Poetry

First, a quick word about Kindle for PC: I just finished a book on the software I downloaded for free. (I got about six books for free, and there are several more I can download, as well.) The book itself was okay. I guess I didn't have any huge complaints about reading an e-book. I liked being able to bookmark several places at once. (The book I was reading had recipes thrown in from time to time, and I wanted to copy them down, but not until I was done with the book. So I would bookmark the recipes, and I'd also bookmark wherever I left off reading.) I liked that I could change the size of the font and how many words appeared on the screen. However, reading an e-book on a computer was probably not the best way to assess something like that--SO less portable than a Nook or Kindle! Aside from that, the only thing I really didn't like about an e-book was the fact that I didn't know how far along I was in the story. There's a bar at the bottom at the screen that tells what percentage of the book I've read through, but it's not like looking at a real book and saying, "Oh, I've got about sixty pages left." I had no idea where I was in the book, and it's not like it mattered, but I realized that's one thing I enjoy about reading a real book.

Okay, now the real idea behind my post tonight.
Lindsay apparently had some assignment for school that involved finding various forms of writing. Jim went to help her find some things, and in the course of looking for different formats, they found some of Grandma Hirons' (Jim's maternal grandmother) poetry books. The woman had some serious writing skills. I went downstairs to get something and heard Jim reading one of her poems to Lindsay. I knew as soon as I heard it what he was reading. When he was done helping Lindsay find what he needed, he brought some books up and read some of the poems to me.

Edna Hirons, my mother-in-law's mother, passed away nearly eight years ago. I only had the pleasure of knowing her for five or six years. She was an inspiration to me, being a writer and a mother. She was a Faith-driven woman, which was also something that tied me to her, though I couldn't say, at the time, that I was living a Faith-driven life. I was still reckless and irresponsible when I met her, but I can honestly say that she set an example for me (along with a handful of other incredible women) that I continue to try to follow.

I don't even know, for sure, how many little books of poetry Edna wrote and published. She always published them on her own, so they're not the types of books you would see in a library or bookstore. However, we have copies of several of them here at our house, and they're nicely bound and printed. She never made any money from them, but that wasn't the driving force anyway. I believe she wrote poetry that she felt God gave her, and her reason for publishing that poetry was to share her gift with others. She admitted to Jim and me that she was second or third cousins with Robert Waller (The Bridges of Madison County) and yes, he made money writing his books, he acquired fame from them. But Edna would not compromise her morals and beliefs just to write the kind of books that sell. I always respected and admired her for that.

Edna decided, at one point, to publish a book of patriotic poems. Interestingly, this book was not to be HER poetry, but poems she'd collected from friends and other writers, along with a few poems written by family members. She enlisted my help in editing this book. I was so excited to have such an important role! How ironic it was that we were finally ready to take the collection of poems to the publisher in October of 2001--one month after the attacks of 9/11. We had been working on this book for a number of months, but it seemed even more important than ever that we get that book out as soon as possible. Publishing that book with Edna was one of the proudest accomplishments of my life!

When Jim and I were preparing to get married, Jim bet me that I would cry at our wedding. I'm an extremely emotional person (I cry at commercials!), so he thought it was a sure thing. I didn't cry at our wedding, so I won the bet! But I did cry the night before, at our prenuptial dinner. Edna stood up and read a poem she'd written just for us, just for that night, and it was the most beautiful thing ever! I cry now, because she didn't make any copies of that poem, and I can't find the original!!! Ugh!

Anyway, losing Edna was painful for me, and I'd only gotten to know her for a short time. But she is not now, nor will she ever be, forgotten. She still plays a huge role in our lives and I'm so very grateful for the gift of having known her at all. She was loving, kind, warm-hearted, outspoken, joyful, and a terrific cook!

Grandma Hirons, I miss you! Although I hope to live many, many more years here on Earth, I anxiously look forward to seeing you again, in Heaven. I love you!!!

To Kindle or not to Kindle...

I'm hearing a lot about friends and family who have recently starting using Kindle (or Nook or iPod touch with iBook or iPad with iBook, or some other e-reader system), and I'm starting to really consider the pros and cons of getting such a device.

Cons:
They're kind of pricey
You have to buy books to read on them
Borrowing books to read on them can be tricky (not all libraries lend in all formats)
It's not like holding a book (the feel of turning pages, the smell of the paper, being able to find something you just read or pop ahead briefly are challenging)
Compared to how many books are available in print (millions? billions?), there is a rather limited amount of books available for these devices (I believe it might go to hundreds of thousands)

Pros:
They're cool (any kind of new technology is exciting and attractive to me)
They're portable
You can download several books for free
You have access to several books at a time, whereas with a physical book, you'd typically only bring one or just a few with you anywhere at one time.

I recently found out that Amazon.com has a large number of books available for download for the Kindle system for free. Further, I found that Kindle offers programs not only for that specific device, but also for the iPad, for PC computers, and for other devices as well. So I downloaded Kindle for PC the other day. I've obtained about six free books from Amazon so far, and I've been reading one of those books for the past couple of days. It's kind of a pain to have to have my computer to read from, but it's a great way, I think, to at least get a feel for that method of reading. I don't think I'll ever completely give up physical books--my love for them is simply too great. But I think this is something I'll consider more and more over the next few months. It might be something I want to consider getting at some point. (And from there, of course, I'd have to really think about which device to go with: Kindle, Nook, iPad or iPod Touch, etc.)

Fun experiment!

Happy New Year!

I don't think I'm quite over the holidays just yet--last night I stayed up 'til about midnight, watching "Holiday Inn", and I hope to stay up late soon to watch "White Christmas" and "Meet Me In St. Louis!" I borrowed all three movies from my friend, Eileen, after we took our girls and a few other Girl Scout friends to see one of the local high schools' production of "White Christmas". It was super cool--they even had snow falling IN THE THEATER at the end of the play! Plus, Josie saw Santa Claus--for real--watching the play. During Intermission, we went to walk around in the lobby, and I saw my friend, Sheila, who used to be my boss at Super Saver. She said her son, Dillon, was in the play. She was talking to me about it, and Josie was kind of walking along with us, when Sheila (who was ushering that night) stopped and said, "Look, here's Santa Claus!" and she grabbed this guy by the arm. Sure enough, it was him! He turned around, looked at Josie and smiled (his blue eyes twinkled) and asked her, "Have you been a good girl this year?" He might have said a couple more things, but Josie was trying to melt into me, she was so star-struck! (I'll admit, I was, too.) After that, we raced over to our friends and told them about the encounter. Once the play started up again, we saw that Santa was sitting in the front row. I saw my friend, Sheila, again, and she kind of whisper-shouted up to me, "Notice when he leaves, what kind of hat he's wearing." Well what do you think it was? Yup! A red elf hat with white fur trim. Josie wanted to go back and talk to him some more, since her friends had seen him too, and she'd regained her confidence. But I told her that, since it was only about two weeks before Christmas, it was probably his last night off for a while, and he'd probably appreciate a bit of space. He was just wanting to relax and be a "regular guy" for one night. She was a little perturbed, but Lindsay reinforced my comments when we got home.

A few days later, we had Eileen and her daughter, Eleanor, over to decorate cookies for Christmas. Turns out Eleanor had spotted Santa as they were leaving the play, and HE came up to HER and said, "I LOVE those chocolate chip cookies you leave me!" (Which, of course, is exactly the kind of cookies they leave for him--we leave frosted sugar cookies.) Eleanor and Josie had a great day swapping details of their encounters with Santa.

I told Eileen I'd love to see the movie version of "White Christmas," because I never had (I saw "Holiday Inn" years ago, but had forgotten most of it, and I only got 1/2 way through "St. Louis" this summer). She offered to bring over all three movies. But, of course, Christmas brought us a slew of new movies, so it's taken a while to get around to watching these. I was pleased with "Holiday Inn" and can't wait to watch the other two!