Kim Kovacs, BookBrowse reviewer

My friend and I have a long-standing annual competition: Most books read. I have a clear advantage in that my two cats are much more conducive to spare-time reading than are his two toddlers, but never-the-less the numbers are usually pretty close. He has recently accused me of cheating, however, since I include audio books on my list of books "read." In my opinion, I still experience the book, and I spend just as much time listening to one as I would if I were actually reading it, and therefore it counts. In his, reading is reading, listening isn't reading, and therefore it doesn't. (You say "potato," I say "po-tah-to.") He is, unfortunately, an accountant, and therefore quite literally-minded.

Although I am a voracious reader of "real" books, I'm still a big fan of audio books. They have the obvious advantage of allowing me to enjoy a book while doing less enjoyable tasks (like housework or exercising). I'll often purchase the audio version of something I've read in paper copy, as sometimes listening to the work can provide a different understanding or perspective than reading it. For some reason, too, it's easier to pick up an audio copy of one of those books I've been meaning to read that I never quite get around to (Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead and Alexandre Dumas's The Count of Monte Cristo are two that immediately come to mind).

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Davina Morgan-Witts, BookBrowse editor

Since the first publicly-funded library opened in the USA in 1833, many generations of children have been inspired and nurtured by local librarians - none more so than the two generations of children in Old Greenwich, Connecticut who have had the privilege to be members of the Young Critics' Club at Perrot Memorial Library.

The club (actually, two clubs, one for grades 4-5 and one for 6-8) was founded by librarian Kate McClelland over 25 years ago (the oldest "Young Critics" are now in their 40s) and up until this week was run by Kate, her colleague Kathy Krasniewicz, and library director Mary Clark.

That was until yesterday when an apparently drunk driver veered into an airport bus on its way to Denver airport, killing two of the passengers, identified as Kathy Krasniewicz, 54 and Kate McClelland, 71 - who were returning home from the American Library Association's Midwinter meeting. Greenwich's local newspaper, The Greenwich Times, has more details.

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Davina Morgan-Witts, BookBrowse editor

Over the last few years we've seen virtually all newspapers cutting back on their book coverage and, according to the National Book Critics Circle (NBCC), all but two have now closed their standalone book review sections. One of the remaining bastions of the book world is the Washington Post which first introduced the standalone 'Book World' section to its Sunday edition in 1972.  But this literary stalwart appears to be crumbling.  According to the NBCC's blog Critical Mass, a reliable source at the Washington Post says that "among the budgetary recommendations new editor Marcus Brauchli is making to his board is the elimination of 'Book World'."

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Kim Kovacs, BookBrowse reviewer

The following is in response to Lynda East's question to Kim after reading her Jan 1st blog "My Secret Addiction".Lynda asks, "Can you comment on the benefits and problems of the Sony eReader versus the Amazon Kindle? Their prices are comparable and both out of my price range right now (like you, my Christmas gift hints fell on deaf ears) ..."


I've thought ebook readers were a nifty idea ever since seeing one in the first Star Trek movie way back in 1979 (the technological dark ages!).  I purchased my first digital reader in 1998, but paid the price of being an early adopter when the model I had was discontinued a few years later and I could no longer purchase books for it. I tried reading digital books on my Dell Axim for awhile, but it just wasn't the same. I eventually abandoned that, too, coming to the conclusion that the rest of the world just wasn't as ready for digital books as I was, and contented myself with old-fashioned paper for the next several years.

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Davina, BookBrowse editor

A couple of people have emailed recently to ask whether The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is based on, or at least inspired by, Andrew Sean Greer's 2004 novel The Confessions of Max Tivoli, and if so, why the movie title was changed?

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Kim Kovacs, BookBrowse reviewer

Once again I begin my New Year's resolutions with the promise, "I will not buy more books than I can read" (followed by the corollary, "I will buy just one book at a time"). Once again, I suspect I'll fail.

Ever since the fourth grade (don't ask), books have been a refuge for me. Each one represents a new world or adventure, my own little escape pod from the traumas of the day. Books call to me as I stroll the bookstore aisles, unable to resist their alluring covers and captivating premises. How can I possibly leave one of these unexplored worlds sitting, unread, on a shelf at my bookstore?

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