Kindle or Nook, Ipad or pulpy print: What's your reader?

I finally got the nerve to go digital.  I'm talking e-book reader.  Yes, I know.

I went to my book wall, gathered all my beauties and told them what I was about to do.  Most of them took the news pretty well, except for hardcover Hunger Games--she pulled out her quiver and bow, aimed, but I was able to talk her out of the shot.

Hardcover Shiver looked at me with his soulful wolf eyes, but I'm a cradle Catholic.  I know how to handle guilt.

Fountainhead smirked; Howard Roark went back to standing naked on the cliff.

"We'll see you again," they all said.

Amex in hand, I clicked to Amazon.  And guess what the heck ever? Temporarily Sold Out. The Kindle, all the jaunty little screens in cool graphite gray sold out until mid September.

Amazon nicely advised me to order now to reserve my place in line.

Pre-order?  Look, Amazon, it's like this: I pre-order books.  I've pre-ordered Mockingjay, anticipating rich pages set in not-too-flouncy Adobe Caslon, though I'd settle for Garamond. 

Place In line?  Maybe for Modest Mouse or Muse tickets, definitely for Radiohead (as if they'd ever) but for a Kindle?  Hmm.  Maybe karma is wagging its craggy Graveyard Book hardcover finger to reconsider.

I'm second guessing my Kindle choice--maybe the Nook or the Ipad is the reader for me. So now I wonder if you can help me.  Which e-reader do you love?

"Do you feel lucky, punk?” and other awesome misquotes.

If you're like me you love movies!  And, whilst writing a scene that was perfect only for the big Darth, I had to look up a quote from the big man in black.  This is how I remembered it:  Darth Vader telling Luke Skywalker "Luke, I am your father" is a line most movie fans will never forget ... or it would be, if it had ever been said.
The line, from The Empire Strikes Back, was never actually said and is the most misquoted line in movie history.
A poll asked over 1,500 movie fans to name their top movie misquotes with 17 percent voting for the Star Wars blunder.

Real fans will of course know that it was "No, I am your father" delivered by David Prowse in the jaw-drop moment that has been eternally misquoted since its release in 1980.

Number two comes from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs where “Magic mirror on the wall, who is the fairest one of all?” has been turned into the “Mirror, mirror on the wall…” (15 per cent).

Clint Eastwood’s most quoted one-liner "Do you feel lucky, punk?" got third place with real fans knowing it was "Do I feel lucky?' Well, do ya punk?"

Casablanca’s "Play it again, Sam" came in fourth place as the line was actually never spoken in the movie where "You played it for her, you can play it for me ... if she can stand it, I can. Play it!" was said.

Not that we’re one to argue with Hannibal Lector, but the chilling Silence of the Lambs quote in fifth position is also a lie. "Hello Clarice" was in fact more a "Good evening, Clarice"

The Top Ten Movie Misquotes were as follows:

1. “Luke, I am your father” – Star Wars V: The Empire Strikes Back (1980) (17%)
2. “Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the fairest of them all?” - Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) (15%)
3. “Do you feel lucky, punk?” - Dirty Harry (1971) (13%)
4. “Play it again, Sam” – Casablanca (1942) (12%)
5. “Hello, Clarice” – Silence of the Lambs (1991) (10%)
6. “Beam me up, Scotty!” – Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979) (9%)
7. “Frankly, Scarlett, I don't give a damn” – Gone with the Wind (1939) (7%)
8. “If you build it, they will come” – Field of Dreams (1989) (6%)
9. “I don't think we're in Kansas anymore, Toto” – The Wizard of Oz (1939) (5%)
10. “Mrs. Robinson, are you trying to seduce me?” – The Graduate (1967) (4%)

Thus and muchly, Darth is now quoted correctly in my chapter. 
Tell me, how about you?  What's your favorite movie quote of all time?

Peeking Through the Curtains with Google.

I recently moved my blog back to Blogger from WordPress; I liked WP's analytics, the ability to track the progress of your blog. Google's Analytics tool is also powerful, a useful tracking tool you can insert into your blog's HTML code. Honestly, I didn't realize that Google has such outstanding analytical reports, though I should have figured.  After all, it is Google, duh.

Analytics tracks your links from Facebook and Twitter as well as other referring sites, which is really cool.  It also provides detailed data on direct hits, or direct URL's to your blog, as well as other data you'll probably never need or use.  That's cool too.

Let's face it, if we take the time to create and maintain a blog, it's important to know from where your hits, or clicks to your blog are coming. And, unless you're Stephenie Meyer or Stephen King, you're probably doing the bloggity blog thing yourself. Like me.

Stop me if you've already heard this one, but it goes something like this: In your Google main Account Page, click on Google Analytics. This link pops up the Analytics site, but read this Google blog first; it provides step-by-step instructions on how to set up your account and how to find the HTML code snippet needed for your blog.  Then comes the scary part. Pour a nice cabernet -- Jordan 2005 is always good -- click the red wine glass twice on your computer screen and repeat after me: I can insert my own code.  I can insert my own code.

It helps to be a tad fearless of the virtual monster called HTML, but trust, it's not hard to insert Google Analytics into your website, or blog. I did it, inserted the snippet of creepy code provided by Google, right in the middle of scary HTML where Google instructed.  My blog looked the same, the earth continued to rotate; and Voilà (or if you're from Indiana, Well Lookie There): 24-hours later, precious, tangible data.

Disclaimer: Save a copy of your original blog template FIRST.  The Google blog walks you through it, and though it takes a couple of days for your trending report to cook up and boil into data there is good news:  Google Analytics really works and I added the HTML code myself.  The bad?  My tracking data/hits/visits on my new bloggity blog thing really stink; but then again, that's a different Jerry Springer Show.

What's on XM 47? Metric, Help I'm Alive.