Books that Make You Feel Happy

How many times have you or your book club read a wonderful book, but found yourself really depressed afterwards?

Come on, just think of all the titles and authors whose works you love, but just depress the heck out of you: Ian McEwan, Toni Morrison, The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold, Cormac McCarthy are just a few that come to my mind.

Well here is a good idea whose time has come in our depressing economic times.

Marianne Goss has started a blog — Positively Good Reads whose sole purpose is to identify really good books that make her feel happy!

Check it out...I plan to do so this weekend!

Is this the End of Books? -- "Don't Be Silly"

The New York Times top technology guru, David Pogue, weighs in on the new Kindle 2 today. (Amazon.com's nifty electronic book reader).

He likes it, a lot. But is this the end of books he asks?:

Don’t be silly.

The Kindle has the usual list of e-book perks: dictionary, text search, bookmarks, clippings, MP3 music playback and six type sizes (baby boomers, arise). No trees die to furnish paper for Kindle books, either.

But as traditionalists always point out, an e-book reader is a delicate piece of electronics. It can be lost, dropped or fried in the tub. You’d have to buy an awful lot of $10 best sellers to recoup the purchase price. If Amazon goes under or abandons the Kindle, you lose your entire library. And you can’t pass on or sell an e-book after you’ve read it.

I have the first generation Kindle, and I like it a lot. I figured out that to recoup my initial investment, I'll need to buy about 25 books. That's not too hard for an avid reader like me....(even if I do use the library A LOT!, I still buy the occasional book or two or three...)

Anyway, I agree. Real books will be around for a long time!

10 Most Overrated Novels

How many times have you read a book review and can't wait to read the book. But, when you finally get it, the book just isn't as good as the reviewer said it was?

It's happened to me, and I'm sure it has happened to you.

As I get older, I think it happens a little less, but occasionally, I'm caught up in the media's manufactured book frenzy. The most recent one that comes to mind was The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen. It was reviewed as the great American novel and even won a prize, The National Book Award. But for the life of me, I couldn't figure out why everyone enjoyed it...I finally concluded it must be a New York City thing.

Well, on Thursday, I came across a list of The 10 Most Overrated Novels:

1. Lord of the Rings trilogy (Read it in high school and loved it.)
   
2. Passage to India (I love E.M. Forster)
   
3. White Noise and Underworld (Tried both of these, and couldn't read them)
   
4. Atlas Shrugged (Tried this and found it dull.)
   
5. One Hundred Years of Solitude (Tried this, and couldn't make my way through it.)
6. The DaVinci Code (Read it, thought it was a real page turner, but I don't think anyone thinks it's great fiction...so why is it on this list?)
   
7. The Confederacy of Dunces (Tried this too, and couldn't make my way through it.)
8. The Great Gatsby (Read it in high school and loved it.)
9. Wuthering Heights (Read it in high school and loved it.)
10. Emma (Like it, but doesn't match Pride and Prejudice by a long shot)
    

What do YOU think? The list certainly is a conversation starter....And, let me know if you liked The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen!