Back to my Literary Roots

Tonight we attended a “Friends of the Library” sale where you can pick up books for hideously low prices (like $1 for hardbacks and $.50 for paperbacks). We really went for the kids, but I managed to pick up a few gems myself:

Java Developer’s Guide (1996) – Why not? I’ve been meaning to learn more about Java (get away from that nasty PHP habit) and what’s changed in the past 10 years I can pickup from any number of places on the web.
being digital (1995) by Nicholas Negroponte – Looked intersesting. A bit out of date, but it might be interesting to see what the author predicted and what actually happened.
The Best of Thrillers – a 10 CD audio book collection of four novels
- The Weatherman by Steve Thayer
- The Hunt for Red October by Tom Clancy
- All Fall Down by Lee Gruenfeld
- Nine Levels Down by William R. Dantz

On top of that, I received notification that the 10th book of the Sword of the Truth series by Terry Goodkind, called Phantom, had been released as an Unabridged MP3 CD . So, tonight I placed order from audiobooksonline.com. It will fit on my iPod perfectly just like the last book, Chainfire.

I usually read quite a lot (at one point in college I was going through a paperback novel every weekend), but with podcasts, gaming, school, work, and family I’ve lost touch with it over the past few years. I’ve decided to establish a reading queue which really consists of taking books I’ve purchased or received as gifts over the past few years off of the bookshelf and stacking them where I see them to remind me that I need to get reading. In addition to what I picked up tonight, I also have on the list:

All Tomorrow’s Parties by William Gibson
Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla by Stephen King
Cybergrace:The Search for God in the Digital World by Jennifer Cobb

I still think Audiobooks, especially ones that comes as MP3 format already, are the wave of the future. Between podiobooks.com and audiobooks I already have, it’s going to tough to choose how to split my time between them. It’s just not convenient to take a novel to work and read on my lunch hour because I eat at my desk and people think I’m slacking (I’ve gotten in trouble for this). Music players are allowed and I’m never questioned what I’m listening to. At the same time, if I try to curl up on the couch and listen to an audiobook, I’m asleep within 30 minutes.

To be complete, my audiobook queue (in addition to the ones I picked up tonight) is: