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Conduit for Sale! posted:Your first mistake is paying attention to what Goodreads users think. Let's take a look at what Goodreads users have rated some classic literature: Jesus Christ. No kidding. Jupiter Jazz fucked around with this message at 15:41 on Dec 27, 2011 |
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Dec 27, 2011 15:10
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barkingclam posted:Merry Christmas, all. Anybody get books this year? I got My Own Private Spectres by Jean Ray.
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Dec 27, 2011 15:53
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barkingclam posted:Merry Christmas, all. Anybody get books this year? I got an Amazon gift card, with which I bought Kushiel's Dart, the hardcover of The Way of Kings, and the Pevear/Volokhonsky translation of War and Peace. 3200 pages between 3 books.
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Dec 27, 2011 17:27
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barkingclam posted:Merry Christmas, all. Anybody get books this year? No books. But I got a gift certificate to the local used book store here. I'll be able to get about 3-5 books with it, so that's pretty cool. Not sure what I'll get, depends on what they have when I go look. They don't have much new stuff, but it's good for finding older books. I've got plenty of books to read though, so I'm stocked up for awhile.
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Dec 27, 2011 17:43
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Anyone else that has a Kindle notice their to read pile grows and grows. With physical books I had maybe 1 or 2 on the pile. Now with a Kindle I have 68 books on my list. I always find new ones as well. Its getting ridiculous.
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Dec 27, 2011 18:03
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Is there a poetry thread?
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Dec 27, 2011 18:11
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CHOICE COD posted:Could be "Blood Meridian" by Cormac McCarthy. You're good! thanks
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Dec 27, 2011 19:20
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Flaggy posted:Anyone else that has a Kindle notice their to read pile grows and grows. With physical books I had maybe 1 or 2 on the pile. Now with a Kindle I have 68 books on my list. I always find new ones as well. Its getting ridiculous. I have a 106 books on my "to-read" list. These are books I already own. 61 books on my "to-buy" list, which is constantly being added to (and taken from as I buy the books). I like to buy things...
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Dec 27, 2011 19:54
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fuf posted:Is there a poetry thread?
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Dec 27, 2011 21:54
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Flaggy posted:Anyone else that has a Kindle notice their to read pile grows and grows. With physical books I had maybe 1 or 2 on the pile. Now with a Kindle I have 68 books on my list. I always find new ones as well. Its getting ridiculous. I have something like 150+ books on my kindle waiting for me to read them. Almost all of them are free google ebooks, because I love me some obscure Victorian literature. I have books waiting for me that I haven't unwrapped yet, because we do Christmas presents spread out in my house. One of them is clearly a multi-volume Chinese novel, but I'm not sure which one.
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Dec 27, 2011 22:04
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I got the Pevear and Volokonsky translations of Crime & Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov, the Olive Editions of The Crying of Lot 49 and Brave New World, and Pawnee: The Greatest Town in America. edit: and on the other subject, I have something like 40 books sitting on my Kindle, most of which were free public-domain downloads.
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Dec 27, 2011 22:55
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Ornamented Death posted:I got My Own Private Spectres by Jean Ray. Unless there's a recent reprint I don't know about, I am guessing you got the 1999 limited run, in which case, drat, nice. On my own front I got The Golden Bowl by Henry James (ugh, but it's for a class), Wilderness Plots by Scott Russell Sanders, and Brad Gooch's biography of Flannery O'Connor. I also got a Kindle Fire, which I can't wait to fill up with public domain stuff I'll never get through. To that end I'm currently reading the public domain Morri translation of Soseki's Botchan, and it leaves something to be desired. There's a more recent, ebook exclusive translation by Matt Treyvaud that looks promising for a reread, though, so there's that to look forward to.
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Dec 27, 2011 23:41
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Didn't get too many books this year, just a collection of David Halberstam's sports features, a couple textbooks on composition (gifts from my sister/her uni's used book store) and a history of UK punk that seems interesting, but hasn't gotten great reviews. And I picked up a used copy of Evelyn Waugh's Sword of Honor trilogy I'm looking forward too.
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Dec 28, 2011 00:38
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H.P. Shivcraft posted:Unless there's a recent reprint I don't know about, I am guessing you got the 1999 limited run, in which case, drat, nice. Yep, it's the 1999 edition; it took the better part of two years for my finances to line up with an available copy. The only English-language Jean Ray book I'm missing now is Ghouls in My Grave and gently caress paying $100+ for a fifty-year-old paperback; I know copies have sold for as little as ten bucks, so it's mostly just a waiting game on that one.
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Dec 28, 2011 03:03
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Conduit for Sale! posted:Your first mistake is paying attention to what Goodreads users think. Let's take a look at what Goodreads users have rated some classic literature: List of Best Books Ever as rated by the Goodreads community 1 - Twilight #1 2 - Harry Potter #5 3 - Harry Potter #4 4 - Harry Potter #3 5 - Twilight #3 etc...
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Dec 28, 2011 07:14
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80% (rough estimate) of the Goodreads userbase consists of 15-year-old girls and grown men who wish they were 15-year-old girls. Which is a shame, because it would be a great tool and resource for book recommendations if the userbase were more diverse and mature.
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Dec 28, 2011 10:38
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hope and vaseline posted:List of Best Books Ever as rated by the Goodreads community At least it wasn't spammed by Randroids and Scientologists like the Modern Library's reader's top 100
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Dec 28, 2011 11:04
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I have a copy of an old paperback that will never be turned into an e-book because it is literally the worst book ever (Mickey Spillane's The Erection Set). Without cutting the spine off and feeding it through a scanner at Kinko's, is there a "best" way to create an e-book other than just typing until my hands don't work anymore?
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Dec 28, 2011 16:01
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Joramun posted:80% (rough estimate) of the Goodreads userbase consists of 15-year-old girls and grown men who wish they were 15-year-old girls. Which is a shame, because it would be a great tool and resource for book recommendations if the userbase were more diverse and mature. Goodreads is useful for more specific lists and the legitimately good reviewers, as well as for discovering random poo poo. Just don't pay any attention to the aggregate ratings.
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Dec 28, 2011 16:32
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Quad posted:I have a copy of an old paperback that will never be turned into an e-book because it is literally the worst book ever (Mickey Spillane's The Erection Set). Without cutting the spine off and feeding it through a scanner at Kinko's, is there a "best" way to create an e-book other than just typing until my hands don't work anymore? There are special scanners you can buy, but basically your best bet is gonna be buying another paperback and cutting it up and scanning it. Every place I have seen that scans books is pretty expensive, and there's a nifty build you can do with plexiglass and 2 digital cameras, but basically just hit amazon and pick up one to destroy. At least some version of it will last forever 
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Dec 28, 2011 18:14
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Quad posted:I have a copy of an old paperback that will never be turned into an e-book because it is literally the worst book ever (Mickey Spillane's The Erection Set). Without cutting the spine off and feeding it through a scanner at Kinko's, is there a "best" way to create an e-book other than just typing until my hands don't work anymore? Believe it or not, it already exists as an ebook. I don't know if you want to pay for it again, but if you value your time turning your old copy into an ebook would most likely end up costing you more. a silver spaceship fucked around with this message at 22:34 on Dec 28, 2011 |
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Dec 28, 2011 22:29
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a silver spaceship posted:Believe it or not, it already exists as an ebook. I don't know if you want to pay for it again, but if you value your time turning your old copy into an ebook would most likely end up costing you more. Oh poo poo. You are literally my hero. $7 is annoying, but certainly not as annoying as DIY. 
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Dec 28, 2011 23:29
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a silver spaceship posted:Believe it or not, it already exists as an ebook. I don't know if you want to pay for it again, but if you value your time turning your old copy into an ebook would most likely end up costing you more. This right here is the most perfect demonstration of why ebooks are overpriced that I've ever seen. Amazing.
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Dec 29, 2011 01:12
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barkingclam posted:Merry Christmas, all. Anybody get books this year? Haha, I got literally nothing but. Just piles of books (mostly military and crime fiction) and a Kindle. My family knows me well.
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Dec 29, 2011 07:17
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I bloody love Jonathon Strange and Mr. Norrell. In other news, my Amazon wishlist has now reached a total of 78 items. I have no clue how long it will take to cover all of this reading but it's mostly because of my recent receiving of a Kindle as a Christmas gift.
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Dec 29, 2011 10:21
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If it makes you feel any better: I have one bookcase and the rest my books are all in boxes or drawers or wherever I can stuff them. The bookcase is entirely filled with unread books. I may actually have to start putting unread books in boxes... For every book I read, I probably buy two more. At least.
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Dec 29, 2011 10:41
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barkingclam posted:Merry Christmas, all. Anybody get books this year? Merry Christmas! Usually Christmas is a book-buying bonanza for our family, as my father, my sister (just done her MA in English Lit) and myself are all readers. But he didn't want any in particular and she and I both felt we've got too drat many books already, so the only person who got a book was my mother, who reads maybe a book a month.
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Dec 29, 2011 22:54
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Does anyone know a good place to start with Charles Stross's material? Should I go Rule 34, Glasshouse, Saturn's Children, or something else entirely?
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Dec 31, 2011 05:57
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Hiro Protagonist posted:Does anyone know a good place to start with Charles Stross's material? Should I go Rule 34, Glasshouse, Saturn's Children, or something else entirely? The Atrocity Archives would be my recommendation. You could also start with one of his short story collections to get a kind of overview of how he writes different genres.
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Dec 31, 2011 07:37
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Ornamented Death posted:The Atrocity Archives would be my recommendation. You could also start with one of his short story collections to get a kind of overview of how he writes different genres.
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Jan 2, 2012 17:37
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Looking for some good recommendations in regards to WW2 "what-if" books. Like what-if the US and Germany aligned. Or what-if Germany developed the bomb. Or what-if Russia continued on after the war and wanted all of Germany. Any what-if books that have some logic to their premise is good really. Thanks.
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Jan 2, 2012 22:59
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Liar posted:Looking for some good recommendations in regards to WW2 "what-if" books. Like what-if the US and Germany aligned. Or what-if Germany developed the bomb. Or what-if Russia continued on after the war and wanted all of Germany. Any what-if books that have some logic to their premise is good really. Thanks.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man_in_the_High_Castle
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Jan 2, 2012 23:20
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Joramun posted:
A million times this! Also, The Plot Against America by Phillip Roth. It's more about anti-semitism and society than world politics, etc, but it's a much better read than the usual Harry Turtledove stuff. The book is about the Roth family in a 1940's America that never entered WWII because Charles Lindbergh defeated FDR in the presidential election and held to the isolationist/ America First movement ideal. Again, it's more of a personal novel rather than the "and then Russia took over Spain and then the Nazis created zombies..." type, but worth checking out for a "serious author's" take on alternate history.
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Jan 5, 2012 03:33
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Liar posted:Looking for some good recommendations in regards to WW2 "what-if" books. Like what-if the US and Germany aligned. Or what-if Germany developed the bomb. Or what-if Russia continued on after the war and wanted all of Germany. Any what-if books that have some logic to their premise is good really. Thanks.
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Jan 5, 2012 23:18
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Hey guys, I'm looking to buy a house in the next couple of years. I have a large amount of books and right now they're on cheap store-brand bookcases. They're also overflowing. I want a set of really nice-looking bookcases to hold these. Where the heck would I find something? Looking online, it seems that most places sell either cheap generic looking crap or bookcases for decoration only (ie a few books and some pictures and some vases... they're open on the sides or spell something stupid). I don't mind spending decent money on a good, ornate bookcase that will properly show off my books.
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Jan 6, 2012 20:35
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CornHolio posted:I want a set of really nice-looking bookcases to hold these. Where the heck would I find something? You have three good options here. 1.) Build them yourself. Obviously only do this if you know what you're doing. 2.) Visit a furniture store. You say you're willing to spend some money, and places like Basset, Ashley, Haverty's, and so on will be more than happy to help you with that. They have some pretty fancy book cases, but they can get pricey very, very quickly. 3.) Visit an unfinished wood store. These may be called something else in your area, but basically it is a store that will build you stuff to your specifications - essentially you're paying someone else to perform option 1. This is my recommendation because you're going to get exactly what you want. I find that bookshelves bought from furniture stores are often way too deep - there's no need for a shelf to be 24" deep when 99% of hardbacks are only about nine inches. Having your shelves custom-built also allows you to incorporate wild poo poo like UV-blocking glass and whatnot.
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Jan 6, 2012 20:52
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4.) Burn them all and get a Kindle. Biggest space-saver ever.
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Jan 6, 2012 20:58
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Joramun posted:4.) Burn them all and get a Kindle. Biggest space-saver ever. Nowhere in his post did he mention anything about space-saving. Some people like to have large collections of books and show them off .
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Jan 6, 2012 21:03
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It was a harmless joke (and also good advice since it really is a wonderful device, but that is à propos). Showing off your big
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Jan 6, 2012 21:14
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Ornamented Death posted:Nowhere in his post did he mention anything about space-saving. Some people like to have large collections of books and show them off 
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Jan 6, 2012 21:17
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