Thursday, December 22, 2011

Jerry Pournell on Ebooks

First this from Jerry Pournell's blog:
With eBooks there is no competition for shelf space between new mid-list books and older books. They’re all available, and the store is always open. Both Mote and Hammer have been selling quite steadily as eBooks, and in fact have now sold more as eBooks than they did in their last print reissues. Other authors can tell the same story.
This matches closely with my thoughts and observations about Ebooks and publishing.

Free Ebooks by Randel Garrett

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/search.html/?default_prefix=author_id&sort_order=downloads&query=25267

Randall Garret very interesting author, I am just starting to explore his books, but among many interesting facts I have learned about him already is that he was a Founding member of SCA (Society of Creative Anachronisms).

The link above is to Project Gutenberg, a legitimate site for free Ebooks, good place to get classics, like all of Mark Twain's books.

Monday, December 5, 2011

Kon Tiki by Thor Heyerdahl

Looking for a great book to read?  Whether you like a great story or learning you will love Kon-Tiki: Across the Pacific in a Raft.

Since fifth grade I have been a big fan on Robinson Crusoe or Swiss Family Robinson type stories.  So it isn't a surprise that I like this story.  Since it is very much like a real world Swiss Family Robinson.

Heyerdahl and his companions build a Raft from natural materials, and then set sail with it in the Pacific, to test a theory he had about the first human settlement of that area of the world.

I am a big fan and supporter of Ebooks, but I strongly suggest getting a dead tree version of this book for the photographs, there are a lot of pictures that illustrate events or animals described in the book.  I have deadtree version of this book myself, and will probably get an Ebook as well.

One important note about the word usage, they mention "Dolphins" in this book, they are talking about a fish also know as Mahi_Mahi, not the air breathing Dolphin.  I didn't figure this out till I looked at the pictures and captions in my first read through of the book.

More information here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kon-Tiki.