The Kansas City Public Library launched the “Destination: Anywhere” 2012 Adult Winter Reading Program on Monday, January 9, 2012. I plan to participate, although I may not read many (or any) of the suggested books. For the first time since I started following their adult reading programs, I saw non-fiction titles listed in their suggestions. I often need extra motivation to read non-fiction books, as I much prefer to escape to a place that you can’t find on any real map. I am most at home on other worlds, in other dimension or in completely imaginary places.
Of the fiction titles suggested, I now have motivation to read Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte (something I probably should have read decades ago). I am also intrigued by The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingslover, which also has a book discussion scheduled for Saturday, February 18th 2:00 p.m. at the Trails West Branch.
Whether or not I attend any of the events or read any of the books, I look forward to adding to my collection of adult reading program coffee mugs. If you don’t live in the Kansas City metropolitan area, an alternative way to participate would be through the library’s GoodReads group.
My daughter continues providing meals to her father (and I benefit as well). One of her suggested menu items happened to be stromboli. She called her boyfriend last night for the recipe, but he had a bad day at work so supper at the Moss Home quickly became leftovers. Rachelle called me later while I was out at the grocery store picking up items for today’s return of the chicken pot pie. She needed French bread to make her stromboli. I told her I needed a minimum of three to four hours to make that type of bread. I asked her if I could make some French bread on Sunday afternoon so she could make the stromboli on Monday. She agreed and eventually left to spend the evening (and night) with friends.
Monday morning, I reviewed the stromboli recipe via the King Arthur Flour web site. I placed the ingredients for the dough in my bread machine and added time to the dough cycle so that the dough would be ready for Rachelle around 4:30 p.m. I went merrily off to work and called her at 3:00 p.m. to make sure the bread machine started on time and that the dough looked like it should. She told me it looked great and smelled wonderful.
Our Stromboli looked very much like this one (sorry, I forgot to take a photo of ours)
I got home at my regular time and the stromboli was already baking in the oven on parchment paper on the pizza stone. The house smelled glorious. Within a half hour, we took the baked stromboli out of the oven and let it rest and cool for ten to fifteen minutes. I sliced it while Rachelle heated up some marinara sauce. We each enjoyed at least two slices, if not three.
Later, after we’d stuffed ourselves, Rachelle realized she should have let the stromboli rise before baking it. Neither of us had thought about that and had not allowed for that second rise time in our evening dinner planning. Next time, we’ll definitely let the stromboli rise for at least a half hour or longer. This recipe is a keeper!
I am composing this quick reference guide (or workflow or flowchart) for persons who shall remain anonymous. I plan to refer them to this page (encouraging them to bookmark it in their browser) the next time I receive yet another request for how to get an ebook transferred to their Nook.
1. Barnes & Noble Nook Books: It is not necessary to click the Download button after you purchase a Nook Book. This is tempting, especially if you are sitting at your computer, browsing through the Barnes & Noble website and not actually shopping via your Nook Color (using a wifi connection).
(a) Press the n button on your Nook Color and select the Library item.
(b) Press the Sync button in the lower left-hand corner of the screen (which looks like two arrows chasing each other in a circular pattern).
(c) Any new books you have purchased will appear after the sync completes.
2. Non-Barnes & Noble eBooks: Anything you purchase from a non-B&N retailer, even if the price is ‘free’, will most likely be ‘protected’ by DRM (digital rights management), which actively prevents you from copying the downloaded ebook file from your computer to your Nook Color. If you are lucky enough to find an ebook without DRM protection, please skip down to the last step below. Otherwise, the only approved method for transferring ebooks you legitimately purchased involves using yet another piece of software called Adobe Digital Editions. This transfer process may vary depending on the vender and assumes you have downloaded, installed and activated both your copy of Adobe Digital Editions and your device (Nook Color) in that software.
(a) Download the ebook from where you bought it and make note of the file name (in case you have trouble remembering where your computer downloads file to – usually the Downloads folder). Windows may automatically associated the downloading file with Adobe Digital Editions, which is a good thing. Let it launch ADE after it downloads the file if need be.
(b) Connect the Nook Color USB cable to your computer, then connect it to your Nook Color.
(c) ADE should now display your Nook Color device as available in the left-hand navigation pane.
(i) To add the ebook you just purchased/downloaded, select Add Library Item (or press Ctrl+O to open) from the Library menu in ADE.
(ii) Navigate to the folder where you downloaded the file (in a Windows 7 environment, you may already have a favorites item called ‘Downloads’ available).
(iii) Select the ebook and click the Open button. ADE should now display the cover of the ebook as a thumbnail in the left-hand area. Or, if your view is currently set to the List option, then new ebook will be listed by Title, Author, etc.
(iv) Click the thumbnail of the new ebook cover and drag it to your Nook Color device (listed in the left-hand navigation pane of ADE).
(d) Close ADE and safely disconnect your Nook Color from your computer.
(e) Back on your Nook Color, there are two ways to find the ebook you just transferred from your computer:
(i) Using the Library application:
(1) Open your Library and switch to the My Stuff area (last tab/button along the top).
(2) Drill down to the Digital Editions folder and click on the ebook file name you just transferred from your computer to the Nook Color.
(ii) Using Search
(1) Type the file name or title of the new ebook.
(2) Select the ebook from the search results.
3. Library eBook Lending: Most libraries also use Adobe Digital Editions to managed the ebooks you borrow. Your library may already provide you with instructions and a tutorial. I know mine did:
(c) You can use the same process described above to find the file on your Nook Color (either through the Library application or by Searching for the file name or title of the ebook).
4. Public Domain eBooks (DRM-Free): Those ebooks downloaded from Project Gutenberg or the public domain section of Feedbooks, should be DRM free and thus will not require the use of Adobe Digital Editions to copy the ebook file to your Nook Color.
(a) Download the ebook and note the file name and folder location.
(b) Connect your Nook Color to your computer.
(c) When prompted (an Autoplay dialog box should pop up), click the ‘Open folder to view files’ option.
(d) Drill down to the My Files folder on your Nook Color and open the Books subfolder.
(e) In a separate Windows Explorer window, find the ebook file and Copy it (Ctrl+C).
(f) Return to the Nook Color window that should be open to the Books subfolder of the My Files folder and Paste (Ctrl+V).
(g) Close all Windows Explorer windows and safely disconnect your Nook Color from your computer.
(h) You can use the same process described above to find the file on your Nook Color (either through the Library application or by Searching for the file name or title of the ebook).
To manage all your DRM-free ebooks, I would suggest using Calibre, an open source software package. I give you fair warning, however, that Calibre is not as easy to use as it could be, but I have hopes that the user interface will improve with each update. I only recommend Calibre to people who are not technology challenged.
The Kansas City Public Library launched the “Destination: Anywhere” 2012 Adult Winter Reading Program on Monday, January 9, 2012. I plan to participate, although I may not read many (or any) of the suggested books. For the first time since I started following their adult reading programs, I saw non-fiction titles listed in their suggestions. I often need extra motivation to read non-fiction books, as I much prefer to escape to a place that you can’t find on any real map. I am most at home on other worlds, in other dimension or in completely imaginary places.
Of the fiction titles suggested, I now have motivation to read Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte (something I probably should have read decades ago). I am also intrigued by The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingslover, which also has a book discussion scheduled for Saturday, February 18th 2:00 p.m. at the Trails West Branch.
Of the non-fiction titles suggested, I might try Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China by Jung Chang. Then I could try either Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer or The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson (the latter has a book discussion scheduled for Saturday, January 28th 11:00 a.m. at the Central Library which I could easily attend).
