends.

From Freakonomics: Public Library Renaissance

The NYT Freakonomics blog notes a Boston Globe article about how 2008 was a big year for public libraries: circulation increases, library card applications, and of course, job hunt searches were all up. It makes me happy. A bad year for publishing but good year for community libraries.

Reading Resolutions

Does anyone have any reading related resolutions? I have one to read at least two books a month, our book club book plus one of my own choosing. I have a long list of books I want to read and last year I read only a handful of books outside of our book club picks. I have the free time so there's no reason I shouldn't be able to accomplish this goal. I'm publicly declaring this resolution here so you can all hold me accountable.

Also, if you haven't started The Stand yet, it's not too late! I just started last night and calculated that you only have to read 80 pages a day between now and book club to finish. That's doable, right?

Azar Nafisi

Azar Nafisi, the author of Reading Lolita in Tehran, has a new memoir out, reviewed in this past Sunday's NYT. It appears to give a behind the scenes glimpse at the author's life and choices to leave, then come back to Iran (then leave again).

The reviewer is the author of another book I'd like to read, called Persian Mirrors: The Elusive Face of Iran.

Reading like a Girl

Michelle Slayalla's NYT piece "I Wish I Could Read Like a Girl" breaks my heart. It's a quick eulogy for what readers lose when they grow up. Maybe that's our desire as adult readers - to recapture that youth and adolescence spent "draped over sofas and chairs and beds" and transported to another world.

Eeek!

Wow, this blog is out of date! I resolve to be better with it in the New Year!

For those of you who want to read in installments, DailyLit is an interesting idea. It's a service that allows you to subscribe to books. Portions are sent to your email or RSS feed reader every day, so you can read little bits at a time. It's an interesting idea but the idea of reading books in email or in Google Reader is not at all appealing to me. Does anyone think this would work for them?