Curse you, Kindle.

I got a Kindle for Christmas.  This is both a good and a bad thing.  It's good because I have now been exposed to a wide variety of books that I would either have ignored or would never have discovered on my own.  It's bad because many of the "Kindle editions" of these books have a ton of errors.  These blunders and oversights drive me up a wall.  I discovered that Laurell K. Hamilton has a very tenuous grasp of grammar and sentence structure--which also drives me nuts. I'm glad that I didn't pay full price for her books--I would have been annoyed.  I know that Ms. Hamilton has legions of fans, all of whom will probably burn me in effigy.  While I can appreciate her creative powers, I feel that her writing is not strong enough to merit her success.  To be fair, though, Laurell K. Hamilton is still much more palatable than that minion of Satan, Stephenie Meyer.  To say that her books are execrable is being kind.  (Stephen King agrees with me.  So there.) 

 I love the convenience of the Kindle and I love that Amazon makes suggestions for me; however, I also will always be an advocate for paper-and-ink books.  There is something so innately satisfying about opening that brand-new book from the store.  I love the slightly musty odor of old books from the library.  I particularly like purchasing books from a used bookstore.  It is always fascinating to see dog-eared, inscribed old editions of classic books. You can see where previous readers stopped reading and where they enjoyed a particular passage. I also like to make up stories in my head about the previous owners.  Why did they get rid of the book?  Did they leave it on a train somewhere in Europe and it ended up here?  Was it stolen from them in some kind of misguided literary mugging?

I just finished "Let's Pretend This Never Happened" by Jenny Lawson.  I need to try to make all men read this book.  I now know that I am not the only one who is a little, ahem, eccentric.  The bizarre conversations with which she torments her husband sound eerily like many of the conversations I have had with my significant other.  He is convinced I'm nuts.  While this is technically correct, he needs to know that ALL women are nuts.  It's not just me.

In an effort to help fellow readers out there, I have compiled a list of the good and the bad that I have stumbled upon via Amazon and the Kindle.

The Good: (and some awesome)

1. "Let's Pretend This Never Happened", Jenny Lawson Hysterical and poignant all at once--quite a feat.
2. "Ready Player One", Ernest Cline Very creative--a combo of a love story to the eighties and  William Gibson- influenced techno thriller.
3. "Wool", Hugh Howey
4. anything by Jim Butcher
5. "Fire and Hemlock", Diana Wynne Jones This book is gorgeous.  Go and buy it nownownow.
6. "Snow White and Rose Red" Patricia C. Wrede
7. "Dare Me", Megan Abbott

The Bad:

1. "Manifesting Mr. Right", Caitlin McKenna.  I am all for cheesy chick lit, but this was just bad.  Bland, trite, and predictable.
2. "The Bitch-Proof Suit", De-Ann Black  Ditto.
3. "Heart's Blood", Carolyn McCray.  Blech.
4. "Incubus Dreams", Laurell K. Hamilton To be fair, I did like the first few of the Anita Black series despite Ms. Hamilton's flawed writing.  At this point, though, she is just going through the motions.  Formulaic.