Posts Tagged “02138”

As you may know, the first rule of my book club is, well, I can’t tell you the first rule.  One of the other rules is, when it’s your turn, you pick the book and that’s the book.  No discussion, voting or appeals are needed.  Sure, there’s sometimes some friendly wrangling, but when push comes to shove, we read what is chosen for us.  Last month, it was a lesser-known early work by Herman Melville, Mardi, and a Voyage Thither.  The relative obscurity of this work provided some challenges and opportunities, as it’s pretty much out of print, but also out of copyright.

Having exhausted the obvious first choices of public libraries and used bookstores and come up empty, I decided to see what else was out there.  Regular and online bookstores had or could order the book, but at 300+ pages each for two volumes, I thought this might finally be the time to look into electronic readers.  The idea of carrying hundreds of books around in a few ounces of electronics never appealed much to me, but the idea of carrying around one very large book in a smaller form factor was starting to make me think again.

Kindle, Nook, iPod, iPad, PC – no shortage of reading devices, each covered plenty well by pundits worthier than I.  But what about the media itself?  It turns out that there’s something called Project Guternberg, a collection of free downloadable ebooks, generally ones that have landed in the public domain after their copyrights expired.  There’s also Google Books of course, where you can read but not generally download books.  Reading books on a 5 pound laptop wasn’t the answer I was looking for.

After some poking around, I found what I thought would be a terrible solution, but the price was right.  I downloaded the free Mobipocket reader for my phone and picked up the Melville at Project Guternberg.

As it turned out, I read 350 pages of turgid 19th Century prose a few pages at a time on my two-train commute over the course of a month or so.  It wasn’t ideal, but it was certainly convenient.  I could read with one hand while holding on for dear life with the other.  I didn’t have to worry about losing my place and even in a very crowded train, the device was small enough that I didn’t worry about elbowing fellow passengers while using it, and it was easy to slip back into a pocket without wrangling a book or larger device into and out of a bag or case.

I wondered if there was hope for paper.  And then I met Paige.

In the back of the Harvard Bookstore is a Rube Goldberg contraption consisting of two different printers, a couple of computers and a clear plastic box containing some very sharp blades and pot of boiling hot glue.  It’s called Paige M. Gutenberg.  Get it?  It’s a book machine.  In goes paper, ink, glue and a digital file, and out comes a perfect-bound book in a couple of minutes.  It’s a wacky marriage of cyber- and steampunk. You can smell the glue when you stand near it. I had to try it.

After some consultation with the staff, I learned that you first have to select (which generally means buy) the digital file from a variety of sources, and then once the machine is warmed up, the printing and binding takes just a few minutes.  Unfortunately, for whatever reason, the files of Mardi were as costly, perhaps more so, than the pre-printed books.  But in the spirit of investigation, I paid $30 for volume two and watched Paige crank it out.  The print quality was great and the paper stock pleasant.  The cover (also printed on the spot with a different printer on different stock) was a little on the cheap side, and the binding was not quite perfect perfect binding.

All in all, if you really need it right away or it’s out of print, this is a great thing. But I fear it’s years late and more than a few dollars short in holding back ebooks.  Sure, it makes high(ish) quality printing and binding on demand available to small-time authors or artists, but even a five minute wait at a bookstore compares poorly with near-instant delivery to a computer or handheld device.  And if you insist on paper, you can often get cheaper and higher quality books shipped in a few days – even same day in some cities – from the giants of ecommerce.

Still, I’m glad there are options, especially because those options are evidence of interest in the business of publishing which means people are still reading, and that’s good.

Will Gilson of Garden at the Cellar fills spiced donuts with duck liver mousse at the Flavors of Fall benefit for Second Chances, held at Regattabar at the Charles Hotel.

What have you done today that’s as awesome as that?  How about making a donation of clothes or cash to Second Chances, an organization that provides people in need with clothing?

Not that long ago, I used to travel a lot for work, it seemed I was never home.  Occasionally I would join newoligarch for “neighborhood patrol” wherein we would walk around our neighborhoods, taking conscious note of stores opening and closing, construction, homes for sale, and other changes that can pass you by when you’re out of town.

In that spirit, I present some local square updates:

1. Davis Square

The shell of CD Spins didn’t have much time to get cold before a hermit crab of a new business moved in.  They don’t quite have all the signage yet, but La Chic Boutique is definitely open for business at 235 Elm Street.  It’s a fashion consignment shop that also carries (or aspires to carry) according to their literature (abridged), “Hummels, Swarovski Crystal, Frankoma, Hobnail, Lunchboxes, Weathervanes, Transformers, Acoustic Research, Duck Decoys, Doorstops, Microscopes, Old Tube Radios, Ambrotypes, Tiffany Lamps, Folk Art” and more.

2. Harvard and Davis

I had blogged briefly on Bowl & Board earlier.  This bit from NPR makes it sound like things are even worse, and the Globe also mentions their exodus from Harvard Square.  I went back and bought that cutting board like I was talking about.  I hope that little bit helps them some. It’s a nice foil to the granite counters in limeduck kitchen stadium.

3. Harvard Square

Crema cafe was mentioned in the Globe piece above as a sign of life and business in the square, and I’ve been tardy in visiting.  Professor M lured me there yesterday and I had a double espresso while she enjoyed mint tea and an eggplant sandwich.  The place was packed but still relatively calm.  My espresso was good but not outstanding, having a bit of a sour tang.  The eggplant was crisp, with entertainingly stretchy cheese and excellent (house made?) bread.

There’s still life in these old squares yet.

I met up with L after work one day last week and we dropped in to Wrapro, a newish Lebanese falafel and wrap place on Mass ave between Porter and Harvard.  I’d been meaning to check it out for a while.  The place is modern (IKEA furnished if I don’t miss my guess) and clean, with a large case of baklava and other sweets on the counter and slowly spinning shwarmas behind it.

We ordered up a vegetarian platter and the special, pumpkin kebbee (I’m more used to seeing it with meat and spelled kibbeh)  The platter contained some falafel, grape leaves, tabouleh and hummus with bread on the side.  Not terribly photogenic but awfully tasty.

I’ve talked before about having a soft spot or a sweet tooth for pumpkin, so I was extra happy to find a vegetarian version of my favorite kibbeh and delighted to find it with pumpkin.  I don’t really think of pumpkin as something you substitute in for meat like you might with mushrooms for example, but it worked well.  The sweet pumpkin matched up well with the cinnamon and bulgur without being cloying.  The texture was maybe a little mushier than I would have liked, but it was crisp on the outside and moist on the inside.  I have no idea how close it is to Wrapro’s, but here’s a recipe for pumpkin kibbeh.

I plan to return and fully evaluate the falafel and check out the baba too.