Are we not reading this month? March 2020 book thread, just in case we ARE.
4Finally finished Fantasyland, it was kind of long and repetitive, but it turns out the guy who wrote is was one of the founders of SPY magazine, so I guess he earned it?
I’m experimenting with library loans for the kindle, got about a third into Brotopia by Emily Chang before my loan ended, and now I have to wait until a new copy is available. It’s cool that when you take it out again it brings you back to where you stopped if you didn’t finish it (learned that with Fantasyland).
Amazon wants to give me $5 off on Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow, and only on Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainow. I’m torn because the library has it, so I don’t really need it, and it’s kind of expensive, but if I don’t use the credit will they still occasionally give me $5 off?
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Today’s most interesting kindle deal: Harlan Ellison’s The Other Glass Teat for $1.99.
https://smile.amazon.com/Other-Glass-Teat-Essays-ebook/dp/B00J90ENV4
I haven’t read this second volume, but The Glass Teat was one of my favorites when I read it about 30 years ago. Is it dated? HELL YEAH. Is it mean? ALSO HELL YEAH. Is it funny? I SURE THOUGHT SO. Good stuff if you want to read 50-year-old slams against tv, then-governor Ronald Regan and American culture in general.
I’m working my way through Harry Potter- just started book 5.
@sammydog01 I did that about two years ago, I thought it would take forever. They went quick! Then I watched all the movies. Enjoy!
@callow I got the dvds for my kids way back and have never watched them. I plan on bingeing the weekend after I finish book 7.
@callow @sammydog01 I haven’t read the books, but recently bought the complete 8 film collection DVDs from Woot. It was a pretty good price but no extras on the DVDs. I’m up to the last 3.
I may have to go buy the books now.
@callow @therealjrn Kindle Unlimited has them- they gave me two months free. When I’m done with the books I’m dumping it.
@callow @sammydog01 @therealjrn
The books are much better than the films, re pers pref. But the films are decent to v good.
I’m not a huge fan of films 5-8. They’re ok.
Best films for me are prob 3 and 4. Esp, for me, film 3.
I’m trying to remember what it was like reading 5 for the first time.
But I was into the series, and eager. So no prob. I was good to go.
How are you doing with them? Find them compelling? Or, sadly, making yourself keep going?
Or is your reaction someplace in between?
@callow @f00l @sammydog01 I’m still reading the talking pictures. Halfway thru #6 film.
@therealjrn
Since you’re a reader, if you like the overall story idea at all, maybe give the books a try?
Not trying to knock the films, but the books are just that much better.
Rowling can be annoying as a public personality, just like everyone else.
But she can write. And she’s great at character. And she’s wildly inventive and funny.
But the best part of her writing, for me, is that she clearly remembers what it felt like being 13 or 17. The frustration and screwing up in spite of one’s self. The moments of wonder. The moments of failure or humiliation. The way mood and life took one by surprise. Etc.
and she knows how to write all that without overdoing it.
Film-making and -watching just don’t support the extra running time it would take to get most of that into the films.
So if you like the HP world from the films, I hope you try the books.
I’m still wanting to hear how @sammydog01 is or isn’t having a great time with the series.
@f00l @therealjrn Book 5 is going slower than the previous ones. Characters are so stupid it’s frustrating. I’m still enjoying it. They’re super easy to read books and go quickly.
IT’S THE END OF THE WORLD AND WE’RE ALL GONNA DIE!
Zero Hour: The Complete Box Set: (The Complete Zero Hour Series, Books 1-6) Kindle Edition by Justin Bell and Mike Kraus, 1121 pages, $0.99
Jackson Block is trapped far from his family and those he loves when a rogue state unleashes a devastating attack on the United States. To reunite with his loved ones he must fight through streets that have turned into a war zone as survivors and government agents alike threaten not only his existence, but that of the entire nation.
https://www.amazon.com/Zero-Hour-Complete-Box-Books-ebook/dp/B084FDZWP5/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=zero+hour+complete+box+set&qid=1583786400&sr=8-1
@Barney IT’S EPIC! And zero reviews. It’s tempting but I think I already have a shelf of end of the world books I’ll never read.
@Barney @sammydog01 I ordered it. I had an extra dollar from a recently cancelled order.
@Barney @sammydog01 But wait… Doesn’t it defeat the purpose if the world ends before you get to read your end-of-the-world books?
@sammydog01 It’s epic with zero reviews because no one has the stamina to get through it. THEY ALL DIED!
@therealjrn Hey, over 1100 pages for less than a buck, what more could you want?
@mehcuda67 Are you trying to confuse me?
@Barney Yes! I mean
No!
Purple!
@Barney loves purple.
@mediocrebot @mehcuda67 I love purple!
purple loves @barney.
A few months ago I finally got into David Weber’s Honor Harrington tales (space naval combat, with a heavy dose of politics, conspiracy, spycraft and such things).
They live up to their reputation, but I’m getting near the end, and soon I’ll have to wait for the next book to come out, like everyone else.
@blaineg I knew I liked you for some unclear reason- I think now I know at least partly why- [similar reading tastes] I loved all of those and their spin-offs.
If any of you [other sci-fi/fantasy readers] haven’t been there yet, you should pop over to the Baen Books universe homepage at [weirdly enough] https://www.baen.com/.
They have many E-books free for the downloading, as well as book bundles that are often [can be] screaming bargains, including more books by David Weber, Eric Flint, John Joseph Adams, Brian W. Aldiss, Poul Anderson, Piers Anthony, Robert Aspirin, Jim Baen, Margaret Ball, Steve Barnes, Elizabeth and Greg Bear, Bem Bova, and Leigh Brackett, to name a few of the more recognizable names- there are many more represented and many new/up and coming authors as well.
While it’s heavy in Sci-Fi and Fantasy titles, they also have some nonfiction- science fact offerings.
You may also appreciate “The Mote in God’s Eye” trilogy by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle.
They also wrote two of my other favorite disaster novels- “Lucifer’s Hammer” [about what happens before, during, and after a major comet strike, and “Footfall”, an alien/first contact novel.
Most recently, I have been reading books by Michael Anderle [and various co-authors], including a series called “The Kurtherian Gambit”, another called “Bad Company”, several book series based in “The Jungle”- including “The Birth of Heavy Metal”, “Soldiers of Fame and Fortune”, and “Apocalypse Paused”- all published by his “independent” publishing company- these and many others are available on Amazon, but you can get both heavy discounts, and free books/stories by signing up at https://lmbpn.com.
They also have a podcast called “Behind the Fiction” at https://lmbpn.com/feed/behindthefiction/.
@PhysAssist Thanks, I meant to mention the Baen Free Library. Loads and loads of free books. Sometimes just the first in a series to get you hooked, sometimes nearly the entire series.
https://www.baen.com/allbooks/category/index/id/2012
http://baencd.thefifthimperium.com/
@PhysAssist I’m a longtime Niven & Pournelle fan. The “showoffs!” line in Footfall still makes me giggle.
@blaineg Totally dittoes!
I just started Rob Reid’s *Year Zero. I’m only a few chapters in, but so far it appears to be a less humorous knockoff of Scalzi’s Agent to the Stars. I did smile though when one of the primary characters, a indie musician, introduced her cat named Meowhaus.
@ruouttaurmind I enjoyed that book.
@Pamela the Scalzi, or the Reid?
@ruouttaurmind The Reid. I haven’t read the Scaizi.
Michael Lewis, The Fifth Risk, and no, I haven’t finished any of the other books I’ve mentioned in previous threads, so there’s no way I’m finishing this one.
@UncleVinny You have your ways and you stick to them. There’s no shame in consistency.
@UncleVinny - I recently almost but not quite finished The Black Swan and almost but not quite finished Stasiland. It still counts as reading.
Verity by Colleen Hoover and Educated by Tara Westover were both good.
Brian McClellan’s Powder Mage series is great fun. Another world with black powder level technology, and magic.
There’s three basic types of magic users: the Knacked, who have low level abilities, but no outright “magic”. The Privileged or “pure” magic users, with fearsome powers. Also generally the villains. And the Powder Mages who are mostly the heroes, and whose magic is, naturally, black powder based. They also tend to be soldiers.
Powder Mages can sense, control, detonate and manipulate powder. They can do the same with bullets (or more precisely, balls). The most powerful can even fire balls without a gun.
There are Nine Kingdoms, with various alliances, intrigue and wars.
There are also gods, and one of our heroes decides that a god needs killing.
The first one, Promise of Blood starts with a bang, and just keeps rolling.
@blaineg Books have trailers? I just found this.
Pandora’s Planet / Pandora’s Legions by Christopher Anvil.
An old favorite. Imagine the usual alien invasion and occupation of earth, and then the invaders find out that humans are more intelligent than they are.
Now imagine, for instance, an alien commanding a nice shiny new tank coming up against a used car salesman with a clapped out Cadillac to unload. Or a huckster running a shell game.
Imagine the aliens trying to deal with stuff like stitching-guns and fang-wire.
Here’s a taste. https://www.baen.com/Chapters/0671318616/0671318616.htm
@blaineg Also free on two of the Baen CDs.
Holy crap, the Tor free book this month is the excellend Red Shirts by John Scalzi! Get it if you don’t own it already.
https://ebookclub.tor.com/?utm_source=exacttarget&utm_medium=eblast&utm_term=torcomebookclubpromo-redshirtsebookgwy&utm_content=na-signup-giveaway&utm_campaign=9781429963602&et=62789-nf14786f0-47c7-4453-b759-2468a7c70e35-ndb613177-8890-42ac-bff3-37c40db8b136-n489fa376-efa4-4edf-88a5-02e2bf0d9c23&e=5fa2898a1917b202bb5ef369b125fb790f2de8b19621320f37067faaca88d335
@sammydog01 That good, huh? I never thought Scalzi was quite my speed, but maybe I should try again.
@InnocuousFarmer If you’re a Star Trek fan or at least familiar with it this is a great book. If not it may not be worth your time but the price is right.
@InnocuousFarmer @sammydog01
I enjoyed that one.
I was checking out the ebook options on my library’s website, did a search for Thomas Pynchon (there! I can finally read Inherent Vice without having to actually go somewhere and get a book!) and found that an ebook of The Heap by our own @dseanadams was an option! Now, I already bought it like a sucker, but if you’ve been wanting to check it out but didn’t want to pay money for it, check and see if your library sprang for a digital copy.
Now I’m in the peculiar position of having taken a break from V. (also available as an ebook!) to read two other ebooks, and am now taking a break from Suzi Quatro’s autobiography to read Inherent Vice.
Audible Original –
Break Shot, My First 21 Years by James Taylor
FREE!
https://www.audible.com/search?keywords=james+taylor+break+shot+my+first+21+years+an+audio+memoir&ref=a_hp_t1_header_search
Free books on Audible while schools are out. All ages.
https://stories.audible.com/start-listen
It happened again! Two books I put on my wishlist dropped to $1.99 and another is suddenly free. I don’t understand how this works, but I’m now the proud owner of William Hjortsberg’s Nevermore, John Norman’s Magicians of Gor (I would say don’t judge me, but I know that’s impossible), and a cookbook entitled Recipes of My 15 Grandmothers: Unique Recipes and Stories from the Times of the Crypto-Jews during the Spanish Inquisition by Genie Milgrom.
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/552553/shadows-of-annihilation-by-s-m-stirling/
Cause I love S M Stirling’s alternative history books
Not old enough to be free or cheap
Currently reading “Every Tool’s a Hammer” by Adam Savage. It’s okay. I was hoping it would be more nuts-and-bolts stuff about specific builds he’s done rather than a treatise on making in general, but it’s still a good read.
Freebie audiobooks from audible:
I think these would be free for everyone, not just for those who have audible subscriptions.
1st list (3 audible pages)
https://www.audible.com/ep/FreeListens
2nd list, some dups from 1st list
https://slickdeals.net/share/iphone_app/t/13932464
Some of this is stuff prob no one would want to listen to. But there’s a goodly quantity, so look around.
Working my way through the Jim Butcher Dresden Files series. Finishing up book 12 and trying to talk myself out of buying the rest of the series in Kindle. Life long readaholic so it’s like I’ve been practicing for this quarantine my entire life
@sarahsandroid You know, my uncle recommended that series to me 10 years ago and I never checked them out. It looks like a bunch are available as ebooks through my library website, but it may be a wait if I want to read them in order. So 1) you should check to see if you can borrow them through your local library, if you have one, and 2) tell me if I need to read them in order! But I am in the middle of, like, five books right now. So no rush.
@mossygreen I am on about my 5th read through of books 1-12. Initially i read them as i came across them when i was working at the library repairing audiobooks, tapes and books. Then a couple of years later i read them in order. In order let me get all the goodies to make sense. It’s better if you read them in order but not required.
Thank you for that! I’ll check the local library online.
@mossygreen @sarahsandroid
Those are fun and compelling reads.
Moderately interesting library e-book loan update: I read a tip somewhere to put your kindle in airplane mode so you can finish a book if you’re not done by the time the loan’s over. My loan ended today, yet I am still reading Inherent Vice. So it seems to be true that the loan ends and is removed from your account, but not from your device if it’s not connected to wifi or 3G.
@mossygreen You’re a protector of those poor electrons that are fated for the bit bucket. You’re keeping them alive longer than they were destined to be.
I hope the church doesn’t hear about this.
@therealjrn Hmm, more The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar or Cool Air?
@mossygreen Ja, und it also wrks if ju jes turn off the radios. Kills ads on free games too.
Tor.com has The Collapsing Empire by Scalzi for free. FREE! And today Amazon has the second in the series, The Consuming Fire for $3.
https://www.tor.com/
amazon link
I listened to the first one on Audible. I liked it.
TODAY ONLY!
@sammydog01
Thx. Scalzi is much fun.
Audible.com is free-streaming a number of kid-friendly audiobooks for the whole, geared to various ages.
One of their programs of this sort is called “Audible Stories”.
The selection includes the Stephen Fry narrated versión of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
More info about the program is here:
https://m.media-amazon.com/images/G/01/AudibleBlisseyReactWebApp/FAQ_v4.CB1585742152.pdf