Yes, the ‘two’ is on purpose. Because there’s two of them. Okay, I know the joke is sad, but I can only be smart so much of the time.

I’ve been sick all weekend. It wasn’t a bad weekend to be sick–snow and windchills well below -20 meant that being forced to hang out in the kitchen with my feet propped up in front of the woodstove was a good thing. And yes, some housework got done, and yes, some writing got done. In A Knight in Shining Kevlar, Ben got to meet Ross’ family. I’m still working out timeline details for some of this stuff–most of that is going to have to wait on figuring out when I need to drop breadcrumbs into the story. But it’s an entertaining little snippet and, hopefully, gives the reader a bit more insight into Ross’ head.

But anyway, back to the woodstove. Of course, I didn’t spend the whole weekend gazing soulfully into the flames, contemplating life, the universe and everything. (Unless everything includes what I should snack on next). I spent a lot of this weekend reading, catching up on books that I’ve sadly neglected. And that’s where my problem begins…

I’ve had a Sony PRS-600 for about 2 years now. I love it, it goes everywhere with me. That thing is tough like Chuck Norris. In fact, I’ve nicknamed it Chuck. It’s been dropped, spilled on, handled by toddlers, left in a freezing car, jammed in my purse along with all the other things that get jammed into a woman’s purse, and the darn thing just won’t quit. I’ve read it while soaking in the bath, for heaven’s sake! (I can hear the Sony people swooning dramatically as I type this!) But the aluminum case that I originally bought it for is heavy, the touch screen that attracted me to it shows a glare and the contrast in the text is not as sharp as I would like. On top of that, all those fancy book covers that you can buy for your readers? None of them fit my Sony. It’s just a tad too big. But I love it. I can take notes on it in meetings, I can throw an audio book on it if I feel like it. I bought a wall charger for it, so I can read it while it’s charging. And it’s RED!

Then, this Christmas, I received a Kobo Glo from my mother. Now, I’ve been talking about the Glo, wondering if it was time to upgrade and pass the Sony on to my daugher, who has one of the older ones without the touchscreen. So, I wasn’t exactly averse to getting one, but I also know that nothing is ever as good as it seems. I like the Glo function, though I can’t see where I would really use it, except maybe while I’m at the movie theatre waiting for the show to start. It’s a lot lighter than the Sony, loads quicker, and starts up faster, though I find the buttons aren’t as senstive. It’s got that neat little feature that the Sony doesn’t have, where the cover of the last book you were reading stays on the screen even when the machine is turned off. (Although, with my reading habits, I have to be careful what book is cued when I turn it off–I’m not ready yet to explain some of the covers to my 11 year old daughter!) I find the screen responds better to a swipe than a tap. It doesn’t handle PDF’s as well as the Sony does, but it does have a slightly better screen contrast than the Sony, which offsets the problem to a certain degree. I like being able to play with the fonts, but that’s more fun and games than anything else. It does hold a charge a lot longer than the Sony does.

I’m still not sure which one I’ll stick with. It seems silly to have two, but I’m pretty sure that as soon as I give one away, I’ll decide that’s the one I want.

If you’re hearing the Rum Tum Tugger song from Cats right now, that’s ok. It’s my theme song.

Oh, and what was I reading? Two books actually, depending on mood and if anyone was likely to look over my shoulder when I wasn’t expecting it. (Remind me later to tell you a story about that) The ‘safe’ book was Mistborn, by Bryan Sanderson. Interesting magic system, with a heavy influence from high school physics class. Not sure how crazy I am about the heroine, but the rest of the characters are good. The other book was When I Fall, by Belinda McBride, which is the second of her Helios Dayspring stories. I read an excerpt from the first one a couple of years ago, and really enjoyed the voice and personality she gave Helios, which enticed me to buy a copy. She wrote him as very matter of fact and more than a little tongue in cheek, which is very much my own style, so when I realized I had somehow missed the second one coming out a year ago, I picked up a copy. I’m enjoying it, but haven’t spent enough time thinking about it to say for sure why. I’ll let you know when I figure it out. I can say that Hawke seems a bit softer now, and Helios tougher, but tougher in the way of a tree, not a stone, if that makes any sense. Some of the politics is going over my head, but I may get to the end and realize she’s been sowing breadcrumbs all along and I just mistook them for rocks. Or snacks. Snacks were big on the agenda too, this weekend.

I’ll be back on Tuesday with a big squee–my new header for the blog is coming tomorrow or Tuesday, depending on when we get the last wrinkles worked out. My betas tell me the guy in it is Levi. I dunno–you’ll have to buy the book when it comes out and decide for yourself.

Kitty