10:52 PM by pilotbob in Reading Recommendations | Book Clubs

Help us select the next book that the Mobile Read book club will read for November 2009.

The nominations will run through Oct 23.
Voting (new poll thread) will run for 5 days starting Oct 23.

(I started the thread a bit early this month as some people wanted to get an earlier start. Or, the thread can run a bit longer to try to get a decent selection.)

Book selection category for November per the "official" club opening thread is:

November 2009
Classic

In order for a book to be included in the poll it needs THREE NOMINATIONS (original nomination, a second and a third).

How Does This Work?
The Mobile Read Book Club (MRBC) is an informal club that requires nothing of you. Each month a book is selected by polling. On the last week of that month a discussion thread is started for the book. If you want to participate feel free. There is no need to "join" or sign up. All are welcome.

How Does a Book Get Selected?
Each book that is nominated will be listed in a pool at the end of the nomination period. The book that polls the most votes will be the official selection.

How Many Nominations Can I Make?
Each participant has 3 nominations. You can nominate a new book for consideration or nominate (second, third) one that has already been nominated by another person.

How Do I Nominate a Book?
Please just post a message with your nomination. If you are the FIRST to nominate a book, please try to provide an abstract to the book so others may consider their level of interest.

How Do I Know What Has Been Nominated?
Just follow the thread. This message will be updated with the status of the nominations as often as I can. If one is missed, please just post a message with a multi-quote of the 3 nominations and it will be added to the list ASAP.

When is the Poll?
The poll thread will open at the end of the nomination period, or once there have been 10 books with 3 nominations each. At that time a link to the poll thread will be posted here and this thread will be closed.

The floor is open to nominations.

Official choices each with three nominations:

The Trial by Franz Kafka
The Trial tells the story of a man arrested and prosecuted by a remote, inaccessible authority.

The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky
The Karamazov Brothers (1880) is both a brilliantly told crime story and a passionate philosophical debate. The dissolute landowner Fyodor Pavlovich Karamazov is murdered; his sons--the atheist intellectual Ivan, the hot-blooded Dmitry, and the saintly novice Alyosha--are all involved at some level. Brilliantly bound up with this psychological drama is Dostoevsky's intense and disturbing exploration of many deeply felt ideas about the existence of God, freedom of will, the collective nature of guilt, and the disastrous consequences of rationalism.

Persuasion by Jane Austen
Twenty-seven-year old Anne Elliot is Austen's most adult heroine. Eight years before the story proper begins, she is happily betrothed to a naval officer, Frederick Wentworth, but she precipitously breaks off the engagement when persuaded by her friend Lady Russell that such a match is unworthy. The breakup produces in Anne a deep and long-lasting regret. When later Wentworth returns from sea a rich and successful captain, he finds Anne's family on the brink of financial ruin and his own sister a tenant in Kellynch Hall, the Elliot estate. Al the tension of the novel revolves around one question: Will Anne and Wentworth be reunited in their love?

Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
Most peoples' knowledge of this probably comes from the 1960s musical, which I'm sure we've all seen innumerable times. The novel, though, is a VERY different beast, and definely written for an "adult" audience. It contains some wonderful writing, and has some unforgettable characters - Oliver himself, of course; Fagin, who runs a gang of child thieves and prostitutes, the professional criminal, Bill Sykes and his girlfriend Nancy, and many more. This is a wonderful, unforgetable book, which everybody should read at least once in their life. I commend it to everybody.

The Picture (or Portrait) of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
Spellbound before his own portrait, Dorian Gray utters a fateful wish. In exchange for eternal youth he gives his soul, to be corrupted by the malign influence of his mentor, the aesthete and hedonist Lord Henry Wotton. The novel was met with moral outrage by contemporary critics who, dazzled perhaps by Wilde's brilliant style, may have confused the author with his creation, Lord Henry, to whom even Dorian protests, 'You cut life to pieces with your epigrams.'. Encouraged by Lord Henry to substitute pleasure for goodness and art for reality, Dorian tries to watch impassively as he brings misery and death to those who love him. But the picture is watching him, and, made hideous by the marks of sin, it confronts Dorian with the reflection of his fall from grace, the silent bearer of what is in effect a devastating moral judgement.

Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne
Phileas Fogg rashly bets his companions £20,000 that he can travel around the entire globe in just eighty days—and he is determined not to lose. Breaking the well-established routine of his daily life, the reserved Englishman immediately sets off for Dover, accompanied by his hot- blooded French manservant, Passepartout. Traveling by train, steamship, sailboat, sledge, and even elephant, they must overcome storms, kidnappings, natural disasters, Sioux attacks, and the dogged Inspector Fix of Scotland Yard to win the extraordinary wager. Combining exploration, adventure, and a thrilling race against time, Around the World in Eighty Days gripped audiences upon its publication and remains hugely popular to this day.

Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions by Edward Abbott
A fascinating science-fiction story with some biting, funny satire of Victorian society, Edwin Abbott's Flatland still has a lot to say about modern life, mathematics, people, philosophy and our perceptions of reality. The story takes us to a two-dimensional world where all the inhabitants are flat geometric shapes, and who are all firmly convinced that "length and width" is all there is. But one enterprising shape discovers the existence of a third physical dimension, which leads to speculation about a fourth dimension - and that changes everything.

Orlando by Virginia Woolf
In her most playful and exuberant novel, Virginia Woolf writes the "historical biography" of Orlando, a young boy of nobility during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. A wild ride through four centuries, the novel shows Orlando aging, magically, only thirty-six years between 1588 and 1928. Even more magically, he also changes from a man to a woman.
Orlando enters the book as an Elizabethan nobleman and leaves the book three centuries later as a liberated woman of the 1920s. Along the way this most rambunctious of Woolf's characters engages in sword fights, trades barbs with 18th century wits, has a baby, and drives a car. As she explores Orlando's life, Woolf also explores the differing roles of men and women in society during various periods.

Les Misérables by Victor Hugo
Set in the Parisian underworld and plotted like a detective story, Les Miserables follows Jean Valjean, originally an honest peasant, who has been imprisoned for 19 years for stealing a loaf of bread to feed his sister's starving family. A hardened criminal upon his release, he eventually reforms, becoming a successful industrialist and town mayor. Despite this, he is haunted by an impulsive former crime and is pursued relentlessly by the police inspector Javert.

10:44 PM by NatCh in E-Book General | Deals and Resources (No...

First off, let me say that I have nothing to do with the running of this contest, I know someone who's involved with the book in question, and they are trying to spread the word in hope of getting a good title out of the deal. I do, however, have some small reason to believe that it's legit.

In any case, it looks like simply entering effectively gets you a free copy of the book. Of course it goes without saying (but I will anyway, just 'cause I'm anal like that) that the book is under copyright, and would not be legal to share.

I don't know too much detail on the book itself, beyond what's below, specifically that it's a memoir of some sort, so there's really no telling what those who enter might be in for. I've already responded to the specified address, so I guess I'm along for the ride.

I believe the "local" referred to would be Houston, TX, if that matters to anyone.

Win $3000! Title the Book

A local writer needs your assistance to title his upcoming memoir and has offered a $3000 prize that will go to the person who crafts the title that is chosen for the book and a $500 prize for person who crafts a 25-word synopsis of the story that is chosen for the cover.

Entry procedure:

Email titlethebook@gmail.com about your intent to enter the competition to receive an electronic copy of the manuscript

Read the manuscript and write:

• A suggested title for the memoir
• This should reflect the theme of the piece (hope, survival) without sounding like a self-help book
• Brevity is key: keep it simple, powerful, to the point
• Title should capture the ear and eye and attention of potential readers
• A 25-word synopsis
• An honest, straightforward review

Send the title, synopsis, and review back to titlethebook@gmail.com.

05:14 PM by CommanderROR in E-Book General | News

A press release from german startup "Wizpac" just arrived in my mailbox. It contains lots of new information about the newest eink device, the so-called txtr which made it's debut on the Book-Fair in Frankfurt today.

Apart from pricing and release-date information it also gives us some more tec-specs, book selection information and some insight into how the wireless book browsing and purchasing is supposed to work and what kind of subscription cost can be expected.

Here are some tidbits from the press-release:

The txtr will

- start selling on December 1.
- cost 319€
- initially be available in Europe and the US
- come with the txtr store that you can browse directly on the device (but for now ony in Germany, more countries to follow)
- come with optional service plans for wireless ranging from 11.99€ to 14.99€ per month depending on the length of the subscription period
- come with 8GB SD card
- weigh 300 grams
- offer a 6" 16 Greyscale eink screen
- be splash water protected

I'll attach the german press release to this post for all the details.

08:18 AM by yagiz in E-Book General | News

Google plans 'buy anywhere, read anywhere' offer

A cloud-based system seems nice to me... available to any device from a central location. However it's important to see the terms & conditions and what Google is allowed to do etc.

And one of my first reactions was: "If this goes through: Bad news for Kindle and good news for Sony!" Later in the article it says:

Edmonds said it was "definitely" Google's intention to partner with device manufacturers, but declined to give names. She added she "doubted" Kindle would be on board.

So much going on these days...

04:20 PM by poohbear_nc in E-Book General | News

In a move sure to confuse/anger US Kindle book buyers, the US Amazon website now has listings for Kindle versions of books (so far I've seen Penguin and Faber & Faber) that are not available for purchase by US residents.

http://www.amazon.com/Remains-Day-eb...5375972&sr=1-1

http://www.amazon.com/Live-Bait/dp/B...5375899&sr=1-1

If you play with the "change region" option, they appear to be available in the UK, Europe, and the Middle East.

To further confuse customers, the last book in the Monkeewrench series IS available in the US, but not the previous ones. And, the more recent Ishiguro novels are in US Kindle editions, but not his earlier stuff.

One wonders what Amazon's rationale for this is? Anger customers enough to demand their availability in the US? Combine all Kindle listings in one global database that is visible on all Amazon sites - where buyers will have to sift through the "change region" option to find out if they can buy the book?

06:00 AM by Alexander Turcic in Miscellaneous | Week in Review

Once again, our weekly roundup of highlights from the past seven days of MobileRead:

E-Book General - News and Commentary

• Is Rapidshare a promoter of e-book piracy?
• Spotted: Gosund GS601 e-reader from China
• Tablet PC LBook™ T9 to be released next year
• Amazon Kindle goes international
• Barnes and Noble confirms COLOR e-book reader for Spring 2010

10:04 AM by balend in E-Book General | News

At CTIA, a Barnes & Noble let loose some info about a color e-book reader they have coming out. Link to article and video of Daniel Joresson, representative, talking about the e-book reader. http://techkritik.com/2009/10/09/bar...e-book-reader/

03:06 AM by desertgrandma in E-Book General | News

Has anyone else seen this? Check out the Amazon Home Page........new lower price on the K1 and international access......

Quick facts:

• Kindle: $259 (previously $299)
• Kindle Wireless US and International: $279
• International available in over 100 countries
• International to ship in less than two weeks

http://www.amazon.com/