Books

Cory Doctorow’s Little Brother

I mentioned the other day that I have gotten my new BlackBerry Curve set up with Mobipocket to allow me to read books (and even some crude bookmarking and highlighting). See “Reading books on the go” for my rundown of apps and sites for downloading free books. One of the authors who is committed to making their works (or many of them) available for free is Cory Doctorow. You may know of him as the co-editor of Boing Boing, an incredible blog source, but he is also an extremely talented sci-fi author. Well, many of his works are available for free at Feedbooks including his latest novel Little Brother. It is ostensibly for “juveniles” but it is great and gripping. It is set in the very new future San Francisco and is the story of a high school senior who…well, I don’t want to give much away, let’s just say he fights hard for personal liberty and freedom. I am only half-way through but it is really excellent. (OK, some of the writing does show that he wrote it in 3 months, but it is a great story.)

You can download it free in just about any format you can imagine at his site Craphound.com. He asks that folks who might want to give money for their enjoyment of the ebook donate a hard copy to a local school library or through a library donation site they have here. I certainly will make sure our local school has a copy. This is perfect reading for the summer and I know many of our biblicabloggers are also sci-fi fans and have kids of appropriate age. (My daughter who is 10.5 is probably 2-3 years too young for it. Nothing graphic or anything like that, so far at least, but there is a fair amount of tech-geek speak about encryption and such.)

That is my pick of the week: Cory Doctorow’s Little Brother.

Wired Campus: “Found in Old Books”

Jun 11th, 2008

by Christian Brady.

2 comments

From The Wired Campus (Chronicle of Higher Ed):

If only the metadata accompanying e-texts were as interesting as that found in used books!

Online bookseller AbeBooks.com recently asked its vendors about the strangest things they’ve found in used books. The list will surprise you: a Christmas card from L. Frank Baum, a Mickey Mantle rookie card, a diamond ring, a strip of bacon, $40,000, a World War II U.S. ration book, and even “a holographic image of a lady who sheds her clothing,” among other items.

Surely similar items have turned up in collections bequeathed to academic libraries around the country. What strange things have you found in your library’s old books?—Catherine Rampell

I can’t say that I have found anything that interesting. A card of a saint once and some notes. It seems to me that visitors to this blog likely have bought more than a few used books. Anyone find anything interesting in a used book?

“Myth Adventurer passes…”

Jun 10th, 2008

by Christian Brady.

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In all my years living in NOLA I never knew that he lived there! I loved his witty, silly fantasy works. He will be missed. From NOLA :

On Thursday, May 22, fantasy/science-fiction author and editor Robert Asprin passed away in his French Quarter residence. The 61-year-old writer – known to many by his SCA name of "Yang the Nauseating" – was famous for a ground-breaking series known as "Thieves World," in which a group of top sci-fi/fantasy luminaries contributed short stories in a shared universe, a new model that was part of the genesis of the modern fantasy genre. He co-edited and helped author the early books in this series, with then-wife Lynn Abbey. His career continued through Myth Adventures , a humorous fantasy series, which was still being written with co-author Jodie Lynn Nye. Their latest book, "Myth-Chief," was published this year, and "Myth Fortune," which was in progress, will be published at an unspecified date. Asprin also created the humorous adventures of Willard Phule and his space-going company.

According to family spokesman and longtime friend Bill Fawcett, the author was discovered in his New Orleans home on Thursday:

On May 22, 2008, Bob passed away quietly in his home in New Orleans, LA. He had been in good spirits and working on several new projects, and was set to be the Guest of Honor at a major science fiction convention that very weekend. He is survived by his mother, his sister, his daughter and his son, and his cat, Princess, not to mention countless friends and fans and numerous legendary fictional characters. He will be greatly missed. Bob, when this was discussed, requested there not be a formal funeral. A gathering at Fahy’s Pub on Dauphine in the Quarter has been organized, which fits Bob’s often-expressed desire that he be remembered by a series of great pub crawls. He also stated that should he die, any donations (should go) to the New Orleans Library for the purchase of science fiction books. Alternately Bob was a great cat lover concerned about the animals of New Orleans and donations to no kill animal shelters would also be a fitting memorial.

Reading books on the go

Jun 10th, 2008

by Christian Brady.

1 comment

Yesterday I picked a new Blackberry. My old 8810 had bit the dust one too many times and the mic no longer worked. That was fine for those who wanted to give me a telling to without hearing me respond, but a challenge for actually accomplishing two-way communication. So I went down one step to the Curve, in red. It actually has all my old model had, plus a camera (with a flash!) and spell check for email. Just grand! So, I am well-pleased with it. (Even if a new iPhone would have been nice. Sadly, it is not supported on our enterprise system.)

So I set about putting all the non-standard apps on the new phone: Facebook, TinyTwitter, Google Maps, NYTimes, Yahoo! Go, and Mobipocket eBook Reader. I have had a BB for two years now and prior to the BB I used Palm devices extensively. What I missed from the Palm was an easy way to read books online (I still don’t have a good Bible for the BB). My brother just received a Kindle for his half-birthday as did Merlin Mann of MacBreak Weekly and 43 Folders fame. The image “http://www.feedbooks.com/images/site/logomobile.png?1010206729” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors. So in one ear I had my brother, encouraging me to get a Kindle and in the other Merlin (may I call you Merlin? Or Sahr?) on MBW picking Feedbooks as a site for Kindle-formatted free books. These are classic and new books that are open and copyright free. Free is good.

So today I downloaded a few books, including Edith Wharton’s House of Mirth which we have assigned for our incoming students to read this summer. Cory Doctorow, famous blogger and excellent sci-fi author who is younger than I, has made a number of his works available as well. I am looking forward to start reading these tonight! Regardless of your device or lack thereof, Feedbooks is a great resource. (Many of these are, I am sure, from Project Gutenberg, another outstanding source.) BTW you can also upload your own works, so for all of us academics who own the rights to our books I think we should upload them and tell the world. I will see what it takes to put it in format and upload my doctoral thesis. (I believe Brill would not be thrilled if I released a pdf of my book.) Would any of the rest of your be willing to disseminate your works in this way?

Mobireader runs on many devices and can connect to one of several OTA (over the air) eBookstores allowing you to purchase and immediately download books and periodicals. The Kindle has all of this integrated with Amazon.com (and can play Audible books, mp3s, etc.) but is one more device that I would have to carry around. So I am pleased. A new phone, new functionality and some good books!