Here’s our last links update of the decade. First though, we’ve updated our eReader Comparison page as well as our Best Ways to Get eBooks, so check them out. Both will be seeing quite a few more updates in the coming weeks and months as much is happening with ereaders and ebook sellers. In fact, we’ve got a lot of changes planned for C4 in the near future as well; we’ll be posting on many of them at some point in January. Also, be sure to check out our Best Books of 2009 series if you haven’t already. We’ll be continuing the series through January.
The PRS-300, "Pocket Edition," has a smaller screen than the 505, a simplified interface, and no mp3 or picture capability. It also comes in gray and black.
For nearly a year now, I’ve used a PRS-505, and I’ve recommended it without reservation for those who want to casually read books (i.e. won’t need to take notes) and don’t read newspapers. It has the best build quality and the best interface of any ereader I’ve used, and the most logical feature set for book readers.
So how does the newer PRS-300, Pocket Edition, stack up? Some critics have said the 300 is stripped down—it doesn’t have many of the extra features of ereaders like the Kindle.
Well, I got one for Christmas for my sister (and got a deal on it—TeleRead also found this deal), and after getting a chance to play around with it, I can tell you it’s every bit as good as the PRS-505 and might actually be better.
Here’s the fourth installment of our Best Books of 2009 series, all about nonfiction. Keep up with the rest of the series here.
And now for something a little different…
Yes, the books I’m about to recommend all came out this year (at least in paperback), and, yes, I can absolutely recommend these books to interested readers without any hesitation on my part. But before reading on, you might just want to consider one word of warning: poetry.
It’s not a subject we’ve touched on much here at C4, but it is a subject we (or at least I) would like to address more in the coming year since digital publishing has implications for this form, too. For now, I’d simply like to offer, in no particular order, four new titles from four of my favorite poets as a reminder to anyone out there who might care to know it that good poetry is still being written today. … Continue reading »
Merry Christmas from C4 (and our best to whatever other holidays you may–or may not–enjoy this year). Rather than put together a list of obvious Christmas/Hanukkah book choices, I figured I’d share some recommendations for novels that focus on family coming together, and to a lesser degree that explore a suburban culture that, at least in America, seems to have blended in definition with that feeling we think of as ”holiday spirit.” (All links go to C4 reviews.)
Liars and Saints was the first book that came to mind when I becan compiling this list. Maile Meloy‘s debut novel nicely tangles then untangles generations of a family as messed up as our own always seem to be.
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This Is Where I Leave You, by Jonathan Tropper, is actually quite similar to Liars and Saints. It’s a little funnier, and a little less complex.
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Wonderboys would represent the apex of most authors’ careers. But Michael Chabon is a special case, and wonderful (sorry) as this book is, it’s probably not as good as The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay or (I’m told) The Yiddish Policemens’ Union. This book gets pretty madcap, and a lot of the family stuff is secondary, but this excellent book nails the suburban thing.
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White Noise is the bleakest novel in this list. Don DeLillo’s books don’t tend to be cheery, so this shouldn’t come as much surprise. Being pretty postmodern, it’s not the most casual of reads, but it’s an excellent book worth reading. Also nails the suburban thing.
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Lolita, by Vladimir Nabokov. I’m probably the only person to recommend Lolita as a holiday read but I make a point to recommended this book at any given opportunity. It does, however, fit into this category quite nicely. This is in part becuase Nabokov does an exceptional job of capturing 50′s suburban kitsch better than any photograph ever can.
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Middlesex is a broad book to say the least. It covers generations of a family and at the same time chronicles the modern era in America. Eugenides is an excellent writer, and this book is a tour de force of his mastery of both plotting and narration. As much as the book fits this list, my real pick by Jeffery Eugenides is…
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The Virgin Suicides, which is probably one of the finest examples of a suburban novel I’ve ever come across. It is narrated by a collective “we” of a group of boys who develop an obsession with 5 sisters who were suicides. The first person plural cleverly and humorously compares suburbia to the choruses of classic poetry, which is perfeect to say the least.
We’ll have some Christmas reading recos tomorrow, and then we’ll be back on the 28th with a new installment of our Best Books 2009 series.
In the meantime, here’s an extra-long installment of news about books and ebooks from around the web.
OverDrive released an Android audiobook app Monday (via). You can get it here. I’ve tried it, and it’s awesome. You can download mp3 audiobooks from you local library straight to your phone. Once you have the app installed, just check out the book from your library on your phone’s browser, and OverDrive automatically loads it. You can then download the audiobook in parts. Transferring audiobooks from your computer isn’t supported with Android devices (at least, on Macs)—it goes through iTunes for some reason—but it’s not necessary. This is still in beta, but I didn’t get so much as a hiccup in my few days using it. The Android app only works with mp3s—no WMA books (sadly, since the vast majority are WMAs, for now)—and an OverDrive smartphone app is also available for Windows Mobile.
Barnes & Noble’s Nook is turning out to be more popular than they’d expected. More news of shipping delays has surfaced, along with customer service snafus. Although, if you don’t get your Nook by Christmas, you get $100, so things could be worse. Meanwhile, switch11 at the Kindle Review has posted a quick hands-on comparison of the Nook and the Kindle. If you can’t guess from the title of his blog, switch11 leans heavily toward the Kindle in ereader comparisons; however, he seemed to like the Nook, especially for its clearer font. Personally, the features and mixed reviews of the Nook, combined with the hamfistedness of its rollout, have me more excited for Spring Design’s Alex ereader, which—so far—seems a lot like the Nook, only better. Maybe this update will help. (Update: it didn’t help much.)
Macworld has reviewed seven major ereaders—find the roundup here. Surprisingly, their favorite was the Sony PRS-600, the Touch. They dinged the PRS-300—which you can get extra-cheap these days if you’re a student or teacher—for not having a dictionary or image support. If you don’t care about those things and you read mostly novels, the 300′s your best bet, in my opinion. Macworld finds the Kindle’s controls kludgy, and while whispernet’s great, you’re going to be spending most of your time reading, not downloading books.
Here’s a couple of anti-DRM pieces. One by Cory Doctorow (via), one by switch11 (see above). Also, David Pogue’s DRM experiment has found (unscientifically) that lack of DRM has no effect on sales. And, the scary Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement threatens to be a DMCA for the whole world (that’s bad).
The Anthologist is a book that’s hard to summarize, because it doesn’t have much of a plot to speak of. Paul Chowder is a middling poet with an unenviable career, who has compiled an anthology of rhyming poetry soon to be published. Paul is a procrastinator, and his dalliance in finishing the introduction for the book in time for his deadline exemplifies his attitude toward the rest of his life. Even when his girlfriend leaves him and finances crumble to nothing, Paul just wants to read and muse upon poetry. And the meat of this book is comprised of those musings. … Continue reading »
Here’s the third installment of our Best Books of 2009 series, all about nonfiction. Keep up with the rest of the series here.
Zeitoun, by Dave Eggers
Perhaps you know Eggers for his earlier work—his memoir, his first novel, his story collection—each brilliant, but each also a product of a writer willing to let attempts at amusement get in the way of storytelling. Zeitoun is not of that lineage. Here, Eggers realizes the strength of the story, and allows it carry the load.
The book’s central figure, Abdulrahman Zeitoun, is a Syrian immigrant and business owner who has built quite a comfortable life for himself in New Orleans. He has an American wife, three children, and is a responsible and hardworking citizen. When his wife and children evacuate the city in anticipation of Katrina, Zeitoun stays behind to look after their house and a few of their properties. In the storm’s aftermath, Zeitoun paddles around the streets in a canoe to help other stranded residents. Then he mysteriously disappears.
What happens to Abdulrahman Zetioun is unjust and sickening, and Eggers does an excellent job of letting that story speak for itself. This book is a terrific piece of journalism, revealing an appalling aspect of Katrina recovery. Eggers has a point to make with this book; he does so without being preachy. In a way, his point seems to make itself. As readers, we can only hope Eggers’s future projects are similar to this.
Say goodbye to paying an extra $15 for two pieces of cardboard
There’s been some kerfuffle recently about Amazon losing two dollars on every ebook they sell. Publishers are arguing, among other things, that $9.99 ebooks will lead to authors not writing books. Other ebookstores are calling Amazon’s price point “predatory.” Frankly, I don’t buy too much of that, nor the whispers that ebook retailers will have to raise prices. And I’m more than a little skeptical about the $2 loss figure.
Instead, I see all this as evidence that the hardcover is dying. The $25 hardcover book is every bit as unsustainable in a digital world as $18 CDs were ten years ago. And good riddance. It’s a terrible business model that will only lead to entrenchment in non-digital strategies and financial heartache for the publishing industry.
The Astak Pocket Pro (my review here) is selling for $99 at BooksOnBoard. What’s the catch? Well, the catch is that you have to buy $400 worth of BooksOnBoard ebooks. I haven’t shopped there in a while, but from a brief glance through their selection, most of their ebooks are $9.98, with new/popular releases going for $14.98, about $5 more than Amazon and Sony. Doesn’t quite add up, but it’s out there.
Author: Nicholson Baker
