Nooks and Books

If you've been reading the old Monablog for any amount of time you know I have written often about my addiction, books. I love to read! There is something about holding a book in your hands with a highlighter close by just in case a quote needs to be highlighted and noted. So right before Christmas when Roy suggested I might like to go with him to Barnes and Noble to look at a Color Nook, I went with just a tad of a cynical spirit. I was thinking how can I make notes on a Nook? What if I want to highlight a paragraph? There were a lot more what ifs rolling around in this little brain of mine. The salesman was so knowledgeable and helpful. He answered all my questions before I could ask them. Needless to say we left the store with a Color Nook in the bag along with a Nook cover with the quote on the front: "books like friends, should be few and well chosen," Samuel Paterson.


So set up of anything technical is not my forte. I'm so fortunate that Roy loves the challenge and is quite good at doing these set ups. Of course he normally sets up the computer or smart phones with me out and about. It is a lot easier on his nerves. First sign of a problem and my inclination is to throw the thing across the room. Of course I have never done that but the thought crosses my mind. Yes, that is the answer to all technical set ups, throwing the thing. Roy and I begin to "set up" the Nook and the first sign of it not wanting to log onto our Wi-Fi had me leaving the room. It was too late in the evening for me to head out. When it was working correctly, we downloaded a few books onto it to see how it went. Wow, loved it! Quick, better than two day shipping. I was so very happy with my Nook until I wanted to download a couple more books because Lord knows I don't have stacks of regular, hands on books stacked around the house to read. Again, it balked at hooking up with our Wi-Fi. Also, I could not remember how to highlight passages or how to send myself notes or post the quotes onto Facebook. Back to Barnes and Noble and the man who sold us our Nook was so patient and willing to refresh memories of what to do. At the time there were four of us standing there with various review questions and he held a little mini clinic right then and there for the four of us, who by the way, were all over the age of 50.


Since that visit I've been downloading books, set up my email so I can read and reply on my Nook, listen to Pandora Radio on it and just this week set up Facebook. Now I can read and be distracted by my friends lives with background music. Just about the best combination for me and my ADD. The Nook has an app for chess too. Uh, yes, I will be playing chess only if I can play it like checkers. When Roy and I were first married he tried to teach me how to play chess. He loves that game! In fact his chess playing friend came over once a week for dinner and a few games of chess. Shocked? Well, early on I cooked on a regular basis, but soon discovered the whole cooking dinner thing is overrated. I found chess tedious, moved the pieces too quickly without any regard of said piece moving consequence,and wanted to talk when the other person is thoughtfully considering their move. Chess playing for me just personified how I lived life. Roy gave up trying to teach me how to play chess because of the aggravation, but he didn't give up on me, Evie lyric, (and how aggravating I could be. Notice I put aggravating in past reference)


The Nook is so easy to take with me to appointments. There are all kinds of choices to read and I'm not stuck with one book that may or may not be holding my interest in the midst of people watching. On Monday when I had lunch at The Bistro reading became a simpler task because book placement and turning pages wasn't awkward.

The ESV Bible was a free download, so I have it on my Nook. Roy asked if I was just going to take my Nook with me to Tuesday evening Bible study and look up scripture on it. Right now my speed of quick reference and look up is not that fast, so I would be desperately trying to look up the passage only to get to it and it would be time to look at something else.

Yesterday, Soulprint by Mark Batterson was released. So I downloaded that puppy post haste. He has been putting portions of the book on his blog and I was hooked. The following quote is just in his introduction;

All of us start out as one-of-a kind originals, but too many of us end up as carbon copies of someone else. Instead of celebrating our uniqueness, and the uniqueness of others, we're too often threatened by it. We forfeit our uniqueness because we want to fit in. Instead of daring to be different, we sacrifice our soulprints on the altar of conformity."


The term soulprint refers to who we are, who we will be and just not who others see as they look at the outside in. It is a testament to God who has created us. Uniqueness is God's gift to us and our gift to God. We are created to worship God in a way that no one else can.

I'm reading and highlighting so much in this book. The life that this book is based on is David's. I cannot recommend this book enough. It is created for a purpose but also how to dig out from all the past mistakes and false persona's we have buried ourselves under. It is letting God show us how to do the archaeological dig to get back and discover to the real us, the person that God created and artfully designed us to be. Get or download this book!

With this sun beamed day, I must stop blogging and get out into the sunshine and out of the rain...oops another Evie reference of a song from long ago. Heard on Channel 13 weather it is back to cold and cloudy tomorrow afternoon, which sounds like a Nook afternoon. Nooky has taken on a whole different meaning now.