Books Whats everyone reading atm?

[Rulke]

The Left Hand of God - Pal Hoffman, really enjoying it so far abuot 3/4's of the way through.

Finished The Magicians Apprentice - Trudi Canavan (stand alone(ish) prequel to the Magicians Guild trilogy)

Personally I though it was horrible, I felt no attachment to any of the characters, and she seemed to kill important people off without so much as an explanation or any fall out from their deaths. There was indepth chapters on people who had no real need to be mentioned in the story at all, and after it had finished I didn't have a fooking clue what she had been smoking while writing it.

It was meant to give me an insight into how the guild was formed, and to be honest I could have imagined it better than the two sentences I got from her explaining it.

It felt rushed and I was left very unhappy!, because the guild trilogy had been really interesting and I am now dubious about her new follow on books from said trilogy!

Thank you!

I loathe her books, such derivative drivel but they seem really popular for some reason

 

[nath]

Argh. Where's my Kindle 3??

:\

 

[Deebs]

Thanks for the tip, they sound exactly my kind of thing.

cHodAX,

Also go read the Conn Iggulden books, he's done 2 trilogies, the first is about the life of Julius Caesar, the 2nd, Genghis Khan. Bloody brilliant and the author is well respected.

Conn Iggulden » Home

 

[gmloki]

Just finished American Gods by Neil Gaiman. Nice bit of easy reading over the Holidays. Now moving onto Consider Phlebas by Iain Rankin

 

[DaGaffer]

Just finished American Gods by Neil Gaiman. Nice bit of easy reading over the Holidays. Now moving onto Consider Phlebas by Iain Rankin

You mean Ian M. Banks

 

[ford prefect]

Argh. Where's my Kindle 3??

:\

I love my Kindle

 

[Scouse]

Really? I mean, more than holding a thing made out of paper, with pages?

 

[ford prefect]

Really? I mean, more than holding a thing made out of paper, with pages?

I read a lot. I have Aspergers Syndrome, which often causes insomnia and reading is one of my Aspie obsessions. On top of that with work I often spend a lot of time sat around waiting for people to finish their jobs before I can carry out mine, so my Kindle goes everywhere with me.

I also read two or three books every week, so the Kindle is exceptionally handy. To be honest with the e-ink screen you tend to forget it isn't a book after a while too.

 

[gmloki]

You mean Ian M. Banks

Yeah thats the fella

 

[nath]

I love my Kindle

What version do you have? Oh, and do you know any good sites for downloading some free out of copyright books? So far I've found
Free eBooks at Planet eBook - Classic Novels and Literature
Internet Archive: Free Movies, Music, Books & Wayback Machine
Welcome to Open Library! (Open Library)
Free eBooks by Project Gutenberg
ManyBooks.net - Ad-free eBooks for your iPad, smartphone, or eBook reader

Really? I mean, more than holding a thing made out of paper, with pages?

I love actual books, they're great but there's so many cool things about the kindle. One of which I'm particularly looking forward to is reading articles and blogs online with it. So many times I've come across a decent article online that I find a massive chore to read because it's on a screen. The kindle screen is perfect for that.

 

[ford prefect]

What version do you have? Oh, and do you know any good sites for downloading some free out of copyright books? So far I've found
Free eBooks at Planet eBook - Classic Novels and Literature
Internet Archive: Free Movies, Music, Books & Wayback Machine
Welcome to Open Library! (Open Library)
Free eBooks by Project Gutenberg
ManyBooks.net - Ad-free eBooks for your iPad, smartphone, or eBook reader



I love actual books, they're great but there's so many cool things about the kindle. One of which I'm particularly looking forward to is reading articles and blogs online with it. So many times I've come across a decent article online that I find a massive chore to read because it's on a screen. The kindle screen is perfect for that.

I have a Kindle 2. Kindle 3 doesn't bring enough to warrant an upgrade yet. Kindle 2 isn't bad, it has roughly a month battery life from a two hour charge and the screen looks great. The keyboard is a bit crap, but then I hardly ever use it.

Amazon has a vast range of copyright free books for nothing now, I have over a hundred on mine, but books on Kindle are usually 60-80% cheaper than the paper versions. There are still a lot of books that aren't available, but that will change over the next couple of years, they add hundreds every week. If you have a kindle enabled account, if a book isn't available, amazon has a "Want this on kindle" button, which apparently pressures that publisher into getting off its backside.

Blogs look alright on the kindle for the most part (and whispernet is a great idea), but having said that the Kindle's Browser is VERY basic at the moment. I daresay it will be upgraded eventually, but Amazon don't rush out upgrades. There have been rumours of a Kindle App store for a while too, but as far as I know they only have a few apps in beta, and only available in the US atm.

Text to speech is still experimental too, but the voices are quite a bit better than microsoft sam, but it still makes a few annoying mistakes.

It will be a few years yet until we get colour e-readers, but amazon recently bought out a company, forget the name which is experimenting with an screen that uses coloured oils with metal particulates in, which should give a similar battery life and a colour display in the future. In the meantime e-ink is great

 

[Scouse]

Think of the environement! Paper is much more friendly than heavy metals and electricity use :|


/runs from all the neocons around here...

 

[ford prefect]

Think of the environement! Paper is much more friendly than heavy metals and electricity use :|


/runs from all the neocons around here...

Stop fussing about the environment, a few more years and we may nearly have the temperature just right

 

[nath]

From the videos I've seen, the new webkit browser on the Kindle 3 is aces. I'll let you know when mine arrives. Agh, can't wait :S.

 

[georgie]

Already got your first purchase lined up, Nath.

Wheee

 

[nath]

Nice!


Uh, I mean ffs, piss off!

 

[ST^]

I have a Kindle on the way. Never been much of a reader -- I have only voluntarily read three books in the last 10 years. Any suggestions for books?

The last books I read were:

1) A funny superhero story which I really loved.
2) The Hobbit, I didn't actually like it much.
3) The Silmarillion, which I really really liked. I guess I would enjoy other epic grown-up/dark fantasy things.

I can't imagine myself liking a mystery or thriller. So, funny books, epic fantasy, sci-fi I suppose.

Cheers.

 

[cHodAX]

cHodAX,

Also go read the Conn Iggulden books, he's done 2 trilogies, the first is about the life of Julius Caesar, the 2nd, Genghis Khan. Bloody brilliant and the author is well respected.

Conn Iggulden » Home

Got them, read the Caesar ones and will be starting Genghis soon. Fantastic writer. Also had some books arrive that were recommended in my 'Red Storm Rising' thread in OT, will do some mini reviews on them as I make my way through. After that it will be the brilliant Alexander the Great books by David Gemmell.

Gonna be a busy boy for a while.

 

[cHodAX]

I can't imagine myself liking a mystery or thriller. So, funny books, epic fantasy, sci-fi I suppose.

Cheers.

'Saga of Seven Suns' is good sci-fi and 7 books in total so pretty epic, Bernard Cornwell's books about King Arthur are exceptional as well.

 

[ST^]

'Saga of Seven Suns' is good sci-fi and 7 books in total so pretty epic, Bernard Cornwell's books about King Arthur are exceptional as well.

Well by epic I don't mean long. More like huge battles and very powerful people/creatures and all that malarky But I'll look it up, thank you.

 

[Deebs]

Got them, read the Caesar ones and will be starting Genghis soon. Fantastic writer. Also had some books arrive that were recommended in my 'Red Storm Rising' thread in OT, will do some mini reviews on them as I make my way through. After that it will be the brilliant Alexander the Great books by David Gemmell.

Gonna be a busy boy for a while.

OOh, I shall look into those tomorrow and possibly order them. The Scarrow books are bloody hard to put down.

 

[Ch3tan]

Well by epic I don't mean long. More like huge battles and very powerful people/creatures and all that malarky But I'll look it up, thank you.

The Mazalan books. Truly epic in all senses of the word.

 

[Lazarus]

just finished "Watcher of the Dead" by JVJones (part of the Sword of Shadows)

fairly good but now need to wait for the next book in the series.

 

[cHodAX]

The Mazalan books. Truly epic in all senses of the word.

Good man, will have a look at those.

This might be the best thread on the entire forum.

 

[Scouse]

You said Sci Fi so I advise Isacc Azimov's Foundation. Or if you're after Epic with more of a fantasy bent - Frank Herbert's Dune.

They're both awesomesauce.

 

[Wazzerphuk]

Currently on JG Ballard's Concrete Island

Concrete Island - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Wazzerphuk]

Currently on JG Ballard's Concrete Island

Concrete Island - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[georgie]

So good you're reading it twice.

 

[nath]

but having said that the Kindle's Browser is VERY basic at the moment.

In case you're interested, a look at the new Kindle Browser. Might be nice if they released an update to the Kindle 2 to provide this new one, but I don't imagine they'd do anything so kind.

YouTube - Kindle v. Kindle: Browser Showdown

 

[ford prefect]

In case you're interested, a look at the new Kindle Browser. Might be nice if they released an update to the Kindle 2 to provide this new one, but I don't imagine they'd do anything so kind.

YouTube - Kindle v. Kindle: Browser Showdown

I had a note through the Kindle Dev program a few weeks ago, apparently the Kindle 2 gets the webkit browser in an update pre- xmas. TBH, not something I use too often, but it is nice to be able to look things up when you are reading. WHat would be nice is if they would change the dictionary (again VERY handy feature) on mine to a UK one, but no such luck apparently