Wednesday, June 11, 2014

A Modern American Tragedy

Book8.jpg (24768 bytes)This is a story to which NONE of my sponsored children can possibly relate, which should make me embarrassed to even admit it.

June 10 was the date when Diana Gabaldon's long-awaited Book 8 of her "Outlander" series was to be released.

The hype over this book has been mounting steadily for months in social media, with a countdown, first of weeks, then days, and then of hours, on many web sites.  The book was to be released at midnight.

I had hoped to re-read the whole series before Book 8 was out, but with no trips to Marin County to make any more, my times in the car for audio books became severely limited (the only long trips I took were to Santa Barbara and we listen to mystery books then...historical romantic fiction is not something that is going to hold Walt's attention!)

I had given up on reading the whole series again, but decided to read about the last quarter of the previous book, "Echo in the Bone" so I could remember where the plot was when the book ended.  Last night I was rushing through the old book before starting the new book, when it was released.  Around 9:30, I had the idea that while the book was being released for Kindle at midnight, it didnt say in which time zone that midnight was.

I checked Amazon, but it still had not been released.  But then an hour later, there was a post from someone on Facebook that she had just downloaded her copy, so I switched from reading to downloading and was very happy that I had the book.   I was almost finished with Book 7.  I had 2 chapters left to read...and then came that ominous warning.  My battery was about to die.

Arrrgggghhhhh!

I couldn't finish the book I was reading and couldn't start the new book.

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But I had also ordered the book as an audio book, so I went to Audible.com to see if it had released yet, but got this message:

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It was just a few minutes til midnight so I sat there waiting for midnight to come,  but as of 12:15 it still hadn't been released.

Then I realized that I can not only read book on my Kindle, but also on my iPad using the Kindle app, so I tried that and in seconds not only had Kindle downloaded "Written in My Own Heart's Blood" but it had also updated "Echo in the Bone" so that when I opened that book, it was right where I had left off on the Kindle when the batteries started to die and I could finish those last two chapters.

I had to laugh at myself at all the stuff that went on to start reading this book, and all the gadgets involved, but by 1 a.m., once I had started the new book, I was at that place where you are saying to yourself "I'll just read one more chapter and then I'll go to sleep.  I think I finally got to sleep somewhere between 1 and 2 a.m.  And I am so glad I read the end of Book 7 because Book 8 starts almost as a continuation of the final scene in Book 7. 

And then in the mornng, I downloaded the audio version so I could continue the story as I drove over to my mother's to deliver her laundry.

Don't bother me for the next several days.  I've got some reading to do.

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