Organic Beer Festival

We went to the North American Organic Brewer's Festival (www.naobf.org) with some friends yesterday (no -- Janel did not drink anything if you were wondering). I am not a huge fan of Organic Beers -- but we really enjoyed this beer festival. The beer was only okay -- but the "other" parts of the festival were great. It was not incredibly cramped like the winter beer festival (which is still my favorite because they have the best beers). It was not dusty like the "big" beer festival on the river-front. There were lots of places to sit and relax, shade, and a good number of little kids running around with their families. It will probably be our best-bet for beer festivals in the future (after kids show up).

My take on Oregon Beer Festivals:

• Holiday Ale Festival -- very cramped (tents on Pioneer Square); best "dark" beer festival (stouts, porters, etc)
• International Beer Festival -- small festival; good variety of beers that you don't usually see
• Oregon Brewer's Festival -- biggest summer beer festival; lots of good IPAs; dusty; not very well setup to relax with friends
• Organic Brewers Festival -- Okay beers and decent variety, great setup for relaxing with friends on a nice summer afternoon
• Spring Beer and Wine Festival -- Indoors; not the best selection -- but you get both beer and wine

Netflix for Ebooks

This year I started going to the library instead of buying books, and I have really come to realize (1) what a waste of money buying books is and (2) that public libraries are an amazing resource.

As many of you probably know, the release of the iPad (which I think is a waste of money) has caused eBook reader prices to drop like a rock (Kindle is now only $189). I really would like to be able to "rent" books (similar to netflix) on an ebook reader, but there does not seem to be any good services like this available. My library has ebooks, but the selection is pretty poor. I read that the New York Public Library was supposed to have a decent selection (and you can pay to become a member if you are out-of-state) -- but it looks pretty poor to me as well. Does anyone know of any services that provide this? I would be happy to pay a small monthly fee as long as the selection was good.