chipgallo

I have this 3-4 hour commute when I go to work in downtown DC, which is "chip" time and I can do whatever I want. In the morning I usually sleep. For the return leg I had been listening to NPR on my now-obsolete Zune, but news of the various foreign wars has dissuaded me from this practice as it is repetitive, predictable and always reminds me of the massive funds we did NOT spend on our own aging infrasture in the USA. It is also why I don't give public radio any money -- they hand over the network to BBC coverage over night. But that is a different rant ...

When I heard that you can share Kindle e-books with up to five users in a household, I realized the economic value of this feature. My girls (wife and daughter) are avid readers on their Kindles, and I could glom onto their books and have something to talk about with them. I also knew that some efforts were afoot to convert classic books to digital formats and Amazon has a free library of these, available from the "Manage Your Kindle" link. It has been a gold mine and made the $79 Kindle a valued resource on my commutes. Even the advertising has had some occasional appeal and I can permanently disable it by paying another $30 when it becomes truly annoying.

To date I have read or am reading these free books:

Island of Dr Moreau
Bram Stoker's Dracula

After the speculative science and horror genre, I hope to read one or more of the Jane Austen novels; a writer who virtually invented the novel for many readers.

Stay tuned as the list grows. Now back to your regularly scheduled propaganda.