Santa left an iPod Nano under the tree for me last year (or this Christmas, however you want to look at it). A BLUE one! I just love Santa. It took me ten days to find the the "just right" protection and belt-clip combintation before I would take it out of the box. No scratches on that baby, no way. Just in time for my computer to start being a little pain in the neck. It just shuts down with no warning. None. Just goes dark. I used to have a little time before that happened, but now it only runs for a minute and then-OFF. So, I am sitting it on ice so that I can back up the things that had not been backed up yet and get some books loaded to my iPods (I'm loading them both in case I have to wait for any length of time, although at 16G I am having a hard time filling the new one) then the laptop goes to the laptop hospital for surgery or whatever it needs. Pete keeps telling me to just get a new laptop, but he says these things as if we just have the extra cash lying around with no other place to put it. (Does he know something I don't? I doubt it, that is just the way he is.) I'm trying to get the most out of this thing that I can. Besides that, there is the research and effort in purchasing a new laptop. I am not so thrilled with this one that I would just get another, and all of my girls have macs and seem happy, but whenever I try to use them I get frustrated and think that I am too old for that learning curve. I'll just fix this one for now, I'm sure I can get another year or so out of it. Scratch that. I'm not tempting fate by uttering those words.
So, what's on your iPod? I have books, books, books, music, music and podcasts. I fell off the book wagon during December, favoring my Christmas music. Now my queue is long and I'll have plenty to listen to while working and driving.
Did I mention, way back when, that I finished Outlander? I'm hooked! My plan is to spread the series out to every third or fourth book I listen to so that I don't get totally immersed in Claire and Jamie's lives to the exclusion of reality. I do that you know. Get so involved in a book that I start thinking the characters are real and my friends. Then I look around at my family and life and wonder who the heck they are where the hell all that came from? I don't think they take it personally anymore....
Five. What books have swept you away to another world? I can add them to my list!
Have you read The Eight by Katherine Neville? Elephants could have been leaping over my head and I wouldn't have noticed. I loved Outlander as well. They are addicting.
Posted by: jill | January 05, 2009 at 06:14 PM
Congrats on the Nano. I'll tell ya, I eked out the life of my laptop for a year and a half and bought a new Macbook when they came out in October -- I love it!! The learning curve isn't really that steep. The one thing I knew I'd miss is the good ol' right mouse button. And guess what? You can bring up that right button menu on the macbook by tapping with two fingers instead of one on the touch screen. Magic! And it is so fast.
On my iPod I also have many many books. And a few movies and the two seasons of Mad Men.
Posted by: Harper | January 05, 2009 at 07:00 PM
Terry, hasn't anyone told you? Jamie and Claire are REAL.
Go ahead, listen to the next one.
You know you want to...
xo
Posted by: Nora | January 05, 2009 at 07:27 PM
Have you ever read any of Jasper Fforde's books? I like the mystery/thriller genre, so if that's your bag, let me know & I sort out my favorites I've gotten on Audible.com
Posted by: Dianna | January 05, 2009 at 08:00 PM
I just finished the "Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society" and it was such an enjoyable book...I kept forgetting that it was fiction!
Posted by: Debbie | January 05, 2009 at 08:17 PM
Listen, I got a MacBook and I'm a computer idiot. Ask the Help people at Typepad. Besides, the great thing about Macs is that you can get real, live, English-speaking local people to fix the things when they break, which isn't often. And for $100 a year, you can take a lesson a week at the Apple Store. I can never go back.
Posted by: The Attic | January 05, 2009 at 08:19 PM
I am desperate for a belt clip for my new orange Nano. What did you get?
Posted by: claudia | January 05, 2009 at 09:04 PM
All books, all the time.
Posted by: Jane | January 05, 2009 at 09:46 PM
I love my Mac: it's not that hard to learn and you get lessons when you purchase it ... and next year I won't have to share it w/a certain daughter any more!
Books, hmm ... did you read "Pillars of the Earth"? I am looking forward to reading the sequel this summer. Or maybe I'll take it along to Chicago this February!
Posted by: CyndiG | January 05, 2009 at 10:41 PM
You'll know when you're hooked on her books when you start to dream about them. Or when you start thinking in a scottish accent. Or when you travel (by yourself) 2.5 hours to hear DG talk and sign books. Or get really angry when you hear that the new book is coming out later than predicted. Hmm. Perhaps I should read something else tonight. :)
Posted by: sunflowerfairy | January 05, 2009 at 11:29 PM
I am iLess -- which isn't anywhere near clueLess. I do read, though slowly and boy, have I been all over the place in terms of what...
Posted by: Vicki | January 05, 2009 at 11:34 PM
Just read the Monsters of Templeton...funny and enjoyable and now I'm reading Toni Morrison's A Mercy. Fascinating, but perhaps, not for everyone.
Posted by: margene | January 06, 2009 at 07:36 AM
Truly, The Abyssinian. By Jean-Christophe Rufin, one of the founders of Doctors without Borders. Fabulous book.
Posted by: Etherknitter | January 06, 2009 at 07:47 AM
I highly recommend the Patrick O'Brian Aburey/Maturin series. There are something like 20 of them and they are fabulous historical fiction chock full of detail and interesting characters. They did a movie with Russell Crowe a while back on one out of the middle of the series - Master and Commander. Didn't see it, but the books are amazing.
And just a word on Macs - they're awesome and easy and once you go Mac you never go back. For when the time comes.
Posted by: Tracy J. | January 07, 2009 at 04:22 AM
I'll send "The Eight". I read it years ago, then the sequel when it came out last year. Now I'm listening to it. Even better.
Posted by: JJ | January 07, 2009 at 07:55 AM
I am listening to The Time Travelers Wife right now and I am really enjoying it!
Posted by: Karen | January 07, 2009 at 10:35 AM
Hi! Sara Donati series. The authors are friends and Jamie and Claire actually show up in Sara's book.
Posted by: Diane E. | January 11, 2009 at 05:07 PM
Of course you ask what books have swept me away and I can hardly think of any. Luckily, I have come up with a series: Anne McCaffrey's dragon novels. I've read all of them.
The main ones that resonated with me include the 3 part series with Dragon Drums and The White Dragon, I guess because I was a loner growing up.
The rest of them have major drama going on for a sci fi series.
Another favorite is "The Bride" by Johanna Lindsey. I got such huge laughs reading that one that I convinced a coworker to read it, who laughed so hard so often that her husband actually read it and said it was okay for a romance novel. Plus, there's another one called "A Knight in Shining Armor," which you kind of have to suspend your disbelief for, plus your urge to strangle a woman for being a total pushover.
Posted by: madonnaearth | January 12, 2009 at 01:55 PM