Twig Posted January 3, 2012 Which one would you recommend? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Sleepdance Posted January 3, 2012 Read Norwegian Wood, it's his best. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Twig Posted January 3, 2012 Okie dokie. Also holy crap ebooks are expensive on the nook store. Are there other, cheaper alternatives? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Cult of Jared Posted January 3, 2012 Twig said: Okie dokie.Also holy crap ebooks are expensive on the nook store. Are there other, cheaper alternatives? Can you download public domain books? If you can, then all of literary history is the alternative. If you can't, then boo hiss. And yeah, with current e-readers, books are expensive, ephemeral and exclusive. Which is super unfortunate, as I would genuinely like to have fewer books. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Twig Posted January 3, 2012 Yeah, PD books are all over the place in all kinds of different formats. I read more than a few of 'em on my iPod Touch before I got tired of the small, super bright screen. I was more asking about alternative storefronts, as the Nook supports other formats. Not a whole lot of 'em, though. This thing is a super rad device, but... they want me to pay $16 for a fucking digital copy of Ubik (a book recommended by a friend)? Paperbacks are usually like 2/3 that! It's ridiculous. 1Q84 is similarly priced, but at least it's apparently a thousand pages, so it'd be expensive even in paperback... I... I don't understand why they're so expensive? It doesn't make sense to me. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Nappi Posted January 3, 2012 Part of the reason might be that the some stores try to get rid of their large stocks of old paperbacks to make room for something else and that's why the physical are so cheap. Also, e-books are relatively new and there is no competition (I don't know how closed system Nook is, though) so they can actually charge you more when you buy digitally. Actually, I have no idea what the reason behind the pricing is, but I noticed the same thing when I checked the book store on my mother's iPad. Incidentially, any public domain recommendations? Preferably something that has aged well and isn't too laborious to read/listen. I have listened through most of the Sherlock Holmes books with pleasure, tried to complete Around the World in 80 Days, barely managed Moby Dick and been positively surprised by Heart of Darkness. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Twig Posted January 3, 2012 I'm a fan of H.G. Wells. I read quite a few of his stories on the aforementioned iPod Touch. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Roderick Posted January 3, 2012 Bah humbug, ebooks should be a whole lot cheaper. The biggest costs of books is the physical production, transportation and storage, so it's a completely artificial inflation of the price. Cheap ebooks would be too competitive for normal books, so they unjustly keep the prices the same. It's also appalling that Ubik, a 40-year-old book by an author that has been dead for 30 years, isn't public domain yet. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Patters Posted January 3, 2012 The one thing I hate about e-books is that VAT can be charged on them, yet this cannot be charged on physical books. Though I am happy to pay the same price or less, it sucks when there is a big price disparity. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ThunderPeel2001 Posted January 4, 2012 The fact that it's as easy as downloading an MP3 to get thousands of books for free illegally, makes me really concerned about the quality of future books. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Twig Posted January 4, 2012 ThunderPeel2001 said: The fact that it's as easy as downloading an MP3 to get thousands of books for free illegally, makes me really concerned about the quality of future books. Yeah that's a valid worry. I dunno. Also, god, what I wouldn't do for a color e-ink e-reader (e-e-e-e-) to replace my comic book collection. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Roderick Posted January 4, 2012 Thunderpeel, could you define what you mean with the quality of books? The printing quality? The editorial process? What we've seen in other fields when the means of distribution is freed up (webcomics, youtube videos, etc), is that there's a surge of cack, but that it actually doesn't diminish the quality or quantity of the good stuff. You just get a much bigger pool, and it's free to boot. The net results are almost always positive. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ThunderPeel2001 Posted January 4, 2012 Rodi said: Thunderpeel, could you define what you mean with the quality of books? The printing quality? The editorial process? What we've seen in other fields when the means of distribution is freed up (webcomics, youtube videos, etc), is that there's a surge of cack, but that it actually doesn't diminish the quality or quantity of the good stuff. You just get a much bigger pool, and it's free to boot. The net results are almost always positive. I was talking about quality writing. Nobody thinks webcomics are replacing real comics. Neither are movies being replaced by keyboard playing cats... This is more akin to music and illegal MP3s, or paid news versus free news. Essentially where people stop paying, and so the perceived value of it is reduced. An author needs a fulltime salary while they write, and sometimes that can be for years. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Twig Posted January 4, 2012 Well, it seems to me, writing is something people do because they love it, right? There's often not much money in it, unless they hit it big. But until then... So, writing quality wouldn't drop, I don't think. Writers are used to being starving artists. They do it for love of the craft, not for the money. Maybe? That's the stereotype, anyway. I could be wrong. I don't know any writers who do it for a living, personally. And then there are the readers. Books, by their nature, are a much more, ahem-hem, "hardcore" thing? Not everyone reads, but pretty much everyone I know listens to (and pirates) music. (I do know a few oddballs who dislike music, period. I do not understand them.) The people who truly have a love for music don't usually end up being the ones who pirate, in my experience? So the same might end up holding true for people who read. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Roderick Posted January 4, 2012 I think we're messing up the discussion by likening cheaper eBooks to piracy. It's entirely possible to offer books much cheaper and still pay authors and make good profit. Another argument holds that amateurs can often make beautiful things in their spare time. It doesn't take a fulltime job to make something profound and magnificent. The fact of the matter is that these industries are changing rapidly, but it doesn't have to be to the detriment of quality. There are loads of great songs being made today despite piracy being rampant and there will always be demand for high-brow news reporting. Don't panic! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Twig Posted January 4, 2012 No, no, Thunder was specifically talking about piracy, not cheaper eBooks. A different topic entirely, rather than a comparison. Or at least, that was my understanding. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
DanJW Posted January 4, 2012 Orvidos said: So, Ringworld. Yeah. Hmm. I'm not entirely sure what to say on it. I really liked it, no doubt there. It was certainly interesting. But I'm not sure there's much I would want to discuss about it. I'd certainly recommend it, if you're into sci-fi, and for some reason haven't read it. But I'm not really sure how to describe or discuss it. :tup: I've got the entirety of Known Space on tap, so maybe I'll be back with some more coherant thoughts when I've read more of the universe. It's just sort of disquieting to me that this is the first book I've ever read that I've just thought "Yep, that was a book" No emotions one way or the other, just want to read the next part. Maybe that's a good thing? Ah cool. My favourite is Protector; let me know what you think of it when you reach it. I do think the more focussed Known Space books and short stories are better written than the crammed-full Ringworld novels, which are more akin to epic space opera. They are all good fun though. I am currently reading The Duck that Won the Lottery, one of the books I got given for Christmas. It is an easy-going primer into common fallacies and bad logic used in rhetoric, with examples from various politicians, journalists and famous people. It's an interesting and surprisingly easy read with each "chapter" only two or three pages long. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Cult of Jared Posted January 4, 2012 I'm not worried about books significantly changing in the next 7 years, but if I was, I would worry about the loss of dedicated editors. I have long suspected those dudes are more important to quality writing than the original authors. Nappi said: Incidentially, any public domain recommendations? Preferably something that has aged well and isn't too laborious to read/listen. I have listened through most of the Sherlock Holmes books with pleasure, tried to complete Around the World in 80 Days, barely managed Moby Dick and been positively surprised by Heart of Darkness. Heart of Darkness is super good. I have never read a book so slowly. Normally I would recommend The Quiet American to follow that, but it isn't public domain. So you might have to make do with short stories from Kipling. Dubliners and Pygmalion are unrelated, but personal favorites. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
brkl Posted January 5, 2012 If you liked Heart of Darkness, Conrad's Secret Agent and Nostromo are also very good, though longer and Nostromo especially is pretty complicated structurally. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Roderick Posted January 5, 2012 A friendly warning: do not see the Secret Agent movie with Christian Bale. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
brkl Posted January 6, 2012 I did not know of such thing. Huh, I should study for an exam and I've collected quite a backlog of novels, but I feel like reading some more Conrad... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Nappi Posted January 11, 2012 Not strictly related to anything at all, but this table is weird: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Irving#Recurring_themes Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Gwardinen Posted January 13, 2012 Anyone have any recommendations for humorous books and/or writers? I could do with my mood lifting right now. Of course I'll probably have given up and gone to bed before anyone replies to this, but I'll probably be ill-tempered in the morning too, so... hooray? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
pabosher Posted January 13, 2012 Wodehouse - Right Ho, Jeeves. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ThunderPeel2001 Posted January 13, 2012 Some comics: BONE (Calvin and Hobbes/Pogo meets Lord of the Rings) Calvin and Hobbes -- A newspaper strip cartoon that's good for your soul And a book: Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy -- Douglas Adams shamelessly tries to be PG Wodehouse in space... and succeeds ...leap to mind. Although, I'm sure you've read all of them. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
