DC - Travels Outside the Mind

The above was a postcard you could buy at The Spy Museum in DC.  I didn't buy it but I thought it was funny enough to take a picture of it with my iPhone.  Technically I didn't go to The Spy Museum, just to the gift shop.  It had all kinds of fun things to buy mostly relating to fictional spies.  My favorite part of the shop was a series of shelves devoted to Nancy Drew "stuff".

When I started this blog I was bemoaning the fact that my friends Megan and Adam were taking off a year to travel around the world and were blogging about it (and by the way they have some fabulous photos of Patagonia up at their blog right now) and I was stuck here at home.  I expected that I might take a few trips and I might blog about them.  But mostly I'd blog about other stuff I did in my life.  What I wouldn't blog about was politics (there are other places for that) or law (I just won't do it). 

A few weeks ago I spent about 5 days in Washington DC.  I've gone back and forth about whether to post something here about it.  It was travel and I had a lot of fun.  On the other hand I was there for the inauguration and that's political. 

I finally decided that anything I wrote belonged on a political site.  So ... if you want to read about my trip to DC you'll have to click one of the links below.  Don't worry, my Republican lurker friends -  even though the purpose was political there isn't much politics in what I wrote.  

Click here for my ShowmeProgress Post

Click here for my BooManTribune Post

They are identical.   If you don't want to register to comment at either of those places (registration is easy, don't hesitate) you can comment here or do what most of you normally do - talk to me in person :)

I Love my iPhone

A few weeks ago I bought myself an iPhone and not only have I not regretted it for one moment, I think its the best phone I've ever had.  And the weird thing is ... I'm fond of it.

It's the same feeling of fondness I had back in law school when I had a Mac.  I knew that, as an adult woman, I shouldn't have emotional feelings for inanimate objects but I couldn't help it.  I often said that I loved my Mac. When I went back into the workplace and had to revert to PC world again, it was a downer. 

I was hesitant about the iPhone. I wondered if it was worth the cost; I wondered if it would live up to its hype.  But I needed a new phone and I needed to make a decision. Over the holidays I checked out my sister's new iPhone and decided I was going to do it.  

I've loved it from the first day.

When I was in DC it was a godsend.  We were constantly using it to get information.  I downloaded an app that contained information about the metro system, including a map and a function that would tell you when the trains were due to arrive at a specific metro stop.  I used it to check in for our flights on Southwest so we could get "A" boarding passes even though we were walking around the streets of DC at the time. I used it to find information about tourist attractions.  I used it to text and phone and e-mail (on multiple e-mail accounts).  It was great.  The only downside is that this is my personal phone, not my work phone, and my work place doesn't support iPhones.  So I still had to carry around my work PDA to (try) to get my work e-mails.  (This turned out to be a waste of effort since T-Mobile had terrible service over that weekend and I was without internet and e-mail service for days, but that's another story.)

Now that I'm home I'm trying out the different apps.  Today via Bookninja I came across a new app described in the LA Times Blog "Jacket Copy" called SNAPTELL.  

Dave Weich from Powell’s pulled out his iPhone and showed his colleagues a new free app (name?) that had them all gulping their wine and gasping for air. The app allows iPhone users to simply point their phone at a book jacket (perhaps one they like the looks of on Powell’s store recommendations shelf) and the phone instantly provides a price comparison of everywhere that book is available online.

Well that was interesting.  But it seemed to be just another way to drive local booksellers out of business. I continued to read and it turns out that the app will also give you price information for stores in your area. 

I decided to try it out.  I searched for it in the App Store and it turns out to be free.  I downloaded it.  I clicked the camera icon that appeared at the bottom of the screen, pointed my phone at my new copy of The Book Thief and snapped the picture.  It asked me if I wanted to use that photo or retake the shot (just like it does when it is in regular camera mode).  I clicked "use photo".  Within a few seconds it gave me 21 online prices ranging from $7.10 and 9 local prices from $5.59. Clicking on the local prices line, the first place that came up was the Target store about 8 blocks away from me.   Well, that's not going to help local booksellers either but it is impressive.

I could also access the Google Shopping results (prices and reviews), ebay results, half.com, barnesandnoble and Yahoo results.

I'm committed to buying books from my favorite independent bookstore, Puddn'head Books, but I know I'll still order some books online. It's just too easy to have them delivered directly to my office.  This is a handy little app to have - maybe even to snap a photo while I'm book browsing and pull up all the reviews etc.

Next I need to learn to use the app that identifies the music that is playing and lets you buy it from iTunes.

This and That

• On the advice of AndiF I read one of Laura Lippman's mystery novels, Baltimore Blues, and I truly enjoyed it.  I liked it much better than the Sue Grafton novel I read.  So I think I've found my next series.  I did, however, come up with a theory on why I like British crime novels better than American crime novels - there are seldom any lawyers in British crime novels.  Lawyers abound in American crime novels and the authors who aren't lawyers always get something wrong, which I find distracting.  This one had nothing glaringly wrong, which I appreciated. 
• via Mobylives, check out this really cool website developed by The Abbey Library of St. Gall (a library of medieval manuscripts).  You can virtually leaf through manuscripts like this bible.   The British Museum had an exhibit of some of their most famous books available virtually when I was there last and I spent a long time playing with the computers.  It's great to be able to do this at home.
• Over the weekend I went to see New in Town, the new Renee Zellweger-Harry Connick Jr. comedy.  It's a bit uneven, some funny moments and a few portions that drag a bit.  But we wanted to see something light and there isn't much out right now that's light.  We enjoyed it for what it was.
• The Globe and Mail has a Q&A with one of my favorite authors, PD James.  An excerpt:

Lynn Roy, Pictou, N.S. Dear Ms. James, I'm a great fan of your books and past TV dramas on PBS. I was wondering what your routine is when writing a novel — that is, what time of day do you write, and does it take months or years for a novel (do you have a deadline to meet)?

P.D. James I write early in the morning and by hand, and then dictate to my excellent secretary when she arrives, and she puts it on the computer. It is rare for me to write a novel in less than a year, and with the necessary research and planning, this means there are usually two years or more between books. In the end there is always a deadline to meet because the publisher will have included the work in his catalogue of forthcoming publications and put time aside for copy-editing and proof-reading, etc.

•  Here's a deconstruction and defense of Updikes' sentences.  Yes, yes, something perhaps only I enjoy, but I enjoy it.   A sample:

Sentence #1:

Men emerge pale from the little printing plant at four sharp, ghosts for an instant, blinking, until the outdoor light overcomes the look of constant indoor light clinging to them.

Heavy alliteration on the “p” plays to the plodding of the pale people who emerge from the printing plant.  The sentence turns on a dime, dropping the alliteration and transforming the men into “ghosts for an instant.” That instant lasts the space of the following comma—the blink—and the blinking strips them of their ghostliness.  Needless to say, “ghostliness” describes a thing one is, not a quality one has, but Updike’s inverting the effect here—the men appear ghostly to each other as their eyes adjust to the light, but Updike would have us believe they become ghostly, only to rematerialize as daylight strips the indoor light from their bodies.

• The Guardian had a fun, but somewhat sad, interactive feature in the weekend edition. You can click through and see photos of bookstores that used to line Charing Cross Road in London. Most are gone now. I think I was born in the wrong era.

The End of the Big Read

I intended to go to one of the discussions of To Kill a Mockingbird sponsored by local booksellers and libraries as part of The Big Read but the weather didn't cooperate on the night there was one near me. I also intended to go see an exhibition at the St. Louis Regional Arts Commission today, done in connection with The Big Read. At least, I thought it was today. But when I looked again this morning to see the times I discovered that it was yesterday.

So my final Big Read post will be this, a talk given by Charles J. Shields, the author of A Portrait of Harper Lee:

This was given in San Francisco and it is about an hour in length. But very interesting. Harper Lee will give no interviews and did not cooperate at all in the writing of this biography. Part of me respects her privacy. Another part of me hopes that she leaves all of her papers to a research library so that they can be studied after she dies.

Harper Lee was known as Nelle and she was one of four children. Her father really was a lawyer and her older sister became a lawyer and joined the father's firm. Nelle's father wanted Nelle to also become a lawyer and join them but Nelle never finished her degree because she didn't like the law and she wanted to be a writer. I find her sister's story fascinating. There were very few women lawyers in the 1950's - some, but very few. According to Mr. Smith, Nelle's sister still goes into her law office even in her 90's.

Also, there really was someone in the town on whom Boo Radley was based.

Another interesting part of the talk is about the role Harper Lee played in helping Truman Capote with his book In Cold Blood. A few years ago a film was made, called Capote, about the writing of that book. The actress who played Harper Lee was Catherine Keener, here's the trailer: