Forums/Thoughts on Books
What are you reading?
Lottie Lodge
posted this on June 06, 2010 22:52
What are you reading right now, and do you recommend it? :)
I just read "Mr Darcy, Vampyre" by Amanda Grange. (A way to link to books in the forums would be fab, might increase sales through BFB?) I would totally recommend it - it's quite waffly in places, but good fun!
I'm currently on the Dragonriders of Pern series by Anne McCaffrey, I read a couple a few years ago and started collecting the series on BookMooch and so on - now, 4 years later, I have the first 6 or so volumes and I thought I'd get started, and get the books moving again. I hear a lot of feminists and similar have bad things to say about this series, and now I know more about feminist issues than I did four years ago, so it will be interesting to read it with new eyes, so to speak.
Have you read any of these? And what are you on at the mo? Would you recommend it?
Comments
I'm currently reading a very tatty copy of 1984 by George Orwell, I picked it up in the Oxfam book shop in Chipping Norton whilst driving home for a parental visit!
I didn't dare read that one, someone told me I'd get depressed! I'll probably get around to it one day. :)
I'm pondering starting the Song of Ice and Fire series, but I am seriously daunted - each book is over 800 pages long, and there are four in the series! Eep! They're by George RR Martin. I've downloaded the ebooks just so my arms don't ache trying to hold up the book in bed, they're proper doorstops!
I can't advise you on this series as I haven't read it either Lottie, but starting with the eBooks sounds like a solid plan. Do you perhaps have the iPad by the way? We have one for the business and it is an absolutely stunning eBook reader. As you are a Mac user I am sure you will appreciate the aesthetics too :)
Ahhh, I'd love an iPad but I'm not sure how useful I'd find it! They look beautiful, but I have an ebook reader and a macbook, so I can't really justify it. :( I do love my ebook reader, it's got removable storage and all that so it's extra super duper customisable, since I'm a bit geeky I do like that. Also, the iPad screen glows, right? I like the e-ink on the ebook readers, less eye strain.
Maybe in a couple of years, when the tech is *even* better and I have more money. ;) My prediction is a touchscreen thingy like an iPad but the textures pop up, like keyboard keys slightly raised! I don't know how likely it is, but that's what I'd like!
PS: I am so not surprised you have an iPad, since you're a fanboy! I'm knitting an iPad cover for a friend, lined with microfibre cloth, soonish. As soon as I've found the right wool. :)
I felt exactly the same way about the iPad when it was announced Lottie, and if the business didn't need one I wouldn't have bought it as I have never really found use for a tablet in the past and feel they are more suited to lighter users.
However...having now played with it I am willing to accept that I was completely wrong. This device is brilliant at everything it does. The eBook reading facility is obviously a key one for me (as I don't have another eBook reader) but there are so many other brilliant features - the photo frame is stunning, newspapers (like the Financial Times) are just incredible and although I haven't read a magazine in years, the iPad has already changed that. Internet browsing also couldn't be more fun.
I was also worried about the iPad screen over e-ink but to be honest my fears of it being too reflective are alleviated by the ability to easily adjust the screen brightness and the font size. I don't imagine it performs too well in direct sunlight but I haven't tested it in that environment yet.
I agree with your prediction for the future, and if there is one company that is going to do that right I think it will be Apple. The keyboard on the iPad isn't bad though, and I am finding myself getting close to touch-typing speeds now that I have had some practice.
Anyway...that is my quick review for all those potentially considering buying one ;)...now back to work on our iPhone and iPad version of BFB...
Ahhh, I hear so many good things about it. I wish I had eeeeendless money! I sometimes play the lottery but it's always a waste of my £1. ;)
I'm reading 'The Woman With The Portuguese Basket' by Eva-Lis Wuorio.
It's and odd one - a vintage spy/romance from 1960, and very cute one too. What can I say? I love retro and vintage thrillers and spy stories.. :)
I've got too bad ADD to actually use the iPad for reading books, but I'll give it a better try. My other half has some books on it that we have just in digital form and that I want to read but would find kind of redundant to buy also an analog version when there is one copy already.
(But still, less bad ADD on iPad than when I try to use Windows...)
A vintage spy romance! That's very cool, I've not read anything like that. Except maybe Casino Royale. :)
Recently I've been re-reading The Chronicles of Narnia. Its great fun spottintg new things that I didn't notice as a child!
I'm reading currently two books, Passenger to Frankfurt by Agatha Christie (yesterday was her birthday so fits the theme) and Hausaland Stories, which is a collection of Hausa folk tales from Nigeria.
Next... hmm, a Ludlum, a Christie, or a Maeve Binchy?