02-23-2019, 09:49 AM | #1441 | |
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02-24-2019, 12:40 AM | #1442 |
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Vetting Academic/Technical Books When Ratings and Reviews Are Hard to Come By.
Is there anyone out there who is interested in purchasing an academic/technical book, but is stymied because ratings and reviews for the book are hard to come by (a common problem, because academic/technical books are typically not big sellers)?
To vet it, you look through previews of the book, which are somewhat helpful. But, you're still unsure of whether or not the book ls all that good (which usually will be more important to consider than for popular books, because academic/technical books tend to be much more expensive). Two things that I have found to be helpful are these things: 1. To check the ratings of the author'(s) other books (if any) that he-she/they have published. Amazon makes this easy by hot-linking the author(s) names, which are found just underneath the title of the book. The hits may not be exhaustive--i.e., show every book that the author has written, but it usually shows many of them. Skim through the ratings. Are they good, bad, or middling? Chances are, ratings of other of the author's works are a fair to good indicator of the quality of the book that you are considering purchasing. 2. To go to scholar.google.com. You plug in the title and whatever other information is necessary to get a relevant result. Although I think that the purpose of the website originally was to provide information about academic/technical articles, and not books, the site has come (probably from users using it for this) to give information about books, as well. You look at the end of the entry for the book that you're interested in. At the end of the entry, there usually will be a link, in blue, to "citations." You can follow the link(s), if you wish, but for our purposes, we want to focus on the number of citations of the book. That means, in other words, how many other publications have at least mentioned that book. A large number is generally very positive; a low number is generally very negative. However, you have to keep in mind that books published a long time ago will tend to have more citations (because they've had more time to accumulate them), and books published more recently will tend to have fewer (because they've had less time to accumulate them)! May I give you a "for instance?" I was considering buying an academic/technical ebook today. I was unsure about buying it, even after doing the usual kind of examination. I checked the number of citations of the book, and there were 216--a number far higher than most books. I bought the book. We all work (or have worked in the past) hard for our money. I hope that the above suggestions will help us to make the best use of it, by buying ebooks that truly will be useful to us. |
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02-24-2019, 05:30 AM | #1443 |
The Grand Mouse 高貴的老鼠
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02-25-2019, 11:15 PM | #1444 |
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Humble Bundle--"Pay What You Want" for a Nine-Computer-Book Bundle!
I used to see posts about ebooks available via Humble Bundle quite often. But I haven't seen many lately (maybe I'm in the wrong forum or in the wrong threads).
Anyway, Humble Bundle is offering, at the current time, a bundle of nine computer science ebooks, from Mercury Learning, on a "pay what you want" basis. You wanna know what the books are, right? They are: - Game Development Using Python. - Excel Functions and Formulas. - Network Security and Cryptology. - Excel 2016 Programming by Example. - Photoshop Elements 2018. - Access 2016 Programming by Example. - Python Basics. - Mathematics for Computer Graphics and Game Programming. - Computer Analysis and Data Mining. If you pony up $1, you can grab an additional 5 titles. If you pony up $8, you can get 9 additional titles. And if you pay $15, 12 titles will be unlocked. (A head's up: I noticed that several of the titles in the $15 or more bundle are in the "pay what you want" group). I did not look for ratings/reviews of any of the books. Anyway, please be generous. The money that you pay goes to support charity. The default charity this month is the Python Software Foundation, one that I am not familiar with, but probably helps keep the price of Python software down. However, you can choose your own charity from Humble Bundle's "database of thousands" (my emphasis, G). The promotion is scheduled to end in about 13 1/2 days from now. The linky. Now I'm going to look into what charities that I might want to support with my donation . . . . |
02-26-2019, 10:07 PM | #1445 |
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I see that a Ernle Bradford is only £1.49 at Amazon UK
Thermopylae: The Battle for the West https://www.amazon.co.uk/Thermopylae...dp/B00BYAOEUC/ An impressively accessible narrative depicting the three-day battle for the pass at Thermopylae (the Hot Gates)--a critical contest in Xerxes's massive invasion of Greece. The bloody stand made there by Leonidas and his small Spartan army in 480 B.C. has been hailed ever since as an outstanding example of patriotism, courage, and sacrifice. |
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02-27-2019, 07:15 AM | #1446 | |
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Why does the U.K. always get the best books? |
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02-27-2019, 08:07 AM | #1447 |
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FREE Ebook about the Origin of Modern Ideas about Love in America (Hint: It's France)
Penn (Pennsylvania) State University Press currently has some 65 or so Open Access (O.A.) titles in their catalog. For the benefit of newbies to the ebook world, Open Access is (practically?) synonymous with free.
Many times, university presses, probably more than any other type of publisher, publish books that have limited appeal, for one reason or another. However, this month's featured O.A. book is about a subject with almost universal appeal--it's about love. Being in the "Penn State Romance Studies" series, this book is Love Cures: Healing and Love Magic in Old French Romance, by Laine E. Doggett. This might be a good place to give you the Press' description of the book: What is love? Popular culture bombards us with notions of the intoxicating capacities of love or of beguiling women who can bewitch or heal—to the point that it is easy to believe that such images are timeless and universal. Not so, argues Laine Doggett in Love Cures. Aspects of love that are expressed in popular music—such as “love is a drug,” “sexual healing,” and “love potion number nine”—trace deep roots to Old French romance of the high Middle Ages. A young woman heals a poisoned knight. A mother prepares a love potion for a daughter who will marry a stranger in a faraway land. How can readers interpret such events? In contrast to scholars who have dismissed these women as fantasy figures or labeled them “witches,” Doggett looks at them in the light of medical and magical practices of the high Middle Ages. Love Cures argues that these practitioners, as represented in romance, have shaped modern notions of love. Love Cures seeks to engage scholars of love, marriage, and magic in disciplines as diverse as literature, history, anthropology, and philosophy. Sounds interesting, doesn't it? The free download is available in PDF only. For the benefit of those who care about such things, purchasing the Kindle mobi would set you back $33.99! This is a good Penn State University Press webpage to find out more about the above ebook, and to "purchase" it, if you desire. (I encourage you to look over the full list of Penn State University Press' "Unlocked" Books. They tend to be far less esoteric than the typical books from a university press. Pennsylvania has a lot of interesting history, and like most university presses, it seems, Penn State University Press' books--at least the O.A. ones--tend to be about the state (or at least the region in the state) where the university is located. Remember: all of ebooks on the above webpage are free! Last edited by GtrsRGr8; 02-28-2019 at 12:43 AM. |
02-27-2019, 06:02 PM | #1448 |
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Why does the US often get better special offers?
But in this case Thermopylae: The Battle for the West $3.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00J48FD4W |
02-27-2019, 06:39 PM | #1449 | |
lost in my e-reader...
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Ernle Bradford's books are e-pub in the US by Open Road Media, and go on sale often, but usually only for a short duration, for $1.99, or even sometimes $0.99. So, if you really want this title in the US, just put an eReaderIQ watch on it for $1.99 and it'll probably come up soon. Open Road titles go on sale so often that I don't bother posting them any more, except when they seem to pick up a new author, figuring that folks who want them already have them, although apparently that's not necessarily the case.
It's much more unusual to see Open Road titles go on sale for anything approaching reasonable prices in the UK, and in fact, this UK edition is Endeavour, not Open Road, so it appears that Endeavour may have the UK rights to most of Bradford's titles. In a quick check of a handful of Bradford's titles, all except one were Endeavour, with only The Great Siege, Malta 1565 as an Open Road title. This is a little odd, because my memory was that Open Road had the Bradford titles in the UK too, but I suppose things could change, or more likely, that I could remember incorrectly. And, BTW, while checking this out, I noticed another Endeavour-pub Bradford title, The Mighty Hood, on sale in the UK for £0.99: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mighty-Hood...dp/B01DW9353E/ Quote:
Last edited by sufue; 02-27-2019 at 06:44 PM. |
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02-28-2019, 12:31 AM | #1450 | ||
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I do not have any impression that any country or geographical area gets better deals than another. I rather think that it is pretty much even, over time. Last edited by GtrsRGr8; 02-28-2019 at 12:47 AM. |
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02-28-2019, 05:34 AM | #1451 |
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Amazon UK Daily Deal
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn - The Gulag Archipelago (Vintage Classics) - £1.99 https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07JCWJ8TC Note that this is the "officially approved" abridged edition. |
03-05-2019, 05:01 AM | #1452 |
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Amazon UK Daily Deal: The Real James Herriot for £0.99
This is the biography by his son. It seems to have good reviews. I've bought it, but not read it yet. |
03-06-2019, 06:59 PM | #1453 |
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Charles River Editors, Free
Ancient Greek Technology: The History and Legacy of the Technological Advances Made in Greece during Antiquity The Severan Dynasty: The History and Legacy of the Ancient Roman Empire’s Rulers Before Rome’s Imperial Crisis The Byzantine Army: The History and Legacy of the Byzantine Empire’s Military during the Middle Ages The Portuguese Empire and Africa: The History and Legacy of Portugal’s Exploration and Colonization of the West African Coast The Cajuns: The History of the French-Speaking Ethnic Group in Canada and Louisiana Boss Tweed: The Life and Legacy of the Notorious Politician Who Ran Tammany Hall in New York City Russian Cyber Warfare: The History of Russia’s State-Sponsored Attacks across the World https://www.amazon.com/s/?url=search...+river+editors https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/?url=sear...+river+editors https://www.amazon.ca/s/?url=search-...+river+editors |
03-07-2019, 10:30 AM | #1454 |
lost in my e-reader...
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I live in California, so this one looked pretty interesting to me. But it also gets pretty good ratings on Amazon - 4.3 stars.
California: A History (Modern Library Chronicles Series Book 23) by Kevin Starr has dropped to $1.99 at Kindle US as part of the Kindle Daily Deal, matched at Kobo. Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/California-Hi...dp/B000XUDHVG/ Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/california-10 Spoiler:
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03-09-2019, 04:29 PM | #1455 |
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Charles River Editors, Free
The Bronze Age in Europe: The History and Legacy of Civilizations Across Europe from 3200-600 BCE Aleister Crowley: The Life and Legacy of the Notorious Cult Leader and Novelist The Chicago Outfit: The History and Legacy of the Organized Crime Syndicate Led by Al Capone https://www.amazon.com/s/?url=search...+river+editors https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/?url=sear...+river+editors https://www.amazon.ca/s/?url=search-...+river+editors |
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