Any good book recommendation

[angelyne]

Hard to believe that almost 3 months has gone since I purchased my Sony Reader. My credit is about to expire and I need to spend it.

Anyone has a good book to recommend (that's avalaible from the Connect store of course) ?

It can be any type of fiction. My only criteria, is that it has to be really really REALLY good. The kind of book that you enjoy so much, you wish it wouldn't end.

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.

[beowulf573]

One of the books I've bought with my credit was Declare by Tim Powers. So far I can't put it down. I haven't finished it, so I can't say it's great all the way through, but I love it so far.

[TadW]

The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. Excellent read (if you are into historical suspense stories).

http://ebooks.connect.com/product/40...000047196.html

[Nate the great]

Originally Posted by angelyne

Hard to believe that almost 3 months has gone since I purchased my Sony Reader. My credit is about to expire and I need to spend it.

Anyone has a good book to recommend (that's avalaible from the Connect store of course) ?

It can be any type of fiction. My only criteria, is that it has to be really really REALLY good. The kind of book that you enjoy so much, you wish it wouldn't end.

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.

I would not recommend buying a book you love through Connect. You will just end up buying it again when you witch devices.

I myself still have about $20 of my credit left, and the $100 Classic credit. I'm not going to spend it. I have already found the few books I purchased through Connect elsewhere in MSReader format. I plan to buy them in that format, and then invite Sony to go **** itself.

Actually, I am going to have them cancel my account, and use this opportunity to express my refusal to buy device restricted ebooks.

[Alexander Turcic]

angelyne, also check out this TeleRead article where Robert Nagle lists the books he purchased through his $50 voucher.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Nate the great

I would not recommend buying a book you love through Connect. You will just end up buying it again when you witch devices.

I myself still have about $20 of my credit left, and the $100 Classic credit. I'm not going to spend it. I have already found the few books I purchased through Connect elsewhere in MSReader format. I plan to buy them in that format, and then invite Sony to go **** itself.

Actually, I am going to have them cancel my account, and use this opportunity to express my refusal to buy device restricted ebooks.

Even if you can crack the DRM, you are STILL purchasing ebooks with DRM. So it makes no differences be it BBeB, LIT, MobiPocket, eReader, Adobe... They ALL HAVE DRM! And that won't change.

[Nate the great]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Even if you can crack the DRM, you are STILL purchasing ebooks with DRM. So it makes no differences be it BBeB, LIT, MobiPocket, eReader, Adobe... They ALL HAVE DRM! And that won't change.

Yes, but LIT is the one format that I know I can convert.

Plus, every so often I have fun by sending a letter to Microsoft to thank them for developing MSReader.

[angelyne]

That's kind of illogical. Rather than use $20 of credit, you rather spend the money twice in order to buy a book in a different format, only to have to go to the trouble of cracking the DRM and then formating it for Sony. All to make a point to a company that is is well known to be completely deaf to its customers? Well ooookay. It's your money.

I understand your point, and would not in a million years invest a lot of money buying DRM'ed and format-locked books. Just as I would not purchase DRM'ed MP3's. However, since I have already spent this money, I might as well use it.

Alexander: Thanks for the link, although that was a strange one. It sounded more like a rant against Connect than a suggestion list. He had a problme with half of his purchases. And his favorite book was one by Andrew Weil. ICK!! That guy is an idiot. The link was worth it however, for the bit of insider info by Rob Preece (in the comments).

The other suggestion are good. I'll look into them for sure.

In the meantime I am toying with buying Stumbling on Happiness by
Daniel Gilbert which despite the title, is NOT a self-help book.

Also considering The Accidental Tourist. It's well reviewed at Amazon and sounds good. I like good character developement.

[Dr. Drib]

I've bought pleny of books from Connect, and I highly recommend using that service to buy an ebook you want to read.

For me, that's one of the reasons I bought the Reader in the first place.

I'm not talking about issues with Connect, propriatary formats, etc. I'm talking about wanting to read a book and having it available on Connect. Buy the ebook and read it -- that's my advice.

I'm almost finished with Grotesque. It was about (I'm trying to remembr)...$14.00.....and the Hardback is about $24 - $27....sorry, can't remember. It's not available yet as a trade paper. My decision was realy quite simple: I want to read it NOW.

Because I didn't want to collect this author, buying the book from Connect was a no-brainer. Reading on the Reader is a great experience.

Don

[Andanzas]

I am not sure about your literary tastes, as I haven't read the writers you mention, but here are some books I found in Connect that I think are good:

The Road by Cormac McCarthy (I bought it from Connect, but I can't find it right now. This is a very dark and sad novel, so buy it only if you don't mind a little bit of depression )

Sputnik Sweetheart by Haruki Murakami. If you like character development, I think you might enjoy this. Besides, if you read him now, you will be able to say that you read him before he was awarded the Nobel prize.

My Name is Red by Orham Pamuk. Very baroque and lyric. It takes place in Istanbul in the fifteenth century (if I remember correctly) and it's an intereting view on the conflict between Western and Islamic societies. It's also a love story and a crime investigation.

If you like epic fantasy, then I would recommend Robin Hobb or George R.R. Martin.

[Nate the great]

Originally Posted by angelyne

That's kind of illogical. Rather than use $20 of credit, you rather spend the money twice in order to buy a book in a different format, only to have to go to the trouble of cracking the DRM and then formating it for Sony. All to make a point to a company that is is well known to be completely deaf to its customers? Well ooookay. It's your money.

I'm not spending the money twice. 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.

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by Andanzas

I am not sure about your literary tastes, as I haven't read the writers you mention, but here are some books I found in Connect that I think are good:

The Road by Cormac McCarthy (I bought it from Connect, but I can't find it right now. This is a very dark and sad novel, so buy it only if you don't mind a little bit of depression )

Sputnik Sweetheart by Haruki Murakami. If you like character development, I think you might enjoy this. Besides, if you read him now, you will be able to say that you read him before he was awarded the Nobel prize.

My Name is Red by Orham Pamuk. Very baroque and lyric. It takes place in Istanbul in the fifteenth century (if I remember correctly) and it's an intereting view on the conflict between Western and Islamic societies. It's also a love story and a crime investigation.

If you like epic fantasy, then I would recommend Robin Hobb or George R.R. Martin.

The Road, by Cormac McCarthy just won the Pulitzer Prize for Best Novel. I read McCarthy.

Haruki Murakami is one of my favorite authors. I read him AND collect First Editions by this writer.

Grotesque (that I mentioned earlier), is a literary novel that is also a mystery novel.

My tastes are actually somewhat eclectic: I can read literary noir and trashy noir; I can read absolute escapist, nonsense fiction (and love it), such as The Spider, Doc Savage, etc.; but I thoroughly enjoy literary novels the most - these are my main source of reading.

I upload all types of reading material in the Upload Section, but these are things I have read or they are by authors I'm already familiar with.

I purchased Sputnik Sweetheart from Connect; it was one ofthe first titles I bought. I would like to see them DRAMATICALLY increase the number of novels by Joyce Carol Oates. (I hope she one day soon will win the Nobel Prize in Literature, but after Mario Vargas Llosa wins.)

I also read and have purchased 2 of Robin Hobb's fantasy trilogies. These are great reads and I can recommend them to any lover of fantasy.

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

Don

[LaughingVulcan]

Originally Posted by Nate the great

I'm not spending the money twice. 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.

That depends on how you want to cut it up.... I expect to have all the ebooks I've purchased from now until the end of time. The problem is that for me to read all of them I have to be on a Win machine (Palm Reader, MS Reader, Connect Reader, Mobipocket reader.)
Perhaps the ultimate solution for reading is a UMPC or the equivalent. It certainly seems to bind one to MS, though, and only to a lesser degree Sony.

That doesn't mean that I'm giving up on my Sony Reader. Far from it.

What I'd really love is for someone to offer a secure conversion solution.

Aside from all that, I think I understand your point. Just that legal alternatives aren't all that many. And if you've got the credit, why not use it? Granted, you want to use it smartly, but why worry about it excessively?

[Nate the great]

Originally Posted by LaughingVulcan

That depends on how you want to cut it up.... I expect to have all the ebooks I've purchased from now until the end of time. The problem is that for me to read all of them I have to be on a Win machine (Palm Reader, MS Reader, Connect Reader, Mobipocket reader.)

Fortunately for me, I am not in your position. I decided several years back to never buy any DRM ebooks. This spring I finally caved because there are a number of authors I desperately want to own but can't buy any other way.

I consider my self very lucky to have found this forum before I bought any DRM ebooks.

Originally Posted by LaughingVulcan

What I'd really love is for someone to offer a secure conversion solution.

I would really like one too, but it's not gonna happen.

Originally Posted by LaughingVulcan

Aside from all that, I think I understand your point. Just that legal alternatives aren't all that many. And if you've got the credit, why not use it? Granted, you want to use it smartly, but why worry about it excessively?

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.

I will then have to spend money to replace the ebooks, and possibly also my time to convert them to the format I need. If I know that I will need to do this, why not do it now while I am in the process of doing my other ebooks?

That is how I plan to use the Connect credit smartly.

[edbro]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

I would like to see them DRAMATICALLY increase the number of novels by Joyce Carol Oates.

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.