Comments on: What’s he building in there?

By: Donal

Donal — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 08:54:09 +0000

Shucks, you got me Neil.

By: Neil Struthers

Neil Struthers — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 23:25:17 +0000

Ice and Fire! Ice and Fire!

I thought I was going mad there for a minute. YOU WERE TESTING US!

By: DaviMack

DaviMack — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 14:08:59 +0000

I'd noticed that they were fairly spartan in their selection. Disappointing, but good to know that they're DRM free. That's part of what got me behind the publisher Baen, with their free library. There's certainly some good reading in Orwell, that's certain. Am still only about halfway through - it comes of reading after packing up stuff all day. Only so many synapses firing after trying to fit as much as possible into as small a space possible (think: playing tetris all day long).

By: Donal

Donal — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 11:53:10 +0000

Hi Riyaz, welcome to the site. The Naxos download shop is where I’ve been getting my audiobooks. Good value and DRM free and you’re right I think the production values on the Naxos audiobooks are higher. Unfortunately their selection is rather small.

Davimack, The Lion and The Unicorn is one of my favourite pieces by Orwell.

By: DaviMack

DaviMack — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 05:25:34 +0000

Truly interesting reading. Am about 1/4 the way through, and I’m finding it an interesting perspective, certainly. I’m also finding it sort of frightening, because Wells was so perceptive in terms of evaluating the trends within society, and wonder where he’s going to predict the trendline for the UK, when and if he gets around to it in this article.

Gibson … is perceptive, and fabulous, and a seminal thinker. Does that make you feel dirty? It was supposed to.

By: Riyaz

Riyaz — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 04:57:42 +0000

If you liked the Naxos Audio Books then you should check out the download shop they recently launched. I think the quality of the sound is much better than Audible.

By: DaviMack

DaviMack — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 23:06:50 +0000

Trust you to get to the heart of the important things (“…excellent cursing.”).

Thanks for the link!

By: Donal

Donal — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 20:29:28 +0000

Tadmack, it’s never too early to think about Nano. I generally start the ideas bubbling about now and let them simmer gently until November, letting off a little steam here and there with a short foray of character or plot development, then hopefully by 1st November I’m ready to pour it out onto the page in a great steaming pile of overheated sludge.

I too have stacks of unread books all over our small apartment, stacks that grow ever larger with each visit to Amazon.

Davimack, I’ve not given up on my 26 Books project, just paused it temporarily. I plan on getting some of them in audiobook format too. Thanks for the Orwell link, may I recommend The Lion and The Unicorn, for some insights into the English character, even if you are going to live in Scotland.

Brian, you’re in for a treat on both counts with Beowulf and Phillip Pullman. Seamus Heaney did a translation of Beowulf a couple of years back, I recall. You should get your hands on it, if possible.

Neil, I liked All Tomorrow’s Parties and Virtual Light. My first Gibson experience was spending all my holiday money on Mona Lisa Overdrive in a little bookshop in Sligo when I was twelve along with Bon Jovi’s New Jersey in the record shop next door. At least I had good taste in books.

I’m looking forward to Crooked Little Vein too, did you read the first chapter he linked to on his website? It was weird reading him in prose, very sparse, but with those lovely turns of phrase and excellent cursing.

By: Neil Struthers

Neil Struthers — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 19:53:13 +0000

A selection for anyone planning on spending time in the UK:

HOUSEBOATS AND YOU, by Friedrich R. Lueg
SNORKELING IN THE VALES, by Nimble Norman Berry
DROWNING WAS O.K. UNTIL I REALISED IT WAS SEWAGE, by George Albert Shovel

Okay, okay. Currently waiting for:

Idoru, William Gibson.
All Tomorrow’s Parties, William Gibson.
Crooked Little Vein, Warren Ellis

I am on a bit of a sustained Gibson binge at the moment. And it has been a joyous time. Just finished Virtual Light, and his short story collection before that. And the Sprawl trilogy before that.

And the Warren Ellis book, yeah, I’ve been waiting on that for a while now.

By: Brian

Brian — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 18:56:48 +0000

I have a large stack of books sitting on the nightstand, waiting to be divided into a Read at Home stack and a Read on Vacation stack.

Finally going to dig into Beowulf properly, along with His Dark Materials. They fall into the category of Books I’ve Wanted to Read For A Long Time and Better Finish Quick Before I Get Inundated With Hollywood Glossovers.

I also have a Bryson memoir that I need to finish and return to a friend.

Other books include a Lincoln biography, an Edward Rutherford epic, a couple of Nick Hornby novels I never got around to reading, and Something New. Something not fantasy or elementary school classroom-related, and an author I haven’t read before. Something like The Road, I suppose.