BookEnds

When I moved to Stamford in October 2007, I didn’t even bother to buy a TV. The TV my roommate owned at my last apartment in Brooklyn went mostly unused for the three years I lived there — save for our religious viewing of The Sopranos final season — and I realized I just didn’t need one. We didn’t have cable and the reception was poor, so nearly every show I cared about watching I watched on my computer, usually for free, anyway (though not every one). The picture was clear, and my computer monitor was almost as big as a small television screen. I could use the computer as a radio and DVD player as well. It was almost all I needed.

But while I didn’t buy a TV, I did buy two bookshelves, both of which were overflowing almost immediately. A computer can replace nearly every source of entertainment for me, but I don’t think I will ever get used to reading books on a device. For me, nothing can replace the heft, even if it’s annoying to constantly shift my position so that I don’t get tired holding a particularly weighty one up. Nothing can replace the slightly musty smell of an older book borrowed from a library. Mostly, though, I can’t read my computer on my couch. Sure, there are devices with which I could recline. But it doesn’t seem as cozy.

Not only do I read voraciously, but I talk about what I’m reading nearly all the time. I listen for new books to be mentioned on radio talk shows. I read book reviews. And I keep up with everything I want to read and everything my friends are reading on a social networking website called goodreads.

Which brings us to the one area where my love of reading and love of computers can come together; talking about books. So I thought, why don’t I start a conversation with the entire town? On BookEnds, you’ll see staff members from The Advocate and other Connecticut Media Group newspapers in the area — Greenwich Time, The News-Times, and the Connecticut Post — writing about the books they’re reading, however they’re reading them. We’ll have an ongoing discussion about our book selection for the month, the first of which will be Selena Roberts’s “A-Rod: The Many Lives of Alex Rodriguez”. And we’ll be a source for book news and book recommendations.

Welcome. And stay tuned.