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

[Peadar Ó Guilín]

I just finished the brilliant "Anathem" by Neal Stephenson and am starting "The Toymaker" by Jeremy de Quidt. Only twenty pages into this children's book, but so far, so excellent! Lots of dark universal truths.

[Wordcrasher]

American Gods by Neil Gaiman. I read it in its Italian translation years ago, but now I decided it's worth to be read in original.

[Xenophon]

Just finished "Slow Train to Arcturus" by Eric Flint and David Freer. Quite a nice hard-SF novel.

Xenophon

[pshrynk]

The Book of a Thousand Nights and a Night!

Yeah baby! Thanks Patricia!

[DixieGal]

Originally Posted by pshrynk

The Book of a Thousand Nights and a Night!

Yeah baby! Thanks Patricia!

What's it about?

[pshrynk]

Originally Posted by DixieGal

What's it about?

Oh, some story teller.

[pilotbob]

Finally finished Spin. That was a longer book than I expected. Good read but not a page turner.

Started _A Fountain Filled with Blood_. This book seems to have a weird font and turn pages slower than normal on my Kindle. I wonder why that is. Perhaps this is a "topaz" format that you have been talking about? The file extension is azw1.

BOb

[MoSo]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

Finally finished Spin. That was a longer book than I expected. Good read but not a page turner.

Started _A Fountain Filled with Blood_. This book seems to have a weird font and turn pages slower than normal on my Kindle. I wonder why that is. Perhaps this is a "topaz" format that you have been talking about? The file extension is azw1.

BOb

Definitely. I left a cranky review about the Kindle formatting, as did - was it Deb?

Likewise, I stopped reading Cherryh's Downbelow Station last night because I hated the weird paragraph pagination.

readig the latest Vicki Bliss from Elizabth Peters - now THERE is a blast from my childhood!

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by MoSo

Definitely. I left a cranky review about the Kindle formatting, as did - was it Deb?

It's hard to complain about something I've gotten for free. But, as I was reading today it also seemed that some words were missing. No, it didn't see that way... it WAS that way. The sentence would just stop in the middle, there was an emdash then it seemed like the completion of another sentence.

If I delete it and re-download it is there possibly a new version up?

BOb

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

Thanks, Jon.

I also downloaded that from Sony, after checking on reader reviews from Amazon, and it got some very high marks. The plot sounds interesting, too.

I read about 4 or 5 screens and had to force myself NOT to read it because I was currently reading 5 other books, one of them being Proust.

Don

The Surgeon starts off quite interesting. It gets you hooked to find out what just happened. And it does keep you interested. The characters are good and the places are local. I like that it takes place in Boston. I read it pretty quick.

[nekokami]

Still reading Pegasus in Space. I have the vague sense that I may have read this before, perhaps 20 years ago as a library book. I think it didn't especially grab me then, and I'm finding I'm rather indifferent to it now. Too much romance, too simplistic black-and-white problems, not enough worldbuilding, I guess.

[astra]

Originally Posted by astra

Catch-22 or A Sundial in the Grave: 1610
Catch-22 has won. About 1/5 into it. Not much fun so far.

Got 1/3 into Catch-22. One of the most boring and meaningless books I have read in the last couple of years. Gave up on it...

Started A sundial in a Grave: 1610 by Mary Gentle
It started al'right, then there were a couple of erotic moments involving perverts, made me feel so disgusted I almost puked , forced myself through the ordeal and was pleasantly surprised a bit later so far, so good.

[vivaldirules]

Originally Posted by nekokami

Still reading Pegasus in Space. I have the vague sense that I may have read this before, perhaps 20 years ago as a library book. I think it didn't especially grab me then, and I'm finding I'm rather indifferent to it now. Too much romance, too simplistic black-and-white problems, not enough worldbuilding, I guess.

I think I remember the Muppet version of this, too: Pegs in Space: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=KoGTytebuc4

[DixieGal]

I'm halfway finished reading a good one from Fictionwise yesterday, Bobby's Diner by Susan Wingate. No vulgarity and such.

Spoiler:

So far, at about the halfway point, it has drawn me in and captured my imagination. The story is told from the point-of-view of Georgette, who came to town as a drifter and fell deeply in love with Bobby, the owner of a diner and married man. It was a meeting of souls. Bobby divorced Vanessa, his wife at the time, and married Georgette, who was 25 and half his age.

The story begins with the reading of Bobby's will. He had died suddenly at the breakfast table. In his will, he leaves the diner 50/50 to both of his wives. Anger and frustration ensue.

However, at this point in my reading, two things are becoming clear: 1) Bobby's and Vanessa's marriage was not as wonderful as she had always claimed it was; and 2) Evil real estate developers want the land that the diner sits on.

I will finsh the review when I finish reading the book. I highly recommend it to anyone looking for an excellent book about everyday people just making the best of things. I can't hardly put it down.

[Elsi]

Originally Posted by Elsi

I'm currently reading:

• Finders Keepers by Linnea Sinclair (Mass Market PB)
• Daughter of the Sun by Barbara Wood (Trade PB)
• Storm Killer by Benjamin Blue (Kindle)
• High Noon by Nora Roberts (Unabridged audio)

Above posted on 24 September. As September came to an end, I read books 102-105:

• 102. Finders Keepers by Linnea Sinclair (25 Sep, MMP)
• 103. Night Life by Caitlin Kittredge (27 Sep, MMP)
• 104. Nightmare by Steven Harper (29 Sep, MMP)
• 105. Trickster by Steven Harper (29 Sep, MMP)

In September, I read only two electronic books. I'm so glad that I'm *finally* reading a book on my Kindle again. I started reading All Mortal Flesh, the fifth book in Julia Spencer-Fleming's mystery series starring Rev. Clare Fergusson and Sheriff Russ Van Alstyne. I'm still working my way through Daughter of the Sun by Barbara Wood (Trade PB), Storm Killer by Benjamin Blue (Kindle), and High Noon by Nora Roberts (Unabridged audio), but not spending a lot of time on any of them right now. I also have read about 1/2 of MotherShip, a juvenile SF novel by Tony Chandler -- bought for the Kindle from Amazon about 2 weeks ago.

Originally Posted by pilotbob

Started _A Fountain Filled with Blood_. This book seems to have a weird font and turn pages slower than normal on my Kindle. I wonder why that is. Perhaps this is a "topaz" format that you have been talking about? The file extension is azw1.

Yep -- it's a shame that the Topaz format is going to get the blame for the awful formatting in these books. Looks like no proofchecking was done after scanning & creating the books. I say "scanning" because the books contain non-text substitutions for some characters, particularly the capital 'H'. I have marked portions of the text and then compared what is on the screen with the text copied into the "My Clippings" file. If I can go figure out how to take some screen captures, I'll post something to show you what's going on. I don't know how to recommend that the publisher fix it because it goes much more deeply than just using an alternate font.