Wirth1000 posted:I wonder if this is the right thread to ask but... I have anxiety. Specifically, when it comes to ebooks and physical books. I bought a Kindle about a year ago and back then I loved the whole idea of eBooks and the immense convenience and having all sorts of books on one device or multiple devices with sync and blah blah blah. But now a year on I desperately miss holding a real physical book. I miss how each book had its own style and formatting, its own printing and smell, and actual covers and jackets. I love having my own book collection in a bookshelf and even when I grow tired of certain books I never plan on reading ever again I have the option of donating or selling them to bookstores. I mix up reading with the Nook and taking real books out of the library. Ebook readers are nice, like 90% as good as the real thing, but there is something about books that is irreplaceable. I think it's the smell.
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Nov 19, 2012 06:25
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Question(s): Several years ago, I went on a sports book collecting binge. Most in very good shape, a handful ex-library if I thought they were particularly interesting. Now, they're collecting dust and taking up room and I'm never going to get to them and barely have interest in most. What can I do with them? I don't want to throw them away. There is nowhere in the area to take them. My hometown has 4,800 people and to put it frankly, is not the most literate or cultured place on Earth. Neither are any of the towns surrounding it. The libraries are all crappy and I sincerely doubt they want 75-100 15+ year old sports books. The one in my current town doesn't even do big book sales. The thrift stores are embarrassingly horrible. There are no useful charities. I would think that some place might could actually do something with them, but none exist in southern Georgia.
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Nov 21, 2012 07:40
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RC and Moon Pie posted:Question(s): Several years ago, I went on a sports book collecting binge. Most in very good shape, a handful ex-library if I thought they were particularly interesting. Now, they're collecting dust and taking up room and I'm never going to get to them and barely have interest in most. You could try putting them up for trade at Paperback Swap. Obviously nobody can guarantee any one will want them, but there may well be people who do. For every book you send to someone, you get credit, one book costs one credit. Alternatively, you might try posting on craigslist or freecycle
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Nov 21, 2012 14:25
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RC and Moon Pie posted:Question(s): Several years ago, I went on a sports book collecting binge. Most in very good shape, a handful ex-library if I thought they were particularly interesting. Now, they're collecting dust and taking up room and I'm never going to get to them and barely have interest in most. Just curious: what kind of books are they? Are they biographies and the like or those annual guides and record books leagues put out each year?
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Nov 22, 2012 03:05
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barkingclam posted:Just curious: what kind of books are they? Are they biographies and the like or those annual guides and record books leagues put out each year? Mixed bag, but mostly biographies. Sports covered are almost exclusively basketball, football and baseball.
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Nov 22, 2012 03:33
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RC and Moon Pie posted:I would think that some place might could actually do something with them, but none exist in southern Georgia. Split them up by sport, and offer them to the relevant governing body of that sport in your town/region/state?
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Nov 22, 2012 04:02
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RC and Moon Pie posted:Mixed bag, but mostly biographies. Sports covered are almost exclusively basketball, football and baseball. You could try online sellers like Better World Books have a place nearby where you can drop them off. I think Better World might even pay shipping, too, if I understand this form right. Alternately, if you have Jack McCallum's Unfinished Business, I'll take it off your hands.
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Nov 23, 2012 04:34
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This is kind of random, but does anyone have tips on reading with a television on in the room? I'm easily distracted by shiny screens and there's no good place to sit facing away.
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Nov 24, 2012 09:16
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Ron Jeremy posted:This is kind of random, but does anyone have tips on reading with a television on in the room? I'm easily distracted by shiny screens and there's no good place to sit facing away. Turn if off.
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Nov 24, 2012 14:02
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Ron Jeremy posted:This is kind of random, but does anyone have tips on reading with a television on in the room? I'm easily distracted by shiny screens and there's no good place to sit facing away. You're probably more distracted by the sounds, so I'd suggest getting either earplugs or a sound file with white noise or any kind of noise or even ambient sounds for your mp3 player and listening to that. Especially with noise you will feel like you're in a bubble.
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Nov 24, 2012 14:34
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Not entirely sure if this is the place to ask, but... Is there any place around here for promoting new authors or books? I've been working very closely with a colleague who is an author and we are running a free promotion next weekend on some of her books, and we just want to spread the word and get her name out as much as possible. I've already sent off her info to a few other websites, so I'm just hoping to capitalize on the SA audience.
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Nov 30, 2012 19:45
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I think there's a self publish thread somewhere in the CC forums. Hell, you can even go to Coupons and submit a link if it's going to be free or on sale. You can start a thread here in the book barn if you want, plenty of others have done that as well.
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Nov 30, 2012 21:05
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I've been thinking of starting a book blog to induce myself to read more, discover new writers, and to tap in to a general reading community. What's the best for that sort of connectivity? Tumblr? Blogger? Or should I use wordpress?
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Dec 3, 2012 19:05
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Goodreads is really nice for that since it's totally book-specific. Plus you'll get an immediate influx of goon friends if you post your profile in this thread.
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Dec 3, 2012 20:40
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Bizarre request for all of you, I'm buying a book for a friend who reads quite a bit and has never read Pynchon (neither have I, and that needs to be corrected) so I figure I'd get her started. So should I start her off with V, or Inherent Vice, or something else? Here's the strange part: I need to know if the book has any amputees, or if anyone loses limbs. If so, that's right out. She has an actual phobia regarding those things and may not be able to read it if that's the case.
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Dec 3, 2012 22:24
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Buy her Mason & Dixon but inscribe "gently caress you" on the front page.
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Dec 3, 2012 22:40
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Mahlertov Cocktail posted:Goodreads is really nice for that since it's totally book-specific. Plus you'll get an immediate influx of goon friends if you post your profile in this thread. I have a goodreads profile, but I really haven't been using it much other than to update my stuff when it needs updating. I should, I know. psychopomp fucked around with this message at 22:47 on Dec 18, 2015 |
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Dec 3, 2012 22:49
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DetoxP posted:Bizarre request for all of you, I'm buying a book for a friend who reads quite a bit and has never read Pynchon (neither have I, and that needs to be corrected) so I figure I'd get her started. Crying of Lot 49 is basically the Pynchon sampler platter. I don't remember it having amputation bits in it, but it's been a while, and that book has a lot of crazy poo poo in it
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Dec 4, 2012 04:04
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Food Court Druid posted:Crying of Lot 49 is basically the Pynchon sampler platter. I don't remember it having amputation bits in it, but it's been a while, and that book has a lot of crazy poo poo in it This was going to be my suggestion as, yeah, it basically gives you a version of everything you can expect from Pynchon but in 160 pages instead of 800. It's a good test to see if you should venture further, anyway. Also, there are no amputations.
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Dec 4, 2012 05:14
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Kind of an oddball question, but I figured I'd have better luck here than in Ask/Tell or Goonmart; Is anyone aware of a Goon that appraises antiquarian books? I've never dealt with the subject previously, and I'm trying to find someone reliable to appraise a few books for me that I found in the basement of our local used bookstore.
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Dec 5, 2012 02:35
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Longshot question here. I had a series of paperback science books when I was a kid. They were small (like smaller than a regular small paperback book) and had lots of color illustrations/photos (along with lots of text). Each book dealt with a different subject (the oceans, dinosaurs, astronomy, insects, and so on). The most distinctive feature I can remember about them was that the covers were really brightly colored - the "oceans" book was a shocking blue, the "dinosaurs" one was aqua (maybe), "insects" might have been bright red. The astronomy one was definitely black or brown. There were at least a dozen of them, they were written for maybe a 12 year old to read, and were probably from the early 90s or late 80s. My younger brothers and parents remember the books but not what the series was called. It's killing me! Any ideas?
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Dec 8, 2012 02:29
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I hear a lot of good things thrown about on Umberto Eco on these forums. Any recommendation on which of his books is the best to start with?
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Dec 11, 2012 18:32
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Got the book blog up and running and have decided to exclusively focus on indie pubbed material. Using librarything giveaways to collect it. Now all I need is to write some reviews. Are there any other indie-focused book blogs out there I can connect with? psychopomp fucked around with this message at 22:47 on Dec 18, 2015 |
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Dec 11, 2012 20:03
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Lord Lambeth posted:I hear a lot of good things thrown about on Umberto Eco on these forums. Any recommendation on which of his books is the best to start with? Baudolino. It's pretty accessible because it's only set in one time frame, isn't shooting back and forth in perspective and doesn't have a first quarter that's explicitly written to scare of people (like The Name of the Rose). It's a medieval adventure novel, basically, but written in Eco's usual smart and playful manner.
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Dec 11, 2012 21:19
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EricBauman posted:Baudolino. It's pretty accessible because it's only set in one time frame, isn't shooting back and forth in perspective and doesn't have a first quarter that's explicitly written to scare of people (like The Name of the Rose). It's a medieval adventure novel, basically, but written in Eco's usual smart and playful manner. And how accessible would you say it is generally? Is it harder to read than, say, Moby Dick?
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Dec 12, 2012 04:21
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EricBauman posted:Baudolino. It's pretty accessible because it's only set in one time frame, isn't shooting back and forth in perspective and doesn't have a first quarter that's explicitly written to scare of people (like The Name of the Rose). It's a medieval adventure novel, basically, but written in Eco's usual smart and playful manner. Yeah, but The Name of the Rose is his best book by far. I'd say leap right the gently caress into Rose knowing that he meant parts of it, especially the description of the Abbey door (get it?) to scare off readers who weren't able or willing to hack it. Lord Lambeth posted:And how accessible would you say it is generally? Is it harder to read than, say, Moby Dick? If you could handle the long whaling description sections in Moby Dick you can handle Rose easily; they're actually pretty similar in a weird way. Eco just threw in some deliberately complex and intimidating passages at the beginning to scare off readers who fear intellectual texts. Hieronymous Alloy fucked around with this message at 17:15 on Dec 12, 2012 |
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Dec 12, 2012 17:13
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Lord Lambeth posted:And how accessible would you say it is generally? Is it harder to read than, say, Moby Dick? Infinitely more accessible. I first read Baudolino when I was twelve. I couldn't make it through Moby Dick until I was 26. If you like boat stories, though, maybe The Island of the Day Before is a good choice. It's considered somewhat atypical of Eco, but still an excellent read.
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Dec 12, 2012 22:16
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Has anyone else been over to the Baen Free Library recently?  It's been decimated (in the strict sense of the word, Harry...)I popped over to the free library because there was an interview with Lois McMaster Bujold on Wired, and they were talking about the books being available there, but there's next-to-nothing there. It was interesting, first they were talking about her making the NYT bestseller list for the first time, then they talked about the books being on the free web site, yet neither she nor the interviewer seemed to make the connection that perhaps the audience gained by putting the books up was what gave her the NYT status. In any event, it was a good interview.
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Dec 13, 2012 01:36
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I think they  officially took it down, because they have reached a publishing deal with amazon? I think for the books and collections.Stupid_Sexy_Flander fucked around with this message at 08:06 on Dec 13, 2012 |
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Dec 13, 2012 02:22
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Stupid_Sexy_Flander posted:I think they
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Dec 13, 2012 06:28
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Eh, good point. It was posted in the interview they had with Baen but I went ahead and edited it out.
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Dec 13, 2012 08:07
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What are some good scifi/fantasy/horror podcasts? I don't want a podcast that's all/mostly audiobooks. I'd rather listen to one that talks about the books. I've been listening to Sword & Laser and that's the format I would like: book news and general talk. Something like the Harry Potter or Ice and Fire podcasts out there (Mugglecast, Podcast of Ice and Fire) but with a more general appeal? Obviously entertaining ones would be nice.
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Dec 14, 2012 02:52
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I need some advice. I just bought Hollywood in Blackface by Paul Kersey, I was browsing Amazon for a good read to prepare for some upcoming seminars concerning literature/film and racial issues and bought the book on a hunch. First of all, I'm European and not from the US, so I had no idea who Paul Kersey is. I'm now on page 73 and I can barely read on because of all the nonsense in this book, it's full of stereotypes and reads like a farewell to the classic white action hero, something which is plainly not true. Kersey seems to handpick a small handful of mainstream movies which are in accordance with his theories, but blatantly ignores the vast majority of films. To me it seems as if there are only 2 options: 1. The author is a perfect example for the modern racist. 2. The author is a huge sperglord who throws his panties in a fit because someone introduced an oogly-boogly black guy into his Norse fanfic. Am I misreading the book as a whole ? Do I not "get" American culture ? What is going on here ?
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Dec 14, 2012 09:44
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Hammerstein posted:I need some advice. Both. Sounds like the typical racist who mourns the less prominent white race of the modern age.
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Dec 14, 2012 13:27
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Yeah, it sounds like he's a racist crank with a self-published book. I think you're reading it correctly. For what it's worth, I think Donald Bogle's Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies and Bucks would be more up your alley.
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Dec 14, 2012 20:07
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A title like that, and the author skips Quadroons? What the hell man?
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Dec 15, 2012 02:35
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"Wah Wah Wah - in the USAF only 2% of the fighter pilots are black, so why do we have Will Smith save the earth in Independence Day", "Why was the 4th Ghostbuster black" or "Silicon Valley only has a handful of black computer wizards, why is the scientist behind Skynet black" and "Heimdall is of Norse heritage...how dare they cast a black badass for that role"....and this goes on and on, page after page after page of demographics and idiotic statements how unlikely it is to meet a black scientist, doctor, jet pilot, Norse badass, golfer (except Tiger), superhero...and that this is all done because Hollywood is in the hands of horrible liberals who eat white babies I tried to find a review about the book, but the only sites reviewing it are right-wing pages like White Locust or Occidental Dissent. Summary: uninformed Euro goon looks for a decent book about race and movies and accidentally buys a lovely book written by a modern racist. Edit: @barkingclam, thanks for the tip, this really looks like what I wanted. Hammerstein fucked around with this message at 03:20 on Dec 15, 2012 |
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Dec 15, 2012 03:17
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Hammerstein posted:"Wah Wah Wah - in the USAF only 2% of the fighter pilots are black, so why do we have Will Smith save the earth in Independence Day", "Why was the 4th Ghostbuster black" or "Silicon Valley only has a handful of black computer wizards, why is the scientist behind Skynet black" and "Heimdall is of Norse heritage...how dare they cast a black badass for that role"....and this goes on and on, page after page after page of demographics and idiotic statements how unlikely it is to meet a black scientist, doctor, jet pilot, Norse badass, golfer (except Tiger), superhero...and that this is all done because Hollywood is in the hands of horrible liberals who eat white babies Look at the dude's Goodreads page, holy poo poo: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4756390.Paul_Kersey "Stuff Black People Don't Like," "Escape from Detroit: The Collapse of America's Black Metropolis," "Captain America and Whiteness: The Dilemma of the Superhero," "SBPDL: Year One: 365 Days in Black Run America." Jesus. Oh, but what's "Opiate of America"? That doesn't necessarily sound racist. Let's see it's Amazon page: quote:'Throughout the 267-page report compiled on the Penn State scandal and the coverup of the Jerry Sandusky child abuse, it is one line that cuts to the heart of why America is in so much trouble: "A culture of reverence for the football program that is ingrained at all levels of the campus community.' quote:'And in the process, he clearly shows that a new form of discrimination has emerged; that against white high school athletes.' And not one of these books has less than a four out of five user rating on Amazon. 
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Dec 15, 2012 03:29
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I need help finding a book-reviewing website. The specific page of the website I'm looking for looks at books considered classic in western canon and reviews them before then determining if it is a classic. The website also offers these reviews in paperback, kindle and pdf formats. My memory says the website had a 'college' in its name, but I'm not quite so sure. Can someone help me?
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Dec 15, 2012 05:52
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toanoradian posted:I need help finding a book-reviewing website. The specific page of the website I'm looking for looks at books considered classic in western canon and reviews them before then determining if it is a classic. The website also offers these reviews in paperback, kindle and pdf formats. My memory says the website had a 'college' in its name, but I'm not quite so sure. Can someone help me? Jason Pettus of CCLaP is doing something like this, and it might be what you're looking for. Fair warning though, his reviews usually give me a headache, and not in a good way.
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Dec 15, 2012 20:55
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