Hey!! Let's get some action going! What are we reading?

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I have the ePub of The Dragon Keeper and it has section breaks. The formatting is not as bad as some I've seen.

Oh, that's interesting. A failure in the conversion to Kindle/Mobipocket format then. (& no proof-reading of the Kindle version.)

[thinkpad]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Oh, that's interesting. A failure in the conversion to Kindle/Mobipocket format then. (& no proof-reading of the Kindle version.)

It's astonishing that they haven't corrected it. One would think that it would be simple to run a regular expression on the caps-lock letters to correct the error.

[Rumpelteazer]

I've been hearing so many good things about Sandman Slim by Richard Kaldrey I've decided to buy it too only to find out I can't because of geo restrictions. I send the author an email asking if a European release is planned.

[thinkpad]

Once again I wonder how this geo-restriction benefits the author I've been told that it's the authors that wishes to cut deals with different publishers for different countries. But when an author isn't available for a certain country I fail to see how this is beneficiary.

[ould]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

That a nice thing that Library Thing does for you. Every now and then I check it to see what Trek books I haven't read yet and and other series that I have gaps in.

BOb

I wasn't aware LibraryThing did this. How does this work or are you just manually checking? Might be a reason to switch back to LibraryThing if it can do this automatically, I am always forgetting to check if my favourite authors have new books. It sounds like FictFact that the OP mentioned does this automagically.

Kevin

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by dreams

My sis-in-law just loaned me Janet Evanovich's Wicked Appetite. I have only read a few pages, and it hasn't grabbed me yet, although she loved it.

I love a lot of Evanovich's work, but I have started kind of avoiding or putting off reading her latest even in her series. The series isn't GOING anywhere except circles and the other stuff...some of it is really quite good, but it's not consistent! Let us know about Wicked. I'm only going to read them on recommendations!

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by thinkpadx

Once again I wonder how this geo-restriction benefits the author I've been told that it's the authors that wishes to cut deals with different publishers for different countries. But when an author isn't available for a certain country I fail to see how this is beneficiary.

While it is ONLY of benefit IF the author sells the foreign rights, the reason is that the PAYOUT for the author is much higher for foreign rights than domestic. WHY this is, I have no idea. It's possible that that the upfront agreement pays out more because the book has already reached a certain level of success so the foreign market feels comfortable offering more. In this day and age, I think it probably hurts the majority of authors more than it helps. You have to have a top agent who has the right contacts to get a foreign deal and that agent has to bust behind to get the various deals.

In this age, it would be VASTLY smarter/easier to make the ebook available. The problem, of course is that most ebooks START in the US market and if the book STARTS here, it's hard to georestrict the ebook here and not elsewhere (and the US company is going to control the US e-rights so the author can't just make it available...)

M

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Next: Something I bought when it was on offer (less than £1) back in February 2009. Use of Weapons by Iain M. Banks.

Well. The writing is good. And I like some of the concepts. But I couldn't believe the central character. I am interested in reading some more of his "Culture" novels eventually, but I'm not sure when.

Now for Transgalactic by A E Van Vogt — a collection of novels or novellas edited by Eric Flint and David Drake. I bought this back in April 2006, but I don't think I ever got around to reading it. It should be fun and interesting.

[lilac_jive]

Originally Posted by naql

I just finished Island of the Lost: Shipwrecked at the Edge of the World by Joan Druett. Great book about a shipwrecked crew surviving over a year on a subantarctic island in the Auckland chain. It is amazing what those men went through and how they persevered.

I'm starting Bob Dylan in America by Sean Wilentz. Picked it up after seeing the author on The Colbert Report.

Island of the Lost sounds really good, I will have to check it out. If you liked that, I highly recommend "In the Heart of the Sea" by Nathaniel Philbrick. Excellent book. It's about the sinking of the Whaleship Essex (which inspired Moby Dick) and the survival of themen for 90 days in the Pacific.

[FlorenceArt]

Originally Posted by ould

I wasn't aware LibraryThing did this. How does this work or are you just manually checking? Might be a reason to switch back to LibraryThing if it can do this automatically, I am always forgetting to check if my favourite authors have new books. It sounds like FictFact that the OP mentioned does this automagically.

Kevin

When you display a list of books on LibraryThing, including the list of books in a series, it shows a check-mark next to the books you have in your library. It's very easy to see which ones you have read and which ones you haven't. I wish I could do that for Terry Pratchett's books, I read most of them before I was on LibraryThing, and now I can't figure out which ones I haven't read.

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by ould

I wasn't aware LibraryThing did this. How does this work or are you just manually checking? Might be a reason to switch back to LibraryThing if it can do this automatically, I am always forgetting to check if my favourite authors have new books. It sounds like FictFact that the OP mentioned does this automagically.

Well... Florence answered it for you:

Originally Posted by FlorenceArt

When you display a list of books on LibraryThing, including the list of books in a series, it shows a check-mark next to the books you have in your library. It's very easy to see which ones you have read and which ones you haven't. I wish I could do that for Terry Pratchett's books, I read most of them before I was on LibraryThing, and now I can't figure out which ones I haven't read.

And here is a print screen of a small part of my series list page.



BOb

[poohbear_nc]

Just finished two very different mysteries by Georgette Heyer.

Footsteps in the Dark - if I were given this book without the author's name on it I would have sworn it was written by Mary Roberts Rinehart! Same light romantic style with melodramatic villains, etc.

Penhallow - an Agatha Christie style mystery grafted onto a historical romance plotline - old tyrant who refuses to die ruining his adult children's lives, dies after overindulging in dinner, everyone suspects everyone else. Almost the exact plotline setup as in Ngaio Marsh's "Final Curtain" as well.

Both enjoyable reads.

[Latinandgreek]

I really enjoyed Mistborn: The Final Empire (I warmly recommend it to fantasy lovers!), and I've already started reading Mistborn: The Wall of Ascension.

[jgaiser]

An amazingly good reading month. Finished 8 novels and 3 short stories. Maybe i should try for 100 books a year next year...

Latest book finished was "Sandman Slim" by Richard Kadrey. Not sure it would be everyone's cup of tea, but Oh My...

One of my first Urban Fantasy books and this is a good one. A snarky anti-hero who has spent the last 11 years in Hell and is back in L.A. to revenge is girlfriends death. Magic, Angels, Demons, Homeland Security agents. Who could ask for more?

Now I need to decide if I want to buy the next in the series for the Kindle (at more than the paperback price) or try to find a copy at my favorite local used book dealer.

[lilac_jive]

I'm reading "Claimed by a Scottish Lord" by Melody Thomas and I'm having a hard time finishing it. Not sure what happened there, her other books are fun and light...this one is not. Bleh.