What Are You Reading? (Part Three)

[catspaw66]

I've gotten a lot of e-books from Project Gutenberg. ManyBooks.net is another good source of free e-books in various formats. Amazon regularly has free e-books or ones on sale, so I check out their special offers for Kindle books on a pretty routine basis.

You can make notes, highlight, and bookmark pages on an e-reader. You can also skim pages, so there aren't really many advantages physical books have over e-books.

Thanks for the link to ManyBooks. I had never found that one. Now to see what they have that I want to read.

The biggest advantage physical books have is the wonderful smell and feel of old paper.

For those with a Nook reader, Barnes and Noble has a lot of low priced books. Of course, some of the e-books are more expensive than the paperback. Go figure. At least there is no shipping on the e-book.

 

[silcat]

The biggest advantage physical books have is the wonderful smell and feel of old paper.

I know I should  have an e-book (as a professor who loves to read wherever she goes), but I just can't get myself to purchase one. I love the feel of book paper and for some reason, the simple sound of pages flipping is soothing to me (i.e. in a library). 

Right now I'm re-reading The Little Prince  for the n-th time. I read it for the first time in third grade and I always have a copy on hand wherever I go in my purse. 

 

 

[Winchester]

Thanks so much for talking about your free book places. I'm going to check them out.

When I was looking at the B & N free book site, some of those books weren't even books in the simplest sense of the word. I actually downloaded a few "books" that were 20 pages long. Those are not books; they are stories....and not very good ones at that. And I don't realize it until I've already downloaded the story, that it was just a story. I guess it's a way for some of the authors to get recognition, but, in my mind, it's not very good recognition. So I appreciate the links and the information. Thank you.

Right now, I am re-reading Dragonfly in Amber, the second in the Outlander series. 

Terry, I agree about the feel and smell of an old book. And I do peruse the cheaper book section at B & N. Sometimes you can find some good bargains there.

I read the 50 Shades of Grey series and didn't find them to be that bad really, more along the lines of nothing particularly impressive and now that you mentioned it was originally Twilight fanfic, well that explains a lot. But like you, HappyBird, I think that the Anita Blake series may have de-sensitized me, too, because the Grey books didn't horrify me at all; it's much ado about nothing. (I love the Anita Blake series, BTW.) 

 

[catspaw66]

 
I know I should  have an e-book (as a professor who loves to read wherever she goes), but I just can't get myself to purchase one. I love the feel of book paper and for some reason, the simple sound of pages flipping is soothing to me (i.e. in a library). 

I swore I would never use an e-book reader, then my brother gave me a Nook first edition. Then about a year or so later, he gave me a Nook Color - and a Nook to Android card. So I now have one to read and one to read and use as a tablet.

But, I still keep my eyes out for paper books that are old, or something I want.

My sister is a librarian in a major city, and she has an e-book reader, too.

It is just so convenient having a whole library of several thousand books in one neat package. I can take the Nook Color with me and read, or play Angry Birds (I have all 6 major ones) or surf the web (using a free Wi-Fi connection, like at McDonalds) all in a package weighing about a pound.

 

[jtbo]

It is also quite nice to order machine to do a reading, especially if one has tired eyes, I use Cool Reader software, there is read aloud option so that machine reads book aloud.

It is not perfect of course, but it is quite handy to fall asleep to that compared to paper book or even reading from device.

I tend to fall asleep quite often when reading, then dreams contain stuff from what I was reading, but still different, beats movies

I have found some books from here, it is not only science fiction, there are lot of other categories too:
http://www.free-online-novels.com/sciencefiction.html

While learning woodworking and looking for resources, I stumbled upon free books:
http://www.craftsmanspace.com/free-books/woodworking-joinery-tehniques-hand-tools.html


Last book I finished was Dinosaur Wars:Earthfall, which is free for limited time and really good one:
http://thomas-hopp.com/THnovels.html

http://www.smashwords.com is also worth to check, they have cheap books and free books, I'm sure I have mentioned this book somewhere before, but it is one of the best books I have read, A Cat's tale:
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/131891?ref=dead0eye

 

[zootandemo]

Highlighting, bookmarking, etc., electronically is to me like editing my written work on screen: I'm happiest doing the thinking with the physical presence of the work. Then I go back to the computer and do the 'mechanics' on screen. It's the same with making notes on books. And I still carry a small notebook and pen with me wherever I go. It feels like there's more of me in what I write down, my mark on a page, than can be conveyed via a keyboard. I especially enjoy using a fountain pen.

I have nothing against e-readers, (or the folks who use them!) I'm only stating a preference.

Also, I would not deprive myself of the pleasure of browsing and buying in bookshops. Many of my happiest hours are spent in this pleasurable pursuit - now that's 'me time' - and there's no postage involved there, either.

.

 

[jcat]

Probably the reason I don't miss physical books is that I use textbooks at work every day. That's enough of a "fix". I still browse in bookstores, but buy the e-book version if it's available; usually it's cheaper.

 

[zootandemo]

Like I wrote, I don't dismiss people who prefer the electronic. As it is written, 'to each his own.'

I use them every day and night - electronics, I mean! Reading and writing on screen is a part of daily life for most of us. Maybe that' why I find it so unremarkable, such a non-event.

So what's on your bookshelves? Disks?

Here's to a life full of chargers and batteries!

 

[catspaw66]

My bookshelves have disks, cassette tapes, hardback and paperback books. I even have a copy of The Book of Genesis, illustrated by Robert Crumb -of 70's stoner comic book fame.

 

[sugarsandz]

I am almost done reading Death by Black Hole: And Other Cosmic Quandaries by Neil deGrasse Tyson

I'll be starting on The Future of the Mind by Michio Kaku next

 

[happybird]

I am almost done reading Death by Black Hole: And Other Cosmic Quandaries by Neil deGrasse Tyson

I'll be starting on The Future of the Mind by Michio Kaku next

I love Neil deGrasse Tyson. I was one of those folks who thought current NASA spending was a big waste of money until I heard deGrasse Tyson defend it. Is the book easy to read and follow for people who are not scientifically-inclined? I would like to check it out, but am a big dummy about physics and such.
I am familiar with Michio Kaku from his radio appearances with Art Bell, and later, George Norry (boo!), on Coast to Coast AM. He is a fascinating, intelligent man.

 

[jtbo]

I love Neil deGrasse Tyson. I was one of those folks who thought current NASA spending was a big waste of money until I heard deGrasse Tyson defend it. Is the book easy to read and follow for people who are not scientifically-inclined? I would like to check it out, but am a big dummy about physics and such.
I am familiar with Michio Kaku from his radio appearances with Art Bell, and later, George Norry (boo!), on Coast to Coast AM. He is a fascinating, intelligent man.

Try youtube seach Michio Kaku and there is lot to watch if one has no mood for reading. I like all those sorts, one really great was illusion of time, can't remember if that was one of his or someone else's, but it was really good explanation of time, which most probably have not learned whole truth from school as it is quite recent discoveries that have refined understanding of what time actually is.

I tend to fall asleep when trying to read such, but watching documentary is easier for me.

Last book I did read was Galaxy of heroes, I think it was not very good, too long, too detailed explanation and for every character speak writer did end with "he said" or "she said", that soon became bit annoying.

I guess that I like more to be left for imagination, it was bit like reading H.G Wells War of the worlds, when character entered a room he spend chapters describing the room, I ended up skipping several pages at once when reading that and I still felt it was too longly written.

Maybe I have bit short attention ability, but that I find often being problem with many books.

Currently I have something around 600 free Scifi books downloaded to my Android pocket computer, so there is really lot to choose, but I'm afraid only fraction is really what I'm into.

 

[AbbysMom]

I have been reading a fluffy fiction paperback. :lol3:

 

[Winchester]

On my Nook:

Drums of Autumn - Diana Gabaldon

Dead Roots - Nancy Cohen

Out of the Frying Pan - Robin Allen

Stranded - Alex Kava

Mission to Mars: My Vision for Space Exploration - Buzz Aldrin

 

[laralove]

I just finished Thomas Toivi Blatt's From the Ashes of Sobibor: A Story of Survival, which was an extremely well-written book. Anyone interested in learning about the Holocaust, please read that book. The week before that I finished Christopher R. Browning's Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland. Another well-written book about the Holocaust. It's basically about how "ordinary men" (not soldiers or anyone who otherwise would have been pegged or independently become murderous) were made into cold-blooded killers by the Nazis. 

I'm getting ready to start Primo Levi's Survival in Auschwitz. 

 

[alainasmom]

I have been reading a fluffy fiction paperback.

LoL - which one? 

@Winchester  I love  the Outlander series - just finished rereading An Echo in the Bone. Can't wait for Written in my Own Heart's Blood. 

 

[happybird]

LoL - which one? 

@Winchester
 I love the Outlander series - just finished rereading An Echo in the Bone. Can't wait for Written in my Own Heart's Blood. 

That is funny, I am reading them, too, as suggested by someone on this thread! I breezed through the first two then stopped before Voyager. I cannot remember why ... I think I just got sidetracked. Two nights ago, I realized I have Voyager and Drums of Autumn loaded on my iPad and plan to start up again when I am finished with my current book (A Song of Ice and Fire).

 

[AbbysMom]

I have been reading a fluffy fiction paperback. :lol3:

LoL - which one? 

@Winchester
 I love the Outlander series - just finished rereading An Echo in the Bone. Can't wait for Written in my Own Heart's Blood. 

It's a book by Mariah Stewart. :lol3:

 

[catspaw66]

Still reading (mainly) my E.E. "Doc" Smith collection book. 1,534 pages down, 1,042 to go. Then I can start in on the short stories collection, 13,710 pages. I am also reading several other books, including some real paper ones.

 

[larussa]

I just started reading Family Ties by Danielle Steele.