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Sat February 21 2015

MobileRead Week in Review: 02/14 - 02/21

06:00 AM by Alexander Turcic in Miscellaneous | Week in Review

We know, you're busy. You'd like nothing more than to keep up with the witty kids at MobileRead live and in real-time but, it's tough. We understand. Here is our weekly round-up:

E-Book General - News

E-Book General - Reading Recommendations

Miscellaneous - Announcements


Fri February 20 2015

Guideline update: Firmware links

05:03 AM by Alexander Turcic in Miscellaneous | Announcements

Occasionally users may post download links that don't point to the official vendor website. The firmware could be unofficial or custom-made. For example, if you are familiar with Android, you probably heard of the CyanogenMod distribution, which is a popular community firmware based on Google Android along with plentiful gee-whiz custom code. One issue with unofficial firmware is that it may contain proprietary software not licensed for free distribution. Another issue is that installing such a firmware would likely void the warranty of your device.

Our take on this onwards is that you can link to firmware downloads, but you should be aware of potential licensing issues. We are not responsible for the content on any linked websites which are not under our control, nor should the inclusion of an external link be understood as an endorsement of that site. Last but not least remember that applying or using an unofficial firmware could void your warranty, brick your device or cause unintended head turns at your next high-school reunion, so proceed with caution.

[ 1 reply ]


March 2015 Book Club Nominations

12:10 AM by WT Sharpe in Reading Recommendations | Book Clubs

MobileRead Book Club March 2015 Nominations

Help us select the book that the MobileRead Book Club will read for March, 2015.

The nominations will run through midnight EST February 28 or until 10 books have made the list. The poll will then be posted and will remain open for five days.

Book selection category for March is:

Travel/Adventure

In order for a book to be included in the poll it needs THREE NOMINATIONS (original nomination, a second and a third).

How Does This Work?
The Mobile Read Book Club (MRBC) is an informal club that requires nothing of you. Each month a book is selected by polling. On the last week of that month a discussion thread is started for the book. If you want to participate feel free. There is no need to "join" or sign up. All are welcome.

How Does a Book Get Selected?
Each book that is nominated will be listed in a poll at the end of the nomination period. The book that polls the most votes will be the official selection.

How Many Nominations Can I Make?
Each participant has 3 nominations. You can nominate a new book for consideration or nominate (second, third) one that has already been nominated by another person.

How Do I Nominate a Book?
Please just post a message with your nomination. If you are the FIRST to nominate a book, please try to provide an abstract to the book so others may consider their level of interest.

How Do I Know What Has Been Nominated?
Just follow the thread. This message will be updated with the status of the nominations as often as I can. If one is missed, please just post a message with a multi-quote of the 3 nominations and it will be added to the list ASAP.

When is the Poll?
The poll thread will open at the end of the nomination period, or once there have been 10 books with 3 nominations each. At that time a link to the initial poll thread will be posted here and this thread will be closed.

The floor is open to nominations. Please comment if you discover a nomination is not available as an ebook in your area.


The nominations for March are now closed.

Official choices with three nominations each:

(1) West with the Night by Beryl Markham
Amazon US / Audible / Kobo

Spoiler:
[I]From Amazon:

Beryl Markham’s classic, engrossing memoir—a triumph of the pioneer spirit and an adventure-charged chronicle of a life lived to the fullest

Beryl Markham’s life was a true epic, complete with shattered societal expectations, torrid love affairs, and desperate crash landings. A rebel from a young age, the British-born Markham was raised in Kenya’s unforgiving farmlands. She learned to be a bush pilot at a time when most Africans had never seen a plane. In 1936, she accepted the ultimate challenge: to fly solo across the Atlantic from east to west, a feat that fellow female aviator Amelia Earhart had completed in reverse just a few years before. Her successes and her failures—and her deep, lifelong love of the “soul of Africa”—are all chronicled here with wrenching honesty and agile wit. Hailed by National Geographic as one of the greatest adventure books of all time, West with the Night is the sweeping account of a fearless and dedicated woman.

(2) The Last Grain Race by Eric Newby
No links provided.

Spoiler:
From Goodreads:

In 1938 an eighteen-year-old boy signed on for the round trip from Europe to Australia in the last commercial sailing fleet to make that formidable journey. The four-masted barque Moshulu ended up as a dockside restaurant in Philadelphia; the young apprentice went on to become one of the greatest travel writers of this century. The Last Grain Race is Eric Newby's spell-binding account of his time spent on the Moshulu's last voyage in the Australian grain trade.

As always, Eric Newby's sharp eye for detail captures the hardships, danger, squabbles, companionship and sheer joy of shipboard life - bedbugs, ferocious storms, eccentric Finnish crew and all. By pure chance, Eric witnessed the passing of the era of sail, and his tale is all the more significant for being the last of its kind.

From reviews cited at Amazon:

'Enthralling - I know of no other book about square-riggers that gives such a lively account of the daily round of men in the fo'c'sle' Sunday Times 'Indescribably pungent ... impossible to read without laughing' Observer 'Mr Newby proves himself to be a first-rate writer ... Years have dulled nothing of the spirit of his first voyage; he gives exactly the feel of working a tall ship in hard conditions; he did not just see these things; he felt and can convey them; the crew of "Moshulu" live, move and are real human beings - and go on living when the book is closed' Times Literary Supplement

(3) Timeline by Michael Crichton
Goodreads | Amazon US / Google Play / Kobo CA / Overdrive US / Overdrive

Spoiler:
From Goodreads:In an Arizona desert, a man wanders in a daze, speaking words that make no sense. Within twenty-four hours he is dead, his body swiftly cremated by his only known associates. Halfway around the world, archaeologists make a shocking discovery at a medieval site. Suddenly they are swept off to the headquarters of a secretive multinational corporation that has developed an astounding technology. Now this group is about to get a chance not to study the past but to enter it. And with history opened up to the present, the dead awakened to the living, these men and women will soon find themselves fighting for their very survival -- six hundred years ago.

(4) Lost Horizon by James Hilton
Goodreads | Amazon Au / Amazon Ca / Amazon US / Kobo

Spoiler:
From Goodreads:

While attempting to escape a civil war, four people are kidnapped and transported to the Tibetan mountains. After their plane crashes, they are found by a mysterious Chinese man. He leads them to a monastery hidden in "the valley of the blue moon" -- a land of mystery and matchless beauty where life is lived in tranquil wonder, beyond the grasp of a doomed world.

It is here, in Shangri-La, where destinies will be discovered and the meaning of paradise will be unveiled.

(5) A Lady Cyclist's Guide To Kashgar by Suzanne Joinson
Amazon US

Spoiler:
No synopsis provided

(6) South by Ernest Shackleton
Goodreads | Amazon US / Kobo US

Spoiler:
No synopsis provided.

(7) Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage by Albert Lansing
Amazon US / Kobo

Spoiler:
No synopsis provided.

(8) The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain
[I]The Patricia Clark Memorial Library: ePub / Kindle

Spoiler:
From Wikipedia:

The Innocents Abroad, or The New Pilgrims' Progress is a travel book by American author Mark Twain published in 1869 which humorously chronicles what Twain called his "Great Pleasure Excursion" on board the chartered vessel Quaker City (formerly USS Quaker City) through Europe and the Holy Land with a group of American travelers in 1867. It was the best-selling of Twain's works during his lifetime, as well as being one of the best-selling travel books of all time.

[ 55 replies ]


Tue February 17 2015

Project to Translate Classical Indian Literature

05:17 AM by Hamlet53 in E-Book General | News

I found this broadcast last week on the On Point NPR show interesting. I do not know a whole lot about classical Indian literature and have only read a couple of translations into English. I'm glad to hear of this project to produce many more translations.

A Loeb Library For Indian Literature

[ 2 replies ]


Sat February 14 2015

MobileRead Week in Review: 02/07 - 02/14

06:00 AM by Alexander Turcic in Miscellaneous | Week in Review

Welcome to another digest entry of MobileRead, where we transform the profound into the bite-sized.

E-Book General - News


Thu February 12 2015

Kindle Unlimited launched in Canada and Mexico

10:42 AM by JoHunt in E-Book General | News

Amazon have just launched Kindle Unlimited in their Canadian store:

"Enjoy unlimited reading from over 750,000 titles on any device for just CDN$ 9.99 a month."

That's just US$8 according to current rate of exchange.

Kindle Unlimited at Amazon Canada


Kindle Unlimited also launched in Mexico today for 129 pesos (US$8.60) a month.

Kindle Unlimited at Amazon Mexico


Venture Beat article

[ 13 replies ]


Wed February 11 2015

Scribd teams up with Marvel

10:17 AM by ottdmk in E-Book General | News

Caught this on the Newsarama site.

Looking through the article it sounds like Marvel will be making trade paperbacks available, as opposed to single issues of its comics.

The interesting thing to me is that Marvel already has its own subscription service, Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited. I wonder if Marvel is looking to move out of that business space?

[ 11 replies ]


Mon February 09 2015

Singularity Kickstarter to Save Old SF Books

06:38 AM by drjenkins in E-Book General | News

I saw this at Cory Doctorow's fabulous site BoingBoing.

Kickstarting a new life for out-of-print sf classics
http://boingboing.net/2015/02/05/kic...fe-for-ou.html

Singularity is looking to, once again, rescue out-of-print SF and make them available as free or low cost e-books.

They have met their goal of $15,000, but it's not too late to make a pledge.

[ 1 reply ]




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