MobileRead October 2012 Run-Off Vote

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by fantasyfan

Calibre offers an internet ebook search facility which seems fairly comprehensive and is customizable.

Interesting. Unfortunately, unless I'm missed something (which is always a possibility), there's no way to limit the searches to only ebooks. Barnes & Noble, from the example below, seem to have the book in only in paperback and hardcover. Smashwords and Amazon aren't mentioned at all.

[fantasyfan]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

Interesting. Unfortunately, unless I'm missed something (which is always a possibility), there's no way to limit the searches to only ebooks. Barnes & Noble, from the example below, seem to have the book in only in paperback and hardcover. Smashwords and Amazon aren't mentioned at all.

When I click on "Get Books" in the Calibre toolbar, I get a drop down menu which gives the following choices:

Search for ebooks
Search for this author
Search for this title
Search for this book

Below that is another choice: "Stores" and "Choose stores".

I always use "Search for ebooks" which also provides DRM information.

A problem that can occur is that not only the title of the requested ebook will be given but also similar titles of different books. Maybe this could be solved by putting the title in Quotation marks, but I usually just wade through the given choices.

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by fantasyfan

...I always use "Search for ebooks" which also provides DRM information....

I didn't notice that the first search option said "Search for ebooks" but that's what I did and got the results you see in the attachment to post 31. The calibre search tool appears to be useful, but far from perfect. I do like that it's the only one I know of that tells whether the book is infected with DRM or not. And again, even though Amazon and Smashwords were selected, no results were returned even though both stores carry it.

[Latinandgreek]

I've made my vote. It looks like it will be an interesting read this month, either way.

[fantasyfan]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

I didn't notice that the first search option said "Search for ebooks" but that's what I did and got the results you see in the attachment to post 31. The calibre search tool appears to be useful, but far from perfect. I do like that it's the only one I know of that tells whether the book is infected with DRM or not. And again, even though Amazon and Smashwords were selected, no results were returned even though both stores carry it.

I see what you mean. I tried the first time and I got what you did; then I re-entered the search terms, tried again, and this time got a Kindle DRM free Amazon edition for $3.68.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0065558GU/?tag=josbl0e-cpb-20

i honestly don't know why that happened.

[JSWolf]

Whoever posted the description of Carmilla lost a vote by comparing it to Dracula. Dracula was so not scary and in a lot of places rather dull. Even if its the better of the two choices, just the fact that it's compared is a downside to voting for it. Bad form whoever put up the description.

[WT Sharpe]

I think Dracula is a wonderful book. It's creates a creepy atmosphere that has rarely been equaled. Fast moving it isn't, and there are no explosions or car chases, but the mood it evokes is chilling and spine-tingling.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

I think Dracula is a wonderful book. It's creates a creepy atmosphere that has rarely been equaled. Fast moving it isn't, and there are no explosions or car chases, but the mood it evokes is chilling and spine-tingling.

[Dracula[/i] was not scary in the least. It read like a bunch of pen-pals sending letters to each other.

[Dazrin]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Whoever posted the description of Carmilla lost a vote by comparing it to Dracula. Dracula was so not scary and in a lot of places rather dull. Even if its the better of the two choices, just the fact that it's compared is a downside to voting for it. Bad form whoever put up the description.

Carmilla got an extra vote because of this though, so it averages out. I wasn't going to vote (most of the book club books haven't interested me), but wanted to see what your point was and this one does, so ...

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

[Dracula[/i] was not scary in the least. It read like a bunch of pen-pals sending letters to each other.

Have you ever been impressed by anything written prior to the advent of color TV?

[caleb72]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Whoever posted the description of Carmilla lost a vote by comparing it to Dracula. Dracula was so not scary and in a lot of places rather dull. Even if its the better of the two choices, just the fact that it's compared is a downside to voting for it. Bad form whoever put up the description.

Actually the thing that reeled me in was that it pre-dated Dracula and was possibly a strong influence on its creation.

I haven't read Dracula and I'm not sure I'm particularly interested, but I am interested in Carmilla.

[Kindoll]

Originally Posted by caleb72

Actually the thing that reeled me in was that it pre-dated Dracula and was possibly a strong influence on its creation.

I haven't read Dracula and I'm not sure I'm particularly interested, but I am interested in Carmilla.

I totally agree with your post.

I too have not read Dracula but am very interested in reading Carmilla.

[Hamlet53]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

I think Dracula is a wonderful book. It's creates a creepy atmosphere that has rarely been equaled. Fast moving it isn't, and there are no explosions or car chases, but the mood it evokes is chilling and spine-tingling.

Somehow I had managed to never read Dracula, something I am correcting at the moment. I agree with what you say and actually like the way the dread is actually increasing among characters that initially have no inkling. I had of course seen many of the various films based [sometimes quite loosely] on the book. Only the 1922 silent film Nosferatu really sticks close to the book and creates it's atmosphere on film. For what it is worth I usually am not interested in most novels in the horror genre, mainly because I have difficulty being scared by things that I know can't happen or do not exist, the supernatural. But as I say I am enjoying Bram Stoker's book for how it creates the time it was set in.



This is off topic, but since Bram Stoker's Dracula came up . . . Interesting article in the latest issue of Smithsonian Magazine on the The Great New England Vampire Panic. Lest it be thought that this was a companion to the Salem Witch Trials, this vampire panic extended into the late 19th Century.

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

Have you ever been impressed by anything written prior to the advent of color TV?

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

Have you ever been impressed by anything written prior to the advent of color TV?

Yep. H.G. Wells wrote some very good books.

[WT Sharpe]

And it's Grave Robbers Wanted (No Experience Necessary) by Jeff Strand by a landslide.

Opps, I mean Carmilla by J. Sheridan LeFanu. No matter; I've already started both and as they're fairly short, you could do worse than to do the same. Carmilla is the one I would have voted for had my vote become necessary, but having delved into both, Grave Robbers Wanted seems to be the more entertaining. It's a mystery/thriller with more than a bit of the slasher genre thrown in but redeemed by the humor and one-liners of the protagonist, Andrew Mayhem. Carmilla is the one we will be discussing, but you may want to add Grave Robbers Wanted to your reading list.