Jeff
Kreider  
I'm Jeff Kreider, and was born in the late 40's, married (to Her
Majesty, Nancy) in the late 60's and am still alive in the early 21st century (who'd've
thunk). I'm a computer consultant (no, not PCs) by trade and have an on-line
bookstore, The Book Orphanage. I enjoy reading, mysteries, mostly, and going to
book signings. Also, I enjoy Yosemite and taking scenic photographs. I spent 7
years, 6 months and 3 days in the Army and was stationed at Ft Lewis, WA, Ft
Monmouth, NJ, Vietnam (Qui Nhon), Ft Dietrick, MD and Okinawa. Hated it.
After the service, I went back to school and, after a while, got
a job with Alpha Microsystems, a computer manufacture in Orange County
(California). I worked in Technical Support for most of the time, but the last
few years I worked in Training and was able to do training in England, Australia
(twice), Singapore and Malaysia. After twelve years I was laid off (on the day
Iraq
wandered into Kuwait). That's when I started Jeff Kreider, Consultant. (It
sounded much better than "unemployed").
I discovered reading in the Summer of 1993 at the tender age of
45, after getting into an on-line discussion about Jurassic Park (the film) and
what the cause of the Triceratops's sickness was (which I maintained the film
never answered). I read the book, loved it to death, and took a year to find and
read the rest of Michael Crichton's books. Since then, I've not been without a
book. Until I picked up that book, I'd read about 35 books in my whole life.
That's an average of one book every 15 months. Since then I've average between
three and four books a month (considering those I've read and those I'd listen
to on audio). I have gravitated to the more hard-boiled variety, but I have a
library of well over 3000 books of all kinds and read, to date, just over 400,
so I'm not going to restrict myself to just one genre.
Beginning in 2000, I began posting my thoughts and comments on
books and audio tapes I had done on rec.arts.mystery and, sometime later, on the
DorothyL list server. Most people would report what they've done every month and
sometimes every week, but I just don't read that fast. The link, provided below,
will get you to a portion of my web site where those reports are accessible.
There are a few things I'd like to point out, first. Usually,
these posted reports were somewhat condensed from what you'll find at this link
to my web page (I can get somewhat verbose). Also, I wouldn't, exactly, call
these "reviews". To me, the term "review" carries with it
the connotation that the reviewer can be considered a kind of
"authority" on the subject matter of the book, the author or books in
general. I make no such claim, but having "lurked" and participated on
these newsgroups since about 1995, I've came to the conclusion that, as a reader
like you, maybe that's all the "authority" I need for you to be
interested in my thoughts on a particular book. These comments contain a
description of what the book is about. I'll often say whether or not I liked the
book, but if I do, I try to say why I felt the way I did.
The basis of these reports come from notes I made upon completing
them, which I now do religiously. Initially, I just wrote down the title and
author so I'd remember which books I've read. Later on, I'd heard that some
people had problems remembering what some books they know they read were about.
So I figured it might be a good idea to write something down about the
book. Just recently, I went back and wrote up my thoughts on books I'd
done prior to the initial Slow Reader's Reports. These reports first covered
books I did since the beginning of the year 2000. I plan to do all of prior
years, eventually, but I've started with books I did in 1999. I'll be working
backwards and will add them to site as I complete each year.
I've found that the notes I kept on the books I did prior to 2000
were sometimes less than informative about what I felt about the books, so I'm
finding that I need to re-examine the book in a lot of cases to remind myself of
some details. This takes a little time.
Finally, I'm working on an index by Author and Title. As it is,
the pages are organized by the quarter in which books were read. You won't know
which books are covered until you get to the report. But, "hey",
that's all part of the mystery, isn't it? :)
You should find that going to this link will open a new window in
which you can browse around to the various quarterly reports and even get to my
own main page. To return back here, just close the window.
Here's the link: Slow
Reader's Quarterly Reports
Enjoy,
Jeff Kreider -- The Book Orphanage
REVIEWS
|
