Any good book recommendation

[JSWolf]

Supposedly Sony has a thrid party doing all the formatting of books for the Connect store and they charge to have it done. I can make better looking books then Sony sells. This third party is doing one heck of a poor job. The margins are too large. The word spacing is too large. The small print is the wrong size. When you switch the font size to medium, it just makes it look a mess.

I use some of my credit to purchase the bundle from author R. A. Salvatore. These are books from Ballentine. Now given that you have a big name publisher, you'd think the books would be formatted nicely. There are a number of problems. I'll just talk about the first two books.
Book #1:
The cover is just some awful generic cover. I don't even get the cover that is shown on the website.
There is supposed to be an illustrated map. It's not there. There is the mention of the map in the back of the book as it gives credit for it.
The margins are huge. Great waste of screen space.
The spacing between the words is silly. it actually looks sort of like a fix double space between each word.
Because of the margins and word spacing, I am going to use more battery life to read this then I should.
The small size is too small to read comfortably. medium is also probably too small for most. Now if you go to large, it just looks a mess with the word spacing and margins. And for some, it's still going to be too small.

Book 2: Same problems except...
There is a map. That's good right? Wrong. The map is in portrait and given the large margins, the map comes out too small to see clearly. The map should have been in landscape at the full resolution and there would have been no problem at all.

The cover issue is not an issue for all books. But it is for the ones I purchased. The margins and word spacing are even poor on the sample books Sony gives on the reader. Not all books have such a tiny font as the purchased books. Vanguard (one of the supplied books) should be ok for most to read at large and Medium looks ok for most people.

Anyway, to sum up, I can use the tools found at https://www.mobileread.com and format a book to look like a book, not like a joke. And I do. I've taken some of the ebook I've previously purchased and converted them to LRF and they look good. Small margins, normal word spacing, decent font sizing. So what we need to do is get going and let Sony know we won't take this from them. If this is how they want their books to look, then they need to stop and watch their sales drop as readers come out that support formats that are used in ways as to not look silly.

[KaiGoth]

Personally, I don't plan on buying much from Connect, but that is mainly due to the fact that I don't like DRM. I will buy a few, but not many. In order to get the best value for my credit and any purchases I make though, I buy bundles. This usually makes each book around $4-$5. I refuse to buy any books at the same or higher price than 20% off retail since you can get that at any local bookstore with a club card.

So my recommendation would be anything in the bundled section!

[Acataloger]

CONNECT store is offering a bundle of five books in Daniel Silva's series about Gabriel Allon.

Here is a
review of A Death in Vienna, third in the series:

From Publishers Weekly
Silva completes his cycle of three interconnected novels (The English Assassin; The Confessor) dealing with "the unfinished business of the Holocaust" with this superbly crafted narrative of espionage and foreign intrigue. During the later stages of WWII, Sturmbannführer Erich Radek's job was to erase all evidence of the Holocaust. Radek, now known as Ludwig Vogel, is chairman of the Danube Valley Trade and Investment Corporation and lives quietly in Vienna. A bombing at the Austrian Wartime Claims and Inquiries office leaves chief investigator Eli Lavon near death. Undercover Mossad agent Gabriel Allon, protagonist of the two previous novels, is ordered by Israeli spymaster Ari Shamron to ferret out the perpetrator. Allon is reluctant-he's working as an art restorer on one of Bellini's great altarpieces in Venice-but Eli is an old friend from the secret service, and duty calls. The case becomes personal when Allon, reading his mother's account of her time in the camps "I will not tell all the things I saw. I cannot. I owe this much to the dead" discovers that not only was Radek a sadistic monster, his mother was very nearly murdered by him. The chase is long and complex as agents from a number of international spy groups circle and harass Allon as he hunts down the infamous and still deadly Radek. Those seeking cheap thrills should look elsewhere. Action and suspense abound, but this is serious fiction with a serious purpose. Silva keeps the pressure on the reader as well as his characters as there are important lessons to be learned and vital history to be remembered.

The price is $27.55, less than the mass market p-book price for 5 books. Unless you are facing the deadline for credits, there is no hurry on this. The deal is available until January 1, 9999

[Andanzas]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

So, as you can see, I have eclectic and wide-ranging interests.

So do I, and that's why I really appreciate the uploads section and your contributions. If only I had more time to read...

By the way, were you able to find A World for Julius, the Peruvian novel I talked about in another thread?

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by Andanzas

So do I, and that's why I really appreciate the uploads section and your contributions. If only I had more time to read...

By the way, were you able to find A World for Julius, the Peruvian novel I talked about in another thread?

No, I didn't find it at Borders or any of the 3 Half-Price bookstore locations near me. (I meant to thank you for mentioning that title, by the way.)

When I found out the author of the book - Alfredo Bryce Echenique - that name sounded familiar. The story is that about 1 1/2 years ago I was in contact with a different Peruvian lady and she mentioned that author. I promptly forgot it, as I was deeply into reading Mario Vargas Llosa's writing (and still am), and it slipped my mind.

I'll try to pick it up or else order it from Borders.

Sidebar: I just purchased, in hardcover, an important Latin American novel called The Savage, by Roberto Bolano. It's gotten incredible reviews, but right now I'm finishing up The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis, by Jose Saramago, one of my favorite writers in any genre.

Thank you for the kind words about the Uploads.

Don

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by edbro

Amen! Thanks for the reminder. I just finished my credits out with I Am No One You Know. I can also recommend The Falls and We Were Once the Mulvaneys. I have Black Girl White Girl but I haven't read it yet.

I should probably explain that I'm a HUGE fan of her writing. I taught Them at Miami University one semester (English Literature). We explored the historical underpinnings present in the novel, as well as the authorial tone she utilizes to develop her thesis, using as a basis for our examination primarily Reader Response Criticism and Socio/Historical criticism. That was one of five novels I taught that semester. (The other four were not by Oates.)

All the books you mention I have read and own in ebook format AND in hardback first editions. I have over 80 different books by her, including her mystery novels written under the name of Rosamond Smith, in addition to her literary criticism and essayistic work.

As you know, she writes in many genres.

I love her writing and wait for the day when her gothic novel Bellefleur is available as an ebook from Connect. What an incredible book!

It's nice to know there's another fan of her writing here on MobileRead.

Don

[angelyne]

Wow, thanks for all the good recommendations. I went to get The Road. Hope it won't be too depressing I'll look into all the other excellent suggestions.

My literary tastes are rather underdeveloped. I've been restricting myself too much. I have have evolved over the years, but my literary tastes have not followed suit. Now I am at the point where I crave good books, and I find it difficult to put up with badly written books, whereas when I was younger, I didn't even notice. I think at this point quality is more important than subject. But I will probably always have a weakness for fantasy and sci fi.

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by angelyne

Wow, thanks for all the good recommendations. I went to get The Road. Hope it won't be too depressing I'll look into all the other excellent suggestions.

My literary tastes are rather underdeveloped. I've been restricting myself too much. I have have evolved over the years, but my literary tastes have not followed suit. Now I am at the point where I crave good books, and I find it difficult to put up with badly written books, whereas when I was younger, I didn't even notice. I think at this point quality is more important than subject. But I will probably always have a weakness for fantasy and sci fi.

I think I'm probably like you, in the way you described your growth as a reader. I still love fantasy: Amidst all my drooling over "Literature," I still read fantasy. I still read Sax Rohmer -- just for old-fashioned story-telling.

I do think that the way your reading habits have changed is ALL about growth. The fact that you want to experiment with different authors -- and hey! you're not expected to like everything you read -- is indicative of wanting to branch out.

I have yet to read The Road, but I'm already a fan of Cormac McCarthy, having already read 4 or 5 of his books. I also know his history as a writer; I'm a person who keeps up with information like that.

Even if The Road is depressing, and even if you do or do not like it, it was judged by a committe of writers to be the best of last year's books, having won the Pulizter Prize.

I look forward to the Nobel Prize in Literature (I think in Sept.), and keeping my fingers crossed on Vargas Llossa.

Don

[edbro]

I listen to audiobooks driving to and from work. I listened to The Road last week and it was great. I didn't read it but I believe the audiobook was better than the print. The reader was dramatic and I still can't get used to Mr. McCarthy's lack of punctuation in print. In any case, it was a good story.

[astra]

Originally Posted by Nate the great

I'm spending it once, and I am willing to do so to add an ebook to my ebook library. I do not buy books that I just want to read; that's what the public library is for. I buy ebooks for my ebook library that I want to own until the end of time. I cannot do that if I buy the books from Connect.

At some point in the foreseeable future, my Sony Reader will die. It might be 2 years from now, it might be 5. When that happens, I will want to buy a new ebook reader, preferably the best on the market. This device will very likely not be one that reads BBeB.

What will be the value of the ebooks I bought from Sony with the $50 credit? Zero.

Agree. I didn't use my credit at all. I see no point.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by astra_lestat

Agree. I didn't use my credit at all. I see no point.

Why not use your credit? If you do end up purchasing a book you may want someday in a different format, you can purchase it then. As it stands, the books you get with the $50 credit are FREE. So even if you spend say $5 to repurchase on your FREE books, you've only spent $5.

[astra]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Why not use your credit? If you do end up purchasing a book you may want someday in a different format, you can purchase it then. As it stands, the books you get with the $50 credit are FREE. So even if you spend say $5 to repurchase on your FREE books, you've only spent $5.

The moment I purcahse a book in Connect, in my mind I mark the book as available in my library. However, when I get time to read the book I might not have sony reader anymore and when I decide to read the book I am in for a big disappointment. I prefer to have books in my library that I might read any time anywhere on any ebook reader (RTF/HTML formats or in the worst case PDF).

[rjnagle]

As someone linked to earlier, I wrote an article about what I bought with my $50 credit on teleread.

http://www.teleread.org/blog/?p=6922

The problem with almost all the titles suggested (mostly good by the way) is that you can buy print versions almost always for cheaper than the ebook versions.

I think the Paris Review anthology is probably the best buy I made...although that too was available for cheaper as a print book.

I think when the NAEB mobipocket reader comes, there will a lot more choices. also, the new .epub format will improve the selection somewhat.

[JSWolf]

Actually, MobiPocket books are even more expensive.

Now if Digital Editions takes off and offers a standard for ebooks, that might be ok. We'll just have to wait and see. But for it to take off, it has to be supported properly. Sony has already said they are going to be on board. I hope it's true.

[jmorton]

Originally Posted by angelyne

Anyone has a good book to recommend.... The last book I read like that was Last Light of the Sun by Guy Gavriel Kay. Currently I'm reading The Grey Horse by R.A. MacAvoy and I'm enchanted by it.

Angelyne,

Have you read the Phillip Pullman His Dark Materials trilogy? From what you've said, I think you would enjoy it. They have made a movie out of the first book (The Golden Compass).

Jim