"I'm Ready for My Close-Up..."

          When I was a little kid I wanted to be an actress. By the time I was in high school, acting had taken a backseat to writing and writing had taken a backseat to teaching and teaching had morphed from teaching art to teaching English. Teaching English, by the way, encompasses loads of acting (ask me sometime about how I get students to read, at least some, of The Scarlet Letter, or about commanding an audience in meetings!), art (try fixing a bulletin board, mapping a scene or decorating a door) and writing (lesson plans, notes to parents/students/teachers/principals, worksheets, meeting notes, test et cetera).
           Several years ago I used both my acting, drawing and writing skills to create a creative writing class. That class was lovely, we wrote short stories and poems and, well, a former student now friend, could tell you more because she still remembers all we did and that was at least 10 years ago...pretty exciting class, with pretty willing, clever and eager students.
           One of the assignments was writing a scene from a screenplay. We used the best book Writing Screenplays That Sell (I no longer have this book because I lent it to someone, this was before I learned from Adler not to do that) to talk about types of screenplays, characters, settings and treatments. We watched The Karate Kid (the movie used in the book) and then we went about completing all the task necessary to write a screenplay (character development, setting map, etc.) and then, instead of writing a whole screenplay, we fleshed out one scene from our treatment.
            You see, I love screenplays. I prefer to read screenplays before watching movies, I prefer to imagine who I'd cast (and, the possibilities are endless) in certain roles, where I'd film the setting (like a Director of Photography) and then I watch to see the treatment. My favorite screenplays are those by Kevin Smith, and I enjoyed reading Good Will Hunting, Trainspotting and various television scripts (tiny screenplays), The Glades comes to mind, as you can download the pilot episode free on the Nook.
            Maybe I should have been a screenwriter, Lord knows there's not enough of those in the world, or a critic, again a profession that needs more people. *note dripping sarcasm* Hmmm...the more I think about it...I could have been a casting agent...they're like teachers, only really, really mean and without remorse.
            Sigh, maybe for my next career...



"It's the moment of truth..."



Nookie, Nook, Nook

          Over the summer my husband and I bought ourselves Nook eReaders from Barnes and Noble, we got the 3G WiFi version. Yes, we knew the NookColor would be out by Christmas, but we didn't want to wait and knew that we'd need a color eReader as much as we needed 'a new hole in the head' (thank-you very much grandpa for that little phrase).
          Um, to be quite honest, my husband uses his quite a bit...but, I rarely touch mine. You see the thing is I like books, I like the feel of the spine and cover, the weight of it as it sits in my lap...I like to turn the pages, but most importantly, I like to write in my book, the way that Mortimer Adler says, I like to own and possess my book, and you can't do that with an eReader!
          What I find I do like about my Nook is that books without spines and covers and actual pages are wayyyyyy cheaper than their archaic brethren, so my Nook holds all my b-list books. This list includes any book that I want to read, want to own, but don't want to pay $24.95 or $14.95 for, it includes books that I can't wait to own (sure, this sounds like the opposite of b-list, but it also means that I don't care enough about them to mark them up and I don't want to go to the bookstore to get them) like the latest in a series and it includes books that I already own, but can get free or cheap on the Nook. I have yet to finish a book on the Nook, as I only read them when I'm waiting for planes, in a hotel room and there's some down time or when I have nothing else to read.
          Now, I can tell you right now, my husband loves the Nook (he won't actually say that and when I talk to him about it he always gives some technical answer as to why he uses it, but I know it's sweet, sweet love). You see he takes that thing wherever he goes, he even took it to Las Vegas were he attended a friends wedding. He puts, on the Nook, books that he really, really wants. He has read all of Michael Lewis on the Nook, more financial books about, um, financial things...non-fiction type stuff. AAAAnd, he doesn't take notes, he doesn't understand why I feel the need to take notes, he doesn't understand why the little notes option with the Nook isn't enough for me...I show him examples of book markings...he still doesn't get it.
         So, our library (we share an account) in our his and her Nooks (his is the no nonsense, 'why waste money on a cover' subtle black cover and mine is the 'look at me, look at me, I've got a Nook inside', memorable lines from books adorable cover--he wouldn't let be get a Kate Spade), looks something like this (examples of the latest downloads): the complete Sherlock Holmes, The Big Short, all the Oz books, the latest Chelsie Handler, the latest Pat Conroy, the latest Bret Easton Ellis, more Michael Lewis, The Wall Street Journal, Eat, Pray, Love...you see I'm the downloading fool, he's the actual ereader.