Glens Falls (NY) Online Book Discussion Group discussion
ABOUT BOOKS AND READING
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What are you reading or what books have you read or heard about? (Part TWELVE) Ongoing general thread.
Hi Jim. It all seems like Greek to me. On May 10 my new Kindle Fire Tablet arrived from Amazon. I am finding it very difficult to learn to use. Little by little, by trial and error I'm learning, but I'm finding it very frustrating. When I need help, I call Amazon and they are good about helping me learn the ropes.
PS-Jim, here's the link to my Kindle Fire Tablet: http://www.amazon.com/Amazon-Fire-HD-...
"Fire HD 10 Tablet, 10.1" HD Display, Wi-Fi, 16 GB"
Nice. I got the DX since it has epaper which means it isn't backlit like the Fire is. The DX doesn't do much on the Internet (anything really) but it can get books from Amazon. It's nice to read on, though.
What's the advantage of not having the screen backlit? I notice I can change my Tablet's background to sepia (and maybe other colors) instead of white. Say, can I do that on my PC... or at least dim it a bit?My touch-typing skills are wasted on the little keyboard on the Fire Tablet. I wonder if touch-typing is used much by kids anymore.
However, I noticed that the eye doctor's assistant used her typing skills to type very quickly on her special keyboard as the doctor reported what he was seeing inside the patient's eye during an eye exam.
So touch-typing is still needed in some professions but it's not used on the little tablets nowadays. Looks like it's back to one finger typing! :)
There are a couple of advantages to not having the screen backlit. The biggest is eye strain. I look at monitors all day, so when I read at lunch or after I get home from work, it's a real break on my eyes. The other is power usage. Once the screen is drawn, no more power is used until I flip the page. I charge my DX once a month or so whether I'm reading or not. Of course, I keep the wireless connection off to preserve power, too. If I turn it on, it will drain the power in days.I prefer a real keyboard for typing & I do have a small one on the DX. I rarely use it, though. The kids seem to type with their thumbs more often than anything. It's not a skill that I have, although I'm OK as a touch typist. I learned on the computer since I never took a typing class in school. It was offered, but there were far more interesting classes. I doubled up on the maths & sciences every year in high school that I could. Instead, I learned to touch type on my first Atari computer playing a game called Word Invaders. It taught a row & then switched to a game of Space Invaders, but the bombs were letters & I had to type them to keep my cities from being blown up. It was a lot of fun.
I've always used the one-finger typing system. (It's a pity that they don't put the keys in alphabetical order.... Sigh! :-) )Yesterday, I started on a novel by a much-hyped Spanish author, Arturo Perez-Reverte, The Queen of the South. This is my second attempt to read it; I read the first three chapters back in 2009, and then abandoned it. However, plans are underway, over on the action-heroine website where I sometimes do book reviews, to review the Spanish-language TV miniseries adapted from the book. Since a review of the book would go nicely with this, I undertook to do one; but a fair one will require reading the entire book. It's possible that I might like it better after reading the whole thing --I've known that to happen on second tries of books that I've given up on prematurely earlier.
Nina wrote: "I agree with Joy, Werner I am certain with your dedication to books and writing reviews that are absorbing even if I don't want to read the book, you are a first class librarian."Thank you, Nina! (I didn't see your post until just now.)
Little did you all think you'd be typing most every day in your life but you did learn in your own way and time so maybe it didn't matter that you mastered it in school. I wonder if it is still offered as a class now.
Jim wrote: "There are a couple of advantages to not having the screen backlit. The biggest is eye strain. I look at monitors all day, so when I read at lunch or after I get home from work, it's a real break on... ... I learned to touch type on my first Atari computer playing a game called Word Invaders. It taught a row & then switched to a game of Space Invaders, but the bombs were letters & I had to type them to keep my cities from being blown up. It was a lot of fun."Yes, Jim, I can understand those advantages. Funny how you learned to touch type. :)
Jim, was one of the purposes of that Atari game to teach touch-typing? If it was, it was a good idea!
Most kids seem to learn typing out of self defense long before it would be offered in school & they all type faster than I do (I do around 50 wpm). Many use alternate keyboard layouts, too. The most common alternative is the Dvorak simplified.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dvorak_...
My oldest son used that for years. It makes a lot more sense. I had one user that used a custom alphabetic setup.
It's not like the old days when there was a mechanical reason for the standard, weird QWERTY layout.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QWERTY
It's easy enough to create a custom map & then just pop the keys off & put them on where you want. When I have to work on a different keyboard layout for any length of time, I use a regular keyboard & swap the keyboard map out briefly, but I can generally get by with the Dvorak layout.
It's like different keyboards & mice. I dislike using the split ergonomic keyboards, left handed mice, or the rollerballs, but I have to do it enough that I'm not totally lost. I'm completely ambidextrous with a mouse. Typically I use a right hand mouse with my left hand, though.
Werner wrote: "I've always used the one-finger typing system. (It's a pity that they don't put the keys in alphabetical order.... Sigh! :-) ) ..."I wonder why they didn't do that in the first place (put the keys in alphabetical order)! There must be some reasoning to the current key arrangement. I wonder how they figured that out.
As for picking up an abandoned book again after several years, I've done that with my current book which had been overdue back at the library at the time. The name of it is: Twins: And What They Tell Us about Who We Are by Lawrence Wright. Very interesting but I've spread myself too thin with trying to engage in too many activities online and it's taking away from my reading time... not to mention the time I'm spending trying to learn to use my new Kindle Fire Tablet!
Nina wrote: " [to Jim] Little did you all think you'd be typing most every day in your life... ... I wonder if it is still offered as a class now."Nina, I wonder the same thing (if typing is still offered as a class now)!
Joy H. wrote: "I wonder why they didn't do that in the first pla..."It looks like we both posted at the same time, but if you look at #511 & read the QWERTY article, you'll see the reason for the keyboard layout is so an early typewriter's keys wouldn't jam together. While this issue wasn't one on other brands & hasn't been an issue for well over a century, it became a standard.
Jim wrote: "It looks like we both posted at the same time, but if you look at #511 & read the QWERTY article, you'll see the reason for the..."Thanks for those links, Jim. I had already looked at Wiki's explanation for the QWERTY arrangement, chosen because of the jamming of the metal arms on the old typewriters.
I will check out your Dvorak Simplified Keyboard link later. I've saved the link.
Joy H. wrote: "Jim, what's a DX?"A Kindle DX, the thing I use to read ebooks on.
Actually, I took typing in high school in 1943. Maybe the offered it is because so many young women became secretaries. I never became one.
I have a great in high school and I'll ask him if they do have typing. I doubt he takes that class, however.
When I was about to buy my Kindle about two years ago both my son and a grandson advised me not to get one with lights for various reasons. So I didn't and have not regretted it.
Joy, the reason for the persistence into the present of the QWERTY layout, as it was explained to me orally (and I forget by whom; it was quite some time ago), is that this arrangement of keys facilitates touch typing --the letters accessed by the various fingers are designed to be closely accessible. That may or may not be true; you couldn't prove it by me, since I've never tried to learn touch typing. (As far as I remember, it wasn't offered in my high school.) I never considered it worth learning; I don't have to speed-type as a condition of my employment, and I've always considered accuracy more desirable than speed.
War Stories from the Future edited by August Cole is a free collection of near future SF stories that are short & to some very intriguing points. My 4 star review has the link & a short review of each story.https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Now the kids take key boarding starting in elementary school according to my teacher daughter.
That makes sense. They should. Kids have to use computers early on. 25 years ago, my kids found it important, although not required. Now it is.
We've certainly come a long way thanks to science. Cracked.com posted this fun bunch of comparisons.http://www.cracked.com/photoplasty_10...
Yes, we have come a long way but what has impressed me the most having lived through my early life and my older children's early lives I am the most impressed for the invention of the polio vaccine. Those were truly scarey times before that vaccine.
Werner wrote: "Joy, the reason for the persistence into the present of the QWERTY layout, as it was explained to me orally (and I forget by whom; it was quite some time ago), is that this arrangement of keys faci..."Werner, that's probably true. It makes sense. They really had to think the whole process through to come up with the plan. I wonder how they approached it. Now that I touch type automatically, I can't analyze the whys and wherefores.
Jim wrote: "We've certainly come a long way thanks to science. Cracked.com posted this fun bunch of comparisons.http://www.cracked.com/photoplasty_10..."
Thanks for the link, Jim. It's all so amazing. Some of that tech stuff is so new to me that it seems like a foreign language!
Joy H. wrote: "Werner, that's probably true. It makes sense. They really had to think the whole process through to come up with the plan. ..."No, it wasn't really planned. The QWERTY arrangement of keys was simply to accommodate the mechanics of the first typewriters so they wouldn't jam as often. It actually prompted one of the first studies of the recurrence of letters in the alphabet & they were spread out from there, limited by the mechanical linkages.
A lot of other systems have been tried & some have supposedly been faster, but other studies have often cast doubt on it. They've gone back & forth on this fairly often. It's certain that it's mostly inertia that's carried along QWERTY. It was there firstest with the mostest & any attempt to change alienated too many prior users to make it worth the attempt.
Jim, yes, I remember the metal arms on the early typewriters. No more metal arms! It's amazing how things have changed. Sometimes it's hard to believe but there it is, right in front of us. At times it still seems like magic to me. :)
That's very interesting. I somehow never gave a thought as to the order of the letters on the keys. It was enough for me to just learn to type.
Joy, I finished "My Life with Cary," and I think that's the title but unfortunately I deleted the goodreads column with your review of that book. Please post it again for me. I will comment after I read yours.
Nina wrote: "Joy, I finished "My Life with Cary," and I think that's the title but unfortunately I deleted the goodreads column with your review of that book. Please post it again for me. I will comment after I..."Nina, here's my review to Dear Cary: My Life with Cary Grant by Dyan Cannon.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Nina wrote: "I commented."Yes, Nina, I saw your comment at my review. I replied to your comment there.
I guess that now we both feel the same way about Cary Grant. :) Another dream smashed and down the drain! LOL
Barb and I are continuing our reading of Suzanne Arruda's Jade del Cameron series with the fourth novel, The Leopard's Prey. This one finds Jade back in the Kenya colony, and working with an American company that's trapping animals for U.S. zoos.
Werner wrote: "Barb and I are continuing our reading of Suzanne Arruda's Jade del Cameron series with the fourth novel, The Leopard's Prey. This one finds Jade back in the Kenya colony, and working..."Werner, I see that Africa and Kenya are featured. That should make it very interesting. Is there much about the animals too?
Well, Joy, we've only read a few pages of this one so far, but I'd say that there will probably be a fair amount of attention given to the animals. Animals play an important role in the first two novels of the series, Mark of the Lion and Stalking Ivory (especially elephants in the latter), and Arruda provides interesting information about them; but unlike Jean Auel, she doesn't shoehorn her natural history information into the text in long lectures. She's much better at integrating it into the narrative.
Werner, that sounds like a good thing... "the integrating".Years ago I read Auel's The Clan of the Cave Bear and really enjoyed it. But I don't remember much about how she presented the natural history, one way or another. I just enjoyed the story.
Barb and I read all of the first five books in the Earth's Children series together (and she still occasionally rereads them to herself); The Clan of the Cave Bear got five stars from me, and Ayla is one of my all-time favorite fictional heroines. So Auel's occasional lapses into lecture mode didn't keep me from enjoying the story, either!
I read it so long ago I can't remember it but think I did like it.
Werner, Barb sounds like a great reader! You two a well-matched.
Joy H. wrote: "Werner, Barb sounds like a great reader! You two a well-matched."Yes, Joy, we truly are, in that way and many more!
Despite his busy day job as a medical doctor, my Goodreads friend Andrew Seddon is a prolific writer; I've mentioned his work before on this thread. I've just started (yesterday) reading the latest book he's gifted me with, Eldritch Embraces: Putting the Love Back in Lovecraft, an anthology which includes one of his stories. Like most of Andrew's stories, it's one I've beta read; so I know this collection will have at least one good story in it! That's encouraging, since the first two selections in the book (which are the only ones I've read so far) didn't work for me.
Werner wrote: "Despite his busy day job as a medical doctor, my Goodreads friend Andrew Seddon is a prolific writer; I've mentioned his work before on this thread. I've just started (yesterday) reading the latest..."Werner, at least with a short story, you're not "stuck" with it for long. You can move on to something better in a short time. Thanks for posting.
Werner is the author at the following link your friend, Andrew Seddon? https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...Yes, I can see your name at his page as a "friend in common".
Yes, Joy, that's Andrew. He's a Goodreads author, but has never been very active here.True, an uncongenial short story isn't as bad as an uncongenial novel. And in a 32-story anthology, the odds of finding some that you like are pretty good! :-)
Werner, I hope you'll find more good ones than bad ones in that anthology!I recently had an interesting experience with an audible short story, Bringing Stan In. The first reading didn't impress me but when I went back and read it a second time, the story had more meaning for me. Sometimes you have to be "ready" to appreciate things. My review is here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I've been lax in posting my reading this week, but it's been another great one of reading.Red Rising by Pierce Brown was amazing. I've seen it compared to The Hunger Games, but that's doing it a grave disservice. It's so much better that it's not even in the same league. I gave it 5 stars in my review here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
A Briefer History of Time by Stephen Hawking should be required reading. I gave it 4 stars in my review here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Chain of Evidence by Garry Disher is a police procedural from Down Under & was surprisingly good. I gave it 4 stars in my review here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
My mistake: The Mitch Rapp series is a fun thriller & great in either audio or regular reading. Unfortunately, there are abridged versions of the audio floating around & I inadvertently listened to one. I rarely care for abridged versions of anything save for a few wordy classics (Moby Dick!). Action-thrillers should NEVER be abridged. It's like a cake with icing without the cake. Yuck. 2 stars was the best I could do.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I belong to Ravelry, a site for knitting & crocheting. There are groups there that are similar to here. One that I'm in has a topic where we keep updating our reading for the year. Here's my list:January
1) ”How We Got to Now: Six Innovations That Made the Modern World” by Johnson, Steven, (NF), 5 stars, audio
2) ”Gun Work” (Hard Case Crime #49) by Schow, David J., 3 stars, paper
3) ”Kick Back” (Wyatt #1) by Disher, Garry, 3 stars, ebook
4) ”The Aeronaut’s Windlass” (The Cinder Spires, #1) by Butcher, Jim, 4 stars, audio
5) ”Redemption - A Western by Wilson, Stephen (R2R) 2 stars, audio
6) ”Paydirt” (Wyatt, #2) by Disher, Garry, 3 stars, ebook
7) ”Last Words” by Koryta, Michael, 4 stars, audio
8) ”Hard Knocks” by Carr, Howie, 4 stars, audio
9) ”Blood Money” (Jane #5) by Perry, Thomas, 3 stars, audio
10) ”Deathdeal” (Wyatt #3) by Disher, Garry, 3 stars, ebook
11) ”City of Illusions” by Le Guin, Ursula K., 3 stars, audio
12) ”The John Deere Way: Performance that Endures” by Magee, David (NF) 3 stars, audio
13) ”Runner” (Jane Whitefield #6) by Thomas Perry, 3 stars, audio
February
14) ”Making Jack Falcone: An Undercover FBI Agent Takes Down a Mafia Family” by Joaquin “Jack” Garcia (NF) 4 stars, audio
15) ”This Dame For Hire” by Scoppettone, Sandra, 3 stars, audio
16) ”The Last Coyote” (Harry Bosch, #4) by Connelly, Michael, 3 stars, ebook
17) ”The Discovery of Socket Greeny” (Socket Greeny #1) written & narrated by Tony Bertauski, 5 stars, audio
18) ”The Training of Socket Greeny” (Socket Greeny #2) by Tony Bertauski, 4 stars, audio
19) ”The Legend of Socket Greeny” (Socket Greeny #3) by Tony Bertauski, 3 stars, audio
20)”The Maxwell Street Blues” (Paul Whelan #3) by Michael Raleigh, 3 stars, audio
21)”Robopocalypse” by Wilson, Daniel H., 4 stars, audio
22)”The Modern Scholar: Behold the Mighty Dinosaur” by Kricher, John C. (NF) 5 stars, audio
23)”Rattle of Bones” by Howard, Robert E., (SS), 4 stars, ebook
24)”The Red Badge of Courage” by Crane, Stephen, 3 stars, audio
25)”Dead I Well May Be” by Adrian McKinty, 4 stars, audio
26)”My Lucky Life In and Out of Show Business” by Dick Van Dyke (bio) 4 stars, audio
void)”Bone By Bone” by Carol O’Connell, narrated by Benjamin Harris, 1 star (DNF) audio
27)”The Poet” by Michael Connelly, 4 stars, ebook
March
28)”The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right” by Atul Gawande (NF) 5 stars, audio
29)”Rogue” by Mark T. Sullivan, 3 stars, audio
30)”Mist” by James Lee Burke, (SS) 3 stars, audio
31)”The Modern Scholar: Ecological Planet: An Introduction to Earth’s Major Ecosystems” by John C. Kricher, 5 stars (NF) audio
32)”Mob Cop: My Life of Crime in the Chicago Police Department” by Pascente, Fred, 4 stars (NF) audio
33)”The Revisionists” by Mullen, Thomas, 4 stars, audio
34)”Frames” (Valentino #1) by Loren D. Estleman, narrated by William Dufris, 3 stars, audio
35)”The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2015” by Rebecca Skloot (Editor), Tim Folger (Editor) (NF) 4 stars, paper
36)”The Body-Snatchers” by Stevenson, Robert Louis, (SS), 4 stars, audio
37)”Breakfast of Champions” by Vonnegut, Kurt, 2 stars, audio
38)”Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies” by Diamond, Jared (NF) 4 stars, audio
39)”Winter Of The Wolf Moon” (Alex McKnight, #2) by Steve Hamilton, narrated by Dan John Miller, 3 stars, audio
April
40)”The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution” by Walter Isaacson (NF) 5 stars, audio & ebook
41)”Trunk Music” (Harry Bosch #5) by Michael Connelly, 4 stars, audio
42)”The War Against the Assholes” by Sam Munson, 3 stars, audio
43)”The Fleece & Fiber Sourcebook” by Robson, Deborah (NF) 5 stars, paper
44)”The War Against the Assholes” by Munson, Sam, 3 stars, audio
45)”The Brotherhood of the Rose” by Morrell, David, 4 stars, paper
46)”Emergence” (David Hooper, #1) by Birmingham, John, 4 stars, audio
47)”Resistance” (David Hooper, #2) by Birmingham, John, 3 stars, audio
48)”Drayton, the Taker” by Bertauski, Tony, 4 stars, ebook
48.5)”Damage” by Levine, David D., 4 stars, (SS), ebook
49)”Ascendance” (David Hooper, #3) by Birmingham, John, 3 stars, audio
49.5)”Today I Am Paul” by Shoemaker, Martin L., (SS), 5 stars, ebook
49.6)”Hungry Daughters of Starving Mothers” by Wong, Alyssa, (SS), 4 stars, ebook
50)”Me the People” by Bleyer, Kevin, (DNF), 2 stars, audio
void)”Track of the Cat” (Anna Pigeon, #1) by Barr, Nevada (DNF) 1 star, audio
51)”FaceOff” edited by Baldacci, David, (SS), 4 stars, audio
52)”American Assassin” (Mitch Rapp #1) by Flynn, Vince, 4 stars, audio
53)”Blood Work” (Terry McCaleb #1) by Connelly, Michael, 4 stars, ebook
54)”Who Let the Dog Out?” (Andy Carpenter #13) by Rosenfelt, David, 4 stars, audio
55)”Why Men Fake It: The Totally Unexpected Truth about Men and Sex” by Morgentaler, Abraham (NF) 5 stars
56)”The Wind in the Willows” by Grahame, Kenneth, 5 stars, audio
May
57)”Control Point” (Shadow Ops, #1) by Cole, Myke, 3 stars, ebook
58)”Angels Flight” (Harry Bosch, #6) by Connelly, Michael, 4 stars, audio
59)”Kill Shot” (Mitch Rapp, #2) by Flynn, Vince, 4 stars, ebook
60)”The Devil & Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness & Obsession” by Grann, David, (NF), 5 stars, audio
61)”Transfer Of Power” (Mitch Rapp, #3) by Flynn, Vince, 3 stars, ebook
62)”American Gods” (10th Year Anniversary Edition) by Gaiman, Neil, 4 stars, audio
63)”The City on the Edge of Forever Teleplay” by Ellison, Harlan, 3 stars, audio
63.5)”Working for Bigfoot” (The Dresden Files, #15.5) by Butcher, Jim, 3 stars, audio
64)”This Is NPR: The First Forty Years” by Radio, National Public (NF) 4 stars, audio
65)”Void Moon” (Cassie Black #1) by Connelly, Michael, 4 stars, audio
66)”A Darkness More Than Night” (Harry Bosch, #7) by Connelly, Michael, 4 stars, audio
67)”The Fraternity Of The Stone” (Mortalis #2) by Morrell, David, 2 stars, paper
68)”Blood on Snow” by Johansen, Tom, 3 stars, audio
69)”The Road to Armageddon” by Collins, Larry, 4 stars, audio
70)”The League of Night and Fog” (Mortalis, #3) by Morrell, David, 4 stars, paper
71)”City Of Bones” (Harry Bosch, #8) by Connelly, Michael, 4 stars, audio
72)”The Third Option” (Mitch Rapp #4) by Flynn, Vince (abridged!), 2 stars, audio
73)”Chain of Evidence” by Disher, Garry, 4 stars, audio
June
74)”A Briefer History of Time” by Hawking, Stephen (NF) 4 stars, audio
75)”Red Rising” (Red Rising Trilogy, #1) by Brown, Pierce, 5 stars, ebook
Glens Falls (NY) Online Book Discussion Group
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Well, no big deal. For now they still have a lot of CDs around, but they're becoming a limiting factor. A lot of the newer audio books are only available as files, just like a lot of new books are only available as ebooks. It's not a huge limit yet, but it may become one shortly. CDs are a lot more expensive for the library to stock & deal with than the files are.
There are hybrid solutions out there. One of our libraries now loans out cheap MP3 players with a book on it. A person on GR wrote that theirs had the books on a thumbdrive with a built-in player. It's pretty incredible that such sophisticated devices are now an alternative to a CD.