Jamie's Hero and Villain of the Week #27

It's hot and steamy here in norther Virginia; the heat index was 126 degrees at one point yesterday!  It's the perfect kind of day to stay inside with the shades drawn and read a good blog.  And as luck would have it, it's Friday, which means that I am here to entertain you with new hero and villain picks.

Hero of the Week: Audible.com

I've spent a lot of time in the car recently.  Between the road trip to Florida and back and my hour-long commute to work, I put in some serious time behind the wheel.  As I've mentioned on this blog before, I absolutely love singing in the car and have very little shame about my tone-deafness.  However, a terrible thing has started happening recently: I've gotten sick of all of the music on the radio!  I tried to mix things up with play lists from my iPhone, and then even hearkening back to the days of CDs, but nothing has been entertaining me as much as I'd like.  Enter Audible.com.  Audible is an Amazon company that specializes in audiobooks.  I am a huge fan of (well-performed) audiobooks.  An interesting story and lively narration makes the time go ever so much faster.  Plus, you get two free books when you sign up for a trial, and they have several that are $5 and under.  I got Water for Elephants and The Book Thief for free, and picked up a "summer book" on sale for my work commute.  For adding hours of enjoyment to an otherwise dreary stretch of time, Audible.com is my hero of the week. 

Villain of the Week:  Distance 

As much as I love audiobooks, I love even more not to have to drive an hour to get to work.  I would absolutely adore not having to drive 15 hours to see my family in Florida.  All of the pesky miles in between me and where I want to go desperately annoy me.  I want to be able to blink my eyes, wiggle my nose, snap my fingers, or click my heels and be somewhere else.  If I could do that, not only would I get to see my family more often and significantly reduce my commute, but I'd be able to travel more.  There are some pretty great vacation deals out there in my price range, but the airfare is the killer.  So for standing relentlessly in my way, Distance is my villain of the week.

Come back next Friday to find out what makes my day and what makes me mad.  Until then, have a nice cool weekend!

Jamie's Hero and Villain of the Week #6

It is an incredibly beautiful unbelievably mild February Friday, which can only mean one thing:  it's true that as soon as you have decent snow boots and a shovel, the stupid groundhog will go shadow-blind and spring will come early.  Oh, and it's time to unveil Jamie's Hero and Villain of the Week!

Hero of the Week:  Amazon Kindle

This nifty light-weight device allows me to carry thousands of books with me anywhere I go!  I love to read, and I love variety, so this is awesome.  Since the battery can run for a month without being charged, I don't have to worry about remembering a power cord or sitting in proximity to an outlet when I go on vacation or house/dog-sit for the weekend.  It's also easy to read in bright sunlight, so it's perfect for leisurely outdoor reading on a day like today.  And since there are no pages, I don't have to get annoyed at the breeze for trying to turn the pages before I'm ready.  I hate it when the wind reads faster than me!  Another huge plus is access to thousands of free e-books, ranging from classics to new and self-published authors.  True, a lot of the free e-books totally suck, but at least I have the opportunity to discover new voices.  

Villain of the Week:  Amazon Kindle

That's right--the Kindle is the week's villain too!  The reason for my ambivalence is a piece of very sad news I learned this week:  Borders is filing for bankruptcy and closing 1/3 of their stores, including my local branch.  I'm very distressed by this development because I love browsing in Borders, and their coffee is better than Books-A-Million's.  I love walking through the rows of bookshelves, visiting the brightly-colored children's section, and examining all of the random/cool/just plain odd gifts they offer.  Since the growing popularity of e-readers, especially the Kindle,  is a huge factor in the decline of the physical book store, I have no choice but to label it a villain.  (I do realize that I could also blame the economy, but my daily New Yorker cartoon calendar does that every day.  It's just too depressing now.)

That's all I have for this week!  Enjoy the sunshine and the weekend!