Tag / Amazon

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Finishing A Challenge

Every quarter, Kindle releases a reading challenge as a way to gamify reading on their platform.  The Spring 2025 challenge, which wraps up tomorrow, was the first one I’ve ever completed, finishing all fifteen achievements.  Those achievements were:

Days Read

  • Bronze Reader: read on any 15 days during the challenge
  • Silver Reader: read on any 40 days during the challenge
  • Gold Reader: read on any 75 days during the challenge

The Gold Reader is the one I usually have an issue with.  Either due to other commitments or reading actual physical books, I’ve always fell short of the 75 days out of the 90 or so within the quarter.

Books Completed

  • Bookish: read one book
  • Bookworm: read two books
  • Bibliophile: read three books

This one is always easy.  For reference, I wrapped this one up less than two weeks into April.

Streaks

  • Head Start: read one day during the month
  • Perfect Week: read 7 days in a row (Sunday through Saturday)
  • Perfect Month: read every day for a calendar month (ex. every day in February)

Again, the Perfect Month is where I usually fall short.  This time I was able to complete that particular achievement in April.

Mystery

  • Case Closed: complete a Kindle book.
  • Afterglow: read at least three days between April 29 and May 2
  • Smart Start: read on a Monday in May. Can level up with each additional Monday you read in May
  • Parasol: complete one of the Amazon editor’s Summer Reading picks
  • Weekend Warrior: read on both Saturday and Sunday during a weekend in June
  • Insider: Follow an author on Amazon

The mystery selections are usually rolled out throughout the quarter, leaving little opportunity to plan ahead for them.  I ended up following an author simply to complete the goal here, but the Parasol one I finished by accident, as Alex Finlay’s Parents Weekend happened to be on the list.

Having finally completed one of these challenges, I hope I won’t be as hooked to their games, as it has certainly seen me focus on Kindle books to try and finish a challenge rather than reading an actual book.

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Yet Another Mix Tape Monday – Volume 7

33 years ago, during my sophomore year of high school, I put together the first of what would eventually become a nearly 20 volume collection of mix tapes, containing my favorite songs that I had gathered either from the radio, a cassette tape, or (eventually) CD.  Today, we revisit those mix tapes for the fourth time and see how, or if, the soundtrack of my youth still resonates in today’s digital world and how much has changed over the past four years.

Back in the day, the acquisition of music was a much more tactile experience than it is today.  Going out to a store, physically touching the racks of CDs or cassettes while looking for the right one… it could create a memory just as vivid as those tied to the music itself.

I remember clear as day, just over thirty years later, going to the record store after my last final of first semester and coming out of JL Records with both Guns N’ Roses’ Use Your Illusion I and AC/DC’s Live.  Something to celebrate the end of that first go-around in school before heading home for winter break.  I remember going to Orland Square Mall and coming home with Toad The Wet Sprocket’s Fear and TLC’s Ooooooohhh… On the TLC Tip.  I remember picking up a used copy of Tesla’s Five Man Acoustical Jam at Discount Den and then trading it for LL Cool J’s Mama Said Knock You Out at the record store in Purdue West whose name is escaping me at the moment.

Compare that to today.  Do I have any particular memory of downloading, say, Taylor Swift’s 1984 on MP3?  Or buying Strange Little Birds by Garbage off of Amazon?  Of course not.  It’s even worse for streaming.  So, while music is more available and ubiquitous than it ever has been before, we do lose a little something in the trade.

Volume 7, containing songs from those long-remembered CDs, covers the fall of 1992 and the end of the first semester of my freshman year of college.  We are treated to the last gasps of hair metal and pop, with a little dance, alternative and hip-hop thrown in for good measure.

Side A

Guns N’ Roses – November Rain
iTunes stats: 18 plays, most recently on 11/11/2021

The longest song ever to crack the top 10 on the Billboard charts, peaking at #3, the opus, which checks in at 3 seconds shy of 9 minutes, picked up just six new plays in the last four years.

Def Leppard – Have You Ever Needed Someone So Bad
iTunes stats: 16 plays, most recently on 11/10/2022

The 86th biggest hit of 1992 managed to double its plays since 2019.

Toad The Wet Sprocket – All I Want
iTunes stats: 25 plays, most recently on 11/20/2021

Topping out at #15 on the Billboard charts, the first hit from Toad the Wet Sprocket only picked up four new listens over the past four years.

Tesla – Signs
iTunes stats: 13 plays, most recently on 9/27/2021

Reaching #8 on the Billboard Hot 100, the live track, recorded in 1990, has gained a mere nine listens since 2012.

Soup Dragons – Divine Thing
iTunes stats: 22 plays, most recently on 6/14/2021

The alternative dance single that became a moderate alternative hit in the US gained just two additional listens, with the latest coming over two and a half years ago.

Ugly Kid Joe – Neighbor
iTunes stats: 15 plays, most recently on 12/8/2022

The lead single from Ugly Kid Joe’s major label debut, this track added five plays since 2019.

The Heights – How Do You Talk To An Angel
iTunes stats: 20 plays, most recently on 11/29/2021

The theme song from the short-lived FOX show The Heights, nominated for the 1993 Outstanding Individual Achievement in Music and Lyrics Emmy, picked up six new plays.

Side B

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Book 47 (of 52) – Someone Else’s Secret

Someone Else’s Secret – Julia Spiro

After graduating college with no job prospects, Lindsey, who has very large breasts, agrees to spend the summer on Martha’s Vineyard as a nanny in the hopes of meeting the right people and securing a job in the art world.  With the summer winding down and having landed the job she was hoping for, everything comes crashing down when something happens to Lindsey, who, again, has large breasts, and is witnessed by Georgie, daughter of the family she has been nannying for.  10 years later, Georgie finds she can no longer keep what she saw secret, reconnecting with Lindsey and trying to right the wrongs of a summer that impacted them both.

Someone Else’s Secret, the debut novel from Julia Spiro, must have been part of Amazon’s First Reads program at some point, so at least I know I didn’t pay anything for it.  She could have paid more heed to the Chekov’s gun principle, which states that every element in a story must be necessary, and irrelevant elements should be removed.  Irrelevant elements like the size of the protagonist’s breasts, which was mentioned numerous times throughout the book, only to learn in the time jump that she had undergone a reduction.  Had you dropped the entire plotline, if you can call it that, of her breasts, you’d have the exact same story told in probably 5-10 fewer pages.  I think what she was going for was the thought that large breasts were inherently sexualized, and, as a result of the <spoilers> rape, Lindsey’s character had turned away from that part of her life and reducing her breasts thus reduced the sexual part of her life.  But, that is contradicted by the numerous thoughts the Lindsey character had about her breasts prior to the rape. </spoilers>

At the end of the day, Spiro put together a perfectly readable tale, but not one that puts her on the “must check out again” list.  There is certainly talent here, but I don’t know that I’ll see if it gets focused into something better her next time out.

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Book 18 (of 52) – The Watcher Girl

The Watcher Girl – Minka Kent

In The Watcher Girl, Minka Kent’s latest, a young woman, who has avoided her family for years, returns home to apologize to an old boyfriend, whom she believes to still be hung up on her.  When she accidentally runs into his wife, literally, she finds that he may not be the man she remembers.  Can she help her newfound friend escape before things go too far?  Or is the man she once loved still there somewhere, ready to return when she least expects it?

Minka Kent is a writer whose work has circled my awareness for some time now, but, thanks to the Amazon’s First Reads program, I was able to get this one early and free.  She doesn’t waste many words, with the book clocking in at under 240 pages, and the plot moves along quickly.  I found out after that many of these characters show up in a different novel, the story of which is touched upon here, and I was able to pick that up cheaply, so I will be revisiting Kent, and these set of characters, some time in the future.

 

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Book 7 (of 52) – The Midnight Library

The Midnight Library – Matt Haig

What if, in the moment between life and death, you were given the chance to travel the roads not taken, examining the regrets of your life and seeing where those divergent paths took you?  In The Midnight Library, Nora Seed gets this opportunity after attempting suicide, despondent over the waste she views her life to be.  She tries on many other lives, revisiting the big decisions she’s made in life: stopping swimming competitively, leaving her band on the brink of stardom, abandoning her childhood dream of becoming a scientist.  At the end, she realizes that the only life that gives her contentment is the one she tried to end, and she returns, realizing that she has made a difference in other people’s lives and that she will continue to do so.

I had never heard of Matt Haig or his work prior to last December, when The Midnight Library won the Goodreads Choice Award for Best Fiction novel of 2020.  The premise sounded interesting and, thanks to a credit from Amazon, I was able to get it relatively cheaply.  While the story didn’t go quite as I expected and you could see the end coming from a mile away, this was an interesting take on a fairly regular topic.  We’ve all looked back at the big decisions in our life and wondered “what if?”.  But what if it was the smaller decisions that had the greater impact on our happiness?  That’s the interesting question that Nora gets to after trying out the obvious lives and finding that they didn’t give her what she was looking for.

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Book 11 (of 52) – Stuck On The Sox

Stuck On The Sox – Rich Lindberg

This rather light-hearted history of the White Sox, focused primarily from the early 50s until its publication in 1978, comes from noted Chicago historian Rich Lindberg.  I was intrigued when I saw the cover in a Twitter post by one of the NBCSN flunkies, so I ran out to Amazon and found a used copy for a reasonable price.

Truth be told, this really wasn’t worth it.  Aside from 1977, the mid-to-late 70s was not really a great time in White Sox history, and, because of my age, it isn’t a time that I really relate to.  Yeah, there were some names in there, but, for the most part, my life isn’t improved by having read this book.  That said, it was less than 200 pages, so if you happen across it, why not give it a shot?

 

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52 Books in 52 Weeks – 2019 Edition

bookshelfA new year is once again upon us, and it is time to start year ten of the goal to read a book a week for the entire year, totaling 52 books in 52 weeks.  In year one, I only made it to 8 books.  Year two doubled that total.  Year three used graphic novels to improve once again, finishing with 24.  Year four was the first where I dropped from the year before, only finishing 18 books, which was well short of the ultimate goal.  Year five, I bounced back to finish with 23 books.  Year six, I had my best year since starting this challenge, not to mention my best reading year ever, finishing with 31 books.  Three years ago, I matched that high point in total books, though far surpassing it in total pages read thanks to reading the entire Harry Potter series.  Two years ago, I dropped back down to 28.  Last year, I finished with my lowest total since 2014.

I’m going to give it another go this year.  I’ve got plenty of new books loaded in the Kindle app on my iPad, plus a few new purchases from Amazon, not to mention one or two birthday and Christmas presents, so I’ve got a good pile to start with.  As a reminder, the rules I am using are:

  • You can count a book as read as long as you have completed the book in 2019 and at least 50% of that reading takes place in 2018
  • Any book counts as long as you’re not embarrassed to count it.
  • Poetry collections do indeed count.
  • Re-reading a book is okay as long as it isn’t done this year. (Reading Twilight twice in 2010 only counts as 1 read)
  • Audiobooks also count.

My first book of the year looks like it will be authored by a former president.  All told, 2019 should be another good year.

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52 Books in 52 Weeks – 2018 Edition

bookshelfA new year is once again upon us, and it is time to start year nine of the goal to read a book a week for the entire year, totaling 52 books in 52 weeks.  In year one, I only made it to 8 books.  Year two doubled that total.  Year three used graphic novels to improve once again, finishing with 24.  Year four was the first where I dropped from the year before, only finishing 18 books, which was well short of the ultimate goal.  Year five, I bounced back to finish with 23 books.  Three years ago, I had my best year since starting this challenge, not to mention my best reading year ever, finishing with 31 books.  Two years ago, I matched that high point in total books, though far surpassing it in total pages read thanks to reading the entire Harry Potter series.  Last year, I dropped back down to 28.

I’m going to give it another go this year.  I’ve got a plenty of new books loaded in the Kindle app on my iPad, plus a few new purchases from Amazon, not to mention one or two birthday and Christmas presents, so I’ve got a good pile to start with.  As a reminder, the rules I am using are:

  • You can count a book as read as long as you have completed the book in 2018 and at least 50% of that reading takes place in 2018
  • Any book counts as long as you’re not embarrassed to count it.
  • Poetry collections do indeed count.
  • Re-reading a book is okay as long as it isn’t done this year. (Reading Twilight twice in 2010 only counts as 1 read)
  • Audiobooks also count.

My first book of the year looks like it will be You Deserve A Drink, the first memoir from internet sensation Mamrie Hart.  All told, 2018 should be another good year.

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2017 Emmy Awards – Comedy

Emmy_statueWith the Emmy Awards scheduled for Sunday night, here are my predictions for the awards for Comedy shows.  I most likely have seen most of these shows, so, unlike my annual Oscar predictions, I will not mostly be going on gut feel and word of mouth, but will have a somewhat informed decision.

Outstanding Comedy

Atlanta

Black-ish

Master of None

Modern Family

Silicon Valley

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt

Veep

Veep has won for the past two years and would seem to be a good choice to three-peat, so I’ll go with that.

Outstanding Actress In A Comedy

Pamela Adlon, Better Things

Jane Fonda, Grace and Frankie

Allison Janney, Mom

Ellie Kemper, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt

Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Veep

Tracee Ellis Ross, Black-ish

Lily Tomlin, Grace and Frankie

Julia Louis-Dreyfus won this award the past four years, and I see no reason why she won’t repeat again this year.

Outstanding Actor In A Comedy

Anthony Anderson, Black-ish

Aziz Ansari, Master of None

Zach Galifianakis, Baskets

Donald Glover, Atlanta

William H. Macy, Shameless

Jeffrey Tambor, Transparent

Jeffrey Tambor brought home the award the past two years for his gender-bending role on Amazon’s hit series, but I’m going to go out on a limb and go with Donald Glover.

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Book 9 (of 52) – The Man In The High Castle

The Man In The High Castle – Philip K. Dick

Imagine a world where the Allies lost World War II, with the US split between the Germans and the Japanese.  This is the world where Philip K. Dick puts us in The Man In The High Castle, where the Germans have taken over the east coast and the Japanese the west, leaving a free state between them in the Rockies.  Dick’s tale focuses primarily on the last two, switching among connected but disparate stories.

I watched the first episode of Amazon’s adaptation of this book and it did not really hold my interest.  The same can be said of the book, which took me forever to read and which I never really was enthralled by.  The concept certainly holds some interest, but the execution left me wanting more.