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Rand Brittain posted:What?
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Feb 11, 2018 07:17
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Rand Brittain posted:Just download Calibre or something and keep everything in a library on your PC. This. Calibre makes everything so much easier. Metadata is life for me with 2,500 books or so.
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Feb 11, 2018 15:58
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The only problem I have with Kindle (like everyone else 99% of my recent reading is on Kindle) is that for some reason I can never remember author names anymore. Something about not seeing the cover of a book except as a thumbnail image, perhaps? It's very strange.
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Feb 11, 2018 16:48
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I think my favorite part of using a Kindle is the built in backlight. I can read in bed without disturbing the wife.
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Feb 11, 2018 16:56
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A Proper Uppercut posted:I think my favorite part of using a Kindle is the built in backlight. I can read in bed without disturbing the wife. This. Mine always goes to bed first. It the only practical way to read in the dark.
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Feb 11, 2018 18:25
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McCoy Pauley posted:Nothing beats having the next few books in my queue ready to go on the Kindle when I finish one in the middle of taking the subway, but ebooks aren't good for browsing. As my kids have gotten old enough to have an interest in the same sci-fi books I like, I've been repurchasing some ebooks in physical form, because they spend time browsing our bookshelves around the house, finding books that interest them, but they're never going to browse my Kindle and come across something new and interesting that way. Or quite possibly they'll find something new and extremely interesting, but not what you had in mind.
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Feb 11, 2018 18:33
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They're going to find out about Chuck Tingle one way or another
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Feb 11, 2018 19:23
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SSJ_naruto_2003 posted:I'm just poor That's also very cyberpunk. there wolf posted:What if my idea of comfort is a hot bath, hmmm? They do make waterproof eBook readers.
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Feb 11, 2018 19:59
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Or just put it in a ziplock bag
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Feb 11, 2018 20:16
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Hobnob posted:The only problem I have with Kindle (like everyone else 99% of my recent reading is on Kindle) is that for some reason I can never remember author names anymore. Something about not seeing the cover of a book except as a thumbnail image, perhaps? It's very strange. There was a study about this, anything other than a physical book has a lower "permanence" in mind. Certainly matches my anecdotal experience. Best way to manage epubs? Calibre with its library in google drive, synched across your devices.
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Feb 11, 2018 21:09
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Physical books definitely have more permanence for me--I have a lot of my shelves double-stacked at the moment because I am out of space but I can still tell you roughly where any specific title is and remember what they look like despite having no organization at all, whereas fairly often I'll be notified of an ebook on sale and go to the Amazon page only to be notified I already bought it the last time it was on sale.
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Feb 11, 2018 21:21
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Internet Wizard posted:Or just put it in a ziplock bag The little table next to my tub is a pile of sad paperbacks and loose sandwich bags for this reason.
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Feb 12, 2018 00:43
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I guess I'm weird because I honestly don't want the permanence people talk about. I mean, how often do you actually re-read books? Personally I'd almost always read something new, and when I do re-read, it's generally after a pretty long time. Having almost-literal tons of books just lying around, very-literally gathering dust in the meantime just seems like a massive drag. It's like, everything is transient, y'know? 
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Feb 12, 2018 02:15
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I reread books pretty often. But realizing that it's only some books and that I could probably afford to ditch things like the pile of post modern fiction I had to read for English class over a decade ago and hadn't touched since was a big step. It's actually easier to read new stuff because I don't have a bunch of half-finished novels hanging around making me feel guilty for reading anything else.
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Feb 12, 2018 03:45
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I tend to grab ebooks for new releases because I hate trade paperbacks with a passion. If I really like the book, and particularly if it's part of a series or I might reread it, I'll grab a physical copy eventually. It's also more fun to hunt through the piles of books around my bookshelves for something to read than to scroll through a long digital list.
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Feb 12, 2018 03:54
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I've started the black company and is the first book considered not very good? Should I have started elsewhere? The writing seems pretty bleh, even if I do kind of like the story so far.
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Feb 12, 2018 04:09
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Grimwall posted:There was a study about this, anything other than a physical book has a lower "permanence" in mind. Certainly matches my anecdotal experience. I think I recall that study was done with people reading books on cellphones/tablets rather than dedicated ereaders. My anecdotal experience is that eink displays are close enough to a physical book that I don't personally feel any difference in retention. Partially probably because a phone/tablet is an invitation to check your email every 5 minutes or whatever. Doorknob Slobber posted:I've started the black company and is the first book considered not very good? Should I have started elsewhere? The writing seems pretty bleh, even if I do kind of like the story so far. It's a "straight line" series, no Malazan/Vorkosigan "suggested reading orders." I like the series but Glen Cook's got a terse style, and the books are framed as a soldier writing down accounts for the company's records, so it's not going to be enjoyable for everybody. Also speaking of Vorkosigan I finally started reading the series last month and I'm up to Miles Errant right now. Pretty enjoyable overall but Labyrinth was, uh, a thing. "aaah i'm trapped in a basement with a horny super soldier there's nowhere for me to run what am i gonna do say no?"  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oyvz_g5bnFc
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Feb 12, 2018 06:17
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Doorknob Slobber posted:I've started the black company and is the first book considered not very good? Should I have started elsewhere? The writing seems pretty bleh, even if I do kind of like the story so far. The writing's like that through the whole series. If you don't like it now it's probably not gonna warm up on you. If you're interested in the story though, it's probably worth soldiering through the first trilogy.
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Feb 12, 2018 06:29
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After 5-6 moves cross country and across countries for work, I'm all aboard the ebook train and on my phone no less.
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Feb 12, 2018 06:58
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occamsnailfile posted:Physical books definitely have more permanence for me--I have a lot of my shelves double-stacked at the moment because I am out of space but I can still tell you roughly where any specific title is and remember what they look like despite having no organization at all, whereas fairly often I'll be notified of an ebook on sale and go to the Amazon page only to be notified I already bought it the last time it was on sale. I wasn't clear about what I meant by permanence, sorry about that. I actually meant retention of information read is higher in paper books. However, I agree with the point I accidentally made and you clarified  .
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Feb 12, 2018 07:43
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I'm the dude who posted earlier with critiques of The Illustrated Man. Just picked up some Ambrose Bierce short stories; read Ashes of the Beacon, and am reading Snow Crash. These, especially the latter, are hitting the spot! Snow Crash has a very different feel from Seveneves; I suppose the quarter-decade spread could explain part of that.
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Feb 12, 2018 13:47
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Stephenson's novels can be pretty much divided into two stylistic groups: everything up to and including Diamond Age, and everything after that starting with Cryptonomicon.
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Feb 12, 2018 14:23
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taser rates posted:Stephenson's novels can be pretty much divided into two stylistic groups: everything up to and including Diamond Age, and everything after that starting with Cryptonomicon. Or, are his books shaped like book-sized objects or bricks?
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Feb 12, 2018 15:33
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General Battuta, I am enjoying The Traitor Baru Cormorant so far, but I have to ask: when you heard the audiobook narrator pronounce duchy - a word which must be used a thousand times in this book - as "Doo-CHEE," on a scale of one to ten, how great was your urge to find them and strangle them in their bed? On a related note, remembering that the author of Baru Cormorant also wrote for Freespace 2: Blue Planet made me wonder if there's any good SF that evokes a feeling similar to that series, or to the Shadow War in Babylon 5. To me, that means any or all of: 1) Humanity in a desperate fighting retreat from an implacable, utterly inhuman foe that doesn't have to play by the same rules humans do. 2) A Black Company-esque war story, where the protagonist is a small player on a grand stage. 3) A sense of cosmic scale and deep time, galactic cycles, the ruins of dead civilizations. Any recommendations? Battuta, anything that inspired you in particular for your work on Blue Planet? Bonus points if it's available on audiobook.
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Feb 12, 2018 19:30
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The Dragon Never Sleeps by Glen Cook kind of feels a bit like that, imo. At least for #2.
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Feb 12, 2018 19:48
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A lot of Steven Baxter falls into that area, specifically the Xeelee cycle and the Manifold books. He's definitely an ideas-over-characters-and-prose kind of writer though, so be warned there.
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Feb 12, 2018 19:56
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Quick PSA: Thirteen (Black Man in the UK) by Richard K. Morgan is currently on sale on Amazon for $1.99 Also The Dreaming Void by peter F. Hamilton for $2.99. The first book in The Void Trilogy set in the Commonwealth universe. I just finished that a couple of weeks ago, and while it was OK to revisit the Commonwealth universe, originally first seen in Pandora's Star and Judas Unchained, it's basically just a 600 page setup for the next two books. It's also set so far into the future that while there are references to what went on before, it can easily be read as a standalone trilogy. I know people here love Hamilton and his gently caress scenes, so yes, there are a few as well in this one. Fart of Presto fucked around with this message at 20:07 on Feb 12, 2018 |
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Feb 12, 2018 19:57
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I finally got around to starting Catherynne Valente's Deathless and it's real good.
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Feb 12, 2018 20:05
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Kestral posted:General Battuta, I am enjoying The Traitor Baru Cormorant so far, but I have to ask: when you heard the audiobook narrator pronounce duchy - a word which must be used a thousand times in this book - as "Doo-CHEE," on a scale of one to ten, how great was your urge to find them and strangle them in their bed? I never got past the first chapter on the audiobook. I'm doing up a pronunciation guide for the second one right now, but it honestly would never have occurred to me to provide pronunciation for a real world term.
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Feb 12, 2018 20:42
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Kestral posted:To me, that means any or all of: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xeelee_Sequence
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Feb 12, 2018 21:14
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Kestral posted:1) Humanity in a desperate fighting retreat from an implacable, utterly inhuman foe that doesn't have to play by the same rules humans do. Stephen Donaldson's Gap Cycle is kind of like that -- rather than physically invade, the alien enemy, the Amnion, are trying to sneak modifications into the human genome. On the other hand, it's also probably the grimdarkest thing Donaldson has ever written, and that is saying something.
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Feb 12, 2018 21:29
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General Battuta posted:I never got past the first chapter on the audiobook. I'm doing up a pronunciation guide for the second one right now, but it honestly would never have occurred to me to provide pronunciation for a real world term. Huh, this is actually surprising to me. I would have expected their to be some authorial consultation before an audiobook gets recorded especially for SF&F since there tend to be a higher degree of made-up words.
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Feb 12, 2018 21:38
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General Battuta posted:I never got past the first chapter on the audiobook. I'm doing up a pronunciation guide for the second one right now, but it honestly would never have occurred to me to provide pronunciation for a real world term. Thranguy posted:A lot of Steven Baxter falls into that area, specifically the Xeelee cycle and the Manifold books. He's definitely an ideas-over-characters-and-prose kind of writer though, so be warned there.
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Feb 12, 2018 21:44
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Selachian posted:Stephen Donaldson's Gap Cycle is kind of like that -- rather than physically invade, the alien enemy, the Amnion, are trying to sneak modifications into the human genome. On the other hand, it's also probably the grimdarkest thing Donaldson has ever written, and that is saying something . The Gap Cycle has been on the queue for awhile, but this endorsement is moving it a lot closer to the top.
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Feb 12, 2018 22:41
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Poldarn posted:The Gap Cycle has been on the queue for awhile, but this endorsement is moving it a lot closer to the top. It's a really dark and hosed up story, easily the most messed up stuff he's written. It's also really good throughout, and book 4 ends on one of my favorite space battles in literature.
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Feb 12, 2018 22:49
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mllaneza posted:It's a really dark and hosed up story, easily the most messed up stuff he's written. Agreed. I can’t make myself reread the first book to remember the details, but the rest are very good.
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Feb 12, 2018 23:03
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mllaneza posted:book 4 ends on one of my favorite space battles in literature. Top of the list now, pal. (Gotta finish Black Company first tho)
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Feb 12, 2018 23:23
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Just read John Scalzi's The Collapsing Empire. Earlier in this thread, I commented how the booknote synopsis for it sounded like Scalzi trying to do his take on DownBelow Station, welp I was utterly wrong. Collapsing Empire was Scalzi doing Jack Vance in a Asimov/Brin/Herbert inspired universe, with villains addicted to backstabbing plots, and clever main characters that require 4 pieces of evidence that will hold up in a court of inquiry before actually acting against those villains. Nothing wrong with that, Vance wrote several book series revolving around exactly those framing points; the gimmick of having 3 main characters in the book led to Scalzi's main characters being shallower than Parker from Richard Starks/Donald E. Westlake's Parker books that is god-drat shallow. Add in the serialized chapters and 2BeeContinued ending, and I'm glad I read Collapsing Empire as a library book, not interested in reading any followup books to it. Charles Stross chat: Writing all that Collapsing empire stuff up made me remember people also bitching how one of Stross's Laundry series books switched the main character to Bob's wife Mo, and the tonal change/massive shakeup in Laundry series that ensued from the main character switch. Stross pulled a Spy Sinker, didn't he? Which is so on point, given what the Laundry series is based on....Len Deighton coldwar spy stories. Len Deighton wrote a bunch of spy novels and british spy novel series, and Spy Sinker was the changeup book in Deighton's Bernard Samson 9+ book series. Spy Sinker broke the established pattern of being told through Bernard Samson's eyes, and instead told the bulk of the story through Bernard Samson wife's eyes, her decisions throughout the entire series, and why certain things happened the way they did.
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Feb 13, 2018 05:24
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Syzygy Stardust posted:Agreed. I can’t make myself reread the first book to remember the details, but the rest are very good. It was painful to read but good. Also, the first book is story wise quite different from the rest of the series, which makes me wonder if it was meant to be stand alone, which then makes me wonder how the hell it was ever published. It is a series full of eminently detestable characters.
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Feb 13, 2018 05:28
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NoNostalgia4Grover posted:
Fleming also did something a bit like that in The Spy Who Loved Me. It was narrated by a young woman, one of the sort of civilians who are often caught up in Bond's adventures, and is sort of meant to be a cautionary tale against seeing Bond as a heroic figure. Fleming didn't consider him such--just a very skilled professional at a hard job. I've only read Laundry short stories in unrelated collections so I don't know about the series proper so much but I gather that some fans were really getting tired of Bob's nebbishy programmer persona, which while entirely suited to Stross himself, can get a bit grating. Perhaps seeing Bob from another angle interested him after so many books.
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Feb 13, 2018 09:12
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