A year ago, if you'd asked me about e-books, I would have said that you'd have to pry paper books from my cold, dead hands. I like books. I like paper books. I like being able to sell, lend, or give away books when I'm finished with them. I like having books in a format that is not dependent on electricity, books that work even when your hardware is old and obsolete. I don't want to have to worry about the equivalent of many of my books being on 8 tracks or cassettes in a CD (or MP3) world, and have to buy them again if I want to read them again. And I still agree with all of those points.
A few months ago, if you'd asked me about e-books, I would have said that I own a few, that it's a nuisance having to read them on a computer screen or print them out to read, but sometimes the content I want to read isn't available in paper format, so I'm dealing with it. I would have said that I liked the immediacy of being able to buy the book and read it 5 minutes later, and not have to wait a week and a half for shipments to arrive from Amazon or Book Depository. However the thought of buying a dedicated e-reader seemed excessive. Paying $250 for a device to read on? In addition to what I was paying for the content itself? Just...excessive.
Two weeks ago I bought a Nook from Barnes & Noble. I wanted some time to try it out before I wrote about it here. And I have to say...I love it. It is not perfect, but it's really good.
It's about the size of a paperback book, but thinner. It fits easily in my purse. The e-ink technology is good, and I can read the screen easily, even in direct sunlight. It's handy to carry around, and I find that I'm reading even more now than I was before, and I didn't think that was possible. But when I'm sitting in line at a drive through? I read a few pages. When I'm waiting for something to start? I read a few pages. Intermission at a play? Read a few pages. I never want to be parted from it.
Buying content from Barnes & Noble is very easy, but I can also get e-books elsewhere, which is a good thing because B&N doesn't have everything I want to read. It can read documents in pdf format (the lines wrap weirdly, but it's still easily readable) or epub. The ebooks I previously purchased in pdf format have been loaded onto my Nook with little difficulty. The device can hold about 1500 books, and I understand that it's possible to add additional memory. If you purchase from B&N, you can usually download a free sample of 10 or 15 pages to try it out before you buy. Some works can also be lent to a friend who also has a Nook, which is something you can't do with a Kindle.
I read a lot of gay fiction, and a lot of it isn't available in paper format, so this is ideal for me. It has the further advantage that I do not have to store the books when I'm done with them (which is becoming a problem in my household--I'm starting to clear out some old mysteries to make more shelf space). I can also read them in public without having to worry about lurid covers with big muscular bare chests attracting unwanted attention from those around me. And the e-books are cheaper, too. A paperback gay romance, mystery, or paranormal usually runs somewhere from $10-15. An e-version of a novel-length work runs about $5-8. But Barnes & Noble is discounting some of these titles, so they can be purchased for $2-5. That can be a huge financial savings, over time. I figure in the last 2 weeks I've saved about $70 on the purchases I've made, either over the paper price or the full e-price from other sites. The device is paying for itself. Barnes & Noble doesn't have everything I want, but I'm a lot more likely to take a chance on a book that's costing me $2.50 than one that costs $8, or $15. So I'm trying new writers, and some are good and some are not, but that's always how it goes.
Nevertheless, I have found that there are certain works that I will want to own paper copies of. I re-read books I like. Sometimes I re-read my favorite sections, sometimes I re-read the whole thing cover to cover, and sometimes I open a book at random and just start reading. That can be hard to do with an e-book. If it's properly formatted, it will be broken into chapters, so that you can tell the Nook you want to start reading at chapter 5, and it will take you there. But many e-books aren't properly formatted, and the only way to get to a specific spot is to page forward, one page at a time. Or rather, a half-page at a time, because one page of manuscript is two screens' worth of text on the Nook. Imagine you are re-reading a 500+ page book, like Hemovore by Jordan Castillo Price. You want to re-read that good scene where Jonathan and Mark are having a conversation in the sewer...about 300 pages in. There are no chapters, so unless you thought to place a bookmark there the previous time you read it, there's no way to get to that scene without paging through from the beginning. And that's just damn tedious. So I will be buying myself a paper copy of that book, because it's good enough to warrant thorough re-reading.
On the other hand, I also find that I re-read more with the Nook. Because I've got a lot of works there with me in the device in my hand. So I may decide to re-read a story I read last week, or re-read a good scene that I thought to bookmark in a story I liked. I've got all those stories with me, so it's easy as pie to go back and re-read them, wherever I am.
The menu is a little slow and frustrating to navigate, and once in a while the Nook freezes up and needs to be rebooted. The battery doesn't last as long as they say it will, but honestly I think most people spend fewer hours per day using it than I do, so that's not unexpected. Overall, though, the Nook is pretty much made of awesome. And I am so pleased that I bought it.
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Ghosts of Manhattan by George Mann
Ghosts of Manhattan is a dark steampunk crime-fighting novel. Set in an alternate New York during Prohibition, it features a hero called The Ghost who is strongly reminiscent of The Shadow. He stalks mobsters through the night, wearing a trenchcoat, fedora, and night-vision goggles. Like The Shadow, he is a shallow millionaire by day, and a dark and damaged crime-fighter by night. His girlfriend is a beautiful jazz singer in a speakeasy run by a mobster.
The Ghost is a vigilante who fights crime, and the biggest mobster in the city is called The Roman. When The Roman's men kill someone, the corpse is left with two pristine ancient Roman coins resting on their eyelids. The Ghost wants to get Roman, but it becomes more serious when he realizes that The Roman wants to get his hands on The Ghost's girlfriend. Suddenly things become much more urgent for him.
I think I ought to have liked The Ghosts of Manhattan more than I did. I like The Shadow, I like moody period pieces, I like damaged protagonists, and it should have been really my thing. I didn't actively dislike it, but it didn't grab me as much as I expected. The action scenes are over-the-top Hollywood summer blockbuster material, and frankly too much for me. The girlfriend, who knows what the hell is going on, but keeps her secret from him until it's too late, was stupid and annoying. When a major character died I wasn't even slightly moved by it, so I obviously wasn't terribly engaged. Ghosts of Manhattan is kind of a fun, stylish romp, but it was too light and insubstantial to be very satisfying.
The Ghost is a vigilante who fights crime, and the biggest mobster in the city is called The Roman. When The Roman's men kill someone, the corpse is left with two pristine ancient Roman coins resting on their eyelids. The Ghost wants to get Roman, but it becomes more serious when he realizes that The Roman wants to get his hands on The Ghost's girlfriend. Suddenly things become much more urgent for him.
I think I ought to have liked The Ghosts of Manhattan more than I did. I like The Shadow, I like moody period pieces, I like damaged protagonists, and it should have been really my thing. I didn't actively dislike it, but it didn't grab me as much as I expected. The action scenes are over-the-top Hollywood summer blockbuster material, and frankly too much for me. The girlfriend, who knows what the hell is going on, but keeps her secret from him until it's too late, was stupid and annoying. When a major character died I wasn't even slightly moved by it, so I obviously wasn't terribly engaged. Ghosts of Manhattan is kind of a fun, stylish romp, but it was too light and insubstantial to be very satisfying.
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
The Devil You Know by Mike Carey
I bought this book in 2008, wasn't really grabbed by the beginning, and set it aside. I picked it up again this weekend and gave it another shot. It went much better once I got past the first bit.
The protagonist is Felix Castor, a freelance exorcist in London. Felix hasn't been working the last year or two, following an unsuccessful attempt to save a friend who had been possessed by a demon. He feels guilty, and tells himself that he's retired, but hasn't bothered to find a job so he can make a living at something else. He lives off the kindness of his landlady, who is a dear old friend from school.
But she's in financial straits, and he realizes he can help her out by earning some money and paying some of the rent he owes her, so he accepts a job investigating a haunting at the Bonnington Archive. Or rather, he is hired to remove the ghost--he takes it upon himself to investigate who she is and how she got there. This aggravates his employer, who just wants the ghost gone, immediately.
Felix sticks his nose where it probably doesn't belong, and gets himself into a lot of trouble. He spends the rest of the novel running around making people angry at him and trying to avoid being killed. It is a high-action novel, and quite entertaining. But it also goes too far for me--it pushes past my willing level of disbelief. Up to a certain point, I was willing to accept it, and then it just kept pushing farther and farther. Felix makes too many people angry, does too many outrageous things, gets into trouble too many times. The author also kind of had to strain credibility to set up the Archive with two administrators who honestly wouldn't give a damn when Felix tells them the reason they have a ghost is that someone was murdered on the premises. Normal people would be concerned and want an investigation. The characters running the Bonnington Archive definitely weren't normal, and seem to have been created that way just to place unreasonable roadblocks on Felix's progress.
So, did I enjoy The Devil You Know? Mostly. I enjoyed it up to a certain point, and then grew increasingly annoyed with it. I don't regret reading it, it was a diverting way to pass a Sunday afternoon. But I definitely won't be reading the rest of the series.
The protagonist is Felix Castor, a freelance exorcist in London. Felix hasn't been working the last year or two, following an unsuccessful attempt to save a friend who had been possessed by a demon. He feels guilty, and tells himself that he's retired, but hasn't bothered to find a job so he can make a living at something else. He lives off the kindness of his landlady, who is a dear old friend from school.
But she's in financial straits, and he realizes he can help her out by earning some money and paying some of the rent he owes her, so he accepts a job investigating a haunting at the Bonnington Archive. Or rather, he is hired to remove the ghost--he takes it upon himself to investigate who she is and how she got there. This aggravates his employer, who just wants the ghost gone, immediately.
Felix sticks his nose where it probably doesn't belong, and gets himself into a lot of trouble. He spends the rest of the novel running around making people angry at him and trying to avoid being killed. It is a high-action novel, and quite entertaining. But it also goes too far for me--it pushes past my willing level of disbelief. Up to a certain point, I was willing to accept it, and then it just kept pushing farther and farther. Felix makes too many people angry, does too many outrageous things, gets into trouble too many times. The author also kind of had to strain credibility to set up the Archive with two administrators who honestly wouldn't give a damn when Felix tells them the reason they have a ghost is that someone was murdered on the premises. Normal people would be concerned and want an investigation. The characters running the Bonnington Archive definitely weren't normal, and seem to have been created that way just to place unreasonable roadblocks on Felix's progress.
So, did I enjoy The Devil You Know? Mostly. I enjoyed it up to a certain point, and then grew increasingly annoyed with it. I don't regret reading it, it was a diverting way to pass a Sunday afternoon. But I definitely won't be reading the rest of the series.
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