Taking a reading break with my favorite tea - Mighty Leaf tropical green
I think it’s fair to say I have a book habit – I love collecting and reading books. While I still enjoy and buy “real” books, most of my reading has been on a tablet for the past few years. Coffee table books are great, but nothing beats the convenience of carrying a whole bookshelf worth of books in a device smaller than a magazine. You can touch any word and instantly get the definition, add notes and highlights, and change the size and color of the text or background for day or night reading. The days of having the backseat of my car layered with books are over for good.
I started on Amazon’s original Kindle, and upgraded to the Kindle 2 when it was released. However, the first iPad quickly became my reader of choice once I read my first book on it. It was in color, had a bigger screen, and had that Apple elegance and user experience that’s hard to describe until you actually experience it yourself. I even tried the Kindle Fire for a while, but I kept coming back to the iPad and its superior screen and user interface. The new generation of interactive media rich books and magazines for the iPad are great, and I’m sure we’re only seeing the tip of the iceberg.
I enjoy reading all sorts of books that I find interesting and stimulating, and my current iPad 2 makes carrying a large library around extremely easy. I split my time between the Kindle app and Apple’s iBooks app, but prefer the iBooks app for it’s better book management and support for the epub format (the most common format for ebooks). I also like the way it handles PDF files so I use it to store and read my growing PDF library. Most books are now usually available at both Amazon or the iTunes book store, so I usually choose the better price.
While I have not upgraded to the new iPad, photographs on the new retina display look incredible, and that may tip the scales for me at some point in the future.
Anyhow, here’s a list of what I’ve been reading over the past few months, and I’ve got a pretty long que which should keep me busy for the rest of the year.
Photographically Speaking – David duChemin – a great primer for beginners and advanced photographers alike, plus many great examples and photo critiques that help understand what makes an image work.
Writing Down the Bones -Natalie Goldberg – explore the inner workings of the creative process, and so applicable to photography.
Van Gogh – Stephen Naifeh – an in-depth biography of this influential but mentally disturbed painter, lots of great insight and historical perspective on art at the end of the 19th century. I love reading biographies, and this one is one of my favorites.
Steve Jobs – Walter Isaacson – amazing story of tis iconic thinker and his influence on all of our lives over the past 25 years.
No Death, No Fear - Thich Nhat Hanh – teacher and poet examines our concepts of death, fear, and the very nature of existence.
Would love to hear your comments and feedback, or questions in general about the iPad – thanks!
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- A real eye opener to the profound health benefits of a daily yoga practice, written by Timothy McCall, MD. While I have known about the physical and mental benefits of yoga since I started my practice, this book really explores the medical side, listing over 20 common ailments and how yoga cane help improve, and sometimes cure these issues. Everything from IBS to cancer and arthritis is covered, and I was really amazed at the depth of the research and information this book has to offer. Want a powerful quote?
– If you use a Mac for your business or work related activities, this book is a must read. I’ve been using Macs for over 20 years, and while I thought the material would be old news to me, there were many valuable things I learned. Covering everything from useful applications, to backup strategies and hardware choices, this is a great resource for all Mac users if you really want to get the most out of your system.
– while I have read many, many how-to photography books, there is always something to be learned from a different approach of perspective, and this book really provides both in abundance. This is a revised edition of the book that was originally released in 1994, and the photographs that accompany the text are beautiful and inspiring. I re-read the chapter on composition alone several times just to digest the ideas and concepts presented, and many of them will find their way into my workshops and hopefully my own work as well.
