Reviews

[astra]

I heavily rely on reviews.

SF/fantasy forums and amazon.com/.co.uk

I try to check reliability of the reviewers though.
On the forums it is easy, you know the reviewers to some extent, their tastes etc.
On amazon, I usually check other reviews by a reviewer. If it is the only review they have written, then I forget about it. I know for sure it is a dummy.

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by moz

One of the things I hope to do over the next while is scan and OCR my collection of magazines especially, but also many of my favourite non-fiction books. It just seems wrong to me that I can't buy computer-related books in electronic format,

This depends upon the book, and is changing over time due to costs. When was the last time you got an actual printed manual with software, for example?

And a fair number of computer texts are coming with CD ROMs which may include the text of the book as well as code or software referenced in the text. Plucker quite happily scarfed up O'Reilly's Java in a Nutshell CD and produced a version readable on my Palm OS device, but O'Reilly generally has had a clue about this.

but I'm also looking forward to being able to search and re-read many of the gender studies, sociology and philosophy books that I just can't bring myself to lug about for the time it takes to read them. But for now I fear that the cost of the reader is the smallest part of the cost of owning the ebook ... I just ordered an A3 scanner for the magazine collection

Got spare time? I admire your impulse, but I suspect the time editing and proofing the OCRed scans may prove prohibitive.
______
Dennis

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by tompe

So he reviews for Locus now? I stopped reading Locus a long time ago when Science Fiction Chronicle existed and I have always associated him with Science Fiction Chronicle since he reviewed there many years.

I believe so, yes.

I was an SFC reader for may years, and the original publisher is an old friend. I know the last publisher, too, but he seems to have crawled into the woodwork, and his former publishing enterprise no longer exists. As far as I can tell, it was a case of ill-considered expansion. Pity, as it took down several worthy semi-pro magazines. I miss Absolute Magnitude and Fantastic, as well as SFC.
______
Dennis

[JSWolf]

If anyone is wanting to review eBooks, the Content section is the place to put them. If it gets to be popular enough, maybe we'll look at a subsection of Content for reviews.

[Puffball]

I've kicked things off there with a review of "A Room with a View". I started a thread for it, but it might be better to have a separate thread for reviews in general, and put each one up as a post - I'll leave that to the moderators.

[carandol]

Originally Posted by Puffball

I've kicked things off there with a review of "A Room with a View". I started a thread for it, but it might be better to have a separate thread for reviews in general, and put each one up as a post - I'll leave that to the moderators.

Huzzah! Let's hope this catches on. Hopefully I should be able to post some reviews soon, though I'm a bit bogged down with university work at the moment...

EDIT: PS, this definitely fits my definition of a "reliable" review -- I can tell immediately that this is not the sort of book I like

[tompe]

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

I believe so, yes.
I was an SFC reader for may years, and the original publisher is an old friend. I know the last publisher, too, but he seems to have crawled into the woodwork, and his former publishing enterprise no longer exists. As far as I can tell, it was a case of ill-considered expansion. Pity, as it took down several worthy semi-pro magazines. I miss Absolute Magnitude and Fantastic, as well as SFC.

For me SFC just stop coming and I think I had some issues left on my subscription. Now I read reviews only in Vector (BSFA:s review magazine) and Foundation and on the net sometimes but not regularly since Emerald City stopped being published. I met SFC:s publisher Andrew Porter a couple of times when I payed my subscription at some Worldcon. I thought he had stopped going to Worldcons since I have not seen him recently at Worldcons but I realize now from the photograph on Wikipedia that I would not have recognized him if I had seen him.

[Puffball]

Originally Posted by carandol

EDIT: PS, this definitely fits my definition of a "reliable" review -- I can tell immediately that this is not the sort of book I like

Praise indeed! (Pity I can't find an emoticon that's blushing).

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by tompe

For me SFC just stop coming and I think I had some issues left on my subscription. Now I read reviews only in Vector (BSFA:s review magazine) and Foundation and on the net sometimes but not regularly since Emerald City stopped being published. I met SFC:s publisher Andrew Porter a couple of times when I payed my subscription at some Worldcon. I thought he had stopped going to Worldcons since I have not seen him recently at Worldcons but I realize now from the photograph on Wikipedia that I would not have recognized him if I had seen him.

DNA Publications (the last publishers of SFC, as well as Absolute Magnitude, Fantastic Stories, and a few other things) suddenly imploded. They had undertaken to produce a magazine for fans of the rock group Kiss, which would be authorized by the group. That expansion seems to have been ill-fated. I've heard various rumors as to what happened, and it apparently wasn't pretty. You don't want to PO Kiss. They have attack lawyers, and know how to use them. I haven't seen the chap behind DNA Publications in a while, and don't expect to. I think he's crawled into a hole and pulled it in after him.

Andy still goes to cons a bit, but since he's no longer associated with SFC, he has less reason to do so. Also, he has health concerns. He has adult onset diabetes, and the last time I saw him, back in September, was just finished with a successful round of treatment for another serious ailment, and was planning a trip to the UK to visit and to celebrate still being alive. I don't know offhand whether he is going to this year's Worldcon in Denver or not.
______
Dennis

[moz]

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

When was the last time you got an actual printed manual with software, for example? And a fair number of computer texts are coming with CD ROMs which may include the text of the book

Manuals never, and some of the texts are pdf, true. But the ones I really care about are not available, even the dragon book is only available via pirates.

Got spare time? I admire your impulse, but I suspect the time editing and proofing the OCRed scans may prove prohibitive.

I have the time and the inclination. I've dumped 50kg of music CDs after spending a year ripping to FLAC and scanning the artwork, now it's time to start on the 20kg of irreplaceable magazines. Even if all I manage is high-quality jpgs I suspect that will be enough, most of them are fairly art-heavy. I would like the text scanned but I fear that text-over-art does not OCR well. Even if it takes years in my spare time, I have the years...

[carandol]

Well, I've now added a couple of quick reviews myself, to show willing. They are here and here.

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by Puffball

I've kicked things off there with a review of "A Room with a View". I started a thread for it, but it might be better to have a separate thread for reviews in general, and put each one up as a post - I'll leave that to the moderators.

Thank you.

This is exactly the sort of commentary I had in mind. I'd like to see reviews of stuff hosted here on MobileRead, but this is a good start, and it has the most important attribute: a link to the electronic edition so the reader can grab it on the spot.

Good show!
______
Dennis

[bookbinder]

What about reviewing not the content of the book but its formatting? Not the author but the person who converted it? There's a wide enough range of quality in this area.

[moz]

Originally Posted by bookbinder

What about reviewing not the content of the book but its formatting?

Excellent idea! Should be part of any eBook review (even commercial releases, so we know whether we're getting text or jpegs, for instance)

[carandol]

Originally Posted by bookbinder

What about reviewing not the content of the book but its formatting? Not the author but the person who converted it? There's a wide enough range of quality in this area.

It would certainly be a good idea to mention it in a review, but I think in addition to a review of the content, rather than instead of. I'd like to hope there aren't that many people sufficiently geeky be collecting e-books *only* for their beautiful formatting