Despite having the Kindle app for iOS, I only bought a few ebooks from Amazon - mostly Jeff Vandermeer stuff. But my girlfriend bought me a Kindle for Christmas, and I'd like to stock up on some good books, preferably under $5. Searching the Amazon store for something interesting is kind of a pain, though. The bestseller list is full of garbage, and the lowest price first list isn't much better. I did manage to find two good deals, though -- Beukes' Zoo City (a 2011 World Fantasy Award nominee) for $3, and the Buss translation of The Count of Monte Cristo for $2.61
So, any recs? I'm pretty open and well-read. I prefer speculative fiction, weird fiction, magical realism, and latin literature when it comes to fiction, and philosophy or evocative, straight-forward science writing when it comes to non-fiction, but really, anything good and cheap I'll take a look at.
--
Love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we’ll change the world.
He Who Whispers(John Dickson Carr) is a brilliant horror/mystery book by John Dickson Carr and it's at 6.39 right now, I think. If you consider that cheap and like mysteries at all, it's definitely worth a read.
The Thorndyke mysteries are pretty great and cheap too(99 cents for like 4 novels) but you can find them at Gutenberg too, I think.
"I am not a serial killer" is a great book especially if you like shows like Dexter, but it's 9 dollars, so that might be a bit more expensive than you are looking for.
I'm not really into mystery unless there's something strange about it - the world is off, the prose is sharp, something lurks in the dark, etc. That Carr book might be worth looking at, though. Can you give a brief description?
--
Love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we’ll change the world.
My brother-in-law is an English professor and an avid science fiction reader and recommended me a series over Christmas...I can't remember what it's called though. I'll get back to you.
I dunno if it's your thing, but I got The Men Who Would Be King for $3.99. It's about Dreamworks as a movie company, and has a lot of interesting stories about movies and Spielberg.
From: the icon ownz all | Posted: 12/28/2011 12:29:21 AM | #007 I'm not really into mystery unless there's something strange about it - the world is off, the prose is sharp, something lurks in the dark, etc. That Carr book might be worth looking at, though. Can you give a brief description?
Guy gets invited to a "murder club" where they discuss murder mysteries. When he gets there, everyone except two other guests are missing. The mystery he and the other two guests talk about in the absence of the murder club turns out to be a "completely impossible mystery." The idea is that there's no logical way for it to have happened, yet there is evidence that it did happen.
The prose pushes the novel toward the question of "is the criminal a human or a supernatural creature?" and offers a logical situation where it seems like no human could have done it. It kind of reads like a thriller in that every other chapter ends in a bit of a cliffhanger, unlike the usual stale mysteries in only one location.
Between that and the 'Literary criticism and significance' section on the wiki page, I'm convinced. Might not buy it for the kindle, but it'll go on my wishlist and I'll look for it used or at a library. Thanks!
2:46: Aftershocks: Stories from the Japan Earthquake is free. I noticed HM is reading it on Goodreads, so I picked that up.
EDIT: I assume you two have the Readability extension and Calibre program? Two great things for the kindle. The first converts webpages into mobi and e-mails them to your kindle, the second is just a nice ebook manager that also fetches news sources and creates a nice magazine out of them.
From: Haguile | #004 He Who Whispers(John Dickson Carr) is a brilliant horror/mystery book by John Dickson Carr and it's at 6.39 right now, I think. If you consider that cheap and like mysteries at all, it's definitely worth a read.
Just went looking for this at my local library. They didn't have a single book by Carr except for a biography. I left rather miffed. =/
--
No amount of planning will ever replace dumb luck.
In the local library, none. In my university's library, one of the best in the country... still none, but there's one in Thai!
--
Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as you ever can.
From: the icon ownz all | #019 EDIT: I assume you two have the Readability extension and Calibre program? Two great things for the kindle. The first converts webpages into mobi and e-mails them to your kindle, the second is just a nice ebook manager that also fetches news sources and creates a nice magazine out of them.
From: Ness26 | Posted: 12/28/2011 1:09:29 PM | #020 Just went looking for this at my local library. They didn't have a single book by Carr except for a biography. I left rather miffed. =/
From: the icon ownz all | Posted: 12/28/2011 1:12:24 PM | #021 My library has more books of his in Chinese than it does English.
Yeah, his books are rather to find nowadays which is why the kindle edition is such a good thing. I do know a few places that sell the books online(used) though, so there's that. I can post a link later(not at home right now).
Yeah, his books are rather to find nowadays which is why the kindle edition is such a good thing. I do know a few places that sell the books online(used) though, so there's that. I can post a link later(not at home right now).
I work at a used bookstore, and I'll be going to a great one this weekend, so I'll probably be able to track it down.
--
Love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we’ll change the world.
Gah, I'm tempted to pick up a Kindle. I used to read a ton before I went to college and I'm really disappointed in myself for slacking off as of late, and it seems convenient enough where I'd really get back into seriously reading.
Opinions on the different models? What about paying to remove the ads (how obstructive are they)?
--
No amount of planning will ever replace dumb luck.
Get the Kindle 4 (no keyboard), with special offers. The touch doesn't have any physical buttons you can use to turn the page, while the Kindle 4 has two on each side making it much easier to read with one hand. The ads aren't obtrusive in the slightest. They come up in place of a screensaver if you've connected your Kindle to wi-fi, and sometimes they can be pretty good. It's not worth paying $20 to remove them.
From: Ness26 | #033 How are the menus? I've heard people mentioning navigating the Kindle menus with the little arrows is a huge pain.
It's fine. You can flip through the pages on the menu quickly with the page over/page back button. You won't be navigating the menu that often, really, as you'll be reading books.
This sold me on the Kindle 4. That and my Amazon Gift Card that I've had for a while. Anyway, sorry for hijacking the topic for a bit. Thanks for the input though!
--
No amount of planning will ever replace dumb luck.
Love in the Time of Cholera and Memories of My Melancholy Whores are the only other long form Marquez I've read, though I've read a handful of short stories as well. I'd recommend both novels (the latter is actually a novella). He's a brilliant writer, and one I'm going to delve deeper into in 2012.
Have you read Borges? If you haven't, Ficciones is a must.
--
Love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we’ll change the world.
Oh man, you must have been the one to recommend Vandermeer last time around. A bit late, but thanks a lot for that! I'd be interested in your other recommendations if you have any.
Unfortunately, I can't really recommend anything that fits your interests that you haven't probably heard of. I've recently gone through some Cormac McCarthy, which was pretty good, some essays by Zinn, which were great, and Michel Foucault's history of sexuality series in French. I'd recommend those if you were interested. They aren't cheap on Amazon though, sadly.
Out of the free Kindle books though, The Jungle Book, Treasure Island or a Tale of Two Cities are my next choices. I'm sure you've read them all already though. Or Maybe something by Fred Vargas...
--
I thought I'd never change, but Dr Football beat me into shape!
From: Redtooth | #040 Oh man, you must have been the one to recommend Vandermeer last time around. A bit late, but thanks a lot for that! I'd be interested in your other recommendations if you have any.
Unfortunately, I can't really recommend anything that fits your interests that you haven't probably heard of. I've recently gone through some Cormac McCarthy, which was pretty good, some essays by Zinn, which were great, and Michel Foucault's history of sexuality series in French. I'd recommend those if you were interested. They aren't cheap on Amazon though, sadly.
I'm haven't read much Foucault, actually. He's on my list, maybe I'll bump him up.
From: TimJab | #041 IRRELEVANT!
plus the second largest mall in canada would be like the 209th largest mall in the us
top 25 actually, and our largest is much larger than your's