Abigail's comments (member since Aug 16, 2008)

Abigail's comments from the The Next Best Book Club group.

Never Let me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro deals with euthanasia (and some other controversial themes that if I told you would spoil part of the plot).

I would second God of Small Things

I read a book a couple of years ago titled Touch by Charlotte Watson Sherman that deals with AIDS (which you did not mention, but discusses some of the controversial treatments that AIDS patients may or may not receive although, I do not know how accurate the information provided actually is).

I have not tried putting "borrowed" ebooks on my Kindle. How exactly do the library ones work, anyway? You can put other-than-Amazon ebooks on both a K1 and K2, so it may be possible.

I was just thinking the other day a fun way to do a book club would be to take a paperback of your own to out into the book club pot. (This would work best if it was a small group, but would maybe be adaptable for a larger group). The every week or month each person gets a book out of the pot and reads it and keeps notes. After each book has made it to each person then you can talk about them. Easier to avoid spoilers that way and good because you don't have to buy the thing or hope the library has enough copies.

Sankyu!

Not a bad idea...Sometimes the shelves look so daunting. Picking a select few might help me get through some more books. I have been pretty good about not buying books lately, although I have been getting a lot from a friend. Although I think I will just try to stick to a general ten book list

TBR:
The Tale of Genji
Thief of Lives
Dune
Le Morte d'Arthur (vol. 1 of 2)
Moll Flanders
Brave New World
The Adventures of Augie March
Varney The Vampire
Sweeney Todd
Vampire Hunter D: Pilgrimage of the Sacred and Profane

Ooh! Links to the groups, please? Actually I am in http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/71.M... It isn't terribly active, but I enjoy it.

I wish people would get over that "kindle big brother" thing. Amazon has already admitted they acted rashly and won't be doing that again. They will definitely be more careful of double checking the copyrights before they distribute books now, and everyone got their money back. It was no big deal.

I just started The Tale of Genji, too. I love it. My usual authors have all been recommended. If you want to try something in the easy read, horror genre there are the Vampire Hunter D novels. Not the best writing, but definitely a must in a survey of Japanese writing.

As Nature Made Him The Boy Who Was Raised as a Girl

Middlesex

That's actually really interesting. My libraries always had a cart with a money box. They did sales every few months, but the cart always had a lot of different stuff on it for 50 cents or a dollar. My new library has a whole walk-in closet room with books for a dollar. But no free ones. That is really cool.

Huh. Nope never happened. At least not my full name. Abigail isn't terribly popular, but I have read few books with Abigails in them. My last names are kind of obscure though.

Waii!

Almost every week I add to my give-away box. And I have knocked off a few books. But I have been really bad about going to the library as well. And borrowing books from friends. And my husband has been on a couple amazon kicks and asks me if there is anything I want to fill in an order to get the free shipping...So my tbr from my shelves is probably still in the 75 books range. However, I got a kindle since my last post. So if you count ebooks too...make that about 500 or so.

I don't reread too much any more. I used to read the whole Chronicles of Narnia once a year. And I recently read all of Anne of Green Gables for the second time since my first 12 years ago. But I have to agree, there are so many new books out there and all my other hobbies, I don't feel like I have time to reread. I do rewatch things a lot when I crochet, but that's only because my library doesn't have any good audio books.

Wow. That is so unfortunate. Makes me feel sort of guilty for not giving more to the library now that I'm an adult, on my own. I know they are doing budget cuts in my hometown (they cut out the www.dearreader.com program just a couple weeks ago), and I can't be of much use there. But you've just inspired me to become a friend of the library where I live now.

Not a problem. ;)

As a side note, if she wants to start watching anime, go with videos of what you have already approved as reading material. Most anime series follow pretty closely as far as over-all content goes.

Most manga has an age range and content symbols printed on the back. Another good way to check is to flip trough it real quick. If you see lots of blood or panties, it's probably not good for kids. Also a lot of the mature content books will be wrapped in plastic at the store. Good reads has a good list of manga, so do a quick search on whatever she asks for.

Some I can suggest are Marmalade Boy and Oh! My Goddess. Both are romantic comedy/dramas that have little or no fan service or sexy bits.

Fruits Basket is a good one for kids. There is some martial arts and cross-dressing, but nothing really sexy.

One that is marketed for children, but has a lot of adult content is Sailor Moon. There are lesbian/gay relationships, major cross-dressing and hermaphrodites. So you do have to be careful. An 11 year old could probably handle it though, it's not terribly overt and the English translation has covered most of it up. The images are still there though. But the sexiest it gets a little kissing.

I just read all the current books of Naomi Novik's Temeraire series. It starts with His Majesty's Dragon

There are some social networking aspects to gmail, but basically it is just an email account with a lot of odd and interesting side features. I used to join gmail groups, but for my interests, the groups weren't all that active or interesting. Not like TNNBBC, anyway. Hope you enjoy your time here!