@1book140 Twitter/The Atlantic book club, #books and @GoodReads

Me (in the blue t-shirt standing)
 in Spain 2001...another innocent abroad!

Well, just in case you were wondering, I did add @1book140 to my Twitter likes and downloaded the latest selection, Mark Twains The Innocents Abroad (published 1869), onto my Kindle...it cost me $0.  Now I am reading this hilarious story about a person going on a trans-Atlantic voyage to the Holy Land in what I visualize as a tin bucket ocean liner. Only an innocent sucker would have bought the speel given by the travel agent promoting the tour in the first place and it only gets better.  Mark Twain where ever you are, was that you?

While we're talking about books...
I have two other books on the Kindle that I am reading too.  Ann Tyler is one of my favorite authors so it is no surprise that I am reading The Beginner's Goodbye. The book was chosen as one of Amazon's best for 2012. Ann Tyler's books are always a bit like reading a very grown up version of the children's book  James and the Giant Peach. If you remember Jame's parents were killed by an escaped animal from the zoo while in their car in the very first chapter. Then a giant peach began growing in the backyard of his pointy Aunt's backyard. And so it goes.  Tyler's books begin with a very real and totally possible tragedy (no zoo animals yet).  The author then carries the reader along as she follows the character step by step listening and watching as they put their life back together.  Not surprisingly, humor, dark but funny, fill the pages. Very much like Roald Dalh's children's book. The Amazon review for The Beginner's Goodbye said:

"The strangest thing about my wife's return from the dead was how other people reacted." So begins Anne Tyler's new novel, which documents the days of Aaron Woolcott after the unexpected loss of his wife, Dorothy. And as arresting as the first sentence is, it's also a bit worrying. So many clichés could follow. Will Aaron resolve his grief through poetic moonlit walks with the apparition of his lost wife? Thankfully, this is Anne Tyler. And the ghost of Dorothy, like all Tyler's characters, has a kind of rich, eccentric depth that sits opposite to the expected. Aaron's recovery after his wife's death conveys all the subtle hallmarks of Tyler's style, where a flawed man must learn how to do a very difficult thing--say a final goodbye. --Benjamin Moebius

I have also bought and downloaded A Visit from the Goon Squad and don't really know why.  I don't particularly like the characters or the way the books is written.  In fact, I probably will not wrap my mind around what I've read even after I am done.  But, I keep going with the hope that it will all finally click or there will be a character I can care about.  See, this is one of the bad things about an ebook...I miss the fly leaf and the information on the back cover.  They are like CliffNotes for the confused reader and it seems I need a lot of help. 


The @1book140 Book Club
The Twitter/The Atlantic book club (previous post here) is very interesting.  I followed the Twitter account @1book140 and found a link to The Atlantic to get directions for belonging.  It is all about the slash mark (#). For example, #1book140 takes the member tweeter to the discussion page for the club in general. #1b140_1 takes them to discussions on the first chapter in the book.  It appears they are on Chapter 2.  There is a  one rule...#1 - If a member gives the ending away or talks about Chapter 3 before the club says they can, they get themselves kicked out of the club. Pretty simple.

So there you have it...Monday in retirementland.  Rainy and cold here.

b