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Category Archives: Books
Fire
So far, I have one complaint about the Kindle Fire: the power button is on the bottom, right about where my fingers rest if I’m holding it to read a book. Fortunately if I turn it upside-down the text rights itself.
Spotify works like a charm. It’s much better than it was on the iPod Touch (It’s still better on the Droid). Hulu works incredibly well — better than it does on my Droid. The larger viewing screen helps, too.
I haven’t really done much else with it yet, other than read books. Because that’s really what I wanted it for, anyhow.
Hold Your Fire
Guys.. I don’t know… do I get a Kindle Fire
If you follow the links you’ll see the regular Kindle is the most expensive, with the 3G and Keyboard. I don’t really want a touch screen. I like the “tap a button to turn the page” thing. Saves the screen and makes it a lot easier to read while I’m doing other things (like eating or knitting, or watching TV). It’s such a close call in price that I keep thinking “why not just spend the extra few bucks and get the Fire? But … touchscreen.
See, I get the whole tablet thing. I actually do want a table. But the thing is, the Kindle Fire isn’t really a tablet. Not completely. Not yet. It’s really just an eReader on steroids. And I live in the 21st century. If I want to listen to music while I read I have an iPod and a Droid phone. I have CDs, mp3s, Spotify, and LastFM. I am totally soniced up!
But if I get the regular Kindle, by this time next year will I find myself with two obsolete Kindles? Because I have a First Gen that I adore and works perfectly but is no longer supported and a lot of the new Kindle features aren’t available for it. My greatest fear is that one day the battery will die and I won’t be able to get a replacement for it (I actually have a spare stashed away for just such an emergency). So really I don’t even need a new Kindle. Bertie has occasional hiccups (usually caused by me not charging him completely) but is perfectly good and loyal and still works. Except it is largely unsupported now.
I thought about getting a Kindle Fire for Kitti — he watches videos and reads magazines and would probably get more use out of a high color thing — but he says he doesn’t really want one. He’s not into the whole ebook/ezine thing. Which also means that there would be no justification in getting a Fire for me and letting Kitti have the current Kindle (Bertie).
I don’t know. I feel like I should do the sensible, practical, money-saving thing and not get any new Kindle of any description. But I don’t want to be left behind when the technology changes.
Also, the Fire is pretty.
Oh, Bollocks.
I was checking out some true crime books on Amazon and noticed a disturbing trend in the reviews…. there are a lot of people out there who rated books lower than they might have because of the use of British slang and terminology.
“The language was a little too British for me so I took off a star because not everyone knows that kind of British slang… but oh well.”
and
“Have now finished reading this book. Interesting cases. Only thing I don’t care about is the British vocabulary. As we in U S say on Elm Street, for example, this book says in Elm Street. Causes me to lose some concentration.”
Really? Really?! I do understand that some local slang is hard to follow. I’m a devout Anglophile and pretty much live on BBCAmerica and even I get confused by some terms (especially ones that are specific to a region or an age group) but then again I have the same problem with some American English slang. And generally, it’s not that hard to pick up from context. It also doesn’t take that long to look it up (later or at that moment (yes, that does take you further out of the reading, but only for a few moments and that must be better than sitting there frustrated, right?)), so when you encounter it again you don’t lose any time.
One does wonder how they manage with the cop lingo that occasionally turns up in the books. I’m also willing to bet the people who left these reviews (and the others like them) don’t read much science fiction and fantasy.
I bought one of the books that had such a review. It’ll be interesting to see how “hard” it is to understand.
Top ten most frequently challenged books of 2009
Out of 460 challenges as reported to the Office for Intellectual Freedom
1. “TTYL; TTFN; L8R, G8R (series), by Lauren Myracle
Reasons: Nudity, Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group, Drugs
(I just looked these books up and saw this: written entirely in text-message format. That, right there is reason enough to ban a book.)
2. “And Tango Makes Three” by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson
Reasons: Homosexuality
(because penguins are serious business)
3. “The Perks of Being A Wallflower,” by Stephen Chbosky
Reasons: Homosexuality, Sexually Explicit, Anti-Family, Offensive Language, Religious Viewpoint, Unsuited to Age Group, Drugs, Suicide
(I read this. I hated it. It was dull and common and uninspired. Best thing about it was frequent mention of The Smiths songs.)
4. “To Kill A Mockingbird,” by Harper Lee
Reasons: Racism, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group
5. Twilight (series) by Stephenie Meyer
Reasons: Sexually Explicit, Religious Viewpoint, Unsuited to Age Group
(Sexually explicit? WHERE!? Because that I might’ve enjoyed.)
6. “Catcher in the Rye,” by J.D. Salinger
Reasons: Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group
7. “My Sister’s Keeper,” by Jodi Picoult
Reasons: Sexism, Homosexuality, Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Religious Viewpoint, Unsuited to Age Group, Drugs, Suicide, Violence
8. “The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big, Round Things,” by Carolyn Mackler
Reasons: Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group
9. “The Color Purple,” Alice Walker
Reasons: Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group
10. “The Chocolate War,” by Robert Cormier
Reasons: Nudity, Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group
There ya go. Parents, don’t let your kids read books because they contain offensive language, are unsuited to the ages reading them, and might be sexually explicit. Give them good, wholesome, family entertainment… like a Jersey Shore marathon.
How To Do Your Head In
Read.
Specifically, spend several days reading The Alienist, followed immediately by The Angel of Darkness, and then go right into The Cabinet of Curiosities.
All three are set in New York City. The Alienist is in 1896, Angel of Darkness is 1897, and Cabinet of Curiosities involves a case that started in the 1870s or so.
Combine it with the fact that it wasn’t that long ago I read The Beautiful Cigar Girl and a slight fixation with Steampunk and it leads to a lot of sitting around going “wait, what year is this again?”
I’d also like to say that I’ve been disappointed by the Internets. Searching for “Teddy Roosevelt fighting a robot” gave me nothing.
However, “Theodore Roosevelt fighting a robot” gave me this…
Which only proves that you can count on Cracked for just about everything.
Conflicting Feelings and a Woodpecker.
Pardoner’s Tale and Ace of Wands keep turning up on pirate sites.
I have mixed feelings about this. One is “yay, people want to read my stuff.” The other is “I could really use that dollar.”
I feel hypocritical complaining about it though because if someone said to me “Can I take your ebook and give it to other people?” I would more than likely say yes. Well, I think I’d be more than happy to say yes except that right now Torquere Press has the electronic rights to those stories.
In other news, I saw a Red-bellied Woodpecker in my back yard this morning. He was checking out the fig tree.
AN OPEN LETTER TO SYFY….
Dear SyFy,
If you’re serious about creating an American version of Being Human, do yourselves a favour.
HIRE ME as a writer.
With me on your staff you’d actually have a pretty decent chance of putting something good out there. I’m talking good enough to rival the original. Trust me, I’ve got what it takes to make this work — make it funny and dark and gut-twisting and absolutely incredible.
I’m not asking to be the only writer. That would be insane. I can, however, be A writer. I can be a team player and write as part of a committee if it comes to that!
Seriously, SyFy? Seriously. Hire me.
Very sincerely,
Morgan Ferdinand
Banned Books
Each year, the ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom records hundreds of attempts by individuals and groups to have books removed from libraries shelves and from classrooms.
According to the Office for Intellectual Freedom, at least 42 of the Radcliffe Publishing Course Top 100 Novels of the 20th Century have been the target of ban attempts.
For more information on why these books were challenged, visit challenged classics and the Banned Books Week Web site.