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Kindle for PC vs. Barnes and Noble eReader

posted Tuesday, November 10, 2009 11:22 AM by hussain

B&N eReader has over the Kindle for PC...
  • Ability to read in a two page layout, as if it were a book

Kindle for the PC is missing...
  • Search
  • Text-to-Speech

Kindle for the PC has, over the regular Kindle
  • Ability to see Notes and Marks at the same time as the text
  • Color thumbnail view of book covers
  • Buttons to easily sort by Most Recent, Title and Author
  • Buttons to easily switch between Home and Archived Items

Add your own converted content to the Kindle for PC documents directory, "My Kindle Content"
Kindle for PC documents are located (Vista/W7): C:\Users\you\Documents\My Kindle Content

Kindle for PC syncs only the Amazon-downloaded content between PCs.

Free Kindle books on Amazon: sorted by price and more free books

B&N eReader
Kindle for PC
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Sony & Google Team up for Public Domain books

posted Friday, March 20, 2009 6:53 AM by hussain

There're sources for public domain books out there - Project Gutenberg and Manybooks, the latter of which supplies them in many formats - but no one's as large as Google, period. Now, as many outlets have reported, Sony & Google have teamed up to release public domain e-books in the ePub format from http://books.google.com/ (Google Blog Post).

This is a huge win for all readers, including the Kindle, even though it might not seem so right away. Granted, the ePub format isn't supported directly by the Kindle. That can be corrected by a future software push if Amazon wishes, but until then there are free software alternatives to convert ePub to the Kindle's mobi format. Software like Calibre, a pretty full featured ebook manager/converter will do, although I prefer my own Kindle Converter which sits on top of the mobigen command-line converter.

http://books.google.com/books?q=subject:"+Science+Fiction+"&rview=1&as_brr=1
That as_brr=1 is "Full View Only" in a search and that indicates public domain books.

The big difference between Project Gutenberg and Google (apart from Google's ~500k scans vs. PG's ~100k) is that Project Gutenbergs's have been proofread. Google's docs have typos!

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Amazon, DMCA, DRM and Mobileread

posted Monday, March 16, 2009 12:22 PM by hussain

Mobileread, a user-driven site that assists e-book enthusiasts access to public-domain knowledge around existing ebooks and ebook reader community support, has a series of wiki pages that describe how to use all sorts of devices and user-supplied support programs.

There are many sources for e-books and many formats. One of the most popular, and the one relevant to this article, is the Mobipocket format. Mobipocket is a format of e-book produced by the Mobipocket company, now owned by Amazon. E-book providers, other than Amazon, use the Mobipocket format, notably OverDrive, a large technology supplier for public libraries around the country. Some public libraries that use the Mobipocket OverDrive DRM (OD) allow their users to "check out" e-books and read them, typically with Mobipocket desktop software.

One of the support utilities described on the Mobileread site was called kindlepid.py, a Python-language script that displayed an e-book reader's device Personal ID (PID) created by Igor Skochinsky in 2007 when the Kindle version 1 was released. This PID is used to encode DRM-secured e-books from other vendors, whether it's OverDrive-enabled libraries or other public sellers. Amazon Kindle users who want to view DRM-protected e-books from these vendors can use their Kindle's PID to "fix" e-books so that they're able to be read on the Kindle (or, for that matter, their iPhone/iPod Touch with the Amazon Kindle app).

Mobileread, the user-driven site, had step-by-step instructions on how to download, install and use kindlepid.py to obtain a device PID. This script does not break, hack, crack, or remove the DRM from an e-book in any way but obtains the PID that's on the device. It enables legally purchased e-books to be read these e-books on legally purchased e-book readers.

The "fixing" part is enabled by another, separate, software script that was also described on the Mobileread site which utilizes the PID, kindlefix.py. This shifts the location of the PID in the DRM'd e-book file so that the Kindle (or iPhone Kindle app) can find it.

Amazon seems to have an issue with the kindlepid.py script and sent the owners of Mobileread.com a Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) "take-down" notice: asking Mobileread.com to remove references to kindlepid.py from their site, but not specifically with the kindlefix.py script.

Individuals posting on the Mobileread forms about this topic suggest that, since the kindlepid.py script has been around since 2007, Amazon is noticing this script now due to their release of the Apple iPhone/iPod Touch version of their Kindle reader. Additionaly, Amazon has removed "My Serial Number" which displayed a user's Kindle serial number from the "Manage My Kindle" page on their site around the same time that the iPhone/iPod Touch app was released. Posters also suggest that it's evidence that Amazon wants to control the origin of purchase and that this restriction of control may constitute a monopoly by preventing competition in the distribution channel. It was pointed out that Amazon's actions aren't restricting the publishing (that's already been covered by Amazon's assumed agreements with the publishers to DRM publisher's works and distribute them), but only where you obtain e-books from - only Amazon, not libraries or other vendors, such as BooksOnBoard and others.

Other posters take the angle that Amazon is attempting to preserve their relationship with publishers now that a Kindle app for the iPhone exists - preventing iPod owners who aren't entitled to buy from the Amazon store from using the app to read OverDrive or other vendor's DRM books. (#156, #158, #159) In light of the Author's Guild's issues with TTS and other e-book advocates' calls for support of formats other than Mobipocket, such as ePub, this line of thinking also seems logical.

And additional point that has been made by Kindle/Amazon watchers is that Amazon has been following an Apple-like trajectory for their product: from the exclusivity of distribution channel (iTunes store) to the DRM issue. Now that Apple's making a DRM-free iTunes store, some are wondering when Amazon's going to catch up. Catch up, at least with e-books, since Amazon already offers DRM-free mp3's for sale. Similar to the cycle of iTunes updates that "broke" hacked ("jailbroken") iPhones and iPod Touches, will Amazon look at the contents of a user's Kindle and remove any shifted DRM e-books? Amazon's Terms of Use for the Kindle states that Amazon can look into any Kindle and with their Whispernet connectivity possibly even update the firmware on the device to use a different DRM scheme and replace the DRM on DRM-protected e-books.

Is Amazon wielding the DMCA in "bad faith" in this situation? Is it even a proper use of the DMCA? Since neither the site or the scripts don't actually violate the DMCA, what's Amazon doing throwing it around?

Many long time Kindle advocates that frequent the forums are getting very discouraged at the "take down" notice that Amazon presented to Mobileread and are beginning to lose their enthusiasm for the product that made Kindle owners some of the most fervent supporters and source of free marketing. Some have even gone so far as to say they're no longer supporting Amazon, itself, which speaks to the wider issue of loss of customer loyalty. On the forums, disappointment ranges from expressing the feeling of loss of rights (feeling criminalized by reading library books), Sony e-reader owners breathing a sigh of relief feeling like they've chosen the correct device, to people considering dumping/returning their Kindles and purchasing an iLiad or waiting for another e-reader device such as the Wizpac Txtr.

From my personal experience as a Kindle 1 and Kindle 2 owner, I've loved them both, not just because I had portable reading device and not just because the screen is clear, but because I could put my own personal documents and personally converted documents onto the Kindle and the access to the Amazon Kindle store. The combination of personal freedom and access to a large existing market is what makes this device special to me and special enough to show off to anyone who's asked.

There are now several articles on this issue as well as a blog started by a Mobileread user, Dear Jeff Bezos.

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A New Kindle?

posted Tuesday, February 10, 2009 6:54 AM by hussain

Is it horrible that I want an 2nd Kindle now that they've announced a new, 2nd generation one?

Where's the replaceable battery and the SD expansion? I suspect with all the new features, those won't be missed:

  • Display: 6" diagonal E-Ink® electronic paper display, 600 x 800 pixel resolution at 167 ppi, 16-level gray scale.
  • Size (in inches): 8" x 5.3" x 0.36".
  • Weight: 10.2 ounces.
  • System requirements: None, because it doesn't require a computer.
  • Storage: 2GB internal (approximately 1.4GB available for user content).
  • Battery Life: Read on a single charge for up to 4 days with wireless on. Turn wireless off and read for up to two weeks. Battery life will vary based on wireless usage, such as shopping the Kindle Store and downloading content. In low coverage areas or in 1xRTT only coverage, wireless usage will consume battery power more quickly.
  • Charge Time: Fully charges in approximately 4 hours and supports charging from your computer via the included USB 2.0 cable.
  • Connectivity: EVDO modem with fallback to 1xRTT; utilizes Amazon Whispernet to provide U.S wireless coverage via Sprint's 3G high-speed data network (check wireless coverage). See Wireless Terms and Conditions.
  • USB Port: USB 2.0 (micro-B connector) for connection to the Kindle power adapter or optionally to connect to a PC or Macintosh computer.
  • Audio: 3.5mm stereo audio jack, rear-mounted stereo speakers.
  • Content Formats Supported: Kindle (AZW), TXT, Audible (formats 4, Audible Enhanced (AAX)), MP3, unprotected MOBI, PRC natively; PDF, HTML, DOC, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP through conversion.
  • Included Accessories: Power adapter, USB 2.0 cable, rechargeable battery. Book cover sold separately.

1 Comments

The Second Kindle Post

posted Saturday, December 27, 2008 10:21 PM by hussain

It's been slightly over a year since I got my Kindle and I've really had a great time with it - I pretty much carry it everywhere and I almost always have something to read. Almost. I do buy books from Amazon via their built-in whispernet service which downloads $10 ebooks in 20 or so seconds and I receive the Wall Street Journal daily (except Sundays).

I really like the fact that I can convert pdfs, html, txt, and even word docs to the Mobipocket format that the Amazon reader accepts via the Mobipocket Creator software. That takes time, though, to find and even format the documents into HTML (that's what the mobipocket "mobi" format is) that's readable and flows correctly. Sure, you can accept all the default settings and go, but PDFs tend to come out strangely. Lazy as I am, this leaves me with Amazon-sourced info.

Recently, I've wanted to have more than just the Amazon-offered publications. One of my favorites, Foreign Affairs, doesn't come in a digital format (I've asked), so I get my subscription bimonthly and carry it around for a while. Since most articles on the web (even this one) have a "print" format, I figured it's time to whip up a quick web page to prc (that's Amazon's synonym extension for "mobi") converter

It's a Windows UI ontop of Mobipocket's mobigen.exe (their command-line converter).

Once the mobigen.exe is downloaded and extracted, using KindleConverter is straightforward - set the mobigen.exe location in the preferences, point to a url, such as http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20070701faessay86401/barack-obama/renewing-american-leadership.html?mode=print, and convert.

KindleConverter.zip (Read Me)

As always, use with care and note the copyright usage of the sites whose articles you convert.

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The Top 1%

posted Saturday, February 09, 2008 10:31 AM by hussain
The other day, on the Democratic debates, again I heard Obama and Clinton railing against the "top 1%" with regards to tax cuts.  I've heard this before and pretty much just ignored it, on the assumption that, being an information worker, I may not be the "top 1%" but I sure do like them, and it can't be that bad that they're getting tax cuts or even benefiting from them.

So who are these "top 1%" people?  Looking around the web, I came across Berkeley economics professor Emmanuel Saez's article "Income Inequality in the United States, 1913-1998" (updated to 2003).  Here are some numbers (from 2005):

Category
 Income Threshold
 Average Income
 Number of Families
Bottom 90%
$29,487
 131 M
Top 10%
 $99,234
 $114,802
 7.3 M
Top 5%
 $140,125
 $195,742
 5.8 M
Top 1%
 $350,501
 $425,821
 729 K
Top 0.5%
 $545,933
 $871,546
 583 K
Top 0.1%
 $1,722,926
 $3,342,190
 131 K
Top 0.01%
 $9,585,704
 $26,340,290
 14.6 K


Full Population of people 145 million, average income $46,820
Bottom 90% 131 million, average income $28,947

We see them all the time - car cealers, the nightly news anchor in a decent sized metro (Denver, for example), your doctor.  We all probably know someone that's in the top 1%, if it's not our parents, then it's our friends parents.  Some of us even have college roommates who're now doctors or lawyers.

Piketty and Saez propose that progressive taxation, after the Great Depression and the two World Wars, kept the rebound of the top shares of income and wealth low to the point of not recovering to their pre WWI levels.  Even though recent technology (the computer revolution) has been more favorable to the gains of the upper income shares than in other periods through their study (1913 - 2003), the effects of progressive taxation has managed to keep that low.  They even mention that "any positive capital income tax rate above a given high threshold of wealth will eventually eliminate all large wealth holdings without affecting, however, the total capital stock in the economy" - in other words, if I'm reading this right, you can tax the very rich out of existance.  One might say, looking at their charts, that we already have a massive discrepancy in wealth.  They go on to say "[o]ur results suggest that the decline in income tax progressivity since the 1980s, the reduction in the tax rate for dividend income in 2003, and the projected repeal of the estate tax by 2011 might produce again in a few decates levels of wealth concentration similar to those of the beginning of the twentieth century."

Some factors that retarded the rebounding of wealth after WW1 and Great Depression

  • Corporate Taxation pre WW2
  • Increased enforcement of anti-trust law after 1930
  • WW2

The question for me is not "what causes income disparity?" or "what caused the income disparity?" but "how the heck do I get up that ladder?"

Implications regarding the Iraq/Afghanistan war, or any other "war rumblings" (Iran, etc.)

  • War hurts the economy and the wealthy in ways that are long term and disrupt predictive analysis

Implications regarding the upcoming election

  •  Democrats, who look to eliminate the repeal of the estate tax and increase taxes, will enivitably hurt the wealthy and possibly the viability of this country

Implications regarding moving up the ladder

  • Have capital income - buy and hold stocks, and set a profit target to sell - even though wars and progressive taxation slow the potential
  • Have dividend income - buy and hold stocks that pay a dividend - even though wars and progressive taxation slow the potential
  • Keep working - modern times requires that even the wealthy keep working.  For me, a corollary appeared: Since I don't like what I do, this is saying that there's no reality to my "escape dream" (I'll eventually have enough compounded interest or dividend income to just "stop working") and that aphorisms like "love your job" and "find a job you love to do" take on a bitter edge.  Note to self: Change careers (after making a bunch of money).
  • Don't just be a worker - own your own business

Reading on the Kindle

  • Reading on the Kindle's a joy and easy - I read more with a techno treat.
  • Mobipocket PDF conversion messed up the paragraph and section spacing, running all the text together.  Further, it placed the footnotes in-line with other text and breaks up the flow of the article.  The net effect was annoying, but it kept me engaged, otherwise I'd have gotten bogged down in the econotechnical details and fallen asleep. (Ok, I did actually fall asleep once.)
  • I was able to look up words I was unfamiliar with using the Kindle's internal dictionary which was helpful.  I'd already gone to my computer and Google by the time I remembered the feature, though.  Next time.

References

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The Kindle Post

posted Monday, December 24, 2007 10:11 PM by hussain

Yes, I bought an Amazon Kindle.  It arrived Friday, just as Heather was going in for a tonsilectomy.

Amazon's Kindle is an ebook reader device, not unlike the Sony Reader.  I decided on getting one after being intrigued with ebook readers ever since staying up all night reading Harry Potter 2 on my Handspring, but not feeling like there was any momentum behind the technology until Amazon's play.  The e-Ink technology does give a crisp view of text along the large screen size (it's the same screen size as the Sony Reader) and the EVDO "WhisperNet" that Amazon throws in boosts the device into a different class than the other ebook readers out there.  The Kindle's powered by a 400Mhz XScale-PXA255 [69052d06] revision 6 (ARMv5TE) and its backend and UI appear to be running Java ("booklets" anyone?).

I read the reviews on-line and took note of the extreme fanbois on the Amazon page as well as the haters - the device definitely attracts a lot of commentary. Despite all the controversy ("It's just another ebook reader") I figured I might as well try it out.

It's rather easy to navigate, with next page and previous page buttons along the side of the device and a scroll wheel for menu options, but with all the rage over the iPod Touch (and iPhone), not having a touch screen does seem less intuitive and a bit of a downer.  I read that it had a SD card interface, and I immediately stuck my 2 GB SanDisk into it, giving it more room for whatever I'd want to put on there.  The Kindle comes with 256mb in it (180mb avail). Then it struck me - I don't know what I'd put on it.

The device came with the Users Guide on it (as well as a letter from Jeff Bezos), but that was initially the only thing I could find to read on it until I found the "experimental" menu item.  The Experimental menu has three items in it: a web browser (user agent Mozilla/4.0+(compatible;+MSIE+6.0;+Windows+NT+4.0)+NetFront/3.3), "Ask Kindle NowNow" - ask a question and get three replies usually w/i 10 minutes (in theory, I asked a question and have yet to receive an answer - see Amazon's Mechanical Turk), and Play Music.  I've played with the web browser and it's not bad, though the keyboard leaves something to be desired.

Neat things in the reader - as I was reading the User Guide:

* Bookmarks - you can bookmark a page
* Notes - you can make a note on a line of page
* Look up - the built in dictionary can look up words on a line

The "space" bar is on the left hand side of the split keyboard and in the opposite place, on the right, is the search bar.  For me, at least, I had to consciously look and make sure I didn't accidentally hit "search" while I was making a note.

The screensavers are clever and remind me of old book etchings or Wall Street Journal pictures.  I'm not sure where they come from, but I'm hoping they're downloaded from Amazon's servers over their WhisperNet, which'd be really cool. The full page black and white images recall some great "ex libris" art and are a pleasure to look at.

The lack of content was pretty evident, although Amazon's twist on the ebook reader is to offer free cellular connectivity to their store, a discounted price on ebook versions of best sellers and subscriptions to newspapers and blogs.  Amazon's own Kindle content:  Books, haven't bought any, but you can get a free preview of 10 pages or so for each offering; Newspapers/Magazines, haven't tried any; and Blogs, not gonna do it - seems silly, at best. The last bit, blogs, got me, since those are almost always free and the Kindle has a web browser in it.

As other people have found out, the Kindle's experimental browser's javascript is lacking, so Google's Reader is out.  Bloglines works ok, sometimes. Ultimately, though, reading the web in text-only mode is a bit boring.  For a while, when cellphones didn't have Opera or some similar browser internally, WML and the "text web" was making somewhat of a push, but I haven't seen a lot of that lately.  Maybe the Kindle'll fire up people writing "text-only" sites, like the iPhone has launched "iPhone compatible" sites.

The next content was mine own - two categories: documents I have in digital form (technical documentation) and content I've written or friends have written.  Jack is writing book.  I make book go on Kindle. 

I also used Amazon's @free.kindle.com e-mail to mail Word docs (Microsoft CRM docs) and received them via e-mail converted to Amazon's AZW DRM protected ebook format for free.  (If I used the @kindle.com, Amazon would send the converted document directly to the Kindle for $0.10)  I can then USB up Kindle to computer and move over file.  Using Mobipocket's free content creator, I can convert pdf's, docs, and html to prc files and move those over (my preferred method) to the SD card.

Of course, the torrentsphere is rife with free ebooks and I've yet to look into converting those.  Vast quantity, questionable quality.

As a writer, there seems to be a whole series of support that Amazon's attempting to provide, from their Digital Text Platform, to the promotion of ebook reading.

Format wise, it's about the right size.  There're some quirks with the interaface (the major complaint - and I could see why within 5 minutes of using the device - is that the paging buttons are too easily accidentally pressed) but ultimately, it looks like it'll be pretty useful.  All I need to do is get more content onto it.  The allure of carrying all my technical books in one small form factor is very appealing.

It's just one more thing I'll have to carry around.  And I'm still working on integrating my iPod Touch into my digital life.

Negatives:

* Laggy UI
* Keyboard has a sticky phone keypad feel to it
* Some parts of the UI are non-intuitive (web browsing selecting, looking up a definition of a word (you have to look up the whole line))
* The paging buttons make it impossible to grab the device w/o turning a page, unless in sleep mode
* Come on guys, I know it's not an iPod, but at least a stylus or touch screen


Some great Kindle links
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The Future of Futurists

posted Monday, May 08, 2006 10:55 AM by hussain

As per usual, I'm in the middle (or beginning) of a bunch of books, and Ray Kurtzweil's Singularity is Near is one of them. I'm a big fan of having excuses to ignore what passes as "work" these days, so I'm a bit sad that I just found out about The Singularity Summit going on at Stanford in a few days. I totally would've been up for an excuse to ditch this and pretend to be really smart.  (My last escapist travel / personal betterment failure was the Ruby on Rails conference in Vancouver.)

Yaay for GNR (not guns & roses - Genetics, Nanotech and Robotics!)

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Just like everyone else

posted Monday, April 24, 2006 11:20 PM by hussain

I found this 1967 book at a yearly Brandeis U's Women's Committee benefit booksale in Old Orchard Mall's parking lot, sometime in the late 70's early 80's

"The trouble with non-conformity today is that unless you do it properly, "in" non-conformists will call you a square. In this book Elissa Jane Karg, who at sixteen is an expert, takes you by the hand and introduces you into the real world of non-conformity..."

Thanks to I Must Be Emo for getting me to revisit a favorite book of mine.

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How do you feel about it?

posted Saturday, April 08, 2006 2:46 PM by hussain

I'm reading Moazzam Begg's Enemy Combatant, about this British national's experience from being caught up in a sweep in Afghanistan and held at Bagram and Guantanamo, to being freed in 2005 w/o charges. Here's a quote from Clive Stafford Smtih, his British death row lawyer talking to him, while Begg was in Gitmo:

In the US they have always hated black people, but never feared them. During the Cold War, they feared the Soviets, but never hated them. With the Muslim world, they fear you and hate you.

That seems to about sum it up for now.

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Two Short Book Reviews, plus

posted Saturday, December 24, 2005 9:27 PM by hussain

A few weeks ago, I read Salman Rushdie's latest Shalimar the Clown and absolutely loved it.  It's a story of jilted Kashmiri husband turned terrorist motivated by revenge on the person who caused him the pain of his lost wife and how his life's unraveled story comes to be intertwined with his American half-daughter, named India.  This book spoke to me in many ways, as Rushdie's books often do, and  I can only guess the impact would be less so for someone who's not familiar with the combo of India, Islam, the West, and of course a healthy penchant for the present and past of diplomacy and terror.  Rushdie writes chapters in many perspectives - from the young, lithe half-Kashmir, half-European India (and yes, the irony is intended), to her Ambassador father Max Ophuls, to her Kashmiri mother Boonyi, to Noman/Shalimar the husband of Boonyi and terrorist.  Like many of his other books, the narrative's laced with enough Hindi and Kashmiri words and customs (and food) as to be enticingly exotic yet homey. 

It'd be easy to write things like "Rushdie makes density feel diaphanous and subtle.  It was a true joy to read the words written.  The story was poignant, capricious, exciting and topical." but none of that really matters.  The story is grippy and the guy's literally a genius (there's a redundant pun in there, struggling to come out).  It was an easy read and wholly pleasurable, except for the mornings after the many nights up til 4am.  The topicality of the book comes directly from the beautiful descriptions of Kashmir (where there was just a quake) and the Pakistani-Indian political relations centering around Kashmir, the obvious Islamist terrorist references in Kashmir, Afghanistan and Indonesia, and the modernesque descriptions of LA.

Then, most recently (ie today), I finished a book that I'd given Jack that, once he read it, insisted I read: Gene Wolfe's Shadow & Claw.  Science-fantasy isn't my genre anymore and I was a bit hesitant.  I find myself picking up non-fiction to force calm upon my ADD mind and lately, travel books.  I'll occasionally pick up a fiction book, like Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go (which I also gave my highest rating of "absolutely loved" due to a great many things, such as the dystopian setting and the slight mystery of the narrator's identity, though I didn't write about it) that'll make me less skeptical about the genre, or Daum's Quality of Life Report (which I found to be almost an utter waste of time and will probably be snapped up by Hollywood to be made into a coming-of-age-empowerment movie) that makes me never want to read fiction ever again (I can just go to the movies).  Reading science fiction/fantasy as a genre of choice, though, had ended for me after Tolkien and Herbert. 

To clearly explain this book, I'm compelled to use a metaphor. To ride a horse you first must not be afraid of it, for it will smell fear on you and buck you straight away.  With Wolfe, he starts out clearly indicating that even though it looks and smells and acts like a horse, it's not, it's a destrier and that word substitution alone is enough for you to forget you're riding a horse-that's-not-a-horse until it's obvious you're already on it and trotting away.  That's fine.  The first half of the book (Shadow & Claw are actually two books in one, but I'm going to refer to the text between the covers as one) is an intriguing and well written (what I thought to be) Conan-story of cloistered journeyman Severian and his adventures towards the throne. 

There's enough in the first half of the book - a first-person narration in an autobiographical style of the travails of a postmodern, postapocalyptic medieval Torturer - to hint not so subtly that there's a long mythological history behind so much of the odd language and words of the cultural phenomena described as Severian travels from his only known existence in the Torturer's guild to and through the vast city beyond.  By the end of the first half, I was a bit saddle sore but quite pleased with the ride.

The second half of the book shifts gears wildly, which isn't inconsistent so much as jarring as shifting gears expectedly is.  The problem, though, is that the IV-drip of background mythology is immediately turned up so that by the end of the book (Severian, who was, earlier on, tasked with traveling to a remote town called Thrax and does not end with Severian reaching Thrax, though, granted these two books are only the first part of a series) you're literally choking on the boluses of background myth coursing through the pages.  Not to mention, the fantastical occurences are so wild yet so obviously part of Wolfe's world that I practically forgot that Severian was supposed to be going towards Thrax. 

The guild of Torturers is explained in such a way, from the perspective of an insider and his views on how outsiders regard the profession of torturing, that the reflections and respect can't help but be juxtaposed with the current debate on torture and cruel and inhumane treatment.  Being a science-fantasy book, the parallels are tenuous at best, but it did make me reflect for a short time until Wolfe started piling on the mythology into the furnace of the book and the not-horse shifted wildly into nuclear gear.   In communicating with uncommunicative Jack (he's off playing "Who's Your Uncle?" with women and childfolk) I've many times used the word "crazy."  Stunned as I am from the experience of reading this book, it's probably a pretty apt description.  Ursula K. LeGuin (one of my favorite scifi authors) gushes (as evidenced by the use of the trope "ellipsis") on the back cover of this Nebula and World Fantasy Award winning book "Magic stuff ... a masterpiece... the best science fiction I've read in years!"  No where in that does she mention that you're going to get bucked.  Then trampled.  Then bucked and trampled simultaneously.  Not once.

There you have it, a two-plus book review gift. Remember, it's the thought that counts.

0 Comments

TrainYourPoet

posted Thursday, April 07, 2005 4:16 PM by hussain
Poetsmart: The only place to go for all your poet-training needs
0 Comments

Farewell

posted Wednesday, April 06, 2005 9:30 AM by hussain
Farewell, Saul Bellow.
0 Comments

ThisMonth

posted Tuesday, April 05, 2005 3:37 PM by hussain
This month is the 10th National Poetry Month so before anyone accuses me of being a hippy, I've decided to post a poem or few a day that are topical and relate to things, as the word "topical" may imply.

The Joni Mitchell lyric a good first one because it shows an impassioned response to a war and a movement that's only become more relevant and more of a touchstone (or never-touch-stone) for today's protests, wars and debates on life, bombs and religion. Granted, there's nothing about performance tuning or acetone in your fuel, but it's got a whole lot of things in there that I think poems should have, including controversy.

The Dickenson, Rumi, and Gibran are, for obvious reasons, little cat feet for the house.
2 Comments

Houses

posted Tuesday, April 05, 2005 11:26 AM by hussain
"Houses"—so the Wise Men tell me—
"Mansions"! Mansions must be warm!
Mansions cannot let the tears in,
Mansions must exclude the storm!

"Many Mansions," by "his Father,"
I don't know him; snugly built!
Could the Children find the way there—
Some, would even trudge tonight!

- Emily Dickinson

The Window of My Soul

During prayer I am accustomed to turn to God like this
and recall the meaning of the words of the Tradition,
“the delight felt in the ritual prayer.”
The window of my soul opens,
and from the purity of the unseen world,
the book of God comes to me straight.
The book, the rain of divine grace, and the light
are falling into my house through a window
from my real and original source.
The house without a window is hell;
to make a window is the essence of true religion.
Don't thrust your ax upon every thicket;
come, use your ax to cut open a window.

- Rumi
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Woodstock

posted Monday, April 04, 2005 1:31 PM by hussain
I came upon a child of god
He was walking along the road
And I asked him, where are you going
And this he told me
I’m going on down to yasgur’s farm
I’m going to join in a rock ’n’ roll band
I’m going to camp out on the land
I’m going to try an’ get my soul free
We are stardust
We are golden
And we’ve got to get ourselves
Back to the garden

Then can I walk beside you
I have come here to lose the smog
And I feel to be a cog in something turning
Well maybe it is just the time of year
Or maybe it’s the time of man
I don’t know who l am
But you know life is for learning
We are stardust
We are golden
And we’ve got to get ourselves
Back to the garden

By the time we got to woodstock
We were half a million strong
And everywhere there was song and celebration
And I dreamed I saw the bombers
Riding shotgun in the sky
And they were turning into butterflies
Above our nation
We are stardust
Billion year old carbon
We are golden
Caught in the devil’s bargain
And we’ve got to get ourselves
Back to the garden

- joni mitchell
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January2004

posted Thursday, January 27, 2005 10:28 AM by hussain

Books Bought:
The Neocon Reader, Stelzer
Atlas Shrugged, Rand

 Books Read:
The Time-Traveler's Wife, Niffenegger
The Girls Guide to Hunting and Fishing, Bank

I usually feel like I’m procrastinating when I read books that aren’t “educational.” What I tend to forget is that there’s an emotional education that comes from reading books for pleasure. Spending hours with these books would normally leave me feeling guilty for not accomplishing “something.” Getting absorbed in a book, identifying with characters by filling in their emotional leaps and travails with analogous feelings of my own, even if they aren’t analogous but are simply as strong seems to lead to experiences that are probably just as fulfilling as learning a new tidbit or skill. It’s too bad that there’s no gauge or degree or measure for emotional maturity. It would be so much easier to walk next to someone you’ve just recently met and would like to get to know better, someone who’s quirky and cute and has a slightly swollen jaw and say “I may dress like an 8, but I’m really a 3” and have them say back, with a lisp, “I think I’m a 7 but I’m actually an 8,” shake hands and go on with our lives. No fuss, no muss, no two years getting to that conclusion. So it’s books like these who wouldn’t be considered “literary” by anyone in a tower that occupied my January.  I wanted to post this after I'd finished State-Building by Fukuyama, but that slim book is so dense it should be given to some small rogue nation to jumpstart it's nuclear program.  It's really facinating, but the level of concentration that it takes to read a few pages is more than's required for either of the two I read this month.

So this month - to finally get to it - I read The Girl's Guide to Hunting and Fishing and The Time Traveler's Wife.  These books are like Frosted Mini-Wheats that've gotten soggy: you started eating them and even though they rapidly become overgooey, they're still yummy to eat.  The Girl's Guide follows the life of an aspiring editor and how she eventually winds her way through love and relationships to something that looks like love.  Lots of snarkiness due to self-preservation and defensiveness seemed pretty familiar, though the cameo by “The Rules” seemed fake.  Maybe a fluffy movie could be made out of this.  Oh, right, wondering where I got these books, you are.  The Girl's Guide is Lenore's, she'd left it at my place.  Amanda borrowed me The Time Traveler's Wife, insisting I read it.  Not sure why she did that, but I'm nice so I did.  Better for it, I think.

The Time Traveler's Wife follows the life, more or less chronologically, of a woman who's long term relationship is with a man who has “chronodisplacement” disease - Henry blips in and out of time.  The time traveling bit seemed pretty neat and I'd savored the times that Niffenegger would talk about Henry and his disorientation for almost all the book until I realized that the real interesting bits were the dedication, attitude and faith of the protagonist, Claire.  It was a bit of a see-saw ride, as Henry's life starts out going somewhat backwards in the beginning, then starts to progress with more cohesion after the middle of the book.  Claire, who appears to have been modelled after Niffenegger (artist, doing papercraft, long hair, etc.) is one of those idyllic characters who has “flaws” like an evergreen sometimes has christmas decorations - it's not the natural state.  It's way sad, yet disturbingly reassuring knowing the future of all these characters.  Even at the end, I was left wondering why life isn't really more like this book, sad, but in the end, all worth it - with the satisfaction of knowing that it was actually worth all the sappiness.

I bought The Neocon Reader because I saw a very interesting talk on CSPAN2 one Saturday morning.  It was great asking for it in Barnes.  People stared.  At this point in time, I think they'd stare less if I asked to see their section of books in Arabic.  Oprah's book club might have the volume, but I dig the quality of recommendations I've gotten from CSPAN.   I might love CSPAN more than the CIA Factbook.  I can only hope that one day they fight for my attentions.  The Rand I picked up because Jack's father-in-law was reading it and then Jack started reading it.  I can't remember much about it, so rereading is the way to go.  I'll probably delay reading it because I've The Fountainhead that's been left half-read, abandoned from when Lenore and I tried to read a book together, to read.  I liked what I read of it, so I think next month'll be positively Randy.

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December2004

posted Sunday, January 09, 2005 1:06 AM by hussain
Books Bought:
The Polysyllabic Spree, Nick Hornby
The Now Habit, Niel Fiore
State-Building, Francis Fukuyama
Swann's Way, Marcel Proust 		Books Read:
The Polysyllabic Spree, Nick Hornby
The Now Habit, Niel Fiore (partial)
State-Building, Francis Fukuyama (partial)

As a little homage to Mr. Hornby, this brief is about what I read last month and how I've been duly influenced.  I initially went to Barnes to buy my brother The DaVinci Code so that he could read it on our upcoming New Years trip and succumbed to the double-threat Siren's song of the desire to be reading (which is very different from the actual desire to read) and the hedonistic gauntlet of books on display while walking through the aisles trying to find Mr. Brown's book.  I actually went twice.  I found The DaVinci Code on the first try, no problem -- 30% off post-Christmas sale, front and center -- but was hooked by The Polysyllabic Spree on my way out, hamstringing myself with past reading of Fever Pitch, High Fidelity (and of course the movie), and About a Boy (movie to be seen) and having heard some NPR review of the book. I couldn't remember exactly what it was about -- I thought it was a book of short stories -- but when I got it home I was pleasantly surprized.  It's about Mr. Hornby's struggle with reading the books he buys which for most readers, as he rightly points out, is difficult, since there're always more books bought than read.  The little subtitle/jacket blurb reads “a hillarious and true account of one man's struggle with the monthly tide of the books he's bought and the books he's been meaning to read“ and “a collection of fourteen months of his essays from the Believer magazine.“ 

I went back to Barnes the next day because I had to have what I thought would be good island reading material: Francis Fukuyama's State Building, after having seen the author talk about it on CSPAN2 (which is fast becoming my favorite channel).  On my way to the checkout, there stood in the orgiastic gauntlet of words, a newly translated edition of Swann's Way, by Marcel Proust and I had to have it -- never mind that 1) I have at least two copies in the house already, and at least one back at my parent's house where the bulk of my books live, and 2) I've never actually read all the way through it, since it puts me to sleep and I nod off remembering things past. The Now Habit arrived by post -- a book tangentially recommended to me by a friend's friend's wish list. So, stocked up with such great books, I was ready to lay on the beach and read some stuff in a week or so. 

The chapters are short and engrossing in The Polysyllabic Spree so, by the time I'd touched down in Chicago, I'd read it all. It was fruitful and I was satisfied. It made me feel better about reading, which can sometimes feel like “wasting time“ sitting there while the world screams by at an ever quickening pace. There's great insight into what Mr. Hornby considers Literary Novels and the visceral connection that the written word can make in one's life, in particular, his.  I learned a bit about autism through the books he read (his son is autistic) and about the clique or community of authors and publishers that he's in.  Authors, editors and publishers that he know would send him books, asking him to read and review them because they were 'just like' his own work, his brother-in-law (who's a writer) would send him a book, etc. None of the personal touches or the community seemed contrived or exclusionary -- it's as if he was inviting me in to take a look at how strange “they” really are, even while he's part of the whole thing.

I started State Building and got quite into it, but it's dense and layered, mostly because it's Mr. Fukuyama's lectures in book form and its academic pace is ever so slightly different than the jaunty anecdotal and reflective tone of the previous book read.  By the time I got to my island destination, I was only partially through the first chapter.  Over the next few days, I read some, but the island has its own rythym, more for sand castle building rather than state building. I put it down and picked up The Now Habit, which is a self-help book about how not to procrastinate.  It opens with a bunch of profiles of procrastinators which is quite fun to read, since there're lots of points of identification with the characters, and it goes on to say how wonderfully they stopped procrastinating, so there's character development and a happy ending, multiple clinical cases over.  Whee!  I never knew reading self-help books could be so helpful to my very self. I got through half of it and felt really, really guilty for putting it down, which I think is partially the objective of the book.  I read State Building on the planes back, which is impressive for me, since my super power is Sleeping on Planes.  I don't normally split books or try to juggle more than one or two books at a time - it's an additional layer of intellectual hubris I'm really not ready to admit.  I will, though, make grandiose promises and fill up my bookcases.

This month, I'll finish up State Building and The Now Habit and maybe even start Swann's Way, which I carted out and back into the United States.  I brought back A Barthes Reader, edited by Susan Sontag, because it was staring at me from my college bookcase during my brief stay in Chicago and I'm a sucker for my postmodern past.  Stray threads.

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