Books on my Kindles #1

Books on my Kindles #1

I often mention here and in the Amazon Kindle forums that I only tend to keep about ten Kindle store books on any of my devices at any given time.

I know some people are surprised by that, because you can keep thousands (over 5,000 on a Kindle Fire), and Amazon has promoted the idea that you can have your whole library with you.

Well, this may be a bit old-fashioned, but I like to keep my devices lean. I do think they operate better and it speeds up searches (both done by the device and done by eye).

I have sometimes mentioned to you what I was reading before, but I’ve never done a “full reveal” like this, I think.

Part of that is because, well, what you read shapes people’s opinions of you. I have certainly in the past read controversial things that might color other people’s thoughts about me…both in good ways and bad ways.

I thought I’d go ahead and do it today, though.

This way, you might find something you’d like…there are lots of ways to discover something to read, and “Read any good books lately?” is a classic. In this case, I’m not going to keep it to good books…I’ll tell you about all of them. I am only counting Kindle store books, though…not magazines, not e-books from other sources. I’m also not going to count the dictionaries that came with the Kindle: I don’t browse through those (although I did read an unabridged dictionary cover to cover when I was a kid).

On Vulcan, my Kindle Fire HD 8.9″ 4G LTE Wireless 32GB

I do most of my reading on this device…thanks to text-to-speech in the car. I like Ivona, the TTS on the current generation of Fires: I think it’s quite superior to Vocalizer, the most recent one we have on the RSKs (Reflective Screen Kindles). I also read on Vulcan at other times…when I’m out waiting, at lunch, that sort of thing. I was surprised that I don’t find it uncomfortable to read on a backlit screen, but that is the case. It’s usually not for more than an hour or so at a time (when I’m sight-reading).

Here they are in “most recent” order:

The Wisdom of Psychopaths: What Saints, Spies, and Serial Killers Can Teach Us About Success
by Kevin Dutton

This is the only sample I have right now, and I have finished it. It was recommended to me by a coworker: it’s a nonfiction look at qualities we could emulate in actual psychopaths. I’ve always figured that anyone who has made it to adulthood has something to teach you, and that all sorts of psychological conditions have benefits…in some circumstances. Something is a pathology to me when it hurts you most of the time, even if it helps you sometimes. Some psychopaths undeniably do some terrible things…but there are probably people who have some psychopathic elements who avoid doing those things…and then benefit from making decisions not based on emotions. I did find the sample interesting, but at $12.99, it’s more than I want to spend at this point (I have a lot to read). I don’t have a hard and fast rule about books over, say, $9.99, but I’m in no real hurry for this one. I listed it at

http://www.ereaderiq.com/kindlewatch/

so I’ll get a free e-mail when it drops in price. That site is one of the most useful things for Kindle owners, by the way. I”ve written about it before, but if you are new to the blog, you might want to check out their myriad free services.

Counter-Clock World
by Philip K. Dick

I got this one when it was on sale, and it’s not going to be for everyone. Dick takes an idea and always puts interesting twists on it. In this case, time is running backwards, sort of. It’s on Earth, in the not too distant future. People, for example, are aging backwards…they are getting younger. There’s a whole industry around digging up people who have died and then come back to life in their graves…with government regulations around it. PKD makes it much more complicated than that, even though there are straight story elements in it as well. It has quite a bit to say about religion, and that certainly might discomfort some readers. I’ve been enjoying it, but I didn’t recommend it to my Significant Other, who would find it…contrived.

The Transparent Society: Will Technology Force Us To Choose Between Privacy And Freedom?
by David Brin

I’d wanted to read this for a very long time, and got it as a holiday gift. I’m not all that far into it, but am finding it fascinating. It’s an exploration of privacy in the modern world. Even though it was first published more than ten years ago, it is still relevant). One of the great ideas in it: let’s say there were two towns. Both of them are equipped with small cameras on every lamp post that see everything. In one, the feeds just go to the police. In the other, anyone any time can tap into any of them. Which would make you feel safer? In the town where anyone can tap into what we would now call webcams, the police office also broadcast. You can see what they are doing with the feeds. I’m sure a lot of you feel like you would hate living in either town…but will you be able to avoid it? I recommend this one.

1,000 Comic Books You Must Read
by Tony Isabella

That’s my borrow from the Kindle Owmers’ Lending Library (KOLL) this month. It’s weird, I don’t usually read comic books, but I have read a couple of books about them. This one…well, it’s what is sometimes called a “seed catalog”. We see an image of the cover, and a brief summary. Isabella knows comics well, and there are some interesting choices…but it was frustrating not to actually be able to read them after I’ve been told I must by the cover. I knew I wouldn’t be able to read them (although there are a lot of public domain comics out there…I’ve read a couple of them from http://digitalcomicmuseum.com/). The author also includes numerous comics that the author actually wrote. That’s fine, I guess, but 1,000 really doesn’t let you get too deep, and those are taking up some of the slots. There is an introduction for each decade that is covered, and Isabella doesn’t stick just to the big publishers, which is a good thing. Still, it’s unavoidably subjective. At $14.99, I wouldn’t recommend it to most people, but I did enjoy it.

How to Archer: The Ultimate Guide to Espionage, Style, Women, and Cocktails Ever Written
by “Sterling Archer”

I also got this one on sale. I think the edgy spy spoof cartoon is one of the best series on television, but it can really offend some (most?) people. I suppose it would surprise many people who know me IRL (In Real Life) that I like it. For example, I don’t drink alcohol, and that’s certainly not the ethos of the show or book. The book, though, does a good job of catching the flavor of the show, and if you like the show, the book is worth reading. The conceit of it is that it is written by the main cartoon character, Sterling Archer, and the voice is definitely there. However, weirdly, we get actual recipes (both for food and alcoholic drinks), which slowed things down.

Strange Animals. An Atlas and History. 1800 to 1977
by George Mitrovic

This is a really strange book. It’s a great example of a case where I wish the author had just given it to someone who was literate to read before it was published. Anybody could have helped it a lot by proofreading it. There is this bizarre, non-consistent capitalization scheme, and the same paragraphs get repeated throughout the book. I can completely see it being a cult classic, though. It’s non-fiction, and has some very out there speculation in there. It also, though, has a good listing of many “paranormal” events (although so far, without source documentation). The writing, when you can decipher it through the lack of editing, can be fun. I got this one from the KOLL last month, and that worked just the way authors want it to work: I ended up buying it (both for myself and for a sibling). I wanted to finish reading it, and that was not going to happen in time to borrow a book in January, in my estimation.

The Science Fiction Megapack: 25 Classic Science Fiction Stories

This one was also a gift, and I haven’t really started it yet. It’s a bunch of public domain titles, including some well-known authors (Ben Bova, Marion Zimmer Bradley, Lester Del Rey). It would probably be my “emergency book”…I’ll dip into it from time to time. It’s currently priced at ninety-nine cents…you could probably find all these yourself for free, but it’s nice to have it packaged up for you.

The Complete 2013 User’s Guide to the Amazing Amazon Kindle Fire
by Stephen Windwalker and Bruce Grubbs

I got this one as a freebie, and haven’t started it yet. I do plan to read it…Windwalker often has useful information and good insights.

Redshirts: A Novel with Three Codas
by John Scalzi

Another gift (my family knows what makes me happy…books). I’ve heard Scalzi being interviewed, and I’m excited to read this. It is in some ways a Star Trek parody. The Security Officers on the original Enterprise wore red (different branches wore different colors)…and it wasn’t a profession with a long life expectancy on the show. I made reference to that in my own Kindle-related Star Trek parody: The Kindle Encounter. I expect to start this one pretty soon.

Black Beauty
by Anne Sewell

This is the children’s classic and honestly, I don’t remember why I downloaded it. I might have been testing something. That doesn’t mean i won’t read it at some point, though.

Great Expectations
by Charles Dickens

See Black Beauty above.

Dawn (Xenogenesis Trilogy)
by Octavia E. Butler

Another one I got on sale. Butler is a controversial science fiction author, and I’m looking forward to it…I’ve enjoyed reading Butler before.

Action Comics (2011- ) #1
by Grant Morrison, Rags Morales, Rick Bryant

I wanted to test out the panel view for comics on my Fire, and I chose this one. It wasn’t bad,a nd while not written for children, it was nice to read a comic that wasn’t all angst. I would say a ten-year old could read this one. At ninety-nine cents, it’s a good one to use for the panel view test, if you want.

On Mindlelito Loveless, my Kindle

I really like my Kindle Paperwhite, but when I’m reading at home on an RSK, it’s on this one. That’s mostly just because I was already reading on it regularly, and didn’t want to switch. I do also read my Fire at home, so I only have one book I’m actively reading on this. I have some others on there I should clean up and remove, but I may dod something with some of them yet.

The one I’m actively reading is

The Fish That Ate the Whale: The Life and Times of America’s Banana King
by Rich Cohen

Another gift (thanks, Amazon Wish Lists). It’s a really interesting non-fiction work about Samuel Zemurray, an immigrant to America who made a fortune and revolutionized the use of bananas. I’m finding the writing to be…well, sort of like a pulp novel (I love those). Quite simply, it seems to me like the author is making up specific scenes and motivations. The story of Zemurray, though, is fascinating. It may be that there are enough interviews and such to justify those sort of Doc Savage-esque passages. At $12.99, I wouldn’t have bought it myself, but I am enjoying the read.

I’ve read these others on the device:

The Midwich Cuckoos
by John Wyndham

Classic science fiction, and I enjoyed it.

Make Room! Make Room! (RosettaBooks into Film)
by Harry Harrison

The basis for the movie Soylent Green, which I now think may have been the best movie adaptation ever. Everything I really remembered about the movie (which I rewatched after reading the book) isn’t in the original…but the original is also good and has elements not in the movie.

Are Women People? A Book of Rhymes for Suffrage Times
by Alice Duer Miller

I stumbled across this one when preparing Ten public domain freebies #3, and absolutely loved it. It’s snarky, political poetry…it seems very modern, with a real cutting edge. I can think of several folks on TV that would enjoy it.

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
by Lewis Carroll

I like to keep this on my devices so I have something to demo for people who ask about the Kindle (although that happens a lot less often than it used to happen). It’s a good one for text-to-speech, for example, although the Mindle doesn’t have that. In fact, I should download it to Vulcan. It’s nice to have a book with which people can experiment without messing up where I am in it. I also like that they are almost always already familiar with it, so no spoilers while they practice.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (Book 1)
by J.K. Rowling

When I bought this from Pottermore, it downloaded to all of my devices, and I just never removed it. I don’t mind having it on there, though.

The Complete Wizard of Oz Collection
by L. Frank Baum

This one appears not to be available in the USA Kindle store any more, although there are a lot of alternatives. I never know when I may want to dip back into Oz…one of my favorite places to visit.

There you go…that’s all the Kindle store books actually on my devices right now. Feel free to let me know what you have (although if it’s thousands, you don’t need to list them all). All of these, of course, do not block text-to-speech access. It’s not available on the comic book, but it isn’t blocked there…the TTS just can’t access the text in an image to speak it. I hope these lead you to some to sample, to enjoy, or to give as gifts.

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

Review: The Signal and the Noise

Review: The Signal and the Noise

The Signal and the Noise: Why So Many Predictions Fail-but Some Don’t
by Nate Silver
published by Penguin
original publication: 2012
size: 5576KB (545 pages)
categories: nonfiction; statistics; politics & current events
lending: no
simultaneous device licenses: six
part of the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library: no
text-to-speech: yes
suitability for text-to-speech: low, due to the number of illustrations
real page numbers: yes
x-ray: yes
Whispersync for Voice: yes (read by Mike Chamberlain)

“My hope is that we might gain a little more insight into planning our futures and become a little less likely to repeat our mistakes.”

Is it possible to predict the future?

Sure…predict, after all, means to “pre-speak”. Anybody can say what the future is going to be…the question is, how accurate are they?

No question, Nate Silver is remarkably accurate…for the second Presidential election in a row, Nate has called all fifty states. In this last one, Silver’s http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/ also called almost every Congressional race.

However, this not a book about “how I did it”. It’s a book about prediction generally…yes, with advice, but there is as much caution about the limitations of the science, and the other inherent flaws (such as overconfidence) in the process, as there is endorsement of what Silver does. That’s refreshing, honestly.

There is little surprise here that pundits act like they are mad at Nate Silver. If the most probably answers can be derived objectively, it reduces the value of the supposedly superior individual. I think one of my favorites parts of the book was the analysis of pundits…and how getting things right didn’t tend to make one a more successful TV talker.

The book is also not just about politics, but about sports (especially baseball, an early success for Nate Silver), online poker, weather, earthquakes, and even terrorism.

Are you afraid of math? Well, the book is a bit mathy, although it’s written largely in a narrative style. There are a lot of graphs, with little explanation about how to interpret them. If you don’t know your Y axis from your X axis, that could be a problem.

Overall, though, this can be read by anybody, and there is sage advice here.

I don’t know that Silver is looking for any more challenges, but I’d love to see the statistician predict the movie box office for the summer. Like baseball, that’s a data rich environment. We have lots of stats about the people involved in movies (what their previous movies have done, what awards they’ve won, and so on), and there are many websites out there that both make predictions and solicit them from readers (giving some crowd sourcing for predictions). A lot of money is also riding on that, and it’s quite how profile. Just a suggestion…

Bottom line is that I recommend this one. We all make predictions every day: is that car going to change lanes? Do I need an umbrella? Will the boss come over to see if I’m getting my job done? Understanding the process by which we come to those estimates, and the alternative approaches out there, can be a real benefit…even if you don’t understand what every bubble chart means.

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

Review: Casino Royale

Review: Casino Royale

Casino Royale
by Ian Fleming
published by Thomas & Mercer (an imprint of Amazon)
original publication: 1953 (this edition 2012)
size: 1719KB (189 pages)
categories: fiction; spy stories
lending: enabled
simultaneous device licenses: six
part of the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library: yes
text-to-speech: yes
real page numbers: yes
x-ray: yes
Whispersync for Voice: no

“‘I intend to continue attacking the sensitive parts of your body until you answer my question. I am without mercy and there will be no relenting. There is no one to stage a last-minute rescue and there is no possibility of escape for you. This is not a romantic adventure story in which the villain is finally routed and the hero is given a medal and marries the girl. Unfortunately these things don’t happen in real life.”
–”Le Chiffre”

Casino Royale was the book that introduced James Bond to the world, and you can see why it established a series.

The writing is clever and precise. You are drawn into a vibrant world, but not one without some very dark spots.

That’s one of the things I like best about this one. While I’m a fan of the movies, Casino Royale is probably much more philosophical than you think. There is an entire chapter entitled ”The Nature of Evil”, and there is a great deal of discussion on the subject.

“‘You see,’ he said, still looking down at his bandages, ‘when one’s young, it seems very easy to distinguish between right and wrong, but as one gets older it becomes more difficult. At school it’s easy to pick out one’s own villains and heroes and one grows up wanting to be a hero and kill the villains.’”
–James Bond

“The Devil has a rotten time and I always like to be on the side of the underdog. We don’t give the poor chap a chance. There’s a Good Book about goodness and how to be good and so forth, but there’s no Evil Book about evil and how to be bad. The Devil has no prophets to write his Ten Commandments and no team of authors to write his biography. His case has gone completely by default. We know nothing about him but a lot of fairy stories from our parents and schoolmasters. He has no book from which we can learn the nature of evil in all its forms, with parables about evil people, proverbs about evil people, folk-lore about evil people. All we have is the living example of the people who are least good, or our own intuition.”
–René Mathis

If the idea of James Bond questioning whether what he does is good or evil, even to the point of considering giving up the game seems shocking, it’s because it is the traumatic events in Casino Royale that shape his future character.

Yes, he is a Double O in this novel, licensed to kill (and he has done so), but it isn’t suggested that he is particularly good at it. This isn’t a superspy you would send after a madman in a volcano lair to take on two hundred henchmen. This is an agent with competent skills, and good luck at gambling.

He’s referred to as a “machine” for his dispassionate, businesslike approach.

Without getting into spoilers, that mindset is challenged by what happens.

It’s also important to say that Casino Royale is as much about the multinational nature of espionage and the plot as is about the character of Bond. The Americans and French are working with England, here, and there is naturally some inter-agency rivalry, but they all contribute to the effort.

I have to warn you that this is a violent book, although cruel might be a better word. There are many books nowadays that are more explicitly violent, but there is a scene here that passes most of them with its simple torture.

For modern sensibilities, I”m sure there are readers that would be troubled by Bond’s misogyny (not missing in the early movies). Bond says:

“Women were for recreation. On a job, they got in the way and fogged things up with sex and hurt feelings and all the emotional baggage they carried around. One had to look out for them and take care of them.”

However, the book doesn’t say that’s the right way to be. Bond is given some advice:

“Mathis opened the door and stopped on the threshold. ‘Surround yourself with human beings, my dear James. They are easier to fight for than principles.’”

Overall, I’d say it isn’t for everyone, and isn’t intended to be. This world is harsh, and there are certainly adult (and disillusioned adults, at that) themes. However, I think you might find it is more human than you anticipate.

Note: this is a book where I found the X-Ray feature, available on some Kindles, particularly valuable. It gives you background on things mentioned in the book, and if you aren’t up on your Cold War details, it can be helpful.

You may also find my take on Skyfall, the latest James Bond movie, interesting.

Feel free to tell my readers and me what you think about Casino Royale, but please try to avoid spoilers for people who haven’t yet read it.

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

Review: Words from the Wise

Review: Words from the Wise

Words From The Wise
by Rosemarie Jarski
published by Skyhorse Publishing
original publication: 2007
size: 899KB (592 pages)
categories: reference; quotations
lending: enabled
simultaneous device licenses: six
part of the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library: yes
text-to-speech: yes
real page numbers: no
x-ray: no
Whispersync for Voice: no

“Humanity has advanced, when it has advanced, not because it has been sober, responsible, and cautious, but because it has been playful, rebellious, and immature.”
–Tom Robbins, quoted by Rosemarie Jarski
in Words from the Wise

Rosemarie Jarski has done a good job of organizing the 6,000 quotations in Words from the Wise into categories. The editor also makes interesting choices in people, quoting comedians far more often than is common, for example. The author Stanislaw Lec is quoted more than thirty times.

In general, I liked the quotations themselves.

I will say that this is a lengthy book, which I should have realized. I borrowed it from the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library*, and didn’t think about how long it was going to take me to go through 6,000 quotations.

The main frustrations I had with the book are the ones I usually have with a book of quotations. The quotes are sourced to the author…and in this case, the title of the book/movie and so on aren’t even given. There isn’t a way to tell if a quotation attributed to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was said by the author, Sherlock Holmes, or Professor Moriarty. Actually, that is one inconsistency: a quotation in this book is attributed to Holmes, when characters generally aren’t given as the source.

Since there is no indication of the work from whence the quotation comes, you would have a tough time reading more of it if you wanted to do that (which is sometimes the case).

There is an index in the back…but it’s unlinked and oddly, doesn’t even contain page numbers. I’m not sure what happened there: if there were page numbers in a paper edition and removed for the e-book, or if there was supposed to be linking that didn’t work for some reason.

I tried to make my own book of quotations, The Mind Boggles: A Unique Book of Quotations, a way for you to find the original works and read them if you want. I am working on updating it a bit. I got some helpful proofreading observations from readers, and one of my regulars, Roger Knights said something that made me add a feature. I source a character if the character is speaking, but that can make it harder to find all of the quotations from one author. I’m adding listings for many of the authors, with cross-referencing to the characters.

Overall, I’d say Words from the Wise has some good quotations in it, and if you only care about what was said (rather than by whom and where), you’ll enjoy it.

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

Review: The Art of Racing in the Rain

Review: The Art of Racing in the Rain

The Art of Racing in the Rain
by Garth Stein
published by HarperCollins
original publication: 2008
size: 219KB (338 pages)
categories: literary fiction
lending: not enabled
simultaneous device licenses: six
part of the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library: no
text-to-speech: yes
real page numbers: yes
x-ray: yes
Whispersync for Voice: yes ($3.95 at time of writing, audiobook read by Christopher Evan Welch)

“People are always worried about what’s happening next. They often find it difficult to stand still, to occupy the now without worrying about the future. People are not generally satisfied with what they have; they are very concerned with what they are going to have.”
–Enzo

The world is a terrible place, people are horribly cruel, and even being born a dog is a soul-crushing tragedy.

That was largely the message I got from The Art of Racing in the Rain. I knew before I finished the first chapter that my Significant Other shouldn’t read it…it would simply be too sad.

I know that some of you probably like that kind of book, and if so, this not poorly written (although I found it heavy-handed in places). In fact, with over 2,100 reviews at Amazon, it averages 4.6 stars out of 5.

The primary conceit here is that the story is told by a dog. I love animals, and have owned many dogs, and yes, we sometimes speak for them in the family (“Klein thinks that’s ridiculous”).

However, the realism of the book being in a dog’s voice is really undercut by the dog, Enzo, having basically human intelligence. Enzo watches a lot of television, and understands complex metaphysical concepts…and has a string of favorite actors.

In fact, Enzo basically is a human in a dog’s body…and knows it. This dog isn’t just lacking thumbs and the capability of speech: they are losses, as though they had been taken away, and we are reminded of that often.

The other narrative device is making everything an analogy to car racing. Enzo knows all the great racers, and Denny, who Enzo calls his “master”, is a racer. Don’t worry, though: you don’t have to be a racing fan to understand it, in a way similar to you not having to be a dog person to understand Enzo. The author is careful to explain everything to you.

Mainly, though, the book is tragedy after tragedy…to the point where both Sophocles and Ingmar Bergman might have told the author to lighten up a little.

That said, I can see how people would consider this one of their favorite books. If you like the idea of persevering against unfair odds, this one could appeal to you.

I was interested in the book, and I looked forward to getting to the next part…although I was also happy when it was over.

Overall, I’d say I just wasn’t a good fit for this book. If you are, you probably would be more willing to allow for the stretches in story-telling that are used to support the feel of the book, maybe in the way that I have a “willing suspension of disbelief” when reading a fantasy.

I always try to give you both an idea of how I felt about the book, and, more importantly, an idea of whether or not you’d like it. I hope I’ve done that here.

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

Review: Swim: Why We Love the Water

Review: Swim: Why We Love the Water

Swim: Why We Love the Water
by Lynn Sherr
published by PublicAffairs
original publication: 2012
size: 2933KB (232 pages)
categories: nonfiction; sports; swimming
lending: not enabled
simultaneous device licenses: six
part of the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library: no
text-to-speech: yes
real page numbers: no
x-ray: no
Whispersync for Voice: yes ($9.95 at time of writing, audiobook read by the author)

“Swimming is my salvation. Ask me in the middle of winter, or at the end of a grueling day, or after a long stretch at the computer, where I’d most like to be, and the answer is always the same: in the water, gliding weightless, slicing a silent trail through whatever patch of blue I can find.”
–Lynn Sherr

I completely understand what author Lynn Sherr is saying above.

I was a competitive swimmer for ten years…starting when I was four years old. I was a guaranteed blue ribbon for my team, because, as I remember, I was the only one in the 4-6 year old group who could swim butterfly the length of the pool.

Unfortunately, when I was fourteen, I developed a really bad reaction to chlorine. I can’t even sit by a pool, which meant I couldn’t watch my kid learn to swim.

While we do sometimes get to a place I can swim, I still miss it, decades later.

Talk to most people who have reached a certain competence and comfort in the water, and I think you’ll find that same love of it.

The water feels incredibly freeing, and isolating. When you are swimming, the whole world can disappear…even your own thoughts. Stroke and kick, breath and flip…even in a pool it can seem like you are in your own timeless infinity.

Swim: Why We Love the Water does a good job of communicating this, quoting people famous (Michael Phelps, Esther Williams) and not.

There are two interwoven narratives: one is Lynn Sherr swimming the Hellespont (also called the Dardanelles, it’s a strait between Asia and Europe, which Leander legendarily swam repeatedly to be with Hero); the other is the history of swimming.

The latter was entertaining and intriguing. It’s always amazing to me how recently some things developed, and the sociology of what now seems natural. A negative view from the church on swimming meant that for a long time in the West, it was primarily a military skill. Modesty for women meant outfits which effectively kept them from swimming, and led to many deaths. Myths are explored: many people believe African-Americans are naturally poor swimmers, when, prior to segregated public pools, swimming was a skill in which they commonly exceeded those of European descent. I found the interplay of all those factors fascinating…and well-documented with historic photographs and illustrations.

Unfortunately, there just wasn’t the same drama in Sherr’s own swim. It wasn’t poorly told, but I just didn’t find it that involving.

Overall, I’d recommend it for someone who is already a swimmer (and you probably all know at least one of those). If you can’t bring your own experience to it, though, I’m not convinced there is enough here to hold your interest.

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

Review: Crash Gordon and the Mysteries of Kingsburg

Review: Crash Gordon and the Mysteries of Kingsburg

Crash Gordon and the Mysteries of Kingsburg
by Derek Swannson
published by Three Graces Press
original publication: 2012
size: 2900KB (632 pages)
categories: humor; horror; occult; science fiction; literary fiction
lending: enabled
simultaneous device licenses: six
part of the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library: yes
text-to-speech: yes
real page numbers: no
x-ray: no

“The things you want the most usually end up being bad for you. The sun gives you skin cancer, the tastiest foods make you fat, and love will break your heart.”
–Derek Swannson 
Crash Gordon and the Mysteries of Kingsburg

When I first started reading Crash Gordon, I was so impressed. This was amazingly good writing, with characters as well drawn as those in Stephen King. Like King, it also included supernatural and pop cultural elements, and seemed both very real and magical at the same time.

I recommended it to my Significant Other…but quickly had to retract that.

The first issue was that it got very graphic. Not violently graphic, and not pornographic in the sense that it was meant to stimulate you in that way…but personally sexually specific in a way that would mean not even Showtime could make a really faithful adaptation.

Still, the writing was very good. That one objection might not have stopped me from suggesting it to people.

However, as the book continued (and it is a satisfyingly long book…not like some in the Kindle store), the focus shifted from the characters to concepts. One character, introduced later in the book, lectures on and on. You can think of it like those long science monologues in a Michael Crichton book…except this goes on for pages of obscure facts and theories. In some cases, the lectures are broken up by snarky comments from other characters…but being on Mystery Science Theatre 3000 doesn’t make something a good movie.

These lectures were based on things that were familiar to me, but may not be to you. If the names Jack Parsons, Aleister Crowley, and Andrija Puharich are not known to you, I don’t think that will make the information particularly more interesting…it wasn’t familiarity that was the problem for me, it was that it tended to be just recitation.

It made it seem like the purpose of the book was the message, rather than entertainment.

If it wasn’t for that, if the whole book had been like the first part, I would definitely say that Derek Swannson was a major talent. My guess, though, is that Swannson’s primary goal wasn’t just to entertain.

I can see how this book will be some people’s favorite book. I would love to see more from Swannson without the agenda.

Now, I could be wrong…it could just be that it’s the characters that consider these conspiracy theories important, and that Swannson may write other books (this is not the author’s only book) that have nothing to do with that. If that’s the case, I’ll be more impressed.

There were many things I liked about the book. The main character loves to read…I could absolutely empathize. I thought this was a great line:

“Libraries will finally be recognized as the true churches, where angels communicate with mortals.”

I’m going to give you a few warnings…and then I think some of you may go on to read and love the book (well, certainly, the first part):

• Characters say racist things
• There are sexual taboos broken
• There is talk about horrible things
• Orthodoxy is challenged
• Occult things are discussed

The proofreading was pretty good. There were a few small errors (I plan to send them to the publisher), but no more than I would expect from a traditional publisher.

I think that gives you a good sense of this book. Many of you probably shouldn’t start it. Some of you will like it, but think it could have been edited more strongly (“Do you really need all those pages on that?”). Some of you will love it.

I got it through the KOLL (Kindle Owners’ Lending Library), by the way. If people do get it based on this review, that system has worked.

If you do read it, feel free to tell me and my readers what you think…without spoilers, of course.

Update: the book is free to own (not just to borrow) through the Kindle store on August 25th and August 26th. You do not need to have a physical Kindle or be a Prime member to take advantage of this…it’s a giveaway. Thanks to the author, Derek Swannson, for the heads-up on this!

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

Review: Pride and Prejudice

Review: Pride and Prejudice

Pride and Prejudice
by Jane Austen
original publication: 1813
size: 258KB (477 pages)
categories: fiction classics
lending: enabled
simultaneous device licenses: unlimited
part of the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library: no
text-to-speech: yes
real page numbers: no
x-ray: yes

“Is not general incivility the very essence of love?”

Note: the edition above is not the edition I used. I wanted to listen to it with text-to-speech on my Kindle Fire, which meant using a version in text format which I got from Project Gutenberg. The content should be the same, though. 

Note: I recognize that this is a classic, and has been popular for nearly two hundred years. However, I am choosing to review it as though it was any other book I have read…while I’m sure I can’t completely ignore my knowledge of its place in world literature, that should be largely external to my sense of it as a book. I also am going to follow my usual policy of avoiding spoilers…I don’t think there is any statute of limitations on that. This is not a literary analysis: it’s a review.

Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice is, quite simply, about people.

One could argue that all good books are ultimately about people (whether they contain spaceships with hyperdrive or magical fairies), but while there are events that happen here, it is mostly about relationships.

Since those relationships are primarily romantic ones, I don’t think calling the book a romance is inappropriate (although I suspect I just caused some English teachers to have conniption fits).

Fortunately, the main characters are very well drawn…intriguing, and realistic.

That’s especially true of Elizabeth Bennet. “Lizzie” seems to be in many ways very contemporary. In a time when women were supposed to behave in particular expected ways, Lizzie can scandalize by doing something we think would be perfectly natural. Her relationship with her father (who can be a difficult man), includes mutual respect. That is seen as unnatural by others, and even pooh-poohed.

Mr. Darcy could also exist in the modern world… thought of by many as brooding, rude, and unengaged.

These two are the heart of the book, and it beats strongly. We know right away that they “belong together”, but there are many obstacles in their paths…and not always ones that come from outside circumstances. For a more recent analogy, it’s like Ross and Rachel on Friends…they are complicated people, and mess things up through misunderstandings and ego. I have to admit, there were times when I was thinking, “Just get together already!”

There wasn’t any problem for me understanding the language, although I do read a lot of 19th Century books. I would not consider that at all a barrier for most readers. The attitudes, though, may be more challenging. For one thing, it seems to be the highest goal of social development to not show emotions. Like a room full of Vulcans, characters pride themselves on being able to discuss what should be very moving events dispassionately. Characters often  struggle to suppress their feelings…and it only shows when their faces “color”.

Fortunately, that’s a futile aspiration, and their natures show through. If they didn’t, it would be much more difficult to be involved with the book.

Involved I was. There was one scene that was as frightening as anything I have ever read (and I include Stephen King and H.P. Lovecraft in that). It wasn’t a horror scene: it was the way a person of privilege could completely ignore the feelings of someone who wasn’t as fortunate. No question, if the situation had been pushed, the less powerful person would have been forced to lead a false and unfulfilled life…and that was really scary. I think perhaps we were supposed to be amused, but it didn’t strike me that way at all.

There were times when it seemed a bit long, and there are a number of characters to follow. One thing that could get a bit tedious was lengthy sections told in the narrative third person…like a voiceover describing what was happening. Rather than having a character say something, we basically read, “So and so told such and such about this, and such and such responded with concern. So and so went on to defend…” and so on. Those sections may also contain scenic descriptions. I honestly could have used more dialog in those cases.

Overall, though, I enjoyed the book. I’m glad I read it, and recommend it to others…just don’t expect any vampires or international terrorist plots.

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

Review: Funamo: sophisticated parental controls for the Kindle Fire

Review: Funamo: sophisticated parental controls for the Kindle Fire

The Kindle Fire opens up a world of possibilities.

For parents/legal guardians, that can be both good and bad.

There are lots of great games for kids, and educational websites.

There is also Rule 34 of the internet. If I explained what that was I’d probably get many more hits today, but I’ll let you look it up. I try to keep this blog safe for work.

Suffice it to say that there are parents/legal guardians who would like a software solution to guide how a child uses the Fire.

It’s interesting: when I’ve seen people ask about that on the Amazon Kindle community, they sometimes get remonstrated for either: wanting to control anything about their kids’ media consumption; or wanting technology to help them do it.

My natural tendency is to lean towards more freedom…but I wouldn’t want somebody to tell me that wasn’t okay, and I understand that other people may have different levels they want to set (more or less restrictive).

I also don’t have any problem with using a technological tool to help. That doesn’t mean you can’t do all the communicating you were doing anyway. It’s important to understand that it isn’t always about a child consciously wanting to go somewhere…it’s also about them accidentally going somewhere they really didn’t want to go.

A great example years ago was a site that was named WhiteHouse.com…not WhiteHouse.gov. It was…um…a Rule 34 site. A lot of kids ended up there unintentionally, and would have been happy not to have that risk.

Amazon has given us some parental controls on the Kindle Fire, but as far as the internet goes, it’s an all or nothing solution. You let the user go anywhere on the internet, or you don’t let them go anywhere with the browser (although you can still let them use the Amazon site and Wikipedia).

Enter

Funamo

They give you much more sophisticated “parental controls”, and I think they’ll appeal to a lot of people.

I’m going to go over the features…and then I will mention what is going to be a major negative for some.

When you log into Funamo, you have several main choices:

• Start or stop Funamo

When Funamo is started, it does something right away…password protect the Settings. That means that someone can’t go in and remove the application or deregister your device. That in itself is probably significant to people. I hear on the forum about kids who accidentally deregister, which can cause some headaches (including, with the Fire, removing Kindle store books from the device…meaning you have to redownload them).

• Device history

On the device, this will show you all of the sites visited using the browser that day, and all the applications that have been used that day. Want more than that day? You can go to Funamo’s website, and they keep thirty days of data. Yes, you can check what sites your kid has been visiting without even having access to the device. If you get Funamo for a phone, it gets much more Big Brotherish. It will show you the contacts, the texts, and with GPS, even where your child has been! The locations part does not work with the Fire, and we aren’t currently using it for phone calls…so it shows you applications and websites. You do not need to turn this on, but if you do, it is stored on Funamo’s website. I asked them about that…I think some people might be more comfortable just having that information stored locally.

• Internet filtering

Here’s where it gets particularly good. First, you (and it’s up to you), enable content filtering and “safe search”. I put that on, and tested it. It did not let me go to the Playboy.com site, but did let me go to a breast cancer site (making it more sophisticated than older “net nannies”).

You can also use both a “blacklist” and/or a “whitelist”. That lets you control this yourself. You can use a blacklist to prohibit specific sites. You can use a whitelist to allow specific sites.

Why would you use both a blacklist and a whitelist at the same time?

To fine tune their built-in content filtering/safe search. That software might block something you want your child to access, and your whitelist overrides that. Their filtering may not block a place you would like blocked: your blacklist overrides the decision-making in the software.

You can also just allow whitelisted sites. You could pick a few major kids sites, allow a news site or two…up to you.

• Protected apps

You can allow only certain apps to be available without knowing a password. You click a button to “select apps”, and you get an easy checkbox list.  You can block whatever you want.

You can manage these whitelist and blacklists on the website or on the device.  Want to punish your kid by taking away Angry Birds for a day? You can do it right on the website.

• Time-limited apps

This one is clever. You can restrict the use of a list of apps you choose to only be available at certain times of the day and days of the week. In other words, you could make the games and social media only available outside of school hours. The entire list has one set of time restrictions…might be nice to be able to set different restrictions for different apps, but this is still a potentially great feature. If you know you have that weekly event where using certain apps would be inappropriate, you can restrict them.

• Account settings
• Upload on Wifi only (not an issue on the Fire, of course)
• Sync contacts to Funamo (you can turn that on or off)
• Log device history (again, you can turn that on or off)
• Change password
• Manually sync with server (if you don’t do that, it does it once a day)
• Unregister this device (that will remove all of the information…it will remove it from the website as well ((I asked)), although you’ll still have your free Funamo account)
• Block other browsers (Funamo needs to use it’s own browser, which you download separately, for the whitelist and blacklist to work). This prevents your child from just downloading another browser, like Maxthon, and using that

Overall, I think that’s a big improvement over Amazon’s choices (at this point). It would be great if they could control specific books, but not yet.

The big negative, a potential showstopper for some?

The price.

It’s $19.99 (per device).

That’s quite high for an app, but of course, they are continuing to service your account after the purchase. That has ongoing expenses, including Customer Service.

Speaking of which, I’m always curious about that. Funamo’s Customer Service has been superb. I have e-mailed them twice (asking questions for this review), and gotten very fast, thorough responses. That’s a big argument in favor of a company for me.

The app is not currently available in the Amazon Appstore, but they even have a video to show you how to set all that up and get it…nicely done.  Generally, the site looks pretty professional. I found a heading of “How Funamo Works?’ to be awkward. I would either say, “How Funamo Works” or “How Does Funamo Work?” That’s nitpicking, though.

You can test this for two days for free, and I would recommend that if this seems like a solution you would consider.

Bottom line: this is a solid product with good customer service. Not everybody is going to want to use it, but for those who do, they may find the price tag worth the value.

Update: When I first published this review, I mentioned a typo on the website. I’m very impressed that they have fixed the typo in the past ten hours, and e-mailed me to let me know. That’s another good sign of responsiveness, and that’s a big plus for me.

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

New app brings book organization to Kindle Fire

New app brings book organization to Kindle Fire

Book Collections
by Digital Media Revolutions
price: $2.99 at time of writing

One of the most common concerns expressed in the Amazon Kindle community about the Kindle Fire is that there isn’t a good way to organize the books on the device, like the Collections we have on some of the RSKs (Reflective Screen Kindles…anything but a Kindle Fire at this point).

No question.

That’s been what I call a “Shrugger”. That’s something I recommend managers look for in their businesses. A “Shrugger” is something that people think should be different, but they don’t see a clear path to the change…they just shrug their shoulders when someone new points it out. Identifying those can be important in fixing problems, yes, but also in changing the way people feel about their organization.

“Why doesn’t the Kindle Fire have Collections?”

Shrug.

Does the Fire need Collections or folders or some way to group together similar books?

Ask the people who have flipped through a hundred titles on their Carousels.

After all, Amazon estimates that the Fire can hold 6,000 books! That’s in the same part of the memory that holds video, music, magazines, personal documents, and so on (not apps), so if you have any of that, you can’t hold the full 6,000.

Still, that’s a lot of books, and I can understand why people just don’t want them all piled together. In my paperbook library at home, I meticulously organize them (alphabetizing the books, for example).

When I first saw the Book Collections app for the Kindle Fire in the Amazon Appstore, it intrigued me a bit. However, I did see quite a few bad reviews, and I don’t often pay as high as $2.99 for an app. I didn’t feel an urgent need  personally: as I’ve mentioned before, I usually only keep about ten Kindle store books on any of my devices at a time.

However, a reader in a personal e-mail asked me about the app, and said that they were waiting for my review.

That was the nudge I needed, and I went ahead and got it.

First, the performance issues that had prompted the bad reviews initially appear to have been resolved. Simply stated, it works.

Second, it does what you want it to do. You can create your own “collections” on your Kindle Fire, name them whatever you want, and move your books into them. You can then access the books from those collections (or “Book Folders”, as the app calls them).

I’ll wait for a minute while a bunch of you click the link in the post with just that much information.

Done? Okay.

Now, let’s get into a bit more of the detail.

Installing it was easy. The app itself .93MB of memory…that’s really not big.  Angry Birds, for example, is 19.71MB…more than twenty times as large.

When you open the app, it scans for documents on your Kindle Fire. For me, it found a lot of things that weren’t Kindle store books. Some of them I might never want in there, but it was actually really nice to have my Kindle store books, my personal documents, and even Microsoft Office documents and pdfs I’d downloaded as attachments to e-mails in the same place. It included magazines and samples, but no audio, video, or apps.

Once the items are imported (it certainly didn’t take a minute), you have a section for “Book Folders” at the top, and “Unsorted Books” at the bottom. I’m not sure “unsorted” is the right word to use here…maybe “uncategorized” would be clearer.

There are three pre-built folders:

• Currently Reading
• To Read Next
• Favorites

When you “long press” (hold your finger or stylus on it for about a second), you get the following choices:

• Open (so you can read it)
• Move to (so you can put it in a Book Folder)
• Edit Book Data and Location (more on that a bit later)
• Remove (this removes it from the app…not the Kindle)

Choosing “Move to” brings up a list of the Book Folders in the app…just tap one to move the book there.

You can’t long press a Book Folder…you can only open it.

Once a Book Folder is open, you can use the Menu button (horizontal lines in a box), you can either remove the folder or tap a button that says, “Edit Book Data and Location”. That’s not what that button does…it lets you rename the Book Folder.

When  you are on the first page, hitting Menu lets you rescan or create a new folder.

All of that works. You can create folders and put books in them.

Next, some negatives:

A book can not be in more than one folder.

There are no sub-folders (that’s like the Collections on the RSKs).

A big one for me is that you can’t sort the “Unsorted Books” (hey, I guess that is accurate) , or search them. I just had to swipe through the list to see them.

When you read a book from within the app, your position in the book is not communicated to your Kindle Fire. In other words, lets say you open a book within the app and read 100 locations. If you later opened the same book not in the app, it wouldn’t know you had read those 100 locations.

The way they address that is with that “Edit Book Data and Location”. Choosing that lets you enter a location number, enter a percentage, change the title, and enter or change an author name).

Interestingly, the location and percentage don’t check each. You can say you are 50% through the book when you are only ten percent. What you say here also doesn’t affect opening the book outside of the app, I believe.

There is no Help within the app. There is a Facebook icon, but it didn’t seem to do anything for me…nor did an icon for what I assume is the Kindle Fire Department.

I do really want to commend the creators. I e-mailed them and got a very quick response answering my questions. That’s important to me…it shows that they care about their customers. I know that some people in that situation think I get special treatment because I’m a blogger, but believe me, people ignore bloggers.

We’ve had some correspondence on some interesting potential I see for the app, and they did tell me about some improvements under development.

Overall, I’d say that a lot of people will find this valuable. It’s a good idea, although I think that it could be refined. I would guess this is not a group that has produced a number of apps in the past, or has invested specifically in usability (many developers don’t). That said, they’ve done what Amazon hasn’t.   My guess is that they will fairly rapidly enhance it, partially as they realize what end users want.

Bottom line: if you want to organize your books (and your personal documents) on your Kindle Fire, I recommend Book Collections.

Special thanks to my reader for asking me to review this! I really appreciate it when people take the time to tell me about things they think I and/or my readers would want to know.

If you’d like to comment on this post or on the app, feel free.

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