Just an idle question. I wondered what people are reading or have read recently that they can recommend. I am reading "1491", a popular (as opposed to scientific) review of about three decades of scholarship into the Aboriginal cultures in the Americas before 1492. It is very interesting as the new scholarship is overturning many of the cherished conclusions of the 1950s and 1960s including that the original Americans crossed from Siberia on a land bridge during the last Ice Age and that the Americas were sparsely populated. The evidence seems to be that the Americas may have had a larger pre-Columbus population density than Europe and that European diseases wiped out as much as 95% of that population along with many of the great cultures of the Americas.
Also, I wondered if anyone has downloaded out-of-copyright books from Google Books. If so, did that work well? What format(s) do they support? Some day I hope to get time to read some classic literature. At the moment I am trying to catch up with books (both ebooks and paper books) that I l aready own and have not yet read, which probably is going to take me at least a year, particularly since I keep coming up with new books that I feel I need to read. My latest on that list are the books by Pakistani journalist Ahmed Rashid. Given the importance of Pakistan on the world stage, I need to kjnow something about what is going on there. And if anyone can recommend good English-language books about modern Iran, I would appreciate that.
All the best for good end-of-summer reading.
-- Bert Latamore IT Journalist, Report Writer and Book Doctor From tweets and blogs to white papers and books -- You provide the information; I craft the words.
Right now I'm reading Quiverfull by Kathryn Joyce. I'm using my Sony Reader, as I do with about 99% of books I read. Unfortunately, the book isn't available on Sony's store so I'm taking advantage of the Adobe Digital Editions compatibility and using a PDF I bought on BooksOnBoard.com. The pdf is not reflowable, however, which means page breaks happen in strange places. Still, the book is readable and that's all that matters. This brings me to your next question, about Google Books. When Sony made Google Books available through their Reader bookstore I downloaded a copy of something, can't remember what, only to discover it looked terrible on my device. Frankly, at this stage in my life I have no interest in fiddling with books to make them work, I either read them or I don't.
Bert Latamore wrote:
> Just an idle question. I wondered what people are reading or have read > recently that they can recommend. I am reading "1491", a popular (as > opposed to scientific) review of about three decades of scholarship into > the Aboriginal cultures in the Americas before 1492. It is very > interesting as the new scholarship is overturning many of the cherished > conclusions of the 1950s and 1960s including that the original Americans > crossed from Siberia on a land bridge during the last Ice Age and that > the Americas were sparsely populated. The evidence seems to be that the > Americas may have had a larger pre-Columbus population density than > Europe and that European diseases wiped out as much as 95% of that > population along with many of the great cultures of the Americas.
> Also, I wondered if anyone has downloaded out-of-copyright books from > Google Books. If so, did that work well? What format(s) do they support? > Some day I hope to get time to read some classic literature. At the > moment I am trying to catch up with books (both ebooks and paper books) > that I l aready own and have not yet read, which probably is going to > take me at least a year, particularly since I keep coming up with new > books that I feel I need to read. My latest on that list are the books > by Pakistani journalist Ahmed Rashid. Given the importance of Pakistan > on the world stage, I need to kjnow something about what is going on > there. And if anyone can recommend good English-language books about > modern Iran, I would appreciate that.
> All the best for good end-of-summer reading.
> -- > Bert Latamore
> IT Journalist, Report Writer and Book Doctor
> From tweets and blogs to white papers and books --
> You provide the information; I craft the words.
> Just an idle question. I wondered what people are reading or have > read recently that they can recommend.
I'm re-reading Harry Turtledove's World War series. Turtledove is as addicting as Star Trek for me - I can't get enough of his stuff. It's been a while since I've read the World War Series, so going through them all again. I own all the books in paper, but bought them all in eReader format as well. I do so prefer reading on my iPhone or iPod Touch to actual paper books. (Yeah, I'm one of those. I have no love affair with paper at all).
I'm "reading" a few books right now, either listening on the iPod to books
from Audible or reading "in print" on my Kindle.
When I go to physical therapy, I listen to The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
by Steig Larsson. I actually read this on my Kindle a month or so ago and
quite enjoyed it, this is just something to listen to while my PT is beating
me up. ;)
At the gym and also when I'm in the car, I've been going through a re-read
(ok, re-listen) to the Wheel of Time books, in anticipation of the 12th
book's release later this year. I'm a little over halfway through the 6th
book (7th, I guess, if you include the prequel), Lord of Chaos. On my
lonoger cardio days, books make the time go by a bit quicker.
On my Kindle, I'm reading Infinite Jest, as a part of the Infinite Summer
website (http://infinitesummer.org/). Thanks to craziness at work (we're
getting ready for a launch next week), I'm quite a bit behind schedule, but
I'm still making my way through the book...that is, I haven't given up yet,
as it seems a lot of people have. I hope that this weekend, before things
go absolutely crazy at work, I get the chance to read a bit more.
I am also entertaining the idea of reading Northanger Abbey. I recently
watched The Jane Austen Book Club and was sort of inspired to read these
books with a few of my friends. I've actually never read Jane Austen, I
have a feeling that the writing style may be difficult for me to get into.
I may start listening to it from Audible at PT, after I finish The Girl With
the Dragon Tattoo.
On Fri, Aug 14, 2009 at 5:23 PM, Kerry Lannert <klann...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Right now I'm reading Quiverfull by Kathryn Joyce. I'm using my Sony
> Reader, as I do with about 99% of books I read. Unfortunately, the book
> isn't available on Sony's store so I'm taking advantage of the Adobe
> Digital Editions compatibility and using a PDF I bought on
> BooksOnBoard.com. The pdf is not reflowable, however, which means page
> breaks happen in strange places. Still, the book is readable and that's
> all that matters. This brings me to your next question, about Google
> Books. When Sony made Google Books available through their Reader
> bookstore I downloaded a copy of something, can't remember what, only to
> discover it looked terrible on my device. Frankly, at this stage in my
> life I have no interest in fiddling with books to make them work, I
> either read them or I don't.
> - Kerry
> Bert Latamore wrote:
> > Just an idle question. I wondered what people are reading or have read
> > recently that they can recommend. I am reading "1491", a popular (as
> > opposed to scientific) review of about three decades of scholarship into
> > the Aboriginal cultures in the Americas before 1492. It is very
> > interesting as the new scholarship is overturning many of the cherished
> > conclusions of the 1950s and 1960s including that the original Americans
> > crossed from Siberia on a land bridge during the last Ice Age and that
> > the Americas were sparsely populated. The evidence seems to be that the
> > Americas may have had a larger pre-Columbus population density than
> > Europe and that European diseases wiped out as much as 95% of that
> > population along with many of the great cultures of the Americas.
> > Before that I read "Wolf Totem", which I strongly recommend. Rather than
> > write a review, here is a link to a short review I wrote for a friend's
> > Web site:
> > Also, I wondered if anyone has downloaded out-of-copyright books from
> > Google Books. If so, did that work well? What format(s) do they support?
> > Some day I hope to get time to read some classic literature. At the
> > moment I am trying to catch up with books (both ebooks and paper books)
> > that I l aready own and have not yet read, which probably is going to
> > take me at least a year, particularly since I keep coming up with new
> > books that I feel I need to read. My latest on that list are the books
> > by Pakistani journalist Ahmed Rashid. Given the importance of Pakistan
> > on the world stage, I need to kjnow something about what is going on
> > there. And if anyone can recommend good English-language books about
> > modern Iran, I would appreciate that.
> > All the best for good end-of-summer reading.
> > --
> > Bert Latamore
> > IT Journalist, Report Writer and Book Doctor
> > From tweets and blogs to white papers and books --
> > You provide the information; I craft the words.
Soul Survivor by Philip Yancey
A year with C. S. Lewis: daily readings from his classic works
The Afghan by Frederick Forsyth
All on good old fashioned paper. Also enjoying The Moth storytelling
podcast (a new find and addition to my regular listens) on my commutes
- http://www.themoth.org/
All the best for START of SPRING reading for those of us at the top of
the world! :-)
> Just an idle question. I wondered what people are reading or have
> read recently that they can recommend. I am reading "1491", a
> popular (as opposed to scientific) review of about three decades of
> scholarship into the Aboriginal cultures in the Americas before
> 1492. It is very interesting as the new scholarship is overturning
> many of the cherished conclusions of the 1950s and 1960s including
> that the original Americans crossed from Siberia on a land bridge
> during the last Ice Age and that the Americas were sparsely
> populated. The evidence seems to be that the Americas may have had a
> larger pre-Columbus population density than Europe and that European
> diseases wiped out as much as 95% of that population along with many
> of the great cultures of the Americas.
> Also, I wondered if anyone has downloaded out-of-copyright books
> from Google Books. If so, did that work well? What format(s) do they
> support? Some day I hope to get time to read some classic
> literature. At the moment I am trying to catch up with books (both
> ebooks and paper books) that I l aready own and have not yet read,
> which probably is going to take me at least a year, particularly
> since I keep coming up with new books that I feel I need to read. My
> latest on that list are the books by Pakistani journalist Ahmed
> Rashid. Given the importance of Pakistan on the world stage, I need
> to kjnow something about what is going on there. And if anyone can
> recommend good English-language books about modern Iran, I would
> appreciate that.
> All the best for good end-of-summer reading.
> -- > Bert Latamore
> IT Journalist, Report Writer and Book Doctor
> From tweets and blogs to white papers and books --
> You provide the information; I craft the words.
I agree with you about not wanting to fiddle with books to make them read
well. If the ebook doesn't work well on my UX, either I just go on to the
next one or get the paper edition. I probably read about 60% of my book in
electronic format at the moment, although that is just a guess, mainly
because some of the books I want to read aren't available as ebooks.
Does the PDF work well on the Sony Reader? I tried reading a (fortunately
short) novel a friend wrote and published in PDF in Adobe Reader and found
it totally unacceptable. I could not annotate it in any way, including
adding bookmarks to mark where I was. I have a bad memory for numbers, and I
ended up having to write down the page number where I stopped reading every
night so I could find it again.
I do have a license for the software that lets me reformat a PDF into
eReader format, and if I am in that position again I will use that and read
it in eReader. But I wanted to see what Adobe Reader had to offer for a
book-length manuscript. My take -- not enough.
On Fri, Aug 14, 2009 at 5:23 PM, Kerry Lannert <klann...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Right now I'm reading Quiverfull by Kathryn Joyce. I'm using my Sony
> Reader, as I do with about 99% of books I read. Unfortunately, the book
> isn't available on Sony's store so I'm taking advantage of the Adobe
> Digital Editions compatibility and using a PDF I bought on
> BooksOnBoard.com. The pdf is not reflowable, however, which means page
> breaks happen in strange places. Still, the book is readable and that's
> all that matters. This brings me to your next question, about Google
> Books. When Sony made Google Books available through their Reader
> bookstore I downloaded a copy of something, can't remember what, only to
> discover it looked terrible on my device. Frankly, at this stage in my
> life I have no interest in fiddling with books to make them work, I
> either read them or I don't.
> - Kerry
> Bert Latamore wrote:
> > Just an idle question. I wondered what people are reading or have read
> > recently that they can recommend. I am reading "1491", a popular (as
> > opposed to scientific) review of about three decades of scholarship into
> > the Aboriginal cultures in the Americas before 1492. It is very
> > interesting as the new scholarship is overturning many of the cherished
> > conclusions of the 1950s and 1960s including that the original Americans
> > crossed from Siberia on a land bridge during the last Ice Age and that
> > the Americas were sparsely populated. The evidence seems to be that the
> > Americas may have had a larger pre-Columbus population density than
> > Europe and that European diseases wiped out as much as 95% of that
> > population along with many of the great cultures of the Americas.
> > Before that I read "Wolf Totem", which I strongly recommend. Rather than
> > write a review, here is a link to a short review I wrote for a friend's
> > Web site:
> > Also, I wondered if anyone has downloaded out-of-copyright books from
> > Google Books. If so, did that work well? What format(s) do they support?
> > Some day I hope to get time to read some classic literature. At the
> > moment I am trying to catch up with books (both ebooks and paper books)
> > that I l aready own and have not yet read, which probably is going to
> > take me at least a year, particularly since I keep coming up with new
> > books that I feel I need to read. My latest on that list are the books
> > by Pakistani journalist Ahmed Rashid. Given the importance of Pakistan
> > on the world stage, I need to kjnow something about what is going on
> > there. And if anyone can recommend good English-language books about
> > modern Iran, I would appreciate that.
> > All the best for good end-of-summer reading.
> > --
> > Bert Latamore
> > IT Journalist, Report Writer and Book Doctor
> > From tweets and blogs to white papers and books --
> > You provide the information; I craft the words.
-- Bert Latamore
IT Journalist, Report Writer and Book Doctor
From tweets and blogs to white papers and books --
You provide the information; I craft the words.
> On Aug 14, 2009, at 5:15 PM, Bert Latamore wrote:
>> Just an idle question. I wondered what people are reading or have
>> read recently that they can recommend.
> I'm re-reading Harry Turtledove's World War series. Turtledove is as
> addicting as Star Trek for me - I can't get enough of his stuff. It's
> been a while since I've read the World War Series, so going through
> them all again. I own all the books in paper, but bought them all in
> eReader format as well. I do so prefer reading on my iPhone or iPod
> Touch to actual paper books. (Yeah, I'm one of those. I have no love
> affair with paper at all).
You can always see what I'm reading I'm reading by following me on
GoodReads. Right now, I'm focusing on Excavation by James Rollins in
eReader and Fabric of the Cosmos by Brian Greene in Audible.
Sent from my iPhone
On Aug 14, 2009, at 3:15 PM, Bert Latamore <bert.latam...@gmail.com>
wrote:
> Just an idle question. I wondered what people are reading or have
> read recently that they can recommend. I am reading "1491", a
> popular (as opposed to scientific) review of about three decades of
> scholarship into the Aboriginal cultures in the Americas before
> 1492. It is very interesting as the new scholarship is overturning
> many of the cherished conclusions of the 1950s and 1960s including
> that the original Americans crossed from Siberia on a land bridge
> during the last Ice Age and that the Americas were sparsely
> populated. The evidence seems to be that the Americas may have had a
> larger pre-Columbus population density than Europe and that European
> diseases wiped out as much as 95% of that population along with many
> of the great cultures of the Americas.
> Also, I wondered if anyone has downloaded out-of-copyright books
> from Google Books. If so, did that work well? What format(s) do they
> support? Some day I hope to get time to read some classic
> literature. At the moment I am trying to catch up with books (both
> ebooks and paper books) that I l aready own and have not yet read,
> which probably is going to take me at least a year, particularly
> since I keep coming up with new books that I feel I need to read. My
> latest on that list are the books by Pakistani journalist Ahmed
> Rashid. Given the importance of Pakistan on the world stage, I need
> to kjnow something about what is going on there. And if anyone can
> recommend good English-language books about modern Iran, I would
> appreciate that.
> All the best for good end-of-summer reading.
> -- > Bert Latamore
> IT Journalist, Report Writer and Book Doctor
> From tweets and blogs to white papers and books --
> You provide the information; I craft the words.
> I agree with you about not wanting to fiddle with books to make them > read well. If the ebook doesn't work well on my UX, either I just go > on to the next one or get the paper edition. I probably read about > 60% of my book in electronic format at the moment, although that is > just a guess, mainly because some of the books I want to read aren't > available as ebooks.
> Does the PDF work well on the Sony Reader? I tried reading a > (fortunately short) novel a friend wrote and published in PDF in > Adobe Reader and found it totally unacceptable. I could not annotate > it in any way, including adding bookmarks to mark where I was. I > have a bad memory for numbers, and I ended up having to write down > the page number where I stopped reading every night so I could find > it again.
> I do have a license for the software that lets me reformat a PDF > into eReader format, and if I am in that position again I will use > that and read it in eReader. But I wanted to see what Adobe Reader > had to offer for a book-length manuscript. My take -- not enough.
> So what is Quiverfull about?
> Bert
Bert, what software let's you convert PDF's to eReader format? I'd love to have something like that. I've several PDF books and have the same problems you do.
The PDF support on the Sony Reader is a little basic. I have v. 505 of
the Reader, which doesn't have any pen input, so the only marking I
can do is bookmarks. With a PDF the reader gives you three zoom
levels: 100% which fits the page to the screen, which is generally too
tiny and margin-heavy for a standard book. Custom texts with large
font and small margins, and/or page sizes to match the reader screen
work very welly. The second zoom level fixes the text to the width of
the screen, eliminating the margins. This is the most readable for me,
but means that the bottom of the PDF page appears on the following
electronic page, with a page break at about the halfway point. It
means more page turning and kind of a weird interruption every other
page, but it's manageable. The last zoom is very large print and
reflows the text without fixing the page breaks. I can bookmark the
document on the Reader, and the device also stores information about
which page I left off on, as well as a history of about 60 pages
(useful for books where you're jumping back and forth between the main
text and footnotes).
As for Quiverfull, it's a non-fiction book about the modern Quiverfull
movement currently happening in a small subset of the fundamentalist
Christian community. Quiverfull followers believe in producing as many
children as possible and also in homeschooling them using the Bible
and religious books for every aspect of the child's education (even
the math books teach basic principles using Biblical references). The
Duggar family, with 18 children, is probably the most famous family in
the movement, they had a reality show and have been on lots talk TV.
It's a very interesting read, but a little dense so I'm taking it
slowly.
> I agree with you about not wanting to fiddle with books to make them
> read well. If the ebook doesn't work well on my UX, either I just go
> on to the next one or get the paper edition. I probably read about
> 60% of my book in electronic format at the moment, although that is
> just a guess, mainly because some of the books I want to read aren't
> available as ebooks.
> Does the PDF work well on the Sony Reader? I tried reading a
> (fortunately short) novel a friend wrote and published in PDF in
> Adobe Reader and found it totally unacceptable. I could not annotate
> it in any way, including adding bookmarks to mark where I was. I
> have a bad memory for numbers, and I ended up having to write down
> the page number where I stopped reading every night so I could find
> it again.
> I do have a license for the software that lets me reformat a PDF
> into eReader format, and if I am in that position again I will use
> that and read it in eReader. But I wanted to see what Adobe Reader
> had to offer for a book-length manuscript. My take -- not enough.
> So what is Quiverfull about?
> Bert
> On Fri, Aug 14, 2009 at 5:23 PM, Kerry Lannert <klann...@gmail.com>
> wrote:
> Right now I'm reading Quiverfull by Kathryn Joyce. I'm using my Sony
> Reader, as I do with about 99% of books I read. Unfortunately, the
> book
> isn't available on Sony's store so I'm taking advantage of the Adobe
> Digital Editions compatibility and using a PDF I bought on
> BooksOnBoard.com. The pdf is not reflowable, however, which means page
> breaks happen in strange places. Still, the book is readable and
> that's
> all that matters. This brings me to your next question, about Google
> Books. When Sony made Google Books available through their Reader
> bookstore I downloaded a copy of something, can't remember what,
> only to
> discover it looked terrible on my device. Frankly, at this stage in my
> life I have no interest in fiddling with books to make them work, I
> either read them or I don't.
> - Kerry
> Bert Latamore wrote:
> > Just an idle question. I wondered what people are reading or have
> read
> > recently that they can recommend. I am reading "1491", a popular (as
> > opposed to scientific) review of about three decades of
> scholarship into
> > the Aboriginal cultures in the Americas before 1492. It is very
> > interesting as the new scholarship is overturning many of the
> cherished
> > conclusions of the 1950s and 1960s including that the original
> Americans
> > crossed from Siberia on a land bridge during the last Ice Age and
> that
> > the Americas were sparsely populated. The evidence seems to be
> that the
> > Americas may have had a larger pre-Columbus population density than
> > Europe and that European diseases wiped out as much as 95% of that
> > population along with many of the great cultures of the Americas.
> > Also, I wondered if anyone has downloaded out-of-copyright books
> from
> > Google Books. If so, did that work well? What format(s) do they
> support?
> > Some day I hope to get time to read some classic literature. At the
> > moment I am trying to catch up with books (both ebooks and paper
> books)
> > that I l aready own and have not yet read, which probably is going
> to
> > take me at least a year, particularly since I keep coming up with
> new
> > books that I feel I need to read. My latest on that list are the
> books
> > by Pakistani journalist Ahmed Rashid. Given the importance of
> Pakistan
> > on the world stage, I need to kjnow something about what is going on
> > there. And if anyone can recommend good English-language books about
> > modern Iran, I would appreciate that.
> > All the best for good end-of-summer reading.
> > --
> > Bert Latamore
> > IT Journalist, Report Writer and Book Doctor
> > From tweets and blogs to white papers and books --
> > You provide the information; I craft the words.
> -- > Bert Latamore
> IT Journalist, Report Writer and Book Doctor
> From tweets and blogs to white papers and books --
> You provide the information; I craft the words.
On Aug 14, 2009, at 10:07 PM, Kerry Lannert wrote:
> As for Quiverfull, it's a non-fiction book about the modern > Quiverfull movement currently happening in a small subset of the > fundamentalist Christian community. Quiverfull followers believe in > producing as many children as possible and also in homeschooling > them using the Bible and religious books for every aspect of the > child's education (even the math books teach basic principles using > Biblical references). The Duggar family, with 18 children, is > probably the most famous family in the movement, they had a reality > show and have been on lots talk TV. It's a very interesting read, > but a little dense so I'm taking it slowly.
> - Kerry
Sounds like Fundamental Baptist missionaries! A lot of IFB missionaries I know have 10-12 kids and few have less than 6.
> On Aug 14, 2009, at 10:07 PM, Kerry Lannert wrote:
>> As for Quiverfull, it's a non-fiction book about the modern
>> Quiverfull movement currently happening in a small subset of the
>> fundamentalist Christian community. Quiverfull followers believe in
>> producing as many children as possible and also in homeschooling
>> them using the Bible and religious books for every aspect of the
>> child's education (even the math books teach basic principles using
>> Biblical references). The Duggar family, with 18 children, is
>> probably the most famous family in the movement, they had a reality
>> show and have been on lots talk TV. It's a very interesting read,
>> but a little dense so I'm taking it slowly.
>> - Kerry
> Sounds like Fundamental Baptist missionaries! A lot of IFB
> missionaries I know have 10-12 kids and few have less than 6.
It is available from eReader as a download. I only used it a couple of times
some time ago but my memory is it worked pretty well. I converted a specific
PDF I bought from soneone teaching a course -- rather than carry the paper
text book with me. I still ahve the book and last read it a year ago.
Bert
On Sat, Aug 15, 2009 at 3:43 AM, Ian Barton <li...@manor-farm.org> wrote:
> I am currently reading Psychovertical by Andy Kirkpatrick. I can
> thoroughly recommend this, even if you aren't a mountaineer.
> It also perfectly illustrates my problems with eBooks - it's only
> available in dead tree format, as are most of the other books I want to
> read.
> Ian.
-- Bert Latamore
IT Journalist, Report Writer and Book Doctor
From tweets and blogs to white papers and books --
You provide the information; I craft the words.
I have a question for the WinMobile users: Aren't a lot of you using a
Microsoft ebook reader? I have pretty vague memories of discussion a few
years ago of eReader versus a WinMobile only book service from Microsoft. I
presume this would also run on XP or Vista, is that correct? Is it still
active and adding books? Now that I am using the UX for my reading I might
look at it if it has books that eReader doesn't have -- they might have some
of the books I am looking for.
Also, now that WinMobile seems to be losing ground rapidly in the market
(the recent Microsoft/Nokia alliance is a symptom of that), does this reader
software run on other platforms? What happens to your books when you have to
move off the WinMobile platform? Of course a Windows tablet may be a good
answer -- unlike the stand-alone book readers it has a color display, which
is important for a lot of non-fiction books that use colored maps, graphics
and photographs. One of the things I don't like about the stand alone book
readers is that they are grey scale only (and seemingly focused on fiction,
whereas at least half of my reading is nonfiction).
All the best,
Bert
On Sat, Aug 15, 2009 at 1:41 PM, Bert Latamore <bert.latam...@gmail.com>wrote:
> It is available from eReader as a download. I only used it a couple of
> times some time ago but my memory is it worked pretty well. I converted a
> specific PDF I bought from soneone teaching a course -- rather than carry
> the paper text book with me. I still ahve the book and last read it a year
> ago.
> Bert
> On Sat, Aug 15, 2009 at 3:43 AM, Ian Barton <li...@manor-farm.org> wrote:
>> I am currently reading Psychovertical by Andy Kirkpatrick. I can
>> thoroughly recommend this, even if you aren't a mountaineer.
>> It also perfectly illustrates my problems with eBooks - it's only
>> available in dead tree format, as are most of the other books I want to
>> read.
>> Ian.
> --
> Bert Latamore
> IT Journalist, Report Writer and Book Doctor
> From tweets and blogs to white papers and books --
> You provide the information; I craft the words.
-- Bert Latamore
IT Journalist, Report Writer and Book Doctor
From tweets and blogs to white papers and books --
You provide the information; I craft the words.
> I have a question for the WinMobile users: Aren't a lot of you using > a Microsoft ebook reader? I have pretty vague memories of discussion > a few years ago of eReader versus a WinMobile only book service from > Microsoft. I presume this would also run on XP or Vista, is that > correct? Is it still active and adding books? Now that I am using > the UX for my reading I might look at it if it has books that > eReader doesn't have -- they might have some of the books I am > looking for.
To the best of my knowledge, the Microsoft Reader is defunct, not that it was all that well supported to begin with. The books came in the .lit format and it used to come standard on Pocket PCs, but hasn't come standard on any WM device in years. I'm not even sure it's available anymore.
> Also, now that WinMobile seems to be losing ground rapidly in the > market (the recent Microsoft/Nokia alliance is a symptom of that), > does this reader software run on other platforms? What happens to > your books when you have to move off the WinMobile platform? Of > course a Windows tablet may be a good answer -- unlike the stand- > alone book readers it has a color display, which is important for a > lot of non-fiction books that use colored maps, graphics and > photographs. One of the things I don't like about the stand alone > book readers is that they are grey scale only (and seemingly focused > on fiction, whereas at least half of my reading is nonfiction).
> All the best,
> Bert
I believe uReader (micro Reader) could read unencrypted .lit formatted books, but again I don't know if it's still extant. Also there was a command line program named Convert Lit that could be used to decompile to other formats. Again, no idea if it's still around.
Okay. Sorry to hear that, both for the people who bought those books and for
myself, as I was looking for a new source of books. I am interested in the
new Barnes and Noble ebook reader, and now if I am looking for a book and
don't find it on eReader I search B&N. So far, however, I haven't gotten a
hit, so I haven't tried out the reader.
Of course B&N now owns Fictionwise/eReader. I was a little surprised that it
chose to create yet another new reader software given that. I would think
that the logical thing for it would be to combine all three into a single
service, but so far that doesn't seem to be happening. I wonder if their
purchase of Fictionwise and subsequent announcement of the B&N ebook
software is a "toe in the water" approach. If so, it won't work. Amazon is
determined to own the ebook space, and B&N needs a matching determination if
it is going to carve out a viable space.
At the same time, the economics of book publishing and the issues of
supporting the residual market for older books really does dictate a steady
movement toward ebooks. You can see that in the history of eReader starting
with PeanutPress. Back then it was primarily a geek book service, and its
library was dominated by SF and fantasy -- the literature of the geeks
(including me, btw! I do not mean "geek" to be in any way derogatory --
geeks are intellectuals).
Today, close to two decades later, they still sell a lot of SF/fantasy, but
actually their largest sellers are romance, and that is definitely reflected
in their marketing. I have nothing against romance, but the point is that
that is an entirely different readership -- mostly female, not necessarily
college educated (although certainly many intellectual women read romance
for relaxation). Not the people you think of instantly when you think
smartphone/PDA users. And behind the fiction eReader has a very healthy
library of history, current events and other nonfiction. They have the
latest book from Ahmed Rishad, which makes me hope they will publish his
other books (B&N also has that book, btw). So the evidence is that the
readership is growing steadily. I don't know what eReader's financial
history looks like. But I suspect that the price, the ability to download a
book instantly without having to make a trip to the bookstore, and the
availability of books that are otherwise out of print are attractions.
If that is true, B&N might build a strategy focused on selling books that
are out of print. That happens very quickly with novels -- unless the author
is famous those books stay on the bookshelves for about three weeks, then
they go into the remainder bin and are gone. But someone who discovers an
author they like often wants to read those earlier, now out-or-print books
by that same author. It is just a thought here, I have no idea what their
thinking is. And certainly that is not the primary strategy at Amazon.com,
which seems to try to bring out the ebook at the same time the paper book
hits the shelves. But Amazon does not have an extensive network of physical
stores, so it really isn't worried about the ebook competing with its retail
operation. That has to be a concern at B&N.
Bert
On Sat, Aug 15, 2009 at 2:21 PM, Donald Stidwell <donald.stidw...@mac.com>wrote:
> On Aug 15, 2009, at 1:48 PM, Bert Latamore wrote:
> > I have a question for the WinMobile users: Aren't a lot of you using
> > a Microsoft ebook reader? I have pretty vague memories of discussion
> > a few years ago of eReader versus a WinMobile only book service from
> > Microsoft. I presume this would also run on XP or Vista, is that
> > correct? Is it still active and adding books? Now that I am using
> > the UX for my reading I might look at it if it has books that
> > eReader doesn't have -- they might have some of the books I am
> > looking for.
> To the best of my knowledge, the Microsoft Reader is defunct, not that
> it was all that well supported to begin with. The books came in
> the .lit format and it used to come standard on Pocket PCs, but hasn't
> come standard on any WM device in years. I'm not even sure it's
> available anymore.
> > Also, now that WinMobile seems to be losing ground rapidly in the
> > market (the recent Microsoft/Nokia alliance is a symptom of that),
> > does this reader software run on other platforms? What happens to
> > your books when you have to move off the WinMobile platform? Of
> > course a Windows tablet may be a good answer -- unlike the stand-
> > alone book readers it has a color display, which is important for a
> > lot of non-fiction books that use colored maps, graphics and
> > photographs. One of the things I don't like about the stand alone
> > book readers is that they are grey scale only (and seemingly focused
> > on fiction, whereas at least half of my reading is nonfiction).
> > All the best,
> > Bert
> I believe uReader (micro Reader) could read unencrypted .lit formatted
> books, but again I don't know if it's still extant. Also there was a
> command line program named Convert Lit that could be used to decompile
> to other formats. Again, no idea if it's still around.
-- Bert Latamore
IT Journalist, Report Writer and Book Doctor
From tweets and blogs to white papers and books --
You provide the information; I craft the words.
It's still possible to install the reader on a Win Mobile device; I tried it on my WM6.1 flashed Pocket Loox, but it's really horrible software. For the few lit files I retain I use allReader+ which can handle them, and is MUCH nicer than MS reader ever was. But mostly I convert everything to lrf files and use my Sony Reader. Convert Lit is still around and works fine.
On Fri, Aug 14, 2009 at 05:15:06PM -0400, Bert Latamore wrote: > Just an idle question. I wondered what people are reading or have read recently > that they can recommend.
I just read two books that got me to question many assumptions that I didn't know I was making:
Life, Inc. by Douglas Rushkoff I found his explanation of the incorporation, how it began, how it developed, and how it changed our society, to be very interesting. The author's perspective is that this is a bad thing overall, and offers some lame solutions to try to take back economic power, such as creating and using local currencies.
The End of Overeating by David Kessler Unfortunately, reading this book didn't stop my overeating. However, I did stop eating at chain restaurants. Dr. Kessler interviews food technologists, dietitians, and other experts in the restaurant and food industries, and provides a fascinating description of how and why their food has been designed to encourage unhealthy eating habits. He then goes on to provide some tips on overcoming habitual behavior that anyone who has read a self-help book already knows. -- John L. Cunningham
On Aug 17, 2009, at 07:52 , John L. Cunningham wrote:
> The End of Overeating by David Kessler > Unfortunately, reading this book didn't stop my overeating. However, I > did stop eating at chain restaurants. Dr. Kessler interviews food > technologists, dietitians, and other experts in the restaurant and > food > industries, and provides a fascinating description of how and why > their > food has been designed to encourage unhealthy eating habits. He then > goes on to provide some tips on overcoming habitual behavior that > anyone > who has read a self-help book already knows. > --
I read David Kessler's last book, "Mindless Eating." About halfway through it stopped being about science and started being a diet book, which wasn't really what I wanted to be reading. The science stuff was great, though. You might want to look at it (though I don't know how much of the same territory is covered in the new book, and it could be a lot).
Kessler seems to be interviewed a lot in podcasts I listen to, particularly
"Fresh Air". The books sound interesting, but I always have something more
attractive to read. I live my diet, and much of what he said on the
interviews about food quality didn't surprise me -- unfortunately. Anyone
who diets carefully and therefore reads food labels already knows about the
huge amounts of calories, fat, and sodium in prepared foods.
He seems in the podcasts at least to want a return to the older style of
farming, pre Earl Butz, in which farmers had multiple crops and livestock on
their farms. There are real advantages to that form of farming, particularly
in the abilty to recycle things (animals eat product and produce "waste"
such as leaves, their droppings in turn become manure that gets spread on
the fields.) The issue is that the price of food would double if we went
back to that kind of farming.
Which is not to say that his points are all off the mark. Modern agriculture
is much to dependent on oil. Just one factoid I learned years ago -- did you
know that pigs are shipped from one facility to another something over 10
times during their growth and maturation, before they go to the
slaughterhouse? Incredible, but I had that directly from someone in the pork
industry, so I don't doubt it one bit. In a world in which oil production
has probably peaked and started declining worldwide while demand in
countries like China and India is growing rapidly, this is not a good
situation.
On Mon, Aug 17, 2009 at 10:59 AM, Kerry Lannert <klann...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Aug 17, 2009, at 07:52 , John L. Cunningham wrote:
> > The End of Overeating by David Kessler
> > Unfortunately, reading this book didn't stop my overeating. However, I
> > did stop eating at chain restaurants. Dr. Kessler interviews food
> > technologists, dietitians, and other experts in the restaurant and
> > food
> > industries, and provides a fascinating description of how and why
> > their
> > food has been designed to encourage unhealthy eating habits. He then
> > goes on to provide some tips on overcoming habitual behavior that
> > anyone
> > who has read a self-help book already knows.
> > --
> I read David Kessler's last book, "Mindless Eating." About halfway
> through it stopped being about science and started being a diet book,
> which wasn't really what I wanted to be reading. The science stuff was
> great, though. You might want to look at it (though I don't know how
> much of the same territory is covered in the new book, and it could be
> a lot).
> - Kerry
-- Bert Latamore
IT Journalist, Report Writer and Book Doctor
From tweets and blogs to white papers and books --
You provide the information; I craft the words.
Bert: You bring up a lot of points that are covered in Michael Pollan's "The Omnivore's Dilemma." It's a great read, full of detail about every aspect of agriculture, both the traditional kind and the modern kind. In addition to oil used to transport crops and livestock, petroleum is also the base for the fertilizers modern farmers use. All that livestock waste gets dumped into enormous cesspools, while chemical plants turn oil into fertilizer for our corn. That book totally changed the way I view everything about food and even politics.
> Kessler seems to be interviewed a lot in podcasts I listen to, > particularly "Fresh Air". The books sound interesting, but I always > have something more attractive to read. I live my diet, and much of > what he said on the interviews about food quality didn't surprise me > -- unfortunately. Anyone who diets carefully and therefore reads > food labels already knows about the huge amounts of calories, fat, > and sodium in prepared foods.
> He seems in the podcasts at least to want a return to the older > style of farming, pre Earl Butz, in which farmers had multiple crops > and livestock on their farms. There are real advantages to that form > of farming, particularly in the abilty to recycle things (animals > eat product and produce "waste" such as leaves, their droppings in > turn become manure that gets spread on the fields.) The issue is > that the price of food would double if we went back to that kind of > farming.
> Which is not to say that his points are all off the mark. Modern > agriculture is much to dependent on oil. Just one factoid I learned > years ago -- did you know that pigs are shipped from one facility to > another something over 10 times during their growth and maturation, > before they go to the slaughterhouse? Incredible, but I had that > directly from someone in the pork industry, so I don't doubt it one > bit. In a world in which oil production has probably peaked and > started declining worldwide while demand in countries like China and > India is growing rapidly, this is not a good situation.
Yes, I think you are right -- I was thinking of Michael Pollan. He has a new
book out about how American's have stopped cooking and how that impacts
culture and diet. Again it sounds very interesting. I am fortunately in that
my wife does cook, and I can also cook (although I am not exactly a gourmet
chef). I had never thought about the larger implications of this, however. I
might need to read his books.
On Mon, Aug 17, 2009 at 11:43 AM, Kerry Lannert <klann...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Bert:
> You bring up a lot of points that are covered in Michael Pollan's "The
> Omnivore's Dilemma." It's a great read, full of detail about every
> aspect of agriculture, both the traditional kind and the modern kind.
> In addition to oil used to transport crops and livestock, petroleum is
> also the base for the fertilizers modern farmers use. All that
> livestock waste gets dumped into enormous cesspools, while chemical
> plants turn oil into fertilizer for our corn. That book totally
> changed the way I view everything about food and even politics.
> - Kerry
> On Aug 17, 2009, at 08:24 , Bert Latamore wrote:
> > Kessler seems to be interviewed a lot in podcasts I listen to,
> > particularly "Fresh Air". The books sound interesting, but I always
> > have something more attractive to read. I live my diet, and much of
> > what he said on the interviews about food quality didn't surprise me
> > -- unfortunately. Anyone who diets carefully and therefore reads
> > food labels already knows about the huge amounts of calories, fat,
> > and sodium in prepared foods.
> > He seems in the podcasts at least to want a return to the older
> > style of farming, pre Earl Butz, in which farmers had multiple crops
> > and livestock on their farms. There are real advantages to that form
> > of farming, particularly in the abilty to recycle things (animals
> > eat product and produce "waste" such as leaves, their droppings in
> > turn become manure that gets spread on the fields.) The issue is
> > that the price of food would double if we went back to that kind of
> > farming.
> > Which is not to say that his points are all off the mark. Modern
> > agriculture is much to dependent on oil. Just one factoid I learned
> > years ago -- did you know that pigs are shipped from one facility to
> > another something over 10 times during their growth and maturation,
> > before they go to the slaughterhouse? Incredible, but I had that
> > directly from someone in the pork industry, so I don't doubt it one
> > bit. In a world in which oil production has probably peaked and
> > started declining worldwide while demand in countries like China and
> > India is growing rapidly, this is not a good situation.
> > Bert
-- Bert Latamore
IT Journalist, Report Writer and Book Doctor
From tweets and blogs to white papers and books --
You provide the information; I craft the words.
Bert> Yes, I think you are right -- I was thinking of Michael Bert> Pollan. He has a new book out about how American's have Bert> stopped cooking and how that impacts culture and diet.
I haven't read that book, but he also wrote an article in the NY Times magazine that I found irritating. I blogged about it at <http://laymusic.org/wordpress/?p=1278>. My sense is that a larger fraction of the people I know now cook than of the people my parents knew in 1960, and that there were ways to pay other people to do the cooking, shopping and cleaning for you hundreds or even thousands of years ago.
I'm not saying that a lot of what he says isn't true, and I get irritated at Food Network shows for a lot of the same reasons he does, but he's romanticizing the pre-tv-dinner era of food preparation.
I have really enjoyed several of Pollan's books, including _The Omnivore's Dilemma_.
If there happens to be a number of greater voices in the Concert than your own, they will swallow you up; therefore in such a case, I would recommend to you the resolution (tho' not the impudence) of a discarded actor, who after he had been twice hissed off the stage, mounted again, and with great assurance he thundered out these words: "I will be heard".
I grew up in the 1950s and 1960s, and my mother, who did not work outside
the home, was a terrific, traditional cook. Although we are not Italian she
made her own pasta sauce, starting with whole tomatoes, which took all day.
So she did it on a day that she was not going out. She cooked all our meals,
and I can remember when she tried out one of the first generation cake mixes
and discovered that they were dretch. In summer we bought local fruits and
vegies as much as possible from farm stands. So I lived the life that Pollan
talks about, and it good. I have been fortunate over my life in that the
three women who at one time or another were central to it (two wives and, in
between, a girlfriend for three years) were/are all great cooks. And I can
cook at least bsics. My problem when I am alone is that by the time I start
thinking of dinner I am pretty tired, and cooking anything fancy seems too
much of a bother just for me. So I tend to go with casseroles, chillies, and
similar things that I can make say on Sunday afternoon and eat for several
meals through the week when I am on my own. I also get out the crock pot.
> Bert> Yes, I think you are right -- I was thinking of Michael
> Bert> Pollan. He has a new book out about how American's have
> Bert> stopped cooking and how that impacts culture and diet.
> I haven't read that book, but he also wrote an article in the NY Times
> magazine that I found irritating. I blogged about it at
> <http://laymusic.org/wordpress/?p=1278>. My sense is that a larger
> fraction of the people I know now cook than of the people my parents
> knew in 1960, and that there were ways to pay other people to do the
> cooking, shopping and cleaning for you hundreds or even thousands of
> years ago.
> I'm not saying that a lot of what he says isn't true, and I get
> irritated at Food Network shows for a lot of the same reasons he does,
> but he's romanticizing the pre-tv-dinner era of food preparation.
> I have really enjoyed several of Pollan's books, including _The Omnivore's
> Dilemma_.
> If there happens to be a number of greater voices in the Concert than
> your own, they will swallow you up; therefore in such a case, I would
> recommend to you the resolution (tho' not the impudence) of a
> discarded actor, who after he had been twice hissed off the stage,
> mounted again, and with great assurance he thundered out these words:
> "I will be heard".
> William Billings
-- Bert Latamore
IT Journalist, Report Writer and Book Doctor
From tweets and blogs to white papers and books --
You provide the information; I craft the words.
|
