Nitpicking

I am in the process of knocking out some quick blogs about my time in Oz as we speak, so look for those in the next few days. Funny that I spent more time there than anywhere on the trip, but have not written about it much at all. Soon to be corrected.

One reason that I haven't been writing too much lately is my new obsession. My folks got me a Kindle for Christmas and I am flat addicted. This thing is incredible. I've downloaded literally hundreds of books. Hundreds you say? Well, yes. Turns out that for authors whose works are out of copyright (Twain, Melville, Verne, etc. etc.), you can buy everything they ever wrote by one click of the Kindle. And the price is right. I picked up about a dozen authors complete works and didn't pay more than $5 for any of them. In addition to that, I took my incredible book store-complete lack of restraint and transferred it to the Kindle. As a result, I've got reading material for years already and I'm knocking through more of it everyday than anytime since I was back in college. It is wonderful.

Side note: free internet anywhere in the world. I didn't know of this huge bonus, or I would have bought one long ago and paid for it three times over from money saved from internet cafes. The web browser is basic, mostly text, and operates off of whatever cell phone reception you can get, which means the coverage area is broad. I have no idea how it can be free, but it is.

If you are a book lover -- buy one. Plain and simple. Especially if you travel at all.

So here is my brief axe to grind, whilst I read a new book on my Kindle. I bought a book by a Brit named Dennison Berwick called A Walk Along the Ganges. The concept was one that appealed to me -- his quixotic travel quest was to walk the entire length of the sacred Ganges, some 1550 or so miles, to see what he could learn about India, its people, and Hinduism. Seeing as I on a quest with a similar ground-based restrictions, I thought it would be an interesting read. And it is. He's a good writer and the tale is a good one.

My complaint? I'm only about 30% the way through the book (no pages numbers on a Kindle, so you only know a percentage of how much you have read) and the guy has taken a bus three different times already! Basically, he hadn't trained his feet and legs properly and blisters have halted him in his tracks, literally. Now I'm not claiming that going around the world without flying is any more difficult than walking 1,500 miles, but I am going to actually succeed on my particularly odd quest.

Then again, he got a book contract. Bastard.