[Sethro117]

lol Thanks, thats what I'm aiming for one day.

[Choscura]

Current audiobooks include "The Grand Design" (Hawking, complete, very good book), "God is Not Great" (Christopher Hitchens, halfway through, a bit too rhetorical for my taste but he does make some good arguments), "The God Delusion" (Dawkins, nearly completed, very concise and damning account of what's wrong with religion, with the one notable problem that nobody but the non-religious will read it and take it seriously in the first place), "the Origin of Species" (Read by Dawkins- a surprisingly fascinating book, I wasn't sure what to expect but it makes a great argument and provides excellent examples to support itself).

Dead-tree books include "A World on Fire", an account of the discovery of Oxygen and the ordering of chemistry as a science from it's roots as an off-shoot of alchemy, and "The Book of War", a monster of political and tactical maneuvering by Karl Von Clausewitz and Sun Tzu (includes original chinese texts, even fragmentary ones, with notes on where the texts were discovered, under which circumstances, and makes no attempt to say that all of the sayings were from one man). A surprisingly relevant read; Clausewitz is a bit dry, but his approach to his profession was as fastidious as Darwin's was to evolution, every detail you could reasonably expect is covered.

Ebooks... I have too many to mention here, the only ones I've been reading recently are math and programming ebooks, if those count. I've decided, though. I've made the commitment: I'm going to stop buying paper books and only buy ebooks, and get everybody in my family some kind of tablet computer to read them on (open to recommendations, cheaper is better).

[modi123_1]

What's the reason for this assault on regular books?

[Raynes]

BenignDesign, on 03 June 2011 - 08:23 PM, said:

Nykc, on 03 June 2011 - 03:11 PM, said:

@Benign - The Historian sounds like a Twilight offshoot. Amiright

Um. No. I don't read shit about sparkly undead teenagers in angst-riddled "love". The Historian is based around Vlad Dracul. There's not much romance... but I have lost a few nights sleep in paranoid fear.

Apparently, since Twilight, every single movie/book that even remotely references vampires is a shitty Twilight offshoot. Appropriate of course, since Twilight is the definitive book about vampires, right? Right?

I don't actually have a Kindle, but I buy Kindle books and read them on my Evo and my laptop. Right now I have Full Dark, No Stars by Stephen King and The Road by Cormac McCarthy.

[Choscura]

modi123_1, on 05 June 2011 - 08:32 PM, said:

What's the reason for this assault on regular books?

Not an assault, really, but they take up a ton of space, they're easily damaged, they wear out over time, etc. Whereas a digital file will just stay the same, unless deliberately modified. And having some kind of tablet completely takes away every disadvantage of Ebooks except possibly battery life, and gives a lot more benefits; I can read my son his bed time story from a tablet, and not need a light on. I can browse my entire library from a tablet if I get bored with whatever I'm reading, or hop online and find something new to read.

The more you love books, the more of them you are likely to have, and unless you're giving them away or loaning them out constantly, they aren't being used most of the time- so they're just taking up space on your shelf. I'd much rather have a few books that I really use and want in hardback and have one shelf, and have all the rest on a tablet- so thats what I've decided to aim for.

[RetardedGenius]

I don't own a Kindle, or similar device, although I would like to get one at some point. I've recently read The Tenderness of Wolves by Stef Penney, Digital Fortress by Dan Brown (it's quite dated now) and Winter in Madrid by C J. Sansom. I'm currently reading Dissolution, again by C J. Sansom, it's about the dissolution of the monasteries under Henry VIII.

Some books I would definitely recommend are: Imperium and Lustrum both by Robert Harris. I would also strongly recommend Robert M. Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and Richard Dawking's The God Delusion - although for converting theists to atheists I personally believe that there is no better book than the Bible...

[gabehabe]

Kindle for Android!

Nykc, on 03 June 2011 - 07:44 PM, said:

Just finished:
Serial - Jack Kilborn, Jake Crouch

I quite enjoyed this, read it in one sitting. Did you read the uncut version?

Currently reading John Dies at the End which is pretty funny. Just finished reading the Gears of War books which are amazing and really set the scene for the third game.

Will have to have a full read of this thread at some point, I like me some readin'.

This post has been edited by gabehabe: 06 June 2011 - 06:24 AM

[grabowpd]

Funny you should ask.

I have a book on Amazon.com

Programming for Kids. A Trip to the Sun.
http://www.amazon.co...07367178&sr=8-3

I also have an Electronics book and a Science Fiction book.

Just search Coach Phil Kindle on Amazon.com

[Nykc]

@Gabehabe - not sure I found it on Amazon and read it in one sitting as well. It was gruesome at one point so I can assume it was the uncut version.

[grabowpd]

RetardedGenius, on 06 June 2011 - 04:06 AM, said:

I don't own a Kindle, or similar device, although I would like to get one at some point. I've recently read The Tenderness of Wolves by Stef Penney, Digital Fortress by Dan Brown (it's quite dated now) and Winter in Madrid by C J. Sansom. I'm currently reading Dissolution, again by C J. Sansom, it's about the dissolution of the monasteries under Henry VIII.

Some books I would definitely recommend are: Imperium and Lustrum both by Robert Harris. I would also strongly recommend Robert M. Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and Richard Dawking's The God Delusion - although for converting theists to atheists I personally believe that there is no better book than the Bible...

You don't need a Kindle to read Kindle things. Kindle app runs on anything, Smartphones, Ipads, Ipods, PC's, etc.

[RetardedGenius]

@grabowpd well from that list I currently only have a PC and I already burn my irises enough programming; so for now I'll stick with regular paper books!

If we count non-fiction books, I recently finished Programming and Problem Solving with C++ it's really given me a great understanding of the basics. C++ is now my favourite programming language!

[Curtis Rutland]

Quote

I already burn my irises enough programming; so for now I'll stick with regular paper books!

You don't understand how ebook readers work. They use a technology called e-ink. (At least, most of them do. The kindle, the non-color nook, sony's e-readers, etc). This is not an LCD display. It's really like reading paper. There's no backlight, and the page and ink reflect light the same way ink on paper does. Honestly, when I first got my kindle, I tried to peel the screen off, because I thought there was one of those protective plastic sheets with writing on it. It was actually the screen.

See, e-ink doesn't draw power, except while drawing. So once a page is rendered, it stops consuming battery. So when you turn it off, it displays some image (a screen saver of sorts).

Anyway, I highly suggest you check one out before you dismiss it, since this seriously doesn't strain your eyes anymore than a paperback book. Plus, you can change the kindle's font size.

[Nykc]

The kindle is the greatest gift I received to date. I read it every night with the lights out thanks to my trusty kindle cover/light and when I am done I close the book, roll over and go to sleep.

There is no glare, no burnt irises. I do not want a color nook or color kindle for that matter. I wanted the kindle for 1 thing and 1 thing only. Reading!

[BetaWar]

My kindle app currently has the following books on it (yes, many of them are the "trial" versions):

Frankenstein (Mary Shelley)
Heart of Darkness and Other Tales (Joseph Conrad)
The Divine Comedy (Dante Alighieri)
Othello (William Shakespeare)
Tartuffe (Moliere)
The Odyssey (Homer)
Flatland: a romance of many dimensions (Abbott, Edwin Abbott)
The Power of Body Language (Michael Mc) [Sample]
Symbolic Logic (Carroll Lewis)
Amusements in Mathematics (Dudeney, Henry Ernest)
Secure Coding in C and C++ (Seacord Robert C.) [Sample]
A Tangled Tale (Carroll Lewis)
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (Irving Washington)
A Modest Proposal (Swift Jonathan)
Myth-told Tales (Robert Asprin) [Sample]
The Sword of Shannara (Brooks Terry) [Sample]
A Storm of Swords (Martin Geogre R.R.) [Sample]
The Power of Movement in Plants (Darwin Charles)
The Legends of King Arthur and his men (Knowles Sir James)
The Notebooks of Leonardo de Vinci (Leonardo de Vinci)
Fire Lord's Lover (Kennedy Kathryne) [Sample]
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (Mark Twain)
Grimm's Fairy Stories (Grimm Jacob)
Arcane Circle (Robertson Linda) [Sample]
The Paradise War: Book 1 (Lawhead Stephen R.) [Sample]
Brave New World (Huxley Aldous)
Amber Magic Book 1 (Larson B. V.) [Sample]
Apology, Crito ... (Plato)
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (Doyle Sir Arthur Conan)

Some of them are obviously far better than others, in fact I tend to not even get through the samples of books unless they are able to catch my attention/ imagination. Some of the samples above I need to buy the entire book for, some of them I need to delete.

I must say though that the Another Fine Myth series is really nice, I own all (well, a lot) of them on paperback, so I would suggest looking into that if you like fantasy (by Robert Asprin).

[Curtis Rutland]

Quote

I do not want a color nook or color kindle for that matter. I wanted the kindle for 1 thing and 1 thing only. Reading!

Exactly. My friends all want an iPad for it, and I'm like "NO!" That removes most of the advantages of having an ebook reader. Backlit LCD screens with low battery life, vs e-ink screens with literally weeks of battery life.

On the other hand, you can do more with a tablet. But I don't want to do more. I want a device that's very good for reading books. Not a device that's pretty good at it and several more things.

Also the kindle's about 35% of the price of an iPad.

This post has been edited by Curtis Rutland: 06 June 2011 - 08:10 AM