2018 Feb book deals and discussion

@cengland0

I don’t know if the Amazon link is to the full book. I’ll look at it in a minute.

Re the book.

I have not read this book.

However, it’s gotten some interesting public feedback: as being both useful and possibly ad being its own “confirmation-bias” tainted “red herring”, to a degree:

In the sense that programs that deliberately incorporate “Grit” as a factor in education, assessments, and measurements often seen to be getting somewhat close to circular reasoning and circular measurement.

A New Yorker commentary on discussion over this book is here:

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-limits-of-grit/amp

The Limits of “Grit”
By David Denby

But there are other academic and educational commentators with similar POV’s.

It may be that Duckworth is more of an inspiring leader and change-maker (admirable, also) than she is an analyst and social scientist.

I want to take a look at this book, whether is it more science or more"inspirational".

Duckworth did her graduate work at Penn while working in the area of f “learned optimism,” a concept developed by Martin Seligman.

In the meantime, here are some links to Duckworth talks and material in the TED forum.

https://www.ted.com/playlists/123/angela_duckworth_4_talks_on_h

https://www.ted.com/talks/angela_lee_duckworth_grit_the_power_of_passion_and_perseverance/up-next

@cengland0

There must be a 5 min summary of this book available on audible.

Try this.

https://www.amazon.com/Grit-Passion-Perseverance-Angela-Duckworth-ebook/dp/B010MH9V3W/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1517494444&sr=1-1&keywords=Grit

This is the link to the Kindle book.

Click to show all formats. Then you should see this:

(Hang on, I’m about to add screenshots.)

Then click on the words “Audible, unabridged” in the format list.

That should take you you a page to purchase the entire book for $0.

I purchased the audiobook by doing this.

Now, on Amazon’s audiobook page, this is what I see:

@cengland0

Here is a screenshot of the unabridged 9 hour book I bought this morning, in my audible library.

Did this help? (See above. Perhaps I didn’t tag you in all the posts intended for you.)

@f00l Thanks but that new link seems to be the same product as the first one.

@cengland0

Did you start from the Kindle book?

And the click on all formats to get the tiny chart?

And then go to the Amazon audible listing by clicking on the tiny print “audible, unabridged” under the format chart?

I’m not thinking you did the wrong thing. Maybe I got some sort of fluke.

Lemme try one more thing.

@cengland0

Try this link to all of duckworth’s books.

https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=dp_byline_sr_all_1?ie=UTF8&text=Angela+Duckworth&search-alias=books&field-author=Angela+Duckworth&sort=relevancerank

Look at the detail for the audible cost on Grit.

Try going from that link to purchase the book

Does that work?

(hang on a min, I messed up the screenshot.)

There. Try buying the audiobook from that link.

@cengland0 5 minutes unabridged.

@sammydog01

Well I got 9 hours. Woohoo I’m special!

@f00l That says buy for $18. The free one must be a preview.

@cengland0

Ok. If you still can’t get the unabridged version into your library, this is what I would do myself:

I would call audible.
(Don’t call Amazon!!! Call audible!!!)

Not chat. Call.

Complain that you purchased the full audible book on Amazon. And now you only have the 5 minute summary in your library.

They may fix this. They may give you a credit to let you purchase the book for free. They may investigate and argue. I dunno.

They are extremely helpful to me. But I have an enormous library and have been their customer for close to two decades.
If you are not much of an audible customer, I dunno what they will do. But they are usually really helpful to me.

If the first person you speak with didn’t help, then ask for a supervisor and try again.

It might not work but it might.

You might be able to talk them into giving you the book. Blame the problem on Amazon.

888-283-5051

@sammydog01
@cengland0

I honestly don’t know why I’m getting something different than the two of you.

I got a Slickdeals alert for the Kindle book being free, already marked dead. Price back to normal.

But, what the hell, I went to look and found the free audiobook.

I dunno why is free for me. I didn’t spend a credit on it. I have the same number of credits now as last night.

No further ideas at the moment.

I guess this is an extreme YMMV.

@f00l I didn’t want to listen to it anyway. Thanks for trying- looks like a mistake they fixed.

@sammydog01

This is one of those books where the ted talk or the wikipedia page or the Blinkist summary might be just as good.

With books like this one, sometimes the summary (or the catchphrase) is as useful as the entire book.

The wikipedia page has an expensive section on the discrediting of Duckworth’s conclusions.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grit_(personality_trait)

(See the “controversy” section)

Doesn’t mean it’s not (or can’t be) a useful concept; but … in the area of social science and education, there is sometimes more enthusiasm than there is careful analysis.

@sammydog01

Here is possibly a more broad and useful (and validated) topic:

"learned optimism"

(esp as contrasted with “learned helplessness”)

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learned_optimism

@f00l Just to add to the fray… I see free audible book with the top link and regular price on the second one. I am not an audible customer, yet.

@cengland0

Maybe Amazon found and hot-fixed the database flaw. I dunno.

I would still give calling audible (not Amazon!) a shot and complaining that the wrong book is in your library, if I wanted the book.

Or get the audiobook free from your local library perhaps.

@cengland0

Re your copied age from Amazon

Dust you try clicking the link immediately above the highlighted one?

Where the audible audiobook shows $0?

If that doesn’t work, then I guess I led you all astray. Apologies.

@f00l Yes, that one says I already bought it and is in my library. But my library shows the 5 minute version.

@f00l 5 minute version here too

@f00l Yep, I got the 5 min one, too. Maybe they are trying to tell YOU something, @f00l?

@therealjrn
@cengland0

Oops. I guess I got it just before they fixed it.
Sorry. : (

@Barney said:

Maybe they are trying to tell YOU something, @f00l?

That I’m wonderful, and I get whatever I want for free, always?

Yeah, probably so.

@f00l Not exactly what I had in mind…

@Barney

Oh dear. Your mind needs assistance?

@f00l You’re hopeless.

@Barney

Excuse me.

I would like to point out that Amazon’s website just informed me that “I’m wonderful, and I get whatever I want for free, always”.

@f00l You’re excused.

@Barney
About time, too.

@f00l
Dead

@f00l Thanks! Sounds good.

@ruouttaurmind
Thx!

@ruouttaurmind
If anyone can recommend specific titles or writers in this sale, please do!

@f00l It’s a bit tedious looking through the titles, isn’t it. You can’t search the sale items by author or title, so you have to look through each subcategory at the individual listings.

@ruouttaurmind

Yeah. I guess I’m used to them.

Still … Worth it if you like audiobooks.

@ruouttaurmind
Dead.

@sammydog01

Amazon does this every so often. I assume they have an arrangement with the Fleming Estate.

I grabbed them some time back.

Here is a link to the series, Kindle versions.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00VZJD92G/ref=series_rw_dp_sw

Any Amazon customer who subscribes to Kindle Unlimited can read these for free.

@f00l Dang. I wish I had seen this yesterday. It’s back up to full price today.

@f00l
Dead.

@f00l

Ehh. I prefer the Family Guy version of Patriot Games.

@f00l
Dead.

@f00l It’s really short- I think I got it for free. But I liked it.

@f00l @sammydog01 I also got it free a few months ago. I really liked it. It could have been an excellent full length novel.

@f00l
Dead.

@f00l
Dead.

@f00l
This is dead.

@f00l Using up my Amazon credits at an amazing rate.

@f00l It’s for Audible members only.

@OldCatLady
Ok thx for clarification. I should have noticed.

@f00l @OldCatLady Prime members can partake as well, can’t they?

@ruouttaurmind Nope. Not me anyway.

@sammydog01 Well… damn. Tons and tons of excellent books listed in the sale. At least 8 or 10 I would highly recommend.

As I recommend in the post below, go create a burner email address, join Audible for the free trial and buy up all the goodies in this sale!

@ruouttaurmind
Ramona was my childhood role-model.

Esp when she took exactly one bite out of every fresh apple.

@f00l @ruouttaurmind Aw, geez, I loved Ramona. And I loved Beverly Cleary’s books. I even wrote a letter to her when I was a kid. She wrote me back. I think I still have the letter somewhere around here.

@Barney

Good thing parchment lasts.

@Barney @f00l When the ex GF was living here I read Henry Huggins with her son for a school family reading requirement. Of course I was somewhat bummed when he didn’t really get into it.

I grabbed this collection for nostalgia. I’m sure I’ll have fun listening.

@ruouttaurmind The kid doesn’t know what he is missing. I’m sure you will enjoy listening to it.

@PlacidPenguin Hmm, I still have some paisley duct tape that I could use to solve that problem of yours.

@Barney

@PlacidPenguin Aw, don’t do that. I’m trying to be semi-eViL Barney.

@Barney

@Barney It’s read by NPH and he seems to be an excellent choice for this series.

@ruouttaurmind Big confession. I just haven’t been able to get into any kind of audible books – I like to read the printed word. In fact, it took me a very long time to switch from books to an e-reader. (I still prefer books.)

Yeah, I know, I’m weird.

@Barney @ruouttaurmind

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again.

I cannot really read eBooks because my mind does not focus long enough on them. Any series which I have tried to read as an eBook has ended up long abandoned with any interest in the series lost. (Although there are certain historical books for which I was able to get cheaply as eBooks, but not in physical form, so I do read eBooks; just not book series.)

As for audiobooks, I can’t even listen to lectures in person (this caused some slight issues in my colleges), so I doubt that audiobooks would be easy.

@PlacidPenguin Ebooks were hard to get used to and I could see where you might have trouble with them. But my problem with audio books is that the narration voice does not match up with the voices in my head. And now you have just got me to admit that I’m crazy. Thanks a lot.

@Barney

@PlacidPenguin I must be having lots of fun.

@Barney If Pierce Brosnan did all the narrations, I would have no problem listening to audiobooks. I might not pay attention to what he actually said, but I would enjoy listening to it.

@Barney

I’ll amend that for you:

Oz must be a fun place.

@Barney @ruouttaurmind

Maybe you don’t drive enough. Start driving really long drives and you will love audiobooks.

Go stay with @OldCatLady and @LaVikinga and @RiotDemon and all those other Floridians until the end of April.

Audiobooks will make the drive much nicer.

After you get to Florida, the Floridians will hopefully make your stay much nicer.

@f00l

Go stay with @OldCatLady and @LaVikinga and @RiotDemon and all those other Floridians until the end of April.

I said I’m crazy, not nuts.

@heartny

@heartny That’s why I bought all the Tom Hiddleston and Dan Stevens ones. Plot? Pfffft.

@Barney @f00l @LaVikinga @RiotDemon Probably don’t come stay with me right now. New flooring is supposed to be delivered tomorrow, installed soon after that. No date yet on the siding on the west side of my house.

@Barney @PlacidPenguin @ruouttaurmind

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again.

/youtube "play it again, Sam"

@Barney @PlacidPenguin @ruouttaurmind @heartny @f00l You can search by narrator. Kobna Holdbrook-Smith, Benedict Cumberbatch…

@Barney @f00l @ruouttaurmind

Never really watched Casablanca, although I’ve watched older movies.

@Barney @f00l @PlacidPenguin

Maybe you don’t drive enough. Start driving really long drives and you will love audiobooks.

This is how I got into audiobooks. I spent years doing the DJ thing, so I was burned out on music. Listening to music when I wasn’t doing a show just didn’t appeal anymore. So I listened to talk radio in the car for a while, but was quickly over that as well.

When I came back to the states and started doing long daily commutes to the office I decided to try an audiobook. The first one I listened to was The Guts by Roddy Doyle. It’s a follow up to my favorite series The Barrytown Trilogy. I liked the story, and realized I could digest books in what would otherwise be wasted time behind the wheel. Now, a few years and dozens of books later, I cannot imagine long drives without a book on the radio.

@heartny 80 today, partly cloudy, humid just enough to mess with my hair. Looks like winter might be over for me.

@sammydog01 Hiddleston. Usually not my type, but there’s just something about that man’s smile (and voice) that makes me sit up and take notice. The Night Manager was what finally pushed me to Team Hiddle.

@LaVikinga You should hear him say “Octopussy”.

@sammydog01

Much thx.