Baby Got Books

Reading Now

I was seated on a plane last week in row with two large guys – big as in tall and in really good shape. I had the window seat and little room to move. Usually this is a recipe for a disaster of a flight. The two older gentlemen, who didn’t know each other, pulled out their Kindles and struck up a conversation about books. (Idea for NYT trend piece: older people are taking to Kindles in a way that they never did for iPods based on my limited anecdotal evidence.) These guys turned out to be remarkably well read.

I enjoyed listening to their discussion while pretending to read my book (dead tree variety). It turned out that both guys were Marines and were officers in Vietnam. The guy sitting next to me could not believe that the other guy had not read Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes yet. Guy next to me called it the best book about the Vietnam – or any war – ever written and cited all the critical acclaim the novel has received. Other guy and I were sold. While guy next to me spelled out the author’s name, the other guy typed furiously and downloaded the book to read on the plane. I continued to read my suddenly less interesting book, and had to wait until I returned home to hop in the car a few days later to scoop it up. You win this round Kindle.

Books | Tim | May 25, 2011 8:37 am

6 Comments

By Dallas, May 25, 2011 @ 12:13 pm

My Kindle was the only reason I survived being trapped in the house for 4 days during snowpacalypse.
By stephen, May 26, 2011 @ 1:22 am

I really can not understand how anyone could dislike this novel. Moved me like nothing else in a long time. I hope you enjoy.
By Vipula, May 26, 2011 @ 5:19 pm

interesting post. Did you ever jump in and join the conversation? I bought myself an iPad after a lot of deliberation on whether I was willing to give up on the “dead tree variety” reading ( and its not all that bad..I know its not green but neither are those electronic devices) and decided that e-readers are great travel devices and great to try new writers whose books you don’t necessarily want to see on the bookshelves
By Anne, May 31, 2011 @ 5:25 pm

I look forward to your review on this one, Tim.
By Aldous Irving, June 7, 2011 @ 8:52 pm

I’m a great fan of war movies and books, especially Vietnam. It’s a mixture of drama and action and sometimes a little humor. Thanks for sharing this…and yes, I will download it to my kindle.