Monday morning; I have a law assessment in the afternoon (where I have to present my case to an actual lawyer). I best prepare for exams by just relaxing and taking my time. This means breakfast and book (and tea, but that doesn't fit with the alliteration). Curl up on the sofa in the office, in my bed clothes and just read. Which is how I finished Dark Waters: Chronicle of a Story Untold by Magda Allani. I had nearly a quarter of the book left and I'd not had much chance to really sit down and indulge in the written word due to university commitments, so I took the morning to resolve both issues.
University doesn't mean I read less. It just means I read less of what I'd like to. (But I'm not reviewing every single journal article or book chapter I ever analyse.)
It was actually in my law module that it was recommended that my cohort read Dark Waters, despite not being an academic text. It was suggested we read it, not so much to explain why we operate the way we do from a science perspective, but to explain why we operate the way we do from an emotional or humanitarian perspective. (To clarify, I am studying Forensic Anthropology and the law module focuses on DVI or disaster victim identification.) That's the sort of knowledge you can't find in academic texts. Even in my own papers, that have got me emotional away from the books and journals, don't reflect the passion felt by the author; academia has no place for feelings. Academia wants ideas and notions, not from the heart, but backed up with facts and figures.
For this reason, although not this reason alone, I am glad to have read Dark Waters. I, like I suspect the majority of you reading this, have never been in a mass disaster. I've never known anyone in a mass disaster. For me, mass disasters are just part of the six o'clock news. They're just part of my degree. It happens to other people. And, if there's one thing I've learnt through studying forensics over the past three years, it's that there's no point freaking out over a corpse. They're dead now; the sights and smells might be unpleasant, but they cannot be hurt any more. My studies (and, to and extent, the culture I live in that revels in 'torture porn' films and streams the real time horrors of the Four Horsemen, war, pestilence, famine and death in to our living rooms via TVs and computers) have somewhat desensitised me to death.
Which is why reading books like this is so important. Being desensitised to death is one thing, but being desensitised to the dead is very much a different ball park. Victims of mass disasters might only be numbers to us, media consumers, but each one is a human being. Each one has a mother, a father. Possibly siblings, almost certainly friends. Lovers. It is so easy to forget this and so vital to not. Every death is a broken heart. We need to hear these stories from the survivors, from the people who knew the victims.
I am digressing. Dark Waters is about the Marchioness disaster of 1989. In the early hours of the 20th of August, the Marchioness, a small party boat, was hit and sunk by a sand dredger, the Bowbelle. Apparently, it took thirty seconds to be fully submerged. Of the 130 passengers, 51 were killed.
The book is written by Magda Allani, one of the survivors; she had been close friends with Antonio Vasconcellos, whose birthday the passengers had been celebrating. The first half of the book focuses on the accident itself and the following few weeks. The emotion is intense and raw, yet Magda manages to convey it all so poetically. It is somewhat reminiscent of the old gothic writers; the content is dark and genuinely morbid, yet somehow beautifully written. It's interesting to read about the media response; how it was all over the news for days, weeks and then... It tailed off. Survivors and family were still grieving, hurting and confused but the nation had moved on before October rolled around. As the nation forgot, it appears that, so too, the survivors were expected to. But the didn't. They couldn't.
The second half of the book is the years following. Although the first half is heart wrenching, I felt the second half was actually more poignant. A few years later, ten years later, twenty years later, and people are still hurting. Surprising? No, not when you really consider what happened. Yet I think it really just brings home the reality; there are some things in life you never, truly leave behind you. Fortunately, Magda does end the book on a positive note; she explains how she feels she is in control of her life again and is able to stop her past affecting her future but it still took twenty-two years to reach that point.
Strangely, the book mostly glosses over the controversy that I knew the Marchioness for. I suspect that this is because it did not affect Magda per se. She was a survivor; it was her friends, not family, who she lost that night (not to deny the power of friendship, only that in legal terms, friends have little involvement with an individual post death, e.g., in funerary arrangements). She did, however, question the officials's identification and feared that some of her friends were buried in incorrect plots. Although this is only briefly mentioned, she does raise the intrigued of a deeper conspiracy. This is something I genuinely did not anticipate and, I confess, that having not heard of any conspiracy surrounding the disaster in my brief research, I assumed it was just the need for an explanation formed by someone suffering PTSD.
The more I read, the more was revealed. Admittedly, the 'big, dirty secret' is... Not quite so, but what she hints at early on is not false either. There were some shady goings on and, yes, her friend had become aware of them. An assassination attempt was not, however, the reason for the collision. More shockingly, perhaps, is that it appears that most of the disaster was swept under the carpet by the Thatcherite government. It seems that it took a lot of fighting (mostly by the MAG, or Marchioness Action Group) to get even a semblance of justice for both the dead and the living. Certainly, the latter half of the book details the trial of the crew of the Bowbelle; it really is shocking. Not only had most of the crew imbibed alcohol, they did not stop to assist after they hit the Marchioness. Despite this, the Captain received very little in terms of punishment.
Over all, I felt it was a very well written book about a pretty heavy topic. Yet it did not come across as a sorrowful book; I think this was intentional on behalf of the author. Although a genuinely horrific thing to have to experience, Magda shows how it is not what defines her. It hurt, but there is a future beyond all the pain. She seems happy in the conclusion and that's quite heart warming to read. I'd certainly recommend it to anyone who has a desire to understand disasters from a human perspective, or anyone who enjoys reading autobiographies of the the exceptional rather than the famous.
On a mostly unrelated note, this is the first book I've properly read on my Kindle. I won't expand on the experience, as I've mostly covered that my previous post. I am, however, very much enjoying the use of a real paper and ink book as my reading device.
This book in facts and figures;
My rating: 7/10 (on Goodreads I gave it 3 stars out of 5, as that is the rating for 'I liked this book'. Originally I was going to give it 4, which was 'I really liked this book'. Although I feel this book was important for me to read as outlined above, I do not 'really like' reading autobiographies, the way I do fiction novels. That and, the more I read, the harsher I get with ratings.)
Pages: 250
My Format: e-Book
Published: 2011
Wednesday 22 October 2014
Tuesday 14 October 2014
To Kindle a New Love
I have finally decided to start writing, or keeping, a blog about the things I read. I say 'things' and not 'books', not because I'm a heartless crone who does not love the leaved and bound beauties, but because, as of a few weeks ago, book are no longer my sole source of reading material. No. I can now add 'e-books' to the list, shockingly enough, as I went and did the unthinkable.
I bought a Kindle.
Now, there's nothing wrong with Kindle, but, let's face it, I'm hardly pipping the gadget post of all my friends by purchasing one at such late a date. It isn't even a Paperwhite or a Touch, but instead a Kindle 4, which is now three years old. So why the sudden need to go get myself an e-ink friend, when I've lived with the precious of paper for years? It's a simple answer, really. University.
It was something I looked at doing way back when I started my BSc. You know how when you start a higher education course you get a book list? And how, if you're lucky, it will only set you back £100 (on top of the then £3.5k a year tuition fees) but, more likely, will set you back double that? And how each book is an absolute tome at one thousand pages, minimum, and if you're doing art it's full of text, yet if you're doing science it's full of indecipherable graphs? Ah, yes, the joys of academia; a library that will never be read and curse you to starve to death all in one fell swoop.
Anyway. Academic text books are big and bulky and heavy. While I do have a shelf put aside for my academic books, I realised that lugging them back and forth from the labs was going to break my back. The idea of being able to contain all this knowledge in one, slim, lighter than a swan feather 'volume' (and save pennies while doing so) appealed immensely; i.e., an e-reader. As I said, I looked at doing this when I started my BSc, but none of the textbooks I required had an e-book format; no e-books, no need for an e-reader.
So that was that.
Fast forward three years, freshly graduated and I get another dreaded book list for another course. It's only three books, but they come to over £100. Two of these books, however, have do have e-book versions; admittedly one I already purchased as an undergrad, but, once more, the notion that I can have multiple text books on my person without suffering a spinal fracture is very tempting. Thus, I turn my attention to the Godsend that is eBay and, a few weeks later, find myself with a shiny, unused Kindle 4.
I had been aiming for a Touch, 'charcoal' preferably, but at the low price of £25, I felt this was a deal I could not let slip away. Fortuitous actually, as, having seen 'graphite' in person, I find it so much more pleasing and I am in love with the page buttons. Yes, the keyboard function would be a lot quicker and simpler to use with a touchscreen, but I like being able to press a key to turn the page. It's such a satisfying press, too; soft and without a click. No substitute for a real page, but it has the added bonus of being completely one handed; something both real books (to an extent; it can be done) and any touchscreen e-readers lack. While this may not seem like a massive pull, for me, it works. When I am in labs, I can hold the Kindle in one hand and write notes or pick up and observe the specimens in my other hand. Multitasking; I am female, after all.
I like the Kindle; I've been sold on e-ink readers over LCD e-readers ever since my best friend showed me her Kindle many, many years ago, over a Costa coffee. I've just not had the need to buy one before as any money spent on a Kindle I'd rather spend on books (I am absolutely a committed bibliophile as I'm sure this blog will serve to show). I read a lot of PDFs on the Kindle without too much issue, despite having been told it can be quite difficult to read them. Maybe it's the quality of PDFs (all from Academic Journals, rather than scanned in pages), I'm not sure, but I have found that, combining the zoom and contrast controls allows me to rather comfortably read them. Again, useful for bringing articles to lectures, rather than sheaves of print outs. Some are more difficult to adjust, but, over all, not so much issue.
I do have some complaints of the Kindle though; these may have been addressed in later models, I have not had chance to compare. Kindle has this wonderful feature where you can e-mail the files straight to your device. I say wonderful because it is, it's so easy for when I'm at the Library or somewhere else without my connection cable. It is wonderful... When it works. Despite having enabled my secondary and university e-mails, my Kindle will not accept any file that is sent from any e-mail other than the one it is registered with. Yet I don't get the 'unknown sender' e-mail either. I send and... Nothing happens. Which is frustrating as I sometimes have to download the item, send it from one e-mail to another to e-mail it to my Kindle; which is almost more hassle than it's worth. It's a shame, because it's a feature I really approve of and it means I can send documents to it, whether I have it on me or not.
The other issue I have encountered is whenever I try to access my 'notes' for one of my books, the Kindle hangs. This is extremely exasperating when I'm in the labs or in lectures and, instead of being able to read the page I wanted, I'm spending several minutes trying to restart my Kindle. Proof than analogue will always be simpler than digital; I've never had to reboot a textbook. I'm not sure why it takes so long to restart; the manual says to hold the power switch down for some twenty seconds, but I'll need to repeat this action three or four times before, rather than a blank page continually refreshing, I get the loading page. It does always, eventually, reboot though. I feel like it harkens back to my BlackBerry days; when it hangs, reboot and reboot again. I'm going to try deleting my notes and trying to add them afresh, see if that makes any difference, although I doubt it will.
Despite these few problems, I'm enjoying my experience with Kindle over all. It's not a book and, for me, it will never replace a book, but as an extra tool to add to my academic arsenal it's useful. I do have a few non-academic e-books on there now. One (which I am currently reading and will likely be subject to my next blog post), Dark Waters was actually bought for my course, but more of a 'this will give you an insight in to what we do' rather than 'this is vital for understand the topic'. I was debating on whether to buy it in paperback or e-book but my mum and boyfriend convinced me to buy the e-book (I think so that I could 'make the most' of my Kindle, and save £7 while I was at it). Part of me wishes I had bought the paperback; I miss the feeling of progress as the pages on the left (assuming it's a Western book) get more numerous the closer to the end you get. Even though there is a bar at the bottom proudly stating that I am '55%' of the way through the book it just isn't the same. I don't really feel that I have got anywhere.
I've also downloaded a slew of free e-books, courtesy of a wonderful site called BookBub. I haven't read any yet; perhaps I never will but I'm a sucker for free 'books' and, it would appear, that that includes 'e-books'. They're mostly cheap, throw away thrillers and disposable fantasy novels, although some of them have very good reviews on Amazon. They'll be at the top of my 'to read' list... Although I still have some thirty real world books to fight through before hand. Still, it's fun to get the newsletters once a week and see if anything catches my eye.
I suppose, ultimately, the title is misleading. I like Kindle, I really do. I like the ease of e-ink compared to the blinding light of LCD but... A new love? No. A passing fancy perhaps, or maybe even a fling, but my true love lies with paper and print.
I bought a Kindle.
Now, there's nothing wrong with Kindle, but, let's face it, I'm hardly pipping the gadget post of all my friends by purchasing one at such late a date. It isn't even a Paperwhite or a Touch, but instead a Kindle 4, which is now three years old. So why the sudden need to go get myself an e-ink friend, when I've lived with the precious of paper for years? It's a simple answer, really. University.
It was something I looked at doing way back when I started my BSc. You know how when you start a higher education course you get a book list? And how, if you're lucky, it will only set you back £100 (on top of the then £3.5k a year tuition fees) but, more likely, will set you back double that? And how each book is an absolute tome at one thousand pages, minimum, and if you're doing art it's full of text, yet if you're doing science it's full of indecipherable graphs? Ah, yes, the joys of academia; a library that will never be read and curse you to starve to death all in one fell swoop.
Anyway. Academic text books are big and bulky and heavy. While I do have a shelf put aside for my academic books, I realised that lugging them back and forth from the labs was going to break my back. The idea of being able to contain all this knowledge in one, slim, lighter than a swan feather 'volume' (and save pennies while doing so) appealed immensely; i.e., an e-reader. As I said, I looked at doing this when I started my BSc, but none of the textbooks I required had an e-book format; no e-books, no need for an e-reader.
So that was that.
 |
| Tesco's Finest |
I had been aiming for a Touch, 'charcoal' preferably, but at the low price of £25, I felt this was a deal I could not let slip away. Fortuitous actually, as, having seen 'graphite' in person, I find it so much more pleasing and I am in love with the page buttons. Yes, the keyboard function would be a lot quicker and simpler to use with a touchscreen, but I like being able to press a key to turn the page. It's such a satisfying press, too; soft and without a click. No substitute for a real page, but it has the added bonus of being completely one handed; something both real books (to an extent; it can be done) and any touchscreen e-readers lack. While this may not seem like a massive pull, for me, it works. When I am in labs, I can hold the Kindle in one hand and write notes or pick up and observe the specimens in my other hand. Multitasking; I am female, after all.
I like the Kindle; I've been sold on e-ink readers over LCD e-readers ever since my best friend showed me her Kindle many, many years ago, over a Costa coffee. I've just not had the need to buy one before as any money spent on a Kindle I'd rather spend on books (I am absolutely a committed bibliophile as I'm sure this blog will serve to show). I read a lot of PDFs on the Kindle without too much issue, despite having been told it can be quite difficult to read them. Maybe it's the quality of PDFs (all from Academic Journals, rather than scanned in pages), I'm not sure, but I have found that, combining the zoom and contrast controls allows me to rather comfortably read them. Again, useful for bringing articles to lectures, rather than sheaves of print outs. Some are more difficult to adjust, but, over all, not so much issue.
 |
| Kindle 4, 'graphite'; MSc aide |
I do have some complaints of the Kindle though; these may have been addressed in later models, I have not had chance to compare. Kindle has this wonderful feature where you can e-mail the files straight to your device. I say wonderful because it is, it's so easy for when I'm at the Library or somewhere else without my connection cable. It is wonderful... When it works. Despite having enabled my secondary and university e-mails, my Kindle will not accept any file that is sent from any e-mail other than the one it is registered with. Yet I don't get the 'unknown sender' e-mail either. I send and... Nothing happens. Which is frustrating as I sometimes have to download the item, send it from one e-mail to another to e-mail it to my Kindle; which is almost more hassle than it's worth. It's a shame, because it's a feature I really approve of and it means I can send documents to it, whether I have it on me or not.
The other issue I have encountered is whenever I try to access my 'notes' for one of my books, the Kindle hangs. This is extremely exasperating when I'm in the labs or in lectures and, instead of being able to read the page I wanted, I'm spending several minutes trying to restart my Kindle. Proof than analogue will always be simpler than digital; I've never had to reboot a textbook. I'm not sure why it takes so long to restart; the manual says to hold the power switch down for some twenty seconds, but I'll need to repeat this action three or four times before, rather than a blank page continually refreshing, I get the loading page. It does always, eventually, reboot though. I feel like it harkens back to my BlackBerry days; when it hangs, reboot and reboot again. I'm going to try deleting my notes and trying to add them afresh, see if that makes any difference, although I doubt it will.
Despite these few problems, I'm enjoying my experience with Kindle over all. It's not a book and, for me, it will never replace a book, but as an extra tool to add to my academic arsenal it's useful. I do have a few non-academic e-books on there now. One (which I am currently reading and will likely be subject to my next blog post), Dark Waters was actually bought for my course, but more of a 'this will give you an insight in to what we do' rather than 'this is vital for understand the topic'. I was debating on whether to buy it in paperback or e-book but my mum and boyfriend convinced me to buy the e-book (I think so that I could 'make the most' of my Kindle, and save £7 while I was at it). Part of me wishes I had bought the paperback; I miss the feeling of progress as the pages on the left (assuming it's a Western book) get more numerous the closer to the end you get. Even though there is a bar at the bottom proudly stating that I am '55%' of the way through the book it just isn't the same. I don't really feel that I have got anywhere.
I've also downloaded a slew of free e-books, courtesy of a wonderful site called BookBub. I haven't read any yet; perhaps I never will but I'm a sucker for free 'books' and, it would appear, that that includes 'e-books'. They're mostly cheap, throw away thrillers and disposable fantasy novels, although some of them have very good reviews on Amazon. They'll be at the top of my 'to read' list... Although I still have some thirty real world books to fight through before hand. Still, it's fun to get the newsletters once a week and see if anything catches my eye.
I suppose, ultimately, the title is misleading. I like Kindle, I really do. I like the ease of e-ink compared to the blinding light of LCD but... A new love? No. A passing fancy perhaps, or maybe even a fling, but my true love lies with paper and print.
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