Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Books, blogs, auto charger, iRex and Barnes & Noble - Update2

UPDATED 8/25/09 to correct the recommendation for the Ambrose Pierce Devil's Dictionary, as that edition has problems with the Table of Contents.
  Original posting was 8/24/09 at 10:12 am

1. Kindle Blogs & News Feeds
Many will have received in email a notice that the Kindle Daily Post is now available for the Kindle.  This Amazon Kindle-dedicated blog contains the daily Kindle news we've been able to read on the Kindle device only when we were at the 'store' while Kindling with wireless turned 'On.'  I suppose that was because we'd also be more likely to buy something while there.  In the meantime, people like me then seldom saw this otherwise interesting daily.
  Now you can get that daily blog for your Kindle at no cost.

  Another blog available along with 7,000+ other ones Amazon offers for the Kindle device is this one, Kindleworld.  Delivery includes the full text of Kindleworld's latest 25 articles (with images), delivered whenever there's a new entry or updated information (usually daily).  Each Kindle delivery replaces the previous one, so there's no clutter.

 Selecting this blog, if you haven't subscribed earlier, starts a 14-day free trial.  The Kindle version is easier to navigate than the usual RSS feeds are on a Kindle and you can search the blog for info in the latest 25 articles, which might be worth 99c/mo. for some.

2. It's time for the irregularly repeated low-cost books reminder.
  Be sure to check out the most recent Free and under $1 books in the blog entry listing links for those.
  I've added a listing sorted by NEWEST first, for free non-classics there.

3. UPDATED 8/25/09. The photo of Bierce below links you to the best under-$1 edition of Ambrose Bierce's Devil's Dictionary, republished by Xinware Corporation in Canada, Jan. 2008, and with a working Table of Contents and very good formatting.
 The cover for that one is seen on the right.
  The book highlighted yesterday had problems with the table of content links, and some of the quotations did not wrap well.  Amazon will give a refund for a book that is giving you problems if reported within 7 days.  Call 866-321-8851 to request the refund.

  While there are several editions offered on the Amazon page - most do not have working table of contents and have very rudimentary formatting.  I sampled each one under $1, and one sample even froze my Kindle causing me to need to reboot or reset it twice.  The 80c version I link to here was the best of those under $1 and I didn't try any above that dollar amount, as I'm very happy with this one.  The free one from Project Gutenberg froze my DX each of 3 times I tried it, so I can't recommend the one there right now.

UPDATED 8/25/09 - LATER.  Elmo let me know tonight of a free Devil's Dictionary file made available by "vivaldirules" at MobileRead Forums.  This is extremely well formatted with quotations in italics.  You can get it from their site.  Thanks, Elmo!

Typical of the definitions in this often hilarious and always cynical classic is:
" Gold n. A yellow metal greatly prized for its convenience in the various kinds of robbery known as trade..."
  Caution: the book, 90 yrs old, is wholly impolitic.

4. Auto Charger for the Amazon Kindle 2 and Kindle DX.

5. iRex signs up with Barnes and Noble.  This doesn't appear to be an exclusive arrangement, unlike the one with Plastic Logic where B&N will be PL's sole book store.  Current large-screen iRex models average $850 and that's before any monthly cellular wireless access charges.  Not likely to be (successfully) after the Amazon audience at that price. Below are ways to Share this post if you'd like others to see it.
-- The Send to Kindle button works well only on Firefox currently.

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8 comments:

  1. Bierce Bierce!!!

    By the way, it's available for free at
    http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/972

    El

    ReplyDelete
  2. Picky picky! :-) What's in a name. Just call me Pasten!

    Thanks, Elmo. Are there differences in the formatting that are pluses? Minuses? I notice these go through various revisions, only months apart.

    ReplyDelete
  3. More info, pro and con

    From the Amazon customer reviews of the book:
    =======
    1. The large font is a plus in this book. Good illustrations.

    2. This particular edition is a reprint of Bierce's original authorized edition which is becoming hard to find. Most publishers seem to feel the need to delete some of the politically incorrect definitions that were part of the time and place of America around the turn of the twentieth century.

    Others can't seem to help themselves; they add their own definitions which are often not funny or clever and are nowhere near authentic. It is like having an amateur artist add a few brushstrokes, here and there, to a Rembrandt painting. This edition does not do that injustice to this wonderful book

    3. [ Another person says this is an abridged version. ]

    4. The Bloomsbury edition illustrated by Ralph Steadman is ABRIDGED. Do not purchase unless you are buying it for the drawings.

    =======

    ReplyDelete
  4. I have the Gutenberg verion on my K2. Do any of those that require a minor payment have URLs that at least go to various letters?

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous, the current Gutenberg version froze my DX. I've updated the entry to link to an edition that is 80 cents, at Amazon, which has working hyperlinks in the Table of Contents, that go to each letter of the alphabet -- and it has good formatting and layout also. Hope you enjoy that one.
    - Andrys

    ReplyDelete
  6. Andyrs,

    This is anonymous.

    Thanks for the information. The Gutenberg version did not freeze my K2.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Bob, your name came through but there's no email involved to contact you and I'm not allowed to edit your note. But what you say helps re Project Gutenberg as far as other feedback.

    Thanks. Did you download it today? Or before. My download was from the Magic Catalog late last night.

    I'll try it again tonight after getting through email. I tried opening that file about 3 times, with "Unexpected Error" being the message each time, as I thought it had to be a temporary thing but maybe it had been corrupted in the sending.

    - Andrys
    PS If I should just delete your entire note, let me know, but I think it's helpful.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I should add - to contact me in email, instead of in Comments, you can write andrys1 [at] yahoo.com

    ReplyDelete

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