Interest in a Book Club?

Yay or nay?


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    43

Printimus

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I'd like to put forward "Across Realtime" by Vernor Vinge.

Its a duo of "The Peace War" and "Marooned In Realtime", I think it's a good read with some pretty excellent concepts not many people may have experienced before.
Nice choice.
Nominee:
View attachment 10227
It's on my list anyway, though I wish I had one with this cover.

Anyone have recommendations as far as Kindles or Tablets for e-books? I never jumped on the bandwagon, but now my bookshelves are overflowing with books I haven't read!
Great pick!
I actually found the book excellent, which rather surprised me. I preferred it over the games.

As far as my nomination goes, allow me to put forward 'The Player of Games', by Iain M. Banks. It's actually the second book in the Culture series, but i find it by far the best one, and it's a pretty decent introduction to the series as well.
Very well!
 

Printimus

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Fuck it, I nominate Les 120 Journées de Sodome ou l'école du libertinage (The 120 Days of Sodom, or the School of Libertinage) by Marquis de Sade
is this book in english?

"The 120 Days of Sodom by Marquis de Sade relates the story of four wealthy men who enslave 24 mostly teenaged victims and sexually torture them while listening to stories told by old prostitutes. The book was written while Sade was imprisoned in the Bastille and the manuscript was lost during the storming of the Bastille. Sade wrote that he "wept tears of blood" over the manuscript's loss. Many consider this to be Sade crowning achievement."


I dunno about this one man.... seems a little more rated X than most of us might care to read. Get @SeungRyul 's approval and then I will add it to the nomination list.
 

Radegast74

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sorry, i edited my post above, get seungs approval.....the synopsis seems a little..... inappropriate
yeah, I'm expecting nominated books to be either science fiction or fantasy world stuff, not historical fiction stuff.
 

Radegast74

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Does it include the lamentations of their women? Without lamentations, cleaving skulls is just another day on the wheel of pain.
View attachment 10237

So what are you actually getting with ebooks and kindles? Is the book a file I can back up on a hard drive? Can the reader open other files like pdf's? Do I need to worry about memory or ram or any other compooter wizerdry?

Every time I have to shop for gadgets, I envy the life of a barbarian...
View attachment 10238

Thanks!
So in my limited experience (because I still enjoy the tactile feeling of holding a book, turning pages, and looking back at stuff):
1. Kindle devices are great at reading fiction books without pictures, but crap at *anything* & **everything** else.
2. If you want to read PDF's of stuff, you are better off getting one of the Fire tablets, a regular Android tablet, or an iPad.
3. The memory management on these devices is excellent, you don't have to worry about stuff.
4. Regarding space on your drive, Amazon has made it really easy to use their Kindle app on any device, not just on their own Kindle e-reader device. For example, you can download a Kindle App onto an Android or iOS device and read there (or even onto your computer...) If you run out of space, you just delete it from your drive. Amazon remembers what you have bought, and if you need to you can just re-download it.

In my typical usage, all my scientific journal articles or math books that have tables and graphs and charts...the Kindle device / app won't display these things correctly, so I read them as PDF's on my iPad or computer. For the odd e-book that I buy, I download that and read on my iPad.

There is also other software out there that allows you to take documents, convert it to an e-Reader as an .epub kindle pub, and send it to your device, but that is a different topic.
 

Printimus

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So in my limited experience (because I still enjoy the tactile feeling of holding a book, turning pages, and looking back at stuff):
1. Kindle devices are great at reading fiction books without pictures, but crap at *anything* & **everything** else.
2. If you want to read PDF's of stuff, you are better off getting one of the Fire tablets, a regular Android tablet, or an iPad.
3. The memory management on these devices is excellent, you don't have to worry about stuff.
4. Regarding space on your drive, Amazon has made it really easy to use their Kindle app on any device, not just on their own Kindle e-reader device. For example, you can download a Kindle App onto an Android or iOS device and read there (or even onto your computer...) If you run out of space, you just delete it from your drive. Amazon remembers what you have bought, and if you need to you can just re-download it.

In my typical usage, all my scientific journal articles or math books that have tables and graphs and charts...the Kindle device / app won't display these things correctly, so I read them as PDF's on my iPad or computer. For the odd e-book that I buy, I download that and read on my iPad.

There is also other software out there that allows you to take documents, convert it to an e-Reader as an .epub kindle pub, and send it to your device, but that is a different topic.
i love my kindle, but nothing compares to the smell of the pages of a real book in your hands.
 

Printimus

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I only recommended it for a bit of a laugh. I would never be serious about getting everyone to read it haha, it's a bit heavy on the obscene content.
Maybe add a "j/k" in there next time. lol Do you have a serious nominee for the book club?
 
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Wolfy

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Maybe add a "j/k" in there next time. lol Do you have a serious nominee for the book club?
Ah, I assumed the "fuck it" would clarify that was a longshot nomination. I would go with the first Lost Fleet novel by Jack Campbell. Easily the best military scifi book involving spaceship warfare and quite fitting for a Star Citizen org.
 

Printimus

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Ah, I assumed the "fuck it" would clarify that was a longshot nomination. I would go with the first Lost Fleet novel by Jack Campbell. Easily the best military scifi book involving spaceship warfare and quite fitting for a Star Citizen org.
nominee accepted!
 
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Printimus

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Get your NOMINATIONS in now folks! Seung has informed me that we will be closing out nomination phase one the 1st of August and take a week to vote on the book. ( i know i know, that leaves us 3 weeks to read our pick, so what)
 

Bruttle

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I just finished the "Way of the Shaman" series by Vasily Mahanenko. I actually really liked it. It's a book about a VR online fantasy mmo. I usually can only hang with a series for about 3 books until I am bored with it. This one kept me all through the 7 book series. Don't misunderstand, it is no literary masterpiece. There are no profound statements or social commentaries. It will not give you new insights or alter your perception of anything. It is the book equivalent of McDonalds. It is just plain delicious junk food for your mind.

... and yes, all 7 books are on audible and are read by a really good narrator.
 
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Printimus

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I just finished the "Way of the Shaman" series by Vasily Mahanenko. I actually really liked it. It's a book about a VR online fantasy mmo. I usually can only hang with a series for about 3 books until I am bored with it. This one kept me all through the 7 book series. Don't misunderstand, it is no literary masterpiece. There are no profound statements or social commentaries. It will not give you new insights or alter your perception of anything. It is the book equivalent of McDonalds. It is just plain delicious junk food for your mind.

... and yes, all 7 books are on audible and are read by a really good narrator.
Does this mean you will join our endeavors of reading together in a book club? Do you have a nomination for what our first read should be?
 

Bruttle

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Does this mean you will join our endeavors of reading together in a book club? Do you have a nomination for what our first read should be?
I would nominate the first way of the shaman book, but I just read them. The next book on my list is the "One Second After" by William R. Forstchen. It's not futuristic scifi, but it is science fiction. I'm a sucker for a good post apocalypse story and this one was highly recommended. Plus, I don't have to buy it. It's already sitting on my shelf.

So my nomination would be:

51htrThdiaL._SX328_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg
 
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