The Autobiography of Mark Twain

[januaryman]

When this book was announced, I placed a preorder and got it very early on. It was the hard cover, as I did not have an ebook reader at the time. It is HUGE and heavy, hard to read on trains or to even carry about with you. I just got a few pages through the introduction and never got back to it. Eyestrain was getting to me due to the tiny print.

I got an iPad last week, stocking up on free books that I had enjoyed on my iPod Touch, before I lost it a few months back. Then I saw the Twain book on Amazon for less than $10. I decided to splurge and pay again to get this book. What a revelation! Easy to read, easy to search, a bring it everywhere edition. I'm won over, although I swore I'd NEVER give up real books for ebooks. I still love and read real books and see it will still stick with me. But for some books, this iPad has given me a revelation.

I strongly recommend the Twain book for anyone interested in his life. The style, although he dictated most of it, rather than laboriously handwritng all, it retains all of his style and wit. It's as captivating as his short stories, but filling with both true history and tall tales. It'll take me a while before I'm done reading, I know. But I doing an odd thing, that I suggest to all who attempt to read this book - start at the biography and skip the very long introduction until last. Get right into his life and you will be hooked.

[doreenjoy]

Thanks for the recommendation!

[JoelArnold]

I want to get this one, too. It's pretty amazing that this came out - talk about a voice speaking from the grave!

[J. Strnad]

I bought this book on Kindle and am enjoying it very much.

I did a lot of skipping for the first 200 pages or so, which are more about how the book was put together than Twain's actual autobiography.

It's with me wherever I go. I can't imagine lugging a 700-page hardcover.

Also, the hardcover was severely underprinted initially, resulting in shortages at many outlets. No problem with the ebook edition!

[januaryman]

I agree about that heavy book that now sits nearly unmolested on my bookshelf. The iPad version is always ready and I am highlighting like a fiend. Some material is familiar and I have read it before, but not sure where. Other stuff is brand new, including info on the real people upon which he based his characters. Like Jim, the runaway slave and Aunt Polly. Even his sometimes overly sentimental thoughts that start with "I remember.." and continue sentence after sentence with that same refrain, are touching and left me yearning for those simpler times. But I have to admit at getting impatient at the sheer VOLUME of thought images he conjures up in one spot. So I close and bookmark the page and get back to it after some time. Usually as a refuge from some of those truly awful TV shows that today pass for entertainment.

[leebase]

I've been surprised by those who think the iPad is godaweful heavy. It's so much nicer than a big hard back book. I eventually intend to read the Twain autobiography, thanks for sharing about it.

Lee

[doreenjoy]

Originally Posted by leebase

I've been surprised by those who think the iPad is godaweful heavy. It's so much nicer than a big hard back book. I eventually intend to read the Twain autobiography, thanks for sharing about it.

Lee

Well, I'm biased. I have a computer that weighs less than an iPad.

[jgaiser]

The New York Times has a less than glowing review written by Garrison Keillor for the Sunday Book Review.

Here, sandwiched between a 58-page barrage of an introduction and 180 pages of footnotes, is a ragbag of scraps, some of interest, most of them not: travel notes, the dictated reminiscences of an old man in a dithery voice (“Shortly after my marriage, in 1870, I received a letter from a young man in St. Louis who was possibly a distant relative of mine — I don’t remember now about that” begins one story that goes nowhere), various false starts, anecdotes that must have been amusing at one time

[januaryman]

This autobiography was dictated by an aging Twain, and with little or no editing, it seems to sometimes wander a bit further down circuitous paths than we'd like. BUT it's almost as good as spending a few days with him, listening to him talk. After listening for many hours as he bad mouthed a rather rude and generally unlikable Countess in Italy who was a born American, I sympathize with the impatient that do not relish reading the anecdotal barrage. But I pcked up a ton of info on villas, the furnishing and colors of said villas, the staff in one particular villa, and a naughty tidbit of that Countess and her steward. And I'm just getting started. My highlighting finger is nearly worn out, pointing out the best bit and interesting language!

[St1]

I am interested in downloading this book to my iPad.I don't see it on the iBooks app. Where do I go to download? Thanks.

[bgalbrecht]

I don't have an iPad, so I don't know much about them. I know there are free Kindle and B&N apps for it, so you can buy it from Amazon, and read it with the Kindle app, or buy it from B&N and read it with their app. I've read that B&N had plans to support Adobe DRM with their iPad app, but I have no idea whether they actually implemented that. If not you're probably just limited to non-DRM ebooks and what's sold at iBookstore, Amazon, and B&N.

[HarryT]

I love this kind of book. It's about as close to being able to speak to the author as we're ever going to get.

[jgaiser]

On a related topic, apparently someone is putting together a politically correct Huck, removing the N-word and the I-word (Injun) and replacing them with "slave".