The biggest reading news of the year is that I bought a Kindle Paperwhite—my first e-reader. I enjoy reading on it—more so than paper books—a preference that has caused an up-tick in the number of books I read that were published before 1923.
Ray Bradbury
The Martian Chronicles (1950)Gene Wolfe
The Sorcerer's House (2010)Andy Weir†
The Martian (2011)Emma Orczy†
The Scarlet Pimpernel (1905)Joe Haldeman†
The Forever War (1974)Rudyard Kipling†
Kim (1901)John Buchan†
The Thirty-Nine Steps (1915)Robert Heinlein
The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress (1966)G. K. Chesterton†
The Man Who Was Thursday (1908)T. C. Boyle
A Friend of the Earth (2000)E. O. Wilson†
Anthill (2010)Ursula le Guin†
The Left Hand of Darkness (1969)H. G. Wells†
The Time Machine (1895)H. G. Wells
The Invisible Man (1897)Larry McMurtry†
Lonesome Dove (1985)Harry Crews†
A Feast of Snakes (1976)Scott Meyers†
Effective Modern C++ (2015)H. G. Wells
The Island of Dr. Moreau (1896)Jane Austen
Mansfield Park (1814)Jane Austen
Pride & Prejudice‡ (1813)Robin Sloan†
Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore (2012)Malcolm Lowry†
Under the Volcano (1947)Neil Gaiman
The Ocean at the End of the Lane (2013)Agatha Christie
The Mysterious Affair at Styles (1920)Vernon Lee†
Hauntings (1890)
| † | First time to read author |
| ‡ | Reread |
7 comments:
JEC: Another very impressive list, thank you for posting -- your yearly log is my favorite recurring blogpost theme in all of the www world...I'll call that the wwww. From a volume standpoint I am somewhat stunned, what an excellent commitment to reading. I think 90% of all suggestions for New Year's resolutions include "read more" or "make more time to read." Your reading seems more than adequate every year and this year bordering on extreme reading. Again, WOW. Now, a few other points I'd like to mention:
1) I don't think I knew you were reading Lonesome Dove. I would like to discuss it with you as I consider it the most entertaining book I've ever read. I often call it "The best book ever written" just as a statement to illicit conversation etc., I have read it a few times and I read random parts of it every time I see it in my e-reader log, which is often since my old school Kindle moves most recent book read to the top of my list.
2) It appears that your first experience with H.G. Wells was a good one and you may very much like H.G.'s writing? I have never read an H.G. Wells book.
3) Did you have a favorite book of the year? If so, which won was it? (Continuing on an additional response post as I have exceeded the 4096 character limit that seems like a new limit?)
4) About the E-reader...I am glad you like the experience, I have had one for a while and very much like mine as well, though I still read a real book from time to time because one is loaned to me, or I go to the library etc. I do have some issues that I'm sure you've heard other say as well, but I'll list them as a means of hopefully receiving your comments on them:
a. The white pages style is really great, far better than reading on a backlit screen. However, I would like some lights or a light on mine somewhere so I could read in the dark without a separate light source. Maybe newer e-readers have this? I won't likely buy a new one just for this feature, but I'd like to think someone thought to add it.
b. The page numbers thing. Why not have them? I realize the inventors wanted to change the whole reading experience etc. blah blah blah, but I consider that one a fail. Knowing what page I'm on would greatly improve my ability to bounce around to do things like rereading a section or more importantly scan ahead to see how many more pages until what the author has deemed the next logical break point (a chapter or book etc.). It seems to me that the e-reader could even improve upon this regular need readers have by including a running data display showing "page 8 of 13 ch. 2" for instance, while also displaying the % read if that is so important to the e-reader experience. I actually don't think the % read is important, especially when reading books based on history etc., like books about US Presidents for the % read does not tell me how much percentage at the end of the book is footnotes and reference citing etc. Again, maybe newer e-reader versions have this? If so then I consider it a great improvement, if they did it right, but again, I am unlikely to upgrade simply because my e-reader still works....like Joshua Deets who was "not one to give up on a garment" I tend to default to keeping material things until they simply stop working completely.
c. Not having to hold a book open, thus allowing for easier one handed supporting of the book is perhaps the greatest impact the e-reader has had for me...I love sitting it next to whatever I am eating and still being able to consume food from a plate in a civilized way, or as close as I can come to doing so.
d. Being able to carry numerous books in a smaller and sometimes lighter way than even carrying 1 book is also fantastic...I often have more than one book going at once...and yet, I still manage maybe a third of the book volume read as your good self.
e. Initially I was frustrated with the placement of the page turning buttons on mine, but I have gotten used to them so no longer consider it an issue...I wonder though if newer versions have addressed this in any way.
f. My e-reader has a keyboard at the bottom of it that is perhaps the worst keyboard ever invented...block styling the placement of the letter keys is supremely inefficient and if they were going to do that then they should've put the letters in alphabetical order. Thankfully I only use the keyboard when purchasing new books, which does not take long and isn't often enough for me to be too enraged by it...plus it is outweighed greatly by what I will list a my last point about e-readers:
g. The near instant access to books that I didn't own or have access to continues to blow my mind. Obviously that is a Great aspect of the e-reader.
Again, would love to hear your thoughts whenever you have a moment. Until then, good luck with your 2016 reading, I look forward to seeing the list in about 52 weeks!
Bobby,
(1) I enjoyed Lonesome Dove. What do you think of the other books in the series?
(2) Try out The Time Machine. If you don't like that one then you probably won't like the other H. G. Wells books I read.
(3) As for best and favorite books, excluding Pride & Prejudice, the “best” book was Kipling's Kim, and the book most fun to read was Haldeman's The Forever War. An honorable mention goes to le Guin's The Left Hand of Darkness. Many other books were great, too.
(4A) The modern Kindle Paperwhite has an e-ink display with a dimmable backlight. I think the Paperwhite is as easy on the eyes as paper, and the backlight makes it readable in a dark room. Indeed, the even lighting of the backlight may make the display easier on the eyes than paper, and of course I can zoom the font to just the right size for every book.
(4B) Page numbers don't translate well to e-readers because of the font-zooming thing. The Paperwhite provides a few alternatives for showing reading progress: (1) raw location, of which there are on the order of 10 per “page” and which I find annoying (2) minutes remaining in the chapter; and (3) minutes/hours remaining in the book. The time estimates are calculated based on your average reading speed and work well enough for me.
(4E) I don't know what older Kindles did for page turning. The Paperwhite has a touch screen that allows either a single touch or swipe to turn one page forward or backward. It works well, though occasionally the input isn't debounced as much as I would like. (I.e., a single touch causes two pages to turn.) Debouncing is hard because the flip side to weak debouncing is a device that is too insensitive to touch.
(4F) Is your Kindle's keyboard a physical keyboard or is it part of a touchscreen? The Paperwhite is touch-only.
(4G) I haven't yet bought an e-book. So far I've downloaded books from Project Gutenberg and have borrowed e-books from the Phoenix Public Library. The PPL has thousands of e-books—almost as good a selection as their paper book collection.
JEC,
Thank you, as always, for the excellent response...here's mine to yours:
(1) I read each of the other books and I advise you not to waste your time with them.
(2-3) All noted with great thanks.
(4A-G) It is apparent to me that Kindle has made some improvements to the point that your reader is superior to mine, perhaps matching the difference in skill of their respective readers if you will. Minutes to chapter and minutes/hours remaining in book well address my biggest complaint. I generally dislike all things touch screen as I just don't think they're as dependable as keys. My Kindle has a physical keyboard, but as stated, it is the worst one I have ever seen. Oh and the page turning is done by physical keys on each side of the e-reader. Mine looks like this one:
http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/kindle/shasta/photos/big-viewer-3G-01-lrg._CB188696038_.jpg
Free books are the best, I will check out the PPL as I believe I still have a membership.
Bobby, a status update: My Kindle received an over-the-air software upgrade, and it now has support for displaying page numbers.
JEC, thank you for the update...please let me know if you ever decide to start using that feature -- I imagine with the improvements you advised me of that no current users will choose the page numbers option, but I'd imagine new users most definitely will. I don't get over-the-air software upgrades for my Kindle version.
Bobby, I've been using the page-number feature for the last few days. Somehow—maybe I'm old-fashioned—I prefer page numbers to a time estimate calibrated to my reading speed. Also, I believe the page numbers map one-to-one with Kindle screens. So, for example, moving to the next screen exactly increments the current page number by one. This means the Kindle is adjusting the page numbers for the font size. Hence, a big font will cause the same book to have more pages, and a small font fewer. However, I'm basing my conclusion entirely on my experience with one book using one font, so I could be wrong.
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