DrCris Reads

Bookcrossing on Twitter

DrCris — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 22:00:53 +0000

Many of you know, I have become a bit of a twitter fiend. Recently, I realised there is an active bookcrossing community on twitter. If you tweet, and bookcross, then consider following some of those listed below.

For a start, take a look at the Bookcrossing twitter group
BR Directory - updates about bookring progress from http://geocities.com/bookrings/welcome.html
Bookcrossing in Greece
Active english conversations about bookcrossing
Ron Hornbaker, founder of Bookcrossing doesn’t update his twitter feed

And some Aussie bookcrossers I have found include:

The famous Aussie Taxi-driving Bookcrosser, Skyring
Woosang

is another active Aussie bookcrosser.

Anybody know any more?

Who have you been this week?

DrCris — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 22:00:55 +0000

Read often. Read Regularly. Read Daily.

Reading is vital because it gives us a view onto a different world. Jesse Hines at Robust Writing shares a treatise on why reading enriches us. He makes the point that non-readers are trapped in their own world-view, with no chance at an alternative perspective. It’s an amazing image, and one that feels true for me.

This week I have been a bumbling publisher who makes bad decisions, and also a 72 year old, non-englsh speaking General, betrayed by a friend. Who have you been?

Book Review: Diary of a Nobody by G and W Grossmith

DrCris — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 22:00:34 +0000

Why I chose it

This book is listed on the 1001 books you must read before you die. I have a strange obsession with the list, and can’t pass up a bookring (Q57) when it comes my way.

The Buzz

On of the great English comic novels, Diary of a Nobody bridges the world of Dickens to that of Waugh and Wodehouse… The masterstroke of the novel is the ironic distance between Pooter’s sense of himself and the world, and his dim recognition that matters might be otherwise.
1001 Books:

What I reckon

This is a curious fictitious diary of a bumbling man in England in the 1890s. He works hard at fitting into his place in society, and is perpetually embarrassed by his son and friends, who are , basically, bounders. The only “normal” person in his life is is wife, who he perpetually undervalues. I got the impression she spends a bit of time laughing at him.

This book was enjoyable, but it was odd to relate to such an overlooked man, in a strange cultural context. I imagine a modern version of this might appear as a literary version of Kath and Kim. If I understood the culture well, it might have been hilarious.

The fact that this book is on the 1001 list makes me think it was probably one to the first novels in this style - where the protagonist is the butt of the jokes, not least his ridiculous puns. Very readable, but not a book that I would press on anyone else.

The copy I read is registered with bookcrossing. It was part of a bookray, and has travelled on to visit another reader.

The 20 Most Downloaded Ebooks of 2009

DrCris — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 22:00:02 +0000

I have started reading more downloadable ebooks. Now there are more available to purchase, but there are also many that can be downloaded free.

Some of my favourite download sites are Manybooks, Project Gutenberg and Feedbooks. To emphasize how many great books there are out there that are royalty free and easy to download, I have compiled a list of the 20 most downloaded ebooks this year.

How I compiled the list

Manybooks and Project Gutenberg publish their download totals for the last 30 days. Feedbooks compiles an ordered list of total downloads for the year. Unfortunately, they only provided numbers for total downloads over the life of the site. These three ebook download sites are the biggest sites for downloads of e-novels

In order to compensate for Feedbooks, I converted all the download numbers into a percentage of total for that site. These were compiled to give a top twenty.

I admit this is a bit fudgy, but stay with me on this one - the list is good.

The 20 Most downloaded Ebooks of 2009

And I should make an honourable mention of I, Robot by Corey Doctorow, which landed in the top ten on absolute downloads, despite being only listed on one of the surveyed sites.

I have read six of the list. What about you?

Book Review - Breakfast at Tiffany’s, by Truman Capote

admin — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 22:32:00 +0000

Why I chose it

This book is on my favourite list - 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die (amazon link).

The Buzz

1001 books:

Breakfast at Tiffany’s is a charmingly naughty fable, capturing in crystal a glorious moment of New York during the last gasp of American innocence. … Paving the way for the revolution to come, Holly is a gamine - sexually free, hedonistic, a prostitute. She lives for the moment, damns the consequences and makes up her morality as she goes along. … Daring in its day.. it may have lost its ability to shock, but its charm does not diminish.

What I reckon

I remember watching Breakfast at Tiffany’s when I was a teenager and not getting the fuss. Then some years later, on a re-watch, I realised I wanted to be Audrey Hepburn. Not the disaster, but the confidence, style and unflappability. Later I heard that she was a prostitute, sanitized for the big screen. That was disappointing.

Now, ten years later, I finally finished reading Truman Capote’s version of the story. Simply captivating.

If it is possible, the paper Holly Golightly is even more Audrey Hepburn than the celluloid version. And not, in my opinion, a prostitute (despite what everyone keeps telling me). More like a serially kept woman. I don’t want to be her, but I would like to be inspired by her. Grace, charm and confidence when life, finances and love are in tatters - definitely a skill for the modern woman.

The short novella is well written, with clarity of prose that is inspiring. The story is simply a woman of poise and style clambouring from one personal disaster to the next, meanwhile inspiring those in her wake to desire her. It sounds awful, but she is written in a way that makes desire understandable.

As an added bonus, my copy of the book included some more short stories, on entirely different themes. One written on the sacrifices of love still bounces around in my head.

I really enjoyed this book. I recommend it to any seeking inspiration. My copy was registered with Bookcrossing. I released it into the wild at Noosaville, Queensland.

What else to read?

The Librarything Suggester top 10 recommendations are:

Truman Capote:

Other Voices, Other Rooms (LibraryThing, Amazon
)
Music For Chameleons (LibraryThing, Amazon
)
Answered Prayers: The unfinished novel (LibraryThing, Amazon
)
Summer Crossing (LibraryThing, Amazon
)

Esther Freud:

Hideous Kinky (LibraryThing, Amazon
)

Tama Janowitz:

Slaves of New York (LibraryThing, Amazon
)

Charles Webb:

The Graduate (LibraryThing, Amazon
)

Françoise Sagan:

Bonjour Tristesse (LibraryThing, Amazon
)

L. P. Hartley:

The Go-Between (LibraryThing, Amazon
)

Robert Anton Wilson:

Robert Anton Wilson Explains Everything: Or Old Bob Exposes His Ignorance (LibraryThing, Amazon
)

An Introduction to Bookcrossing

DrCris — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 22:00:34 +0000

I have talked in passing about Bookcrossing. I have been asked more about it, so I thought I should share my obsession.

What is Bookcrossing?

Bookcrossing started as a simple venture to track books, much in the same way that people track currency with services such as “Where’s George?”

Participants sign up for free and register their books. This involves identifying a book, and writing a short review, summary or note in an online journal. Each book is given a unique identifying bookcrossing ID (or BCID) which is written inside the book. Then, instead of returning the book to their shelf, the book is “released” to find a new owner.

How do books get released?

Wild Release

Books are left in a public place for anyone to pick up. A note inside the front cover encourages the finder to add to the online journal (they can do so anonymously). About 10% of books that are released into the wild “check in” when someone writes in the journal (even years later).

Bookrings and bookrays

One book is sent to a series of bookcrossers in turn who read the book and send it to the next participant. This is like an online bookclub, as each leaves their comments in the journal. At the end, books can be set free (book rays), or returned to the initiator.

RABCKs (Random Acts of Bookcrossing Kindness)

Most Bookcrossers publish a wishlist. Sometimes, wishes are granted secretly.

Release to a Bookcrossing Zone

Some cafes, hairdressers, even libraries have bookswap shelves. These can sometimes become bookcrossing Zones, where someone takes responsibility for getting a BCID for all the books left behind. This is a form of wild release.

Bookboxes/bags, virtual and otherwise

Bookboxes are a disastrous thing to be involved in. Avoid them at all costs! Basically, a box or bag full of books turns up on your doorstep. You take whatever you like and fill it up with more of your own. Then you pay postage to post it to the next participant. Incredibly tempting, and bookshelf destroying.

Why is bookcrossing so cool?

I had hundreds of books sitting on my bookshelf, serving no purpose other than clutter. Although I might have enjoyed reading the book, I was probably never going to read it again. Or if I would read it again, it would be very easy to get another copy.

Bookcrossing got me to purge all my shelves of all the books I had no real attachment to. I even had to buy books from charity shops to release as well. (It’s a tad addictive to send messages randomly out into the world.)

Beyond that, there is the community of crossers. Like any book community, they are willing to share recommendations, and chatter. I have many more books than I started with due to recommendations and bookswaps, but most are unread. I’m not sure that is a huge improvement.

For me, Bookcrossing has been a great support. I am the only avid reader of adult books in my house, and recommending countless books to my husband was no longer helping my urge to discuss. Now I can share my books with others, and set them free to see the world!

Visit me (DrCris) at Bookcrossing.com to sign up, or find out more.

Breathtaking Book Bindings

DrCris — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 22:00:55 +0000

I have never been a collector of fine or rare books, but I have been coveting this collection of books with unusual bindings, featured on AbeBooks recently.

They have bindings featuring brass, semi-precious stones, steel, skin of every sort of animal imaginable (pythons, eels, sharks, salmon, snake) even rubber.

My favourite would have to be the New Testament gospels covered in shark skin (above). Amazing.

Book review: Tinker, tailor, Soldier, Spy by John Le Carre

admin — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 22:48:02 +0000

Why I chose it

This book is on the - 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die (amazon) List, which I am sort of obsessed with.

The Buzz

1001 books:

Through the character of Smiley, Le Carre deftly proposes searching questions about the state of Britain. In many ways, Smiley is the logical sucessor to Sherlock Holmes… The novel wonderfully captures a dark, brooding environment where human warmth appears as a rare commodity

What I reckon

The British secret service is in trouble and they pull expert spy, George Smiley, out of retirement to sort it out. Smiley is a little hobbit of a man with thinly veiled personal life catastrophes, and professional enigma. He uses his contacts to unravel the twist of politics and subterfuge to identify a highly placed soviet mole at the height of the cold war.

I had never read any John Le Carre before, as I put them in the “books for my Dad” basket. I’m not sure I’ll read anymore. This is perhaps one of the first spy novels I have read. I enjoyed how workplace political tensions were tangled up with the effects of inaccurate information and double crossing by the mole. In other genres, spies are cut and dried, but these were as feeble as the rest of us in some ways, but with better hand to hand combat skills.

I’m not sure how this is one of the 1001 I must read. I guess it is a fine example of a classic spy novel, and may be worth it for that value alone.

The copy of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy I read was registered with Bookcrossing. It is currently still with me, but I will soon get it traveling again.

What else to read?

The Librarything Suggester top 10 recommendations are:

John Le Carre:
- Smiley’s People (LibraryThing, Amazon
  );
- The Spy Who came in from the Cold (LibraryThing, Amazon
  );
- The Honourable Schoolboy (LibraryThing, Amazon
  );
- Call for the Dead (LibraryThing, Amazon
  ).
Ian Fleming:
- Casino Royale (LibraryThing, Amazon
  );
- Thunderball (LibraryThing, Amazon
  );
- Diamonds are Forever (LibraryThing, Amazon
  ).
PD James:
- A Taste for Death (LibraryThing, Amazon
  );
- Death of an Expert Witness (LibraryThing, Amazon
  ).
Len Deighton:
- The Ipcress FIle (LibraryThing, Amazon
  )
Related posts:

Book Review: Neuromancer by William Gibson

admin — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 22:00:35 +0000

Why I chose it

This book is on my two favourite lists - 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die (amazon), and 501 Must Read Books (amazon).

The Buzz

1001 books:

Neuromancer is an enduring work because it combines the pace and urgency of the best fiction, with the scope, invention and intellectual rigour of Orwell or Huxley. Perhaps its most compelling and disquieting feature, however, is Gibson’s refusal to make any clear-cut moral distinctions between virtual and organic life, between program and reality.

501 books:

Neuromancer is known as the first book of the Cyberpunk genre, the book that introduced the concept of Cyberspace. … The concept of cyberspace as a habitable place, far prefereable to reality was so perfectly thought out and worked so well it inspired a whole new generation of sci-fi writers.

What I reckon

This is reputed to be the first of the cyberpunk genre, and is always a genre I suspected I would enjoy (sci-fi computer geek). And I did.

Neuromancer is the story of a clapped out drug addicted loser who becomes a maestro when he is jacked in to cyberspace. He travels that world of non-physics and hyperreality with ease. However, the real world controls him as his body is manipulated by corporates and financiers who aim to use his skills for their benefit.

The book is more like an experience than a story. There is a plot, characters and a conspiracy, but it is much more about the ride.

I spent the whole time reading this book unable to believe it was written in 1984. It truely reads as a creative take on what the world be like in the near future, when cyberspace interactions are virtual. Unbelievable.

The copy of Neuromancer I read was registered with Bookcrossing and came to me via a bookring. I sent it on to the next ring participant.

What else to read?

When I raved about this book, a friend, tqd, suggested some other titles with mini reviews.

Any
other William Gibson, especially earlier ones eg. The Virtual Light trilogy (LibraryThing, Amazon
), Pattern Recognition (LibraryThing, Amazon
)

Neal
Stephenson (Snowcrash (LibraryThing, Amazon
) is a great read, but overall I like The Diamond Age
better (Libarything, Amazon
);

and Cryptomonicon (LibraryThing, Amazon
) is AWESOME, but a very weak ending, but still
recommended, if you have time for a 900+ page novel

The Librarything Suggester top 10 recommendations are:

William Gibson: Mona Lisa Overdrive (LibraryThing, Amazon
), Count Zero (LibraryThing, Amazon
), All tomorrow’s Parties (LibraryThing, Amazon
, Burning Chrome (LibraryThing, Amazon
)

Bruce Sterling: Islands in the net (LibraryThing, Amazon
) or Globalhead (LibraryThing, Amazon
)

Neal Stephenson: Snow Crash (LibraryThing, Amazon
)

Pat Cadigan: Synners (LibraryThing, Amazon
)

Rudy Rucker: Software (LibraryThing, Amazon
)

What kind of Reader am I?

DrCris — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 22:51:25 +0000

What Kind of Reader Are You? Your Result: Obsessive-Compulsive Bookworm You’re probably in the final stages of a Ph.D. or otherwise finding a way to make your living out of reading. You are one of the literati. Other people’s grammatical mistakes make you insane.
Dedicated Reader
Literate Good Citizen
Book Snob
Fad Reader
Non-Reader
What Kind of Reader Are You? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

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