reading: into the Wild and into e-books

Into the "Wild" and into e-books

Cheryl Strayed, i first got to know her as Sugar, through her unafraid and touching advice column at the Rumpus: someone who isn't afraid to dig deeper, to head into the darkness of all our human emotions and fears and pains and questions, to try to find that spark of an answer that might help to illuminate the tangled and messed-up darkness. here's the link to the list of her columns, the 2 most current ones are Monsters and Ghosts, and You Have Arrived at the Fire - both are good places to start reading: Dear Sugar.

in February, Rumpus revealed the identity of Sugar, and also announced her forthcoming memoir: Wild - the story of her solo hike along the Pacific Crest Trail. i knew i wanted to read it, but thought i wait a bit as i just read Bill Bryson's Appalachian Trail book in April.

came last week, and with it 2 things that coincided: the resolution to give the kindle reader a second chance, after i first didn't really click with it, especially as one of its supposed advantages is that it works well outside on a sunny day, and that you can send texts to it to read. that's what i thought of again when i came across an interview with Cheryl Strayed in Time Magazine, which i printed to read. in the interview, she mentions an essay she wrote: Munro County. i printed that, too, read it, and then looked for Wild - and then saw the e-book is on offer in the German Amazon.de for a price that probably is a mistake. so i just went ahead and ordered (and also mailed the publisher).

into e-books
now Wild is on the kindle, and with it, i warmed up with reading from the screen. maybe it took a real book to make the connection. i tried with some classics and excerpts before. the only thing that i miss is the cover: it's not even included in black/white. so here an image, from Cheryl Strayed's website.

& some lines from the interview:
Time: "It must feel good to have success come at an age where you can absorb it, and just be thinking about, how do I want to challenge myself next." - Cheryl Strayed: "Of course what I really wanted for my life was to be that 25-year-old wonder kid where everyone was like, my God, so young and so talented, and she got that million dollar book deal. Thank God I didn’t get it, because I think it would not have been good for me. By the time this has happened, that Wild has had this success, I’ve been beaten down by life, I’ve been beaten down as a writer. But I also have perspective about it. I think that’s the way life really works, if we do it right, that we allow ourselves to be our resource."

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global reading challenge:
this year i am taking part in a global reading challenge. here are the other books from the series as chain of blog posts: reading challenge. or try this new mosaic which puts all on one page, including Bill Bryson's trail book: A walk in the woods and other books from around the world: books books books