Michael J. Roueche's Blog, page 9

Preference for E-book or Physical Book? It Depends.

The opinions are in on the question: Which do you prefer for your pleasure reading: e-reader/tablet or physical book?

We gathered answers entered in several places in response to a late December blog that highlighted a Pew study reported in the Washington Post. Those answers were substantially consistent: Almost everyone liked both, and no one indicated a hurry to get rid of physical books.

For E-books, they used words and phrases like “convenient,” “organized,” “doesn’t take up … space,” “can adjust font sizes.”

For physical books, there was a bit more romance and fidelity in the words: “the thrill of going to the library” to browse, “nothing like reading a real book,” “nothing beats turning pages.”

A weekend column in the Wall Street Journal weighed in with similar sentiment:

In fact, according to Pew, nearly 90% of e-book readers continue to read physical volumes. The two forms seem to serve different purposes.

Having survived 500 years of technological upheaval, Gutenberg’s invention may withstand the digital onslaught as well. There’s something about a crisply printed, tightly bound book that we don’t seem eager to let go of.

Although no one asked, here’s my preference: I rarely use our e-book reader, however I find it extremely convenient when I do. I am a tactile reader, by that I mean I have to touch the page to get the full benefit from reading. When reading anything but fiction, I have to underline (and sometimes write comments) as I read. It helps me find information and quotes later on, but more importantly it helps me concentrate and understand. Underlining on an electronic device doesn’t do the same thing. So I too am in favor of keeping both. Having the choice! It’s a great world, isn’t it?

And the winner of a copy of Beyond the Wood is: We didn’t choose the winner in a drawing. I listed the first names of all entrants in a note and emailed it to Susan, my wife. She at the same time (before she looked at the email), wrote a number on a sheet of paper (in this case the number five). The fifth name on the list is the winner.

Thanks to everyone for entering, we appreciated your comments, and the winner is Amy who posted a comment on the blog, concluding with “I hope I can curl up with a paperback of ‘Beyond the Wood’ soon!” Amy, we’ll contact you shortly to make the arrangements so you can do just that.

Thanks again to everyone who entered, and maybe we’ll do this again soon.

150 years Ago Today: With Firm Hand He signed it into Law

I can’t let today pass without marking Abraham Lincoln’s signing of the final Proclamation Emancipation 150 years ago.

Historian Eric Foner had a great op-ed piece on Lincoln and the Proclamation in today’s New York Times. I highly recommend it. It follows Lincoln’s transformation in thinking and his complete commitment to freeing the slaves once he had made the decision to do it.

“Having made the decision, Lincoln did not look back. In 1864, with casualties mounting, there was talk of a compromise peace. Some urged Lincoln to rescind the proclamation, in which case, they believed, the South could be persuaded to return to the Union. Lincoln refused. Were he to do so, he told one visitor, ‘I should be damned in time and eternity.’”

Because of his integrity and courage, he will be praised “in time and eternity.”

Thank God that he raised Abraham Lincoln for such a crisis. The nation and world must ever be thankful, but as Foner reminds us: there’s still work to do.

E-Book or Physical Book? Tell us for chance to win “Beyond the Wood”

The e-book reader revolution rolls on, but tablets are now used more than dedicated reading devices, according to Pew as reported in a Washington Post article.

All this raises a question. Answer it by January 3, 2013 in the contact section or on our facebook author page for a chance to win a copy of Beyond the Wood (e-book or trade paperback).

 

 

The Question: Which do you prefer for your pleasure reading: e-reader/tablet or physical book?

Having Fun at Holiday Book Signing and Merry Christmas

Book Signing last Saturday: And, no, we aren’t discussing the book. We’re debating whose sweater is the ugliest.

We had a good time at Wrought’n Apples book signing last Saturday. Met some new friends, including charming kids looking for Christmas gifts for the moms, relatives, teachers. Amazingly, we got to visit other Virginia expats who lived just a few miles from us in the Old Dominion and moved to Colorado about the same time we did; and a new friend from Jackson, Mississippi–the town where one of our family ancestors died during the Civil War.

During the signing, we held a drawing for the sequel to Beyond the Wood (due out 2013), and we announced the winner at the store.

And the winner is: (We’ll post it here the day after Christmas.)

Thanks to Mindy and everyone at Wrought’n Apples for all the help and support, and thanks to everyone who stopped for a book or a just a visit.

We wish everyone a Happy Christmas.

Book Signing Saturday, December 22 in Parker

We’re excited to announce that next Saturday, December 22, we’ll be signing copies of “Beyond the Wood” at the Wrought’n Apples Boutique and Gifts store in Parker, Co. We’ll be there from 10 am till at least 2 pm. So, if you’re out doing last-minute Christmas shopping (a good historical action and romance always makes a great gift) or just want to drop by and visit, we’d love to see you.

Copies of the award-winning book will be available for purchase; and for Kindle and Kindle app readers, we’ll have discounted digital copies available for sale as well.

Wrought’n Apples is currently stocking the book, so if you can’t make it out Saturday, you can drop by anytime to pick up a copy at the store.

Directions, Map and Store Hours for Wrought’n Apples

From its website: ”Wrought’n Apples Boutique & Gifts, established in 2007, is a boutique dedicated to supporting local vendors.  We were one of the first boutiques of our kind to open in Parker, Colorado.”

Authors giving away a free Kindle Fire

I’m not involved in this, but writers are getting together to make more and more of these offers: Thought I’d highlight it in case you want to enter: helps get people to independent author sites in exchange for book and other prizes. In this case, the blog indicates the writers are giving books, a couple of Kindle Fires and some gift cards:

Welcome to the 2012 Holiday Blog Hop!

The Taming Rises Only if You Ignore How Low it Stoops

I read (and watched—which I now do for most of the plays; thanks to the local library and BBC Shakespeare) the Taming of the Shrew. I found it offensive in its treatment of women and that I could only say I liked it if I read it symbolically. Symbolic of what? I’ll get to that.

The words and phrases that came to mind as I read the play were tearing down others, manipulation of others for self-interest, tough love (if it’s love at all), deceit, cabal, humiliation, subjection, submission–and all this to poor, harmless Kate!

As I read the play, I wasn’t getting much from it, but kept looking for something good in it. I found it in reading it as symbolic of submission to God’s will. Here’s how it works: We are all like Kate: spoiled, selfish, rebellious, strong-willed, but God wants to make more of us than we are capable of making ourselves. But this re-creation is not through a soft life and easy work; it’s through a difficult, demanding, sometimes sorrowful path that he converts us to something better than we were, something better than ourselves. We are, during at least part of the process, like Kate, willfully fighting the transformation and the joy God promises us.

In the play, Kate begins to blossom into a strong, capable woman only after she submits to the humbling machinations of Petruchio. When she gives up her will and accepts his as always superior to her own, she begins to blossom in self-confidence, trust, happiness. This Kate-Petruchio relationship seems unrealistic and chauvinistic, but if you substitute God for Petruchio and each of us for Kate, it begins to seem real, profound and ennobling. It is through substituting God’s will for our own that we begin to blossom in confidence, trust and happiness. There, the play (and Shakespeare’s reputation) is saved.

Because I found symbolic meaning in the play, I’ll give it three Bards: 

 

 

 

Quotes that appealed to me for various reasons:

Tranio: …Do as adversaries do in law,–Strive mightily, but eat and drink as friends.

Petruchio: And where two raging fires meet together, they do consume the thing that feeds their fury….

Peter: He kills her in her own humour.

Petruchio: This is a way to kill a wife with kindness. And thus I’ll curb her mad and headstrong humour. (I’m not sure we use this Shakespearean phrase they way he used it here, as what Petruchio was doing to Kate would probably be classified as torture today.)

Petruchio: For ’tis the mind that makes the body rich; and as the sun breaks through the darkest clouds, so honour peereth in the meanest habit.

Biondello: Forgot you! No, sir: I could not forget you, for I never saw you before in all my life.

I apologize for the following quote. It’s too long, but the interchange is too wonderful leave out, occurring at the critical moment when the shrew’s will is finally brought into obedience:

Petruchio: …how bright and goodly shines the moon!

Katharina: The moon! the sun: it is not moonlight now.

Petruchio: I say it is the moon that shines so bright.

Katharina: I know it is the sun that shines so bright.

Petruchio: Now, by my mother’s son, and that’s myself,

It shall be moon, or star, or what I list,

Or ere I journey to your father’s house.—

Go on, and fetch our horses back again.—

Evermore cross’d and cross’d; nothing but cross’d!

Hortensio: Say as he says, or we shall never go.

Katharina: Forward, I pray, since we have come so far,

And be it moon, or sun, or what you please:

And if you please to call it a rush-candle,

Henceforth I vow it shall be so for me.

Petruchio: I say it is the moon.

Katharina: I know it is the moon.

Petruchio: Nay, then you lie: it is the blessed sun.

Katharina: Then, God be blessed, it is the blessed sun:

But sun it is not, when you say it is not;

And the moon changes even as your mind.

What you will have it named, even that it is;

And so it shall be so for Katharina.

A second test comes moments later:

Petruchio to Vencentio who they meet on the road:

Good morrow, gentle mistress: where away?—

Tell me, sweet Kate, and tell me truly too,

Hast thou beheld a fresher gentlewoman?

Such war of white and red within her cheeks!

What stars do spangle heaven with such beauty,

As those two eyes become that heavenly face—

Fair lovely maid, once more good day to thee:—

Sweet Kate, embrace her for her beauty’s sake.

Hortensio: ‘A will make the man mad, to make a woman of him.

Katharina: Young budding virgin, fair and fresh and sweet,

Whither away, or where is thy abode?

Happy the parents of so fair a child;

Happier the man whom favourable stars

Allot thee for his lovely bed-fellow!

Petruchio: Why, how now, Kate! I hope thou art not mad:

This is a man, old, wrinkled, faded, wither’d;

And not a maiden, as thou say’st he is.

Katharina: Pardon, old father, my mistaking eyes,

That have been so bedazzled with the sun,

That everything I look on seemeth green:

Now I perceive thou art a reverend father;

Pardon, I pray thee, for my mad mistaking.

Next Up (if you’re reading along): The Winter’s Tale

$.99 Sale on Kindle Version of “Beyond the Wood” this Weekend

The headline above, if you haven’t yet picked up the clues, is a blatant marketing pitch, and it continues in the paragraph below:

We’re excited to note that Beyond the Wood–an anything-but-simple story of treachery, peril, slackening resolve and thwarted romance . . . and a little Southern Rebellion–is scheduled to be on sale this weekend only at Amazon. $.99 price is $7 off the usual kindle price and a whopping $17 less than the paperback version. It’s never sold at a lower price. So it might be the best opportunity ever to read the award-winning Civil War novel with its  ”unique brand of romance” and “exciting adventure” on your kindle or kindle app. Great time to give it as a gift, too–that’s what I’m planning to do. And please, let your friends and family know so they can take advantage of this offer.

Thanks for “listening” to the pitch. We do appreciate all the support we’ve been receiving.

“Officer’s Call Magazine” Highlights “Beyond the Wood”

I noticed last week that Officer’s Call Magazine highlighted Beyond the Wood in its October issue. Here’s an excerpt about the book. If you’re interested, you can read the entire publication, including an article about Confederate General Jubal Early’s final defeat and the bio of a Confederate who rode to battle in the saddle of his brother-in-law Union General George B. McClellan, Jr.

Officer’s Call is the official journal of the Military Order of the Stars and Bars (MOS&B), whose recognition and support I greatly appreciate.

A White Mule Deer Wandering the Neighborhood

Fun family walk last Thursday: We were on our way to the library and to enjoy the town’s Christmas lights when we saw a young, white mule deer in the neighborhood. It was dusk, so the light wasn’t that good and our son-in-law took a picture with the only camera we had with us–his phone. (Mike, Thanks for the photo.) It’s not perfect, but you can easily make out the deer.

We’re inundated this fall with deer in the neighborhood, yards, crossing the streets and snacking in the open spaces (and in the gardens). We saw seven young bucks together a few weeks ago. I’m even getting used to seeing deer walk down the sidewalks, but none of us had ever seen a white one before; and based on the cars stopping suddenly, the u-turns and the cameras that were popping out, it was extraordinary for everyone. Isn’t nature (and variety) amazing?