Best selling Kindle children’s books #1

Best selling Kindle children’s books #1

There was a time when there was considerable debate about whether or not Kindles were even appropriate for children.

While I still see relatively stronger sales of p-books (paperbooks, especially hardbacks) for kids (perhaps because of gifts), I think that e-books for kids are becoming increasingly accepted.

There are a lot of ways that is good, in my opinion. When you get to the point of chapter books, there are so many free classics from many different cultures that the opportunity for children to expand their horizons is much more present than it was with paper. That’s especially true for families who might be in a place (both geographically and socially) where a public library is not readily available. I’d like to see EBRs (E-Book Readers) and tablets made more available to disadvantaged youth to take us further down this avenue, but I think it is likely to happen more in the future.

I was curious about what the top-selling books are for children in different categories in the Kindle store.

I loved selling children’s books (and helping legal guardians make selections) when I managed a brick and mortar bookstore…and I’m not above reading them myself.

It’s also worth noting that the categories are chosen by the publishers…I know that’s true for independent publishers using Kindle Direct Publishing, and I think it’s probably true for tradpubs (traditional publishers) as well. You might not consider something a children’s book, but I’m going to go with them as they appear in the USA Kindle store.

I’m also going to stick with paid books, I think, as opposed to free. I think that gives us a better sense of demand.

Bestsellers in Children’s Fiction

The overall bestseller is

Catching Fire (The Second Book of the Hunger Games)
by Suzanne Collins

We have to note that this book has been out for more than three and a half years at this point! How has the book stayed on top? Certainly, I think quality matters, but I also think that Scholastic has been particularly good at adapting to e-books. They enable the features people want, and the prices are reasonable (this one is $5.99 right now). Why is it the second book, and not the first? Perhaps because the movie of the second book is due out later this year (November 22 in the USA).

Children’s Fiction – Animals

The Call (The Great North Woods Pack #2)
by Shawn Underhill

The number one animal for Kindle kids is…wolves? Well, at least this book is number one. Interesting that it is the second in a series, which was also the case with Catching Fire.

Children’s Fiction – Arts & Music

The One and Only Ivan
by Katherine Applegate

This book was also number two in the animals section…which is a great example of why publishers put books into different categories which you might not expect. Being #1 matters (hey, I’m writing about them for that reason). This is a marvelously well-reviewed book (4.7 out of 5 stars, with 362 reviews). Applegate wrote the Animorphs books (not alone, I think), and I’m tempted by this one. I read the Animorphs, because my kid was reading them…but I did like them. This is inspired by a true story of a silverback gorilla living in a shopping mall.

Children’s Fiction – Historical Fiction

Number the Stars
by Lois Lowry

Note: the number one book was disqualified by me from being listed here, because it blocks text-to-speech access. I don’t want to benefit from those, because I think it disproportionately disadvantages the disabled. This is the number two bestseller. It’s set in Nazi-occupied Denmark in 1943, and was a Newberry winner in 1990.

Children’s Books – Literature

The Anne Stories: 12 Books, Anne of Green Gables, Anne of Avonlea, Anne of the Island, Anne’s House of Dreams, Rainbow Valley, Rilla of Ingleside, Chronicles of Avonlea, Audiobook Links
by Lucy Maud Montgomery

Wow! This does sound like a great deal. It’s twelve books (all the public domain Anne books, plus some others) for ninety-nine cents. There are also links to free audiobooks of some of them. 4.8 stars with 158 reviews at time of writing…might make a wonderful gift.

Children’s Books – People & Places

(The top seller was eliminated for blocking text-to-speech access)

Wonder
by R.J. Palacio

Clearly, a book that has had a big impact! Check out the editorial reviews, and there are 1,244 customer reviews…averaging 4.8! The main character has a physical challenge, and although I haven’t read it, it does sound interesting.

Children’s Fiction – Religious

Goodnight, Little Monster
by Bonnie Leick

Note: while this one says that text-to-speech is “not enabled”, I believe that is because this is a picture book, and just like with a graphic novel, the words will be part of the image. That makes them inaccessible to standard text-to-speech software. The book is reviewed as being for pre-school to 2nd Grade, and concerns a monster getting ready for bed. It’s classified under Christian fiction.

Children’s Fiction – Science, Nature & how it works

Wonder (see above) was also the number 1 in this category.

Children’s Fiction – Sports & Activities

(The first two books in this category were disqualified by me for having text-to-speech blocked…they were in the same series)

My Dad is a Superhero
by Lily Lexington

Gee, the author’s name is right out of the Superman universe. Supes famously had Lois Lane, Lana Lang, Lex Luthor, and more “double L’s” around. It sounds like a fun book (listed as for ages 2-6)…can’t start geekifying a kid too early.

Well, that was interesting! I know some of you might prefer that I listed books with text-to-speech blocked (I’ve explained why I don’t in other places), but I do give you links to the categories, so you can make that choice yourself.

How do you feel about e-books for kids? I have to say, I do feel a sense of history in having some of my Oz books that are over 100 years old…but I’d rather have as few barriers to reading as possible. Feel free to let me and my readers know what you think by commenting on this post.

For somewhat older kids, Amazon Gift Cards can also be a really appreciated way to go.

This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog.

Read the book first #2

Read the book first #2

I know I’ve said many times how much I don’t like spoilers…my favorite thing in entertainment is to be surprised.

However…

If I’m going to both read a book and see a movie, I want to read the book first. Oddly, I’ve never had a book spoil a movie for me, but I’ve had the reverse be true.

That might not be true for you. I know part of it probably is that I don’t visualize when I read. I’ve written about this before, too, but I don’t see the characters (or hear their voices) when I read. I also know that puts me in the minority (again). 

I remember when my Significant Other and I saw the first Harry Potter movie. My SO said Harry’s chin was wrong. I didn’t think that, because Harry’s chin hadn’t been described in the book. Messy black hair, glasses, and a scar…check.

The time when I found out that I was unusual in this was when I had read a book (back in the paper days), and then my SO was reading it. I asked my SO about how the book was going and I was told, “I’m having trouble reading it because when I hear this one character, I hear [the actor] Darren McGavin.” I said, “What do you mean?” “When I hear the voice, I hear Darren McGavin.”

Me: “You hear the character’s voice?”

SO: “You don’t hear the character’s voice?”

We had one of those classic committed couple “discussions” about which one of us was crazy. 

Well, as you know, I like to do the research.

I was teaching different groups of people most days at that point, training computer software.  I started polling them.

It turned out that about fifteen percent of the people didn’t visualize the characters or hear the voices when they read.

So, that meant I was the weird one. 

Actually, it varied quite a bit. In an advanced PowerPoint class, pretty much everybody would visualize. In an advanced Excel class, not very many people would.

I’ve had long discussions about this with people, and some of them seem to think it’s impossible for me to enjoy books without seeing the events. I get involved in it…it’s just all conceptual.

Oh, I do admit that sometimes I visualize a scene…if it’s poorly written. That surprises people, too…they think a well-written book is more likely to take you “into the scene”. For me, though, if something is not well-written, I may have to work out the logistics of the scene…where’s the window out of which that character jumped? Why couldn’t somebody stop that person…what was in the way?

The upshot of this long introduction is that, if I’m going to see a movie, I try to read the book first. 

Here are some books that have upcoming (and early 2013) adaptations…in case you feel the same. I’m not listing everything, of course, and if you don’t see one, it may be because the publisher has blocked text-to-speech access in the Kindle edition (I don’t deliberately link to books which do that).

Beautiful Creatures (the movie) February 14
Beautiful Creatures (the book)

Warner Brothers probably hoped for the next Twilight franchise with this one, reportedly giving it a $60 million budget, and with a cast including Jeremy Irons, Emily Rossum, and Viola Davis. Unfortunately, it has not opened strongly in the USA.

The Host (the movie) March 29
The Host (the book)

It would be a surprise if this one doesn’t make a profit (especially with a $44 million reported budget). The novel was written by Stephenie Meyer (who wrote the Twilight series). Saoirse Ronan, while not a huge box office star, has a good reputation. The director/screenwriter, Andrew Niccol, isn’t normally a tentpole maker, but has done some interesting work (The Truman Show, In Time).

Alongside Night (the movie) July 12
Alongside Night (the book)

Originally published in 1979, this is a dystopian novel by J. Neil Schulman about the economic collapse of the United States and a counter-government movement. Since Schulman is also credited with the screenplay (and is directing), it sounds as though this may be a case of the author being able to revive a book which had fallen out of print, both through the Kindle platform and now a feature movie whose stars include Kevin Sorbo, Garrett Wang, and Jake Busey. I think there is somewhat of an audience for this, but I think it may be more of an arthouse picture than a mainstream hit.

Horns (the movie) October 11)
Horns (the book)

4.1 stars with 408 reviews at time of writing is a very good score on Amazon. This is a horror novel, but also has humor. Alexandre Aja directs Daniel Radcliffe, and the timing of the movie is good. I would guess we could be looking in the $60 million dogro (domestic gross) range for this one, but it’s always a difficult guess.

Carrie (the movie) October 18
Carrie (the book)

Actually, Horns had better make its money a hurry, with this movie right on its heels! This is a remake, of course, and the fact that it stars the magical Chloë Grace Moretz and Julianne Moore is a plus.

Ender’s Game (the movie) November 1
Ender’s Game (the book)

This could be the break-out non-sequel of the year…based on a book that is some people’s favorite book, with a great cast (Harrison Ford, Abigail Breslin, Hailee Steinfield). However, I do think there may be protests about the author of the book (Orson Scott Card), although that’s somewhat separate from the material of the book.

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug  (the movie) December 13
The Hobbit (the book)

This is part two of the trilogy (!) of movies based on the prequel to The Lord of the Rings. The first one has made about $300 million just in the USA, and this one should also do well.

Well, those are a few of the titles…happy reading, and see you in the movies!

This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog.

Today’s Kindle Daily Deal: APE: Author, Publisher, Entrepreneur-How to Publish a Book

Today’s Kindle Daily Deal: APE: Author, Publisher, Entrepreneur-How to Publish a Book

It was interesting to see

APE: Author, Publisher, Entrepreneur-How to Publish a Book

as one of today’s Kindle Daily Deals for $1.99.

I’d heard about the book, and read the sample (mostly with text-to-speech in the car). I planned to borrow it from the KOLL (Kindle Owners’ Lending Library), and then write about it afterwards.

However, I thought there was a good chance I’d want to buy it, because I was impressed with the fairly large sample (the size of a sample is based on the length of the book).

I’m not going to call it “no nonsense”, because fortunately, it has a somewhat whimsical style. However, I will say that it was quite realistic in its advice and approach.

If you are thinking about maybe independently publishing a book, or are interested in how that whole thing works, I’d recommend it based on the sample (certainly at $1.99 (a $7 savings for the e-book). I bought one as a gift for a relative (in addition to the one for me). When I’ve gone through the whole thing, I’ll give you my take on it.

This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog.

100 years ago: free books from 1913

100 years ago: free books from 1913

It is the year 1913 (one hundred years ago). Democrat Woodrow Wilson has defeated Republican incumbent William Howard Taft, Progressive Party (Bull Moose) Teddy Roosevelt, and Socialist Eugene V. Debs. The War to End All Wars (World War I…The Great War) is a year away from starting.

Women’s suffrage is in the news in the USA (of which there are 48 states), although it won’t become the law of the land until 1920.

Silent movies are popular (sound is more than a decade away). One features Barney Oldfield, daredevil automobile driver (who would become the first person clocked at driving sixty miles per hour on an oval track).

Books are also enjoyed by the masses. Similar to Harry Potter in our time, there were Oz book clubs and lines for the next one in the series. People are also reading serialized stories in pulp magazines, which might later be published in book form (I’m including ones here that first appeared in 1913). Those magazines might cost a dime.

Let’s take a look at some of the books from 1913 you can get for free (they are all in the public domain in the USA).

Pollyanna
by Eleanor H. Portman

The term “Pollyanna” is still used to describe someone with a perpetually optimistic outlook, although it may now be done in a way that is less than complimentary. This children’s novel went on to have more than ten sequels, and several movie adaptations. I suspect many readers of this blog first became familiar with it through the Disney Hayley Mills version (Pollyanna).

Sons and Lovers
by D.H. Lawrence

Considered…improper by some at the time, it is now cited as a great novel.

Return of Tarzan
The Gods of Mars
by Edgar Rice Burroughs

Bursting on to the scene the previous year with Tarzan and A Princess of Mars (introducing John Carter), Burroughs fans could read the second books in those series syndicated in pulps. It’s hard to overestimate the pop cultural impact Burroughs has had (especially for geeks like me…but not limited to us).

The Bobbsey Twins at School
The Bobbsey Twins at Snow Lodge
By “Laura Lee Hope”

Before television series, even before radio series, there were book series. From what I can tell, there were two published that year, which tells you about the demand for these children’s books. Certainly, they have lasted into contemporary times, even spawning modernized versions.

The Patchwork Girl of Oz
by L. Frank Baum

Speaking of series, L. Frank Baum had tried to end his popular Oz series three years earlier by having the Land of Oz isolated from the rest of the world through magic. Well, popular demand was so high, that this book restored contact…through wireless! It introduces Scraps, the Patchwork Girl (a doll brought to life). Scraps is a popular character, with a cosmic fool personality mind of her own.

The Valley of the Moon
by Jack London

London had become famous with the rough and tumble tales The Sea Wolf and White Fang. In the next few years, the author wrote more experimental works, like Before Adam and, in 1912 (“last year” in this post), a post-apocalyptic science fiction novel, The Scarlet Plague. Valley of the Moon is a much more realistic piece. It involves a working class couple in Oakland who set off to find farmland to own, and interact with some of the interesting people in the greater San Francisco area where London lived.

O Pioneers!
by Willa Cather

A still popular novel of rural America.

Theodore Roosevelt; an Autobiography
by Theodore Roosevelt

Roosevelt had already been President..and was a beloved author. In 1912, a split with the Republican party (and more specifically with Taft) over anti-trust (Roosevelt felt Taft had been too aggressive). Despite having run in the primaries as a Republican, Roosevelt split off from the party to run as Progressive (the “Bull Moose party”).

So, enjoy your literary time trip to one century ago? Hm..I wonder what books published in 2013 will still be popular in 2113?

This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog.

It’s borrowin’ time! #1

It’s borrowin’ time! #1

Since eligible Prime members with hardware Kindles can borrow up to a book a calendar month from the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library (KOLL), I always figure the beginning of the month is when the most borrows happen. If you borrow a book on the tenth and finish it on the twentieth, you still have to wait until the first of the next month to borrow another one. While it appears books get borrowed throughout the month, I think it must be heaviest towards the beginning.

So, to paraphrase blue-eyed Benji Grimm…it’s borrowin’ time!

I thought I’d try out a monthly feature of recommending books for you to borrow. I won’t always do it on the first of the month; that’s when I do the Snapshots, and those are already time-consuming, labor-intensive posts.

Let me say before I do this that I do borrow a book a month. One of my own criteria is that it lists for at least $6.59. I know that’s a bit silly, but if I borrow twelve books in a year that list for more than $6.58, and I assume I would have bought them otherwise (which is not really true), I make more than the $79 annual cost of our  Prime membership. Of course, we get other good things out of Prime: we use the free two-day shipping, sometimes the 1-day shipping for $3.99, and we do watch the Prime videos. Still, it just makes me feel good to  hit that $6.59 level.

I’m not going to limit my suggestions to books that cost that much, though. There are a lot of great books that are ninety-nine cents…and the publisher (which may be just an author) makes a lot more money when you borrow those than when you buy them.

My one rule, as always, is that they not block text-to-speech access.

I’m calling these “suggestions”, rather than recommendations, because I may not have read them all…they are just ones that caught my eye.

As of this morning, there were more than 235,000 title in the USA (they are expanding it) this morning, so I’m hoping this helps making the choice easier. I often find it a challenge.

Here’s a link to the complete

KOLL List

Note, though, that to borrow a book for free you must click a button that says, “Borrow for Free”, not one that says “Buy”. You’ll only see that when you are shopping from a hardware Kindle. I’d say I see someone at least once a week complaining that they were charged for a KOLL book in the Amazon Kindle forums, but it tends to be just because they didn’t understand the system.

Dead Space (Charlie Willis)
by Lee Goldberg

I don’t always recommend the second book in a series (I usually like to read them in order), but this one got my attention. Lee Goldberg is a well-known author, screenwriter (on Monk, among others), and producer, and sometimes posts in the Amazon Kindle communities. We’ve had a tiny bit of conversation online, but I don’t know Goldberg, except by me being a reader. This is a detective story, and centers around the revival of a (fictional) science fiction TV series. The reviews on Amazon are good. The novel used to be called Beyond the Beyond, and is a sequel to My Gun Has Bullets.

Update: this book should have a very large content advisory on it. I didn’t realize that until I started to read it.

THE CAMBRIDGE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF HUNTERS AND GATHERERS
edited by Richard Lee and Richard Daly

This one sounds interesting! Non-fiction reference work to contemporary hunter/gatherer societies, including their social structures. One warning: in paper, it’s over 500 pages, so it might a challenge to finish in a month for some people. It’s also illustrated, so might not be the best car book (you’d miss the pictures while listening to text-to-speech). Still, it seems like it might be really interesting, and something which many of us might not buy (given that the Kindle book is normally $35…and the hardback is available new for over $300).

That 70s Book: 1970 (The Birthday Books)
by The Birthday Guys

I like chronologies, and do them myself. I think part of the reason for that is I have what I refer to as “temporal awareness disorder”. I have no idea how long ago something happened, without examining the internal clues in the memory. For example, I may think of something that happened three years ago as having happened last week, and my Significant Other rightfully kids me about my saying “the other day” so much. Today is today, yesterday was yesterday, and everything else in the past was “the other day”. That doesn’t mean I remember it all equally, but I think it helps me with trivia.

In this case, the authors have focused on a single year and they tell you a lot of facts about it. They have other books for other years. I can see why this might be a better borrow than a purchase. I took a Look Inside it (as you can do with some books), and it looked like a good collection of facts.

I do an e-books timeline in this blog, and a pop culture (with an emphasis on the geeky) timeline in The Measured Circle.

The Hunger Games
by Suzanne Collins

Gee, there’s a chance you’ve heard of this one. If you haven’t read it yet, I recommend it. This is my review. I think it’s great that Scholastic, unlike the biggest US trade publishers, often makes their books consumer friendly, including the KOLL and peer-to-peer lending.

Casino Royale (James Bond)
by Ian Fleming

I just re-read this one myself, borrowing it from the KOLL. Words from the Wise had taken me a lot longer than I thought it would, so I wanted something I could read in a few days to keep me on track for one book a month. It’s been a long time since I have read it (I don’t often re-read), and with Skyfall opening soon, I wanted to refresh myself. I’ll probably write a full review, but I will warn you…there are some really misogynist views here, and some intense violence. Still, it’s interesting to read the Bond that started them all, and to compare what the first book envisioned to what the later incarnations bring to the Bond universe.

There are five for you. I’m also going to mention my most recent book, The Mind Boggles: A Unique Book of Quotations. I think it should work well as a borrow…I’m not sure that most people return to books of quotations later. I don’t think it lends itself well to being a car book, since there is a lot of linking in it. I picture people reading it, and then following a link to read a public domain book, or watch a public domain video. I guess that could keep you from finishing it in a month, though.

Have you found any great KOLL books you’d recommend to people? Feel free to let me and my readers know by commenting on this post.

This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog.

Ten public domain freebies #3

Ten random public domain freebies #3

This is the third in a series. I’m including the opening of the book, to replicate that feeling of picking up a book and reading it a bit to see if you like it. If my random search returns a title from a previous post in this series , I’ll randomize again.

One of the things people say they miss when shopping online is that sense of random discovery you get in a physical store.

When you go online, you tend to search for something specific.

When you walk in a store, you never know what you’ll find. Heck, they might even have changed where the sections are.

That was especially true of used bookstores. I loved finding some obscure old title…the kind you couldn’t figure out how it ever got published in the first place.

Alternatively, maybe it was something that was clearly popular at one time.

The point is, you never quite knew what you’d see.

So, I decided to replicate that experience.

When you do a search at Amazon, you can only see 400 results.

I used

http://www.ereaderiq.com/search/

to limit my search to free public domain titles, and to rank the results by popularity.

Next, I used

http://www.random.org/integers/

to find me ten random numbers from 1 to 400.

The books below are the results of that search…have fun wandering down the aisle! 

#45 Tom Sawyer, Detective
by Mark Twain
original publication: 1896

Opening:

“WELL, it was the next spring after me and Tom Sawyer set our old n—–* Jim free, the time he was chained up for a runaway slave down there on Tom’s uncle Silas’s farm in Arkansaw. The frost was working out of the ground, and out of the air, too, and it was getting closer and closer onto barefoot time every day; and next it would be marble time, and next mumbletypeg, and next tops and hoops, and next kites, and then right away it would be summer and going in a-swimming. It just makes a boy homesick to look ahead like that and see how far off summer is. Yes, and it sets him to sighing and saddening around, and there’s something the matter with him, he don’t know what. But anyway, he gets out by himself and mopes and thinks; and mostly he hunts for a lonesome place high up on the hill in the edge of the woods, and sets there and looks away off on the big Mississippi down there a-reaching miles and miles around the points where the timber looks smoky and dim it’s so far off and still, and everything’s so solemn it seems like everybody you’ve loved is dead and gone, and you ‘most wish you was dead and gone too, and done with it all.”

#104 Master Tales of Mystery, Volume 3
collected and arranged by Francis J. Reynolds
original publication: 1915

Contents:

ARTHUR B. REEVE
THE POISONED PEN
THE INVISIBLE RAT
THE SILENT BULLET
THE DEADLY TUBS
THE BLACK HAND
THE STEEL DOOR

PAUL L. FORD
GREAT K. & A. TRAIN ROBBERY

MAX PEMBERTON
THE RISEN DEAD

GEO.B. McCUTCHEON
COWARDICE COURT

BURTON E. STEVENSON
THE CASE OF MRS. MAGNUS

JOSEPH ERNEST
THE EPISODE or THE BLACK CASQUETTE

MARJORIE L.C. PICKTHALL
CHEAP

#133: Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus
by Ludwig Wittgenstein
original publication: 1922

Opening:

“INTRODUCTION

By BERTRAND RUSSELL

Mr Wittgenstein’s Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, whether or not it prove to give the ultimate truth on the matters with which it deals, certainly deserves, by its breadth and scope and profundity, to be considered an important event in the philosophical world. Starting from the principles of Symbolism and the relations which are necessary between words and things in any language, it applies the result of this inquiry to various departments of traditional philosophy, showing in each case how traditional philosophy and traditional solutions arise out of ignorance of the principles of Symbolism and out of misuse of language”

#218: The Miser
by Molière
Original publication: 1668

Opening:

“Val. What, dear Élise! you grow sad after having given me such dear tokens of your love; and I see you sigh in the midst of my joy! Can you regret having made me happy? and do you repent of the engagement which my love has forced from you?

Eli. No, Valère, I do not regret what I do for you; I feel carried on by too delightful a power, and I do not even wish that things should be otherwise than they are. Yet, to tell you the truth, I am very anxious about the consequences; and I greatly fear that I love you more than I should.”

#351: Edgar Huntly or, Memoirs of a Sleep-Walker
by Charles Brockden Brown
Original publication: 1799

Opening:

“I sit down, my friend, to comply with thy request. At length does the impetuosity of my fears, the transports of my wonder, permit me to recollect my promise and perform it. At length am I somewhat delivered from suspense and from tremors. At length the drama is brought to an imperfect close, and the series of events that absorbed my faculties, that hurried away my attention, has terminated in repose.

Till now, to hold a steadfast pen was impossible; to disengage my senses from the scene that was passing or approaching; to forbear to grasp at futurity; to suffer so much thought to wander from the purpose which engrossed my fears and my hopes, could not be.”

#355: Mouser Cats’ Story
by Amy Prentice
Original publication: 1906

Opening:

“On that day last week when it stormed so very hard, your Aunt Amy was feeling very lonely, because all of her men and women friends in the house were busy, and it was not reasonable to suppose any of her bird or animal acquaintances would be out. As she sat by the window, watching the little streams of water as they ran down the glass, she said to herself that this was one of the days when she could not hope to be entertained by story-telling.”

#365: Facing Death The Hero of the Vaughan Pit. A Tale of the Coal Mines
by G.A. Henty
Original publication: 1882

“A row of brick-built houses with slate roofs, at the edge of a large mining village in Staffordshire. The houses are dingy and colourless, and without relief of any kind. So are those in the next row, so in the street beyond, and throughout the whole village. There is a dreary monotony about the place; and if some giant could come and pick up all the rows of houses, and change their places one with another, it is a question whether the men, now away at work, would notice any difference whatever until they entered the houses standing in the place of those which they had left in the morning. There is a church, and a vicarage half hidden away in the trees in its pretty old-fashioned garden; there are two or three small red-bricked dissenting chapels, and the doctor’s house, with a bright brass knocker and plate on the door. There are no other buildings above the common average of mining villages; and it needs not the high chimneys, and engine-houses with winding gear, dotting the surrounding country, to notify the fact that Stokebridge is a mining village.”

#380: Are Women People? A Book of Rhymes for Suffrage Times
by Alice Duer Miller
Original publication: 1915

Opening:

“Father, what is a Legislature?

A representative body elected by the people of the state.

Are women people?

No, my son, criminals, lunatics and women are not people.

Do legislators legislate for nothing?

Oh, no; they are paid a salary.

By whom?

By the people.

Are women people?

Of course, my son, just as much as men are.”

#393: Memoirs of Marguerite de Valois – the Volume 1 [Court memoir series]
by Marguerite de Valois
Original publication: 1628

“I should commend your work much more were I myself less praised in it; but I am unwilling to do so, lest my praises should seem rather the effect of self-love than to be founded on reason and justice. I am fearful that, like Themistocles, I should appear to admire their eloquence the most who are most forward to praise me. It is the usual frailty of our sex to be fond of flattery. I blame this in other women, and should wish not to be chargeable with it myself. Yet I confess that I take a pride in being painted by the hand of so able a master, however flattering the likeness may be. If I ever were possessed of the graces you have assigned to me, trouble and vexation render them no longer visible, and have even effaced them from my own recollection. So that I view myself in your Memoirs, and say, with old Madame de Rendan, who, not having consulted her glass since her husband’s death, on seeing her own face in the mirror of another lady, exclaimed, “Who is this?” Whatever my friends tell me when they see me now, I am inclined to think proceeds from the partiality of their affection. I am sure that you yourself, when you consider more impartially what you have said, will be induced to believe, according to these lines of Du Bellay:

“C’est chercher Rome en Rome, Et rien de Rome en Rome ne trouver.”

(‘Tis to seek Rome, in Rome to go, And Rome herself at Rome not know.)”

#397: The Fair Maid of Perth Or, St. Valentine’s Day
by Sir Walter Scott
Original publication: 1828

Opening:

“The ashes here of murder’d kings Beneath my footsteps sleep; And yonder lies the scene of death, Where Mary learn’d to weep.

CAPTAIN MARJORIBANKS.
Every quarter of Edinburgh has its own peculiar boast, so that the city together combines within its precincts, if you take the word of the inhabitants on the subject, as much of historical interest as of natural beauty. Our claims in behalf of the Canongate are not the slightest. The Castle may excel us in extent of prospect and sublimity of site; the Calton had always the superiority of its unrivalled panorama, and has of late added that of its towers, and triumphal arches, and the pillars of its Parthenon. The High Street, we acknowledge, had the distinguished honour of being defended by fortifications, of which we can show no vestiges. We will not descend to notice the claims of more upstart districts, called Old New Town and New New Town, not to mention the favourite Moray Place, which is the Newest New Town of all. We will not match ourselves except with our equals, and with our equals in age only, for in dignity we admit of one. We boast being the court end of the town, possessing the Palace and the sepulchral remains of monarchs, and that we have the power to excite, in a degree unknown to the less honoured quarters of the city, the dark and solemn recollections of ancient grandeur, which occupied the precincts of our venerable Abbey from the time of St. David till her deserted halls were once more made glad, and her long silent echoes awakened, by the visit of our present gracious sovereign.”

—

Wow! I love the results of this experiment in literary serendipity. It does feel to me like being in a used bookstore. I thought the opening from Alice Miller was great! I’m going to read that one. Marguerite de Valois has inspired a lot of fiction (Loves’ Labours Lost, and La Reine Margot, to name two)…if you are intrigued by royalty, or by people who walk their own path’s, you might want to try that volume.

Enjoy!

* Mark Twain uses what is now called the “n word”. I haven’t reproduced it in this post, but it is in the original book.

This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog.

Let the Games begin: Olympics books

Let the Games begin: Olympics books

As the 2012 Games have their opening ceremony, I thought I’d list some of the books about the Olympics in the USA Kindle store…

2012 Games

Inside the 2012 London Olympic Games (Inside the Olympic Games)
Eligible to borrow through the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library…and ninety-nine cents to buy

London Olympics Visitors Survival Guide (Magic Carpet Travel Guides)

Olympics History

Striking Back: The 1972 Munich Olympics Massacre and Israel’s Deadly Response

Dream Team: How Michael, Magic, Larry, Charles, and the Greatest Team of All Time Conquered the World and Changed the Game of Basketball Forever

The Dirtiest Race in History: Ben Johnson, Carl Lewis and the 1988 Olympic 100m Final (Wisden Sports Writing)

Showdown at Shepherd’s Bush: The 1908 Olympic Marathon and the Three Runners Who Launched a Sporting Craze

Olympians

Breaking the Surface
by Greg Louganis with Eric Marcus

Running for My Life: One Lost Boy’s Journey from the Killing Fields of Sudan to the Olympic Games
Well reviewed on Amazon…

Shawn Johnson: Gymnastics Golden Girl (GymnStars)

Reference

How to Watch the Olympics: The Essential Guide to the Rules, Statistics, Heroes, and Zeroes of Every Sport

The Science of Sports: Winning in the Olympics
From Scientific American…yes, this is really about the science. Sounds interesting!

The Olympics’ 50 Craziest Stories

Fiction

The Games
Novel

Rush for the Gold: Mystery at the Olympics (Final Four Mystery)
John Feinstein is an Edgar-winning mystery writer

Children’s Books (some of the above books may also be for children)

Olympics For Kids: Olympics History and Fun Facts About the Olympic Games (Books For Boys 8-10)

Olympics Picture Book: Learn About the Olympic Games With Exciting Pictures of the Summer Olympics Sports (Picture Books for Children Ages 4 6)

Exposés?

Inside the Olympics: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Politics, the Scandals and the Glory of the Games
by Dick Pound

The Secret Olympian: The inside story of the Olympic experience
This one sounds interesting…it’s written anonymously, supposedly by a former Olympian, with the inside scoop. Ever wonder what happens in the Olympic Village?

This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog.

Books That Shaped America

Books That Shaped America

Thanks to my reader, Clint Bradford, who sent me a heads-up to this in a private e-mail.

The Library of Congress (LOC) has a list of “Books That Shaped America”:

http://www.loc.gov/today/pr/2012/12-123.html

It’s an interesting set. Naturally, I think most people reading will notice omissions, question some inclusions…and be introduced to some titles that are new to them.

I also know that there are people who will want to read the entire set.

Clint “hinted” that I could make a list with links to the books in the Kindle store, and I’m going to do that. Some of these books will be free public domain titles, and available from other sources as well.

I do often get my free PD titles from Amazon, because I like their back-up of my notes and highlights, and syncing between devices.

Note that not all of these books are free: check the price before ordering.

The books are in alphabetical title order…and I do think that the phrase “shaped America” is interesting. They aren’t saying these are the best books, just ones that influenced our culture.

You can sort the books by author or year here:

http://www.loc.gov/bookfest/books-that-shaped-america/

If the book was only available in the Kindle store as audiobook (that’s a recorded performance…no text), I marked it as unavailable.

• The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
• Alcoholics Anonymous
• American Cookery
• American Woman’s Home
• And the Band Played On
• Atlas Shrugged
• The Autobiography of Malcolm X (does not appear to be in a Kindle edition)
• Beloved (text-to-speech access blocked, so I don’t link)
• Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee (not available)
• The Call of the Wild
• The Cat in the Hat (not available)
• Catch-22 (TTS access blocked)
• The Catcher in the Rye (not available)
• Charlotte’s Web (not available)
• Common Sense
• Dr. Spock’s Baby and Child Care, 9th Edition
• Cosmos
• Curious hieroglyphick Bible
• The Double Helix (TTS access blocked)
• The Education of Henry Adams
• Experiments and Observation on Electricity (only available in a Kindle edition in French)
• Fahrenheit 451 (TTS access blocked)
• Family Limitation
• The Federalist
• The Feminine Mystique (TTS access blocked)
• The Fire Next Time (not available)
• For Whom the Bell Tolls (TTS access blocked)
• Gone with the Wind (TTS access blocked)
• Goodnight Moon (not available)
• A Grammatical Institute of the English Language (not available)
• The Grapes of Wrath
• The Great Gatsby (TTS access blocked)
• Harriet, the Moses of Her People
• The History of the Standard Oil Company (Unexpurgated Edition) (Halcyon Classics)
• History of the Expedition under the Command of Captains Lewis and Clark
• How the Other Half Lives
• How to Win Friends and Influence People (TTS access blocked)
• Howl (not available)
• The Iceman Cometh
• Idaho: A Guide in Word and Pictures (not available)
• In Cold Blood (TTS access blocked)
• Invisible Man (Ralph Ellison)
• Joy of Cooking (not available)
• The Jungle
• Leaves of Grass
• The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
• Little Women
• Mark, The Match Boy
• McGuffey’s Newly Revised Eclectic Primer (not available)
• Moby Dick: or, the White Whale
• Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
• Native Son
• The New England Primer (1777)
• New Hampshire (Robert Frost) (not available)
• On the Road
• Our Bodies, Ourselves (TTS access blocked)
• Our Town (not available)
• Peter Parley’s Universal History (not available)
• Poems by Emily Dickinson
• The Way to Wealth, or Poor Richard Improved
• Pragmatism
• The Private Life of the Late Benjamin Franklin (not available)
• The Red Badge of Courage
• Red Harvest
• Riders of the Purple Sage
• The Scarlet Letter
• Sexual Behavior in the Human Male (not available)
• Silent Spring
• The Snowy Day (Keats) (not available)
• The Souls of Black Folk
• The Sound and the Fury
• Spring and All (not available)
• Stranger in a Strange Land
• A Street in Bronzeville (not available)
• A Streetcar Named Desire (not available)
• A Survey of the Roads of the United States of America (not available)
• Tarzan of the Apes
• Their Eyes Were Watching God
• To Kill a Mockingbird (not available)
• A Treasury of American Folklore (not available)
• A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
• Uncle Tom’s Cabin
• Unsafe at Any Speed (not available)
• Walden
• The Weary Blues (not available)
• Where the Wild Things Are (not available)
• The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
• The Words of Cesar Chavez (not available)

This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog.

DroidTV PrimeTime: current TV on your Fire…easily

DroidTV PrimeTime: current TV on your Fire…easily

How much do you pay for TV a month?

How does $3 a month sound?

When I got my Kindle Fire, one of the things I pictured doing on it was watching current TV shows.

I do usually watch them on my TV while I’m doing other things, but TV shows can be good for airplane trips (which I do end up doing).

Up to this point, I haven’t found a really good way to do it.

I looked at Hulu Plus, but the selection didn’t seem to match my tastes. I didn’t want to pay as much as I was paying for Netflix  if I wasn’t getting significantly more for it. If I already paid for Hulu Plus, that would be different, but I don’t.

Also, the issue of having to be on wi-fi to stream anything makes a big difference…both with Netflix and Hulu Plus.

Well, in this

Amazon Kindle community thread

Elleinad asked about DroidTV.

I looked up the app, and decided to try it out.

DroidTV Primetime

I’ve tested it out, and I must say, I’m impressed!

Let me first explain what it is.

You pay $8.99 for three months of service. It will seem like you are buying the app for that much. I’d describe it more as you are subscribing for three months for $8.99, and getting the app for free.

There is a list of available TV shows:

• 2 Broke Girls
• 20/20
• 30 Rock
• 60 Minutes
• 90210
• A Gifted Man
• Alcatraz
• Alphas
• The Amazing Race
• America’s Got Talent
• America’s Next Top Model
• American Chopper
• American Dad
• American Idol
• Are You There, Chelsea?
• Army Wives
• Awake
• The Bachelor
• The Bachelorette
• Being Human
• Bent
• Best Friends Forever
• The Big Bang Theory
• The Big C
• The Biggest Loser
• Blue Bloods
• Bob’s Burgers
• Body of Proof
• Bones
• The Borgias
• Breaking In
• Brothers & Sisters
• Burn Notice
• CHAOS
• CSI
• CSI: Miami
• CSI: New York
• Castle
• Celebrity Apprentice
• Charlie’s Angels
• Chase
• The Chicago Code
• Chuck
• The Cleveland Show
• The Client List
• The Closer
• The Colbert Report
• Common Law
• Community
• Cops
• Cougar Town
• Covert Affairs
• Criminal Minds
• The Daily Show
• Dallas
• Dancing with the Stars
• Dateline NBC
• Desperate Housewives
• Destination Truth
• Detroit 1-8-7
• Don’t Trust the B— in Apt 23
• Eureka
• The Event
• Extreme Makeover: Home Edition
• Fact or Faked: Paranormal Files
• Fairly Legal
• Falling Skies
• Family Guy
• Fashion Star
• The Finder
• The Firm
• FlashForward
• Franklin & Bash
• Free Agents
• Friday Night Lights
• Fringe
• GCB
• Game of Thrones
• Ghost Hunters
• Ghost Hunters International
• Glee
• The Good Wife
• Gossip Girl
• Greek
• Grey’s Anatomy
• Grimm
• H8R
• Happy Endings
• Happy Town
• Harry’s Law
• heart of Dixie
• haven
• Hawaii 5-0
• HawthoRNe
• Hell’s Kitchen
• Hot in Cleaveland
• House
• How I Met Your Mother
• How to be a Gentleman
• Huge
• Human  Target
• In Plain Sight
• Justified
• Kitchen Nightmares
• Last Man Standing
• Law & Order: SVU
• Leverage
• Lie to Me
• Lost Girl
• Mad Love
• Mad Men
• Man Up
• Master Chef
• Melissa & Joey
• The Mentalist
• Mercy
• The Middle
• Mike & Molly
• Missing
• Mobbed
• Modern Family
• Mythbusters
• NCIS
• NCIS: Los Angeles
• NYC 22
• Napoleon Dynamite
• Necessary Roughness
• New Girl
• Nikita
• Off the Map
• The Office
• Once Upon a Time
• Outlaw
• Outsourced
• Pan Am
• Parenthood
• Parks and Recreation
• Person of Interest
• The Playboy Club
• Prime Suspect
• Primetime: What Would You Do?
• Private Practice
• Psych
• Q’Viva The Chosen
• Raising Hope
• Real Time with Bill Maher
• Revenge
• Ringer
• The River
• Rizzoli & Isles
• Rob!
• Rookie Blue
• Royal Pains
• Rules of Engagement
• Running Wilde
• Saturday Night Live
• Saving Hope
• Scandal
• The Secret Circle
• The Secret Life of the American Teenager
• Shark Tank
• The Simpsons
• Smash
• So You Think You Can Dance
• Sons of Anarchy
• South Park
• Stargate Universe
• Suburgatory
• Suits
• Supernatural
• Survivor: Redemption Island
• Survivor: One World
• Terra Nova
• Touch
• True Blood
• Two and a Half Men
• Undercover Boss
• Unforgettable
• Up All Night
• The Vampire Diaries
• Veep
• The Voice
• The Walking Dead
• Warehouse 13
• White Collar
• Whitney
• Who Do You Think You Are?
• Who’s Still Standing?
• Wipeout
• Work It
• The X Factor

I typed that list for you, and won’t swear that I didn’t miss something. I would also presume its subject to change any time.

There are definitely shows on there I would watch. It includes shows that would otherwise require a premium cable channel (HBO’s True Blood and Game of  Thrones, for example), or perhaps would be available for purchase on DVD on a one-by-one download basis.

Three bucks a month sounds pretty good for that.

You select the shows you want, and you can download individual episodes…at no additional charge.

You can also set up the equivalent of a “season pass” on Tivo…have it automatically download new episodes to your Fire.

You can store “back episodes” with DroidTV for no cost. In other words, after you watch an episode, you can delete it from the Fire and download it again later, if you want.

I would describe the picture quality as okay. It looks a tad muddy…like recording a Tivo show on the Basic Quality setting, rather than the Best Quality. That’s what I normally use on my Tivo, and I’m fine with it here.

Now, of course, the ability of the Kindle Fire to handle the videos matters. I checked a couple of things:

A half hour program took 14% of battery usage to watch…although I can watch when plugged in, of course.

The Internal Storage on my Kindle Fire changed from 709.31MB to 822.19MB when I removed a half hour program…which means it was about 112.88MB.

Clearly, I’m not going to keep a lot of shows on there at once…but I don’t have to do that.

The automatic recording worked fine. I set it up to record new episodes of a daily broadcast to test it, and I got yesterday’s today.

That’s something about which I need to be very clear. This is not like streaming or Amazon’s Instant Video. You can’t just say, “I want to watch that now.” It’s more like Tivo…you tell it what you will want to watch later.

In the case of an episode which has already been broadcast, I’d say it took about an hour to download four shows for me. I had them then, though. It was nice to be able to watch one of them with no problem with no wi-fi.

The interface is pretty simple, and I like that. It remembers where you were in a show, and lets you resume easily.

There are four main functions in the menu (reached through the horizontal lines in a box menu button on the Fire):

• Now Playing (shows already downloaded. You can tell if you have already started watching a show, because there is a pause symbol || on the play button)
• Coming Soon (shows scheduled to be downloaded…although it doesn’t include your “season passes” in that)
• TV Guide (where you pick the shows)
• Preferences (this has some important things…you can choose the minimum amount of memory to leave so that it doesn’t download too much to your Fire, and you can choose the minimum amount of battery charge to have left before it starts downloading: that last one is a clever protection)

There is also a “More” section. One big thing here is that you can “Select Favorite Shows”. What you actually do is choose shows to hide from your list. So, you are really eliminating shows from appearing in your options rather than making them favorites, but that still works.You can bring them back, of course.

The only set up for the whole thing (after downloading) was putting in my e-mail address…easy, breezy.

I can see where people might want a search, or the ability to display them in genres. I think that this could work very well with kids’ programs, but perhaps in the future.

Another limitation is that at this point, I don’t know of any way to display what is on your Kindle Fire to a larger screen, like a TV. You can do it the other way…put what is on your computer on your Fire (using Splashtop Remote Desktop) or from your Slingbox (SlingPlayer (Kindle Fire Edition)). I think we may get that in the future…either through a cable or wirelessly.

By the way, it did let me put it on two different Fires on the same account. It didn’t object to me downloading the same episode on both Fires.

One other thing: there weren’t any previous seasons from current shows, from what I could tell. If I could have started Game of Thrones from the beginning, I would definitely have done that, but I couldn’t go back a season. Update: just to clarify (thanks, Zebras!), I could go back and get all of the episodes from this current season…it’s not like a Tivo, where I can’t get it if it’s already been broadcast.

For example, Game of Thrones has episodes for

4/1/2012 through 6/03/2012

at this point.

That lets you start now and see all of Season 2, but none of Season 1. Going forward, I would presume you’d also be able to get Season 3. What I don’t know for sure is if you started next season, would you be able to go back and pick up Season 2? I’m guessing not…I think it’s going to roll by season.

Bottom line: I do expect this to be part of my entertainment mix. We have Amazon Prime and Netflix (streaming only…and I don’t use it that often on the Fire). I use

http://archive.org/

to download public domain videos.

However, the ease of using DroidTV Primetime and the selection means I’ll probably pay the $8.99 for three months on it.

This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog.

Return with us now to those thrilling days of yesteryear…

Return with us now to those thrilling days of yesteryear…

“You don’t own a TV? What’s all your furniture pointed at?”
–Joey Tribiani (played by Matt LeBlanc)
The One in Barbados: Part 1 episode of
Friends
screenplay by Shana Goldberg-Meehan, Scott Silveri

Decades before the TV became the centerpiece of the American home, families still gathered around a mass media device and everybody was talking about it the next day.

Radio.

Early television, in fact, wouldn’t have been what it was without those radio shows establishing that weekly entertainment habit.

Some famous TV shows and stars started out on radio: Jack Benny, Ozzie & Harriett, The Lone Ranger, and many more. Dragnet originally said, “The story you are about to hear is true,” not that you “are about to see”…although the names were still changed to protect the innocent.

Even the sight-gag oriented Candid Camera started out as Candid Microphone.

Sure, they came out of the entertainment “industry”…made to make money, with sponsorship as obvious as any major league ballpark is today. Still, there can be something magical about OTR (Old Time Radio).

The make-up, the special effects, the wild locations…those were all in your head. The only real limitation was the writer’s imagination…oh, and what the sponsors approved, of course.

That, by the way, may be a lot more than you’d expect. Murder, horror…even to the point of people being turned inside out in one famous Lights Out episode  (that’s an image that will stay with you).

I don’t listen to OTR every day, but it is part of my Kindle mix. I particularly like it on a plane trip, but it’s also good from time to time in the car (although I tend to prefer text-to-speech).

If you’d like to give it a try, there are a few ways to get Old Time Radio on your Kindle:

Download an MP3

You can do this with any Kindle (except the Mindle, the $79/$109 model, which doesn’t have speakers)…even a Kindle 1.

You can get the MP3 from a number of sources. For free ones, I recommend

• http://www.radiolovers.com/
• http://archive.org/details/oldtimeradio

The trick to listening to these on an RSK (Reflective Screen Kindle) is to put them into the Audible folder on the Kindle, not into the music folder.

Each file you’ve downloaded will then appear like an e-book in the homescreen. That will let you select the one you to which you want to listen at the time, stop in the middle and resume later, and so on.

If you have a Kindle that does Collections, you can put them into a Collection to make them easier to find…that’s what I do.

With the Kindle Fire, you can go to one of the sites, find the file you want, long press it (hold your finger or stylus on it for about a second), and choose “Save Link” (in the Silk browser…other browsers may use a different technique). You’ll find it again in

Web – Menu – Downloads

One nice thing: once you’ve started listening to it once, you’ll also find it in your Music tab. It might be in an album called “download”, but you should find them as individual songs. How it classifies it can be interesting…this is a place where the free app ES File Explorer comes in handy…not only in finding them, but in renaming them.

If you want to buy the MP3s from Amazon (which can be an easier way to get a bunch of them at once…and gives you more flexibility listening to them on multiple devices), here’s a search for them:

Old Time Radio MP3s at Amazon

As an alternative, you can get them from Audible.com (also owned by Amazon). I like the way that works on my Kindle Fire with the Audible app…

OTR at Audible.com

Streaming

As far as Kindles go, this is only an option on the Kindle Fire. You can stream from Archive. org (the downloadable files are at the bottom of this page, the streamable ones are at the top). You can also stream at RadioLovers.com.

Apps

Again, this is only on the Kindle Fire.

I’ve used

Old Time Radio Player

which is free, but streaming only. I wouldn’t say they have a huge selection, but it’s an easy way to listen when connected.

Just for the sake of this post (really, dear, that’s why I spent $1.99) I got

Tales of Horror – OTR

It did seem to have a lot of shows, and the playback was fine. The negatives: there didn’t seem to be an easy way to find a particular episode (or even a show), there wasn’t an explanation of the show that I could see (even as to what the series was called), and there was an ad/intro at the beginning of the show. However, you could quickly and seamlessly download an episode, and you could star your favorites. This appears to be a podcast, and they have other “flavors” besides horror as well.

Before we get into some specific recommendations for shows from me, I do want to mention

On the Air : The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio

That’s the updated version of the classic reference work, Tune in Yesterday (I have it in paper) by John Dunning, and now published by Oxford University Press.

Okay, let’s tune in that dial…

One warning: the golden era  of Old Time Radio was decades ago (really in the twenties, thirties, and forties, although there is some fuzziness in the dates). The “politically correct” standards were different. Just diving into it at random, you could run into something that you might consider offensive. Also, as I’ve mentioned already, it could be really scary. I’d very careful about letting, oh, a six-year old listen to the horror shows like Lights Out in the dark by themselves…

You’ll also probably be amused when characters describe what’s happening in the scene: “John, why are you putting that box on the table by the door?”

Oh, and don’t be surprised if you hear what sounds like the old hiss and pop of vinyl. That’s why we have a lot of these shows…they were actually distributed to radio stations as records like the vinyl records we used to have (although they were more commonly on aluminum, I think).

The Lone Ranger

Start at the beginning with this one…there’s a real origin and development. In fact, the details are all explained: we know how the Lone Ranger became the Lone Ranger, how the masked man got Silver…even the origin of the mask itself. You might want to listen to it before the Johnny Depp movie next year.  Incidentally, they are making a point in that version of making Tonto a more important figure…but Tonto in the radio series is already a strong character. Yes, other people treat Tonto poorly, and there is that “broken English”, but Tonto is shown as a very capable person.

The Avenger

No connection to the Marvel superheroes. This can be quite a strange superhero show. It plays somewhat like a detective show, but the hero has two special abilities (both through secret inventions of the character). One is the “telepathic indicator”, which picks up sort of random thoughts…the Avenger can’t use it to read a specific person’s thoughts in a specific circumstance. The other one is the “diffusion capsule”, which renders the Avenger invisible. The plots can be out there, though…try The Mystery of the Giant Brain for an example.

If you are interested in what were the most popular shows, this site has done a nice job of organizing them:

http://www.old-time.com/ratings/by%20season/index.html

This, by the way, is particularly fascinating. Station WSJV recorded their entire broadcasting day on September 21, 1939. You can listen to it in “real-time”, if you want…but you’d have to start at 6:30 AM and go past 12:30 AM the next day.

http://archive.org/details/CompleteBroadcastDay

It’s twelve MP3s…

This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog.