[Kindle] Free books from T. R. Pearson

[orange!]

Originally Posted by bfisher

I liked Warwolf so much that I pickep up A Short History of a Small Place (unfortunately not on sale at CDN$ 13.99, but a good deal averaged out with the freebies )

Some more of Pearson's books are at a good price at amazon. I'm going on a Pearson summer reading binge.

...

I hope you'll enjoy A Short History of a Small Place, which was Pearson's first novel--a good place to start!

As I mentioned, it's one of my all-time favorite reads. It really established his discursive storytelling style. He has so many (usually hilarious, but sometimes bittersweet) stories to tell that they seem to tumble out, interrupting each other in their urge to get told. Not a style that everyone enjoys, I'm sure, but it works for me.

The other thing about this book is that it is a little more good-natured than some of his later books; they seem to get a little darker as the author ages.

[elemenoP]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

The ebook formatter has screwed up on the indents for paragraphs. They vary from paragraph to paragraph. This is in inexcusable, in my opinion, and especially since this is an author whom I collect in hardcover. (I'm fortunate to have an autographed Uncorrected Proof.) To see mismatched indents on this ebook is frankly embarrassing.

T.R. Pearson - this wonderful and neglected writer of some of the most brilliant and loving fiction - deservess so much better than this.

ADDED: Fortunately, calbire may be able to fix this. I'll try the Heuristic mode to see what happens.


Don

It seems to me that this author really cares about his own ebooks and might appreciate being notified directly about this. Perhaps through Goodreads?

[TallMomof2]

These freebies sound good, they're definitely moving to the top of my TBR list.

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by elemenoP

It seems to me that this author really cares about his own ebooks and might appreciate being notified directly about this. Perhaps through Goodreads?

Are you the one who formatted that ebook?

I'm asking you this because of your comment you made in an earlier post:

"Ebook formatting by R.L. Parker for the best possible electronic reading experience."

Contrary to your comment, I would consider this the worst possible ebook reading experience.

To my way of thinking, it should be R.L Parker who should take the first step in making that ebook correct and, at the same time, offer a profound apology to this wonderful author.



Don

[Loosheesh]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

Are you the one who formatted that ebook?

I'm asking you this because of your comment you made in an earlier post:

"Ebook formatting by R.L. Parker for the best possible electronic reading experience."

Contrary to your comment, I would consider this the worst possible ebook reading experience.

To my way of thinking, it should be R.L Parker who should take the first step in making that ebook correct and, at the same time, offer a profound apology to this wonderful author.



Don

A. "Ebook formatting by R.L. Parker for the best possible electronic reading experience." - That is a direct quote from the descriptions of the first 3 books mentioned in the thread, which is made clear by elemenoP's preface: "And also... did you guys notice he gave a credit to the ebook formatter? I've never seen that before! From the book description:"

B. That quote is not included in the description for Warwolf

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by Loosheesh

A. "Ebook formatting by R.L. Parker for the best possible electronic reading experience." - That is a direct quote from the descriptions of the first 3 books mentioned in the thread, which is made clear by elemenoP's preface: "And also... did you guys notice he gave a credit to the ebook formatter? I've never seen that before! From the book description:"

B. That quote is not included in the description for Warwolf

Thank you, Loosheesh, for that explanation which I did not read carefully enough.



Don

[Dr. Drib]

Alright, a time for some clarification and an apology to the formatter of Warwolf. Let me tell you what happened.

I downloaded the ebook and immediately put it in calibre, always without first doing any kind of formatting, as I want to see if it looks OK. This is how I operate calibre: If it doesn't need fixing, I do nothing; if it looks horrible (by my standards), then I attempt to 'correct' it using calibre's tools.

It did NOT look OK: It had the problem that I've already mentioned.

So I attempted to fix it in calibre, using the heuristic formatting, which then made it look OK.

However, yesterday, I turned on my Kindle Fire and Warwolf looked fine - no mismatched, screwy line indents. This was a direct download from Amazon.

So, apparently, it looks fine on a Kindle (haven't yet loaded it onto my Kindle paperwhite), but does NOT look OK in calibre.

That's the story - and I would like to extend my apologies for the formatter of Warwolf for my earlier comments.



Don

[Man Eating Duck]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

So, apparently, it looks fine on a Kindle (haven't yet loaded it onto my Kindle paperwhite), but does NOT look OK in calibre.

That's the story - and I would like to extend my apologies for the formatter of Warwolf for my earlier comments.
Don

As I read on a Sony, I converted the books to epub. I always touch up ebook layout before reading (I'm a professional, being annoyed with bad layout is an occupational hazard, fortunately I can do something about it. Last week I actually bought my first ebook ever in which I didn't have to correct anything). I inspected the original mobi, and the reason for the ragged indents is that they were done with spaces in the text, not styling. That is simpy not how you do it in html, even though they looked even in Kindle PC (still way too large, though). Furthermore, in the three other books line-height is set to 175%, which is absolutely ridiculous and seriously mars the reading experience at default values. So, I'd say you were somewhat justified in your original complaints

I was surprised to see that the xhtml was otherwise relatively clean, so fixing it was mainly a question of styling. I have seen much worse, such as books based on html from word which contained nested-span horrors in their murky depths whose mere memory may still make me wake up screaming on a moonless night...

Edit: Oh, and thanks a lot to orange! (what is the proper way to handle punctuation in usernames anyway?) for advising about these books, they are in my ever-growing TBR list.

[cghipp]

There are now several different TR Pearson books available for free at Amazon:

- Cry Me a River: http://www.amazon.com/Cry-Me-A-River...dp/B005OKB0LE/
- Red Scare: http://www.amazon.com/Red-Scare-ebook/dp/B004S2U4CA
- Jerusalem Gap: http://www.amazon.com/Jerusalem-Gap-ebook/dp/B004RZGZ4O

[bfisher]

Originally Posted by orange!

I hope you'll enjoy A Short History of a Small Place, which was Pearson's first novel--a good place to start!

As I mentioned, it's one of my all-time favorite reads. It really established his discursive storytelling style. He has so many (usually hilarious, but sometimes bittersweet) stories to tell that they seem to tumble out, interrupting each other in their urge to get told. Not a style that everyone enjoys, I'm sure, but it works for me.

The other thing about this book is that it is a little more good-natured than some of his later books; they seem to get a little darker as the author ages.

I greatly enjoyed A Short History of a Small Place. I'm currently reading Blue Ridge, which is considerably darker, as you have noted.

Thank you very much for posting the initial alert to the availability of his books.

[cghipp]

"A Short History of a Small Place" has long been one of my first recommendations when friends/family are looking for something "fun" to read. It's a lot more than just fun, but for me it was definitely laugh-out-loud funny.

[orange!]

Originally Posted by bfisher

I greatly enjoyed A Short History of a Small Place. I'm currently reading Blue Ridge, which is considerably darker, as you have noted.

Thank you very much for posting the initial alert to the availability of his books.

You're welcome.

Did you get Jerusalem Gap while it was free? After Short...Small, it's probably my favorite Pearson novel. In fact, I'm re-reading it now.

[bfisher]

Originally Posted by orange!

You're welcome.

Did you get Jerusalem Gap while it was free? After Short...Small, it's probably my favorite Pearson novel. In fact, I'm re-reading it now.

Yes, I did get Jerusalem Gap, and it is still free at amazon.ca (as well as Red Scare and Cry Me A River). Many of his other books are very inexpensive at around CDN$ 3.00

[orange!]

Originally Posted by cghipp

"A Short History of a Small Place" has long been one of my first recommendations when friends/family are looking for something "fun" to read. It's a lot more than just fun, but for me it was definitely laugh-out-loud funny.

I see you're from south Cackalacky. That probably explains it.

Originally Posted by bfisher

Yes, I did get Jerusalem Gap, and it is still free ...

Yay!

Originally Posted by orange!

...I'm re-reading it now.

Just to clarify, I'm not re-reading it now, I'm working. Well, I'm not actually working either because I'm posting on MR. But I'd rather be reading it.

[Dr. Drib]

ALERT! ALERT! -
3 T.R. Pearson Novels FREE! -
ALERT! ALERT!

T.R. Pearson's "Red Scare" is FREE!

Here you go:

http://www.amazon.com/Red-Scare-eboo...rson+in+kindle


Also FREE! is "Jerusalem's Gap", located here:

http://www.amazon.com/Jerusalem-Gap-...4098331&sr=1-4


And "Cry Me A River" is also FREE! It's located here:

http://www.amazon.com/Cry-Me-A-River...098122&sr=1-20



If you're a bigger fan of Pearson's work than I am, then you're going to have to deal with Marvin the Zombie - and he doesn't take just brains.



Don