good morning sunshine

We went to sleep last night with the heat turned up and the windows all closed for a change. The weather channel forecasted a 5degC low for the night.

And this morning, what a day! The sun is putting on its best show, bathing everything in its warm golden glow, the sky a gorgeous bright blue and the weather supposedly at 11 deg. The perfect weather for sitting outside on the balcony and reading a book. However, the book I'm reading now is an ebook on the computer so that's not exactly conducive (especially since the Macbook does get pretty warm and really literally is a hot laptop). It is an experience though, reading something off the computer. I tend to up the magnification so that I can lean back and not stare too much at the screen. But it's a far better book than the one I'm reading on paper.

Paper: Julie & Julia

I did read her blog before she became too famous so was curious but the book really is like reading a blog. Full of () and other asides, like the many I'm used to adding to my blog. It's written the way we think. It's written kinda spewed out in a continuous thought process. Which is fine for a blog, but not something I can stand too much in a book many pages long. I guess I just prefer more thought going into writing a book. Perhaps better editing is needed to keep the overspewing in check. I don't write books, I only blog. But I know that if I were to ever write anything more serious than this blog I'd actually look over it and edit it, unlike this blog, where I typitytypetype and then without another glance at the many mistakes and long long long sentences like this one, I hit the "publish post" button without only the occasional second thought. I feel that it's the same way with this book.

Ebook: Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman.
The only other Gaiman book I've read is Good Omens, which was cowritten with Terry Pratchett, whom I adore. I'm less than a third in but am definitely liking it, despite its digital medium. I suppose I should explain first why I'm reading an eBook. Essentially, the lovely Champaign-Urbana libraries have this tie-up with some online "media mall" to download ebooks and audiobooks for free. The audiobooks unfortunately DO NOT WORK WITH MACS. But there are a decent variety of ebooks available for loan for 21 days. So it's a nice option for me, who currently is libraryless until I set up my own account at the Brighton and Hove libraries, when I get there next week (next week!). But I'm sure my schedule will be packed with various things to do, figuring out how to settle down, trying to get used to having separate taps for cold and hot water, exploring that seaside town, trying not to spend too much money... that kinda thing.

Anyway, the original point of this: like the ebook more than the book book.

And on another note. Skype 2.0 beta for macs has video chat! Absolutely thrilled with that.