Register Guidelines E-Books Today's Posts Search


Fri September 05 2014

A Change in the "Deals, Freebies, and Resources (No Self-Promotion)" Stickies

10:10 AM by WT Sharpe in Miscellaneous | Announcements

In the interest of making things easier for everyone, there has been a change in the way the book deal stickies for the various genres work in the Deals, Freebies, and Resources (No Self-Promotion) forum. Whereas before they all remained active for only one month, now each sticky will have a one year time limit. You will notice the change in the titles of the threads immediately. That means all of you who have been creating new threads each month and asking for them to be made stickies will now only have to do that one a year on the first of January.

[ 5 replies ]


Joan Rivers Book Sales Spike 70,750 Percent

08:57 AM by Froide in E-Book General | News

Lewis, Andy. (09/04/2014 11:53 PM PST). "Joan Rivers Book Sales Spike 70,750 Percent (Yes, you read that number correctly)." The Hollywood Reporter

Familiar story, in most areas of arts and entertainment. For example:

About the image:
"Joan Rivers 2010 - David Shankbone" by David Shankbone - Cropped from Joan Rivers at Musto's 25th Anniversary. Licensed under
Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

[ 1 reply ]


Mon September 01 2014

Terms of Use prohibiting reselling of ebooks are legal German Court rules

11:50 AM by mandy314 in E-Book General | News

A german consumer rights group lost a court case against a digital content (ebooks/downloadable audiobooks) retailer contending Terms of Use (Allgemeine Geschäftsbedingungen) prohibiting the reselling of bought items.

German news site:
http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldu...n-2304262.html

I'm really not happy with all this "Terms of Use" castration of consumer rights. With all digital content you seem not to buy a product but only a service. Even for digital gadgets you almost give more rights away than you get to use the "damned thing" as you like.
Copying the content is illegal anyway. Circumvention of DRM is prohibited by state's law in most countries. If you sell a copy of your ebook and keep the original OR sell the original and keep a copy OR sell many copies and keep the original OR ... (I think you got what I'm getting at ) you break the law (no Terms of Use needed). So why can't the law-abiding cititzen sell an ebook he bought if he wants to do this? And where is the monetary reimbursement for giving up consumer rights?

[ 51 replies ]


Sat August 30 2014

Listen Up - We've got a brand new audiobook forum

06:14 PM by Alexander Turcic in Miscellaneous | Announcements

Dear fellow MobileReaders,

You asked for it, we delivered. Entrenching our community just a little deeper in the wide world of multimedia, there's a new main forum at MobileRead: Everything Audiobooks, where you can discuss your favorite audiobooks, rate their readers, and discuss the hardware, software, and technical issues that are unique to audiobooks.

So, without further ado, we invite all of you too-busy-to-read bibliophiles to join our audiobook forums and participate in any way you wish. And of course, if you find anything amiss, please drop us a note.

Links:

[ 11 replies ]


MobileRead Week in Review: 08/23 - 08/30

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

Been so busy reading e-books that you haven't had time to keep up on the week's news? Here's some of what you've been missing:

E-Book General - Reading Recommendations

E-Book Readers - Kobo Reader


Tue August 26 2014

Kobo Aura H2O Officially Announced

09:51 PM by tnforpaul45 in E-Book Readers | Kobo Reader

Cool

Tech Specs:
http://www.kobo.com/koboaurah2o#techspecs

Ongoing Discussion:
MobileRead

More Details:
The Digital Reader

[ 306 replies ]


Sat August 23 2014

September 2014 Book Club Vote

04:02 PM by WT Sharpe in Reading Recommendations | Book Clubs

September 2014 MobileRead Book Club Vote

Help us choose a book as the September 2014 eBook for the MobileRead Book Club. The poll will be open for 5 days. There will be no runoff vote unless the voting results a tie, in which case there will be a 3 day run-off poll. This is a visible poll: others can see how you voted. It is You may cast a vote for each book that appeals to you.

We will start the discussion thread for this book on September 20th. Select from the following Official Choices with three nominations each:

The Giver by Lois Lowry
Amazon US / Goodreads

Spoiler:
From Goodreads:

Jonas' world is perfect. Everything is under control. There is no war or fear or pain. There are no choices. Every person is assigned a role in the Community. When Jonas turns twelve, he is singled out to receive special training from The Giver. The Giver alone holds the memories of the true pain and pleasure of life. Now, it is time for Jonas to receive the truth. There is no turning back.

The Call of the Wild by Jack London
Patricia Clark Memorial Library: ePub

Spoiler:
The Call of the Wild is a novel by Jack London published in 1903. The story is set in the Yukon during the 1890s Klondike Gold Rush—a period when strong sled dogs were in high demand.

From Banned Books Awareness:

The book is commonly challenged in the United States because of its violent scenes. Jack London personally experienced the Klondike Gold Rush, including its triumphs and its horrors. The Yukon of the early 20th century wasn’t a Sunday picnic. It was barren, and hard on the mind and body.

Dogs like Buck were cheap, and animal cruelty was commonplace, leading some to criticize London of glorifying or condoning animal abuse.

Furthermore, the real-life atrocities committed against Native tribes in the name of Manifest Destiny were thought of as just and honorable in the wake of the Great Indian Wars that wiped out the cultures across the United States.

This point of contention is explored in the tribe that takes in Buck, the Yeehats. This tribe is entirely of London’s creation, but some groups feel that the negative light he sheds on the Yeehat is a slam against all Native tribes.

So, here we are again, having an early American novel about a period in history challenged because it paints a picture of a past that is dark and bloody that we’d much rather forget about than admit to, or learn from.

But most notably, according to the University of Pennsylvania, Jack London’s writing was not favored among several European dictatorships during the 1920’s and 1930’s, resulting in many regimes censoring his work.

In 1929, Italy and Yugoslavia banned Call of the Wild for being ‘too radical’. London’s works were also burned by the Nazi Party in 1933 because he had an infamous reputation for being an outspoken supporter of Socialism.

To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Amazon Ca / Amazon UK / Amazon US / Angus & Robertson / B&N / Google Play / Kobo US / Overdrive

Spoiler:
Harper Lee's Pulitzer prize-winning masterwork of honor and injustice in the deep south—and the heroism of one man in the face of blind and violent hatred, available now for the first time as an e-book.

One of the best-loved stories of all time, To Kill a Mockingbird has been translated into more than forty languages, sold more than thirty million copies worldwide, served as the basis for an enormously popular motion picture, and was voted one of the best novels of the twentieth century by librarians across the country. A gripping, heart-wrenching, and wholly remarkable tale of coming-of-age in a South poisoned by virulent prejudice, it views a world of great beauty and savage inequities through the eyes of a young girl, as her father-a crusading local lawyer-risks everything to defend a black man unjustly accused of a terrible crime.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling
Amazon UK / Amazon US / Barnes & Noble / Overdrive UK / Overdrive US / Pottermore GBP / Pottermore USD

Spoiler:
NOTE: This book is also known as Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.

Harry, an orphan, lives with the Dursleys, his horrible aunt and uncle, and their abominable son, Dudley.

One day just before his eleventh birthday, an owl tries to deliver a mysterious letter the first of a sequence of events that end in Harry meeting a giant man named Hagrid. Hagrid explains Harry's history to him: When he was a baby, the Dark wizard, Lord Voldemort, attacked and killed his parents in an attempt to kill Harry; but the only mark on Harry was a mysterious lightning-bolt scar on his forehead.

Now he has been invited to attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, where the headmaster is the great wizard Albus Dumbledore. Harry visits Diagon Alley to get his school supplies, especially his very own wand. To get to school, he takes the Hogwarts Express from platform nine and three-quarters at King's Cross Station. On the train, he meets two fellow students who will become his closest friends: Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger.

Harry is assigned to Gryffindor House at Hogwarts, and soon becomes the youngest-ever Seeker on the House Quidditch team. He also studies Potions with Professor Severus Snape, who displays a deep and abiding dislike for Harry, and Defense Against the Dark Arts with nervous Professor Quirrell; he and his friends defeat a mountain troll, help Hagrid raise a dragon, and explore the wonderful, fascinating world of Hogwarts.

But all events lead irrevocably toward a second encounter with Lord Voldemort, who seeks an object of legend known as the Sorcerer's Stone.

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
Amazon

Spoiler:
No synopsis provided.

Rabbit Run by John Updike
No links provided.

Spoiler:
From Goodreads:
Rabbit, Run is the book that established John Updike as one of the major American novelists of his—or any other—generation. Its hero is Harry “Rabbit” Angstrom, a onetime high-school basketball star who on an impulse deserts his wife and son. He is twenty-six years old, a man-child caught in a struggle between instinct and thought, self and society, sexual gratification and family duty—even, in a sense, human hard-heartedness and divine Grace. Though his flight from home traces a zigzag of evasion, he holds to the faith that he is on the right path, an invisible line toward his own salvation as straight as a ruler’s edge.

From Banned Book Club:
Labeled as obscenity (for sex scenes and promiscuity) and banned in Ireland (1962) by the Irish Board of Censors, but apparently was allowed into circulation in 1967. This board, btw, apparently still exists – meets in secret BUT is required to review all submissions (some check whoever submitted a complaint regarding the Bible, in 1988). In the US, was challenged in Maine (1976) and Wyoming (1986) – the Maine students were allowed to read it if parents granted permission. (Well, the whole story felt remarkably like a field trip…)

The Country Girls by Edna O'Brien
Amazon Au / Amazon UK / Goodreads

Spoiler:
From Goodreads:

Meet Kate and Baba, two young Irish country girls who have spent their childhood together. As they leave the safety of their convent school in search of life and love in the big city, they struggle to maintain their somewhat tumultuous relationship. Kate, dreamy and romantic, yearns for true love, while Baba just wants to experience the life of a single girl. Although they set out to conquer the world together, as their lives take unexpected turns, Kate and Baba must ultimately learn to find their own way.

"It's a difficult trip, this coming of age . . . O'Brien tells it with love and outrage, compassion and contempt." (Los Angeles Times Book Review)

"A treasure . . . powerful . . . intelligent . . . ironic." (The New York Times Book Review)

Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Patricia Clark Memorial Library: Kindle | Kindle (Omnibus) | ePub

Spoiler:
GA Russell:

It's been quite a while since I have read of its being challenged, but back in the '70s it was an annual event for parents of public school children to object to its presence in the schools' libraries because it includes the use of the "n-word."

I read it when I was in the eighth grade, and I'm sure that as an adult I would get much more out of it now.

Fanny Hill: Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure by John Cleland
Amazon US / Feedbooks / Project Gutenberg

Spoiler:
From Amazon:

Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure (popularly known as Fanny Hill), is an erotic novel by John Cleland first published in England in 1748. Written while the author was in debtors' prison in London, it is considered "the first original English prose pornography, and the first pornography to use the form of the novel." One of the most prosecuted and banned books in history; it has become a synonym for obscenity.

From her position of wealth and happy respectability, Fanny Hill looks back at her early life and disreputable adventures. Arriving in London alone, poor and innocent, she falls into the hands of a brothel-keeper. But only when she is separated from the man she loves does she enroll in the 'unhappy profession' of prostitution. Fanny becomes a kept woman and also works in an elegant bawdy-house, entertaining polite voluptuaries. By the age of eighteen, she can afford to retire; in her marriage she can at last combine sexual passion with romantic love.

Fanny Hill, shrouded in controversy for most of its more than 250-year life, & banned from publication in the U.S. until 1966, was once considered immoral & without literary merit, even earning its author a jail sentence for obscenity.

The tale of a naïve young prostitute in bawdy eighteenth-century London who slowly rises to respectability, the novel & its popularity endured many banning’s & critics, & today Fanny Hill is considered an important piece of political parody & sexual philosophy on par with French libertine novels.

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
Amazon Au / Amazon Ca / Amazon UK / Amazon US / Barnes & Noble/ Goodreads/ OverDrive (audio)

Spoiler:
From Wikipedia:

Clockwork Orange is a dystopian novella by Anthony Burgess published in 1962. Set in a not-so-distant future English society that has a culture of extreme youth violence, the novel's teenage protagonist, Alex, narrates his violent exploits and his experiences with state authorities intent on reforming him. When the state undertakes to reform Alex—to "redeem" him—the novel asks, "At what cost?". The book is partially written in a Russian-influenced argot called "Nadsat". According to Burgess it was a jeu d'esprit written in just three weeks.

In 2005, A Clockwork Orange was included on Time magazine's list of the 100 best English-language novels written since 1923 and it was named by Modern Library and its readers as one of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century. The original manuscript of the book is located at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada since that institution purchased the documents in 1971.

[ 46 replies - poll! ]


Delaware becomes first state to give executors broad digital assets access

07:22 AM by AnemicOak in E-Book General | News

Delaware has become the first state in the US to enact a law that ensures families’ rights to access the digital assets of loved ones during incapacitation or after death.
Last week, Gov. Jack Markell signed House Bill (HB) 345, “Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets and Digital Accounts Act,” which gives heirs and executors the same authority to take legal control of a digital account or device, just as they would take control of a physical asset or document.

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2...assets-access/

[ 13 replies ]




live view Latest Forum Activity
Thread / Thread Starter Last Post
Forum: Amazon Kindle
Today 07:29 PM
by jackm8 (#12) Go to first new post
Today 07:29 PM
by Desertway (#12) Go to first new post
Today 07:27 PM
by gustophersmob (#8) Go to first new post
Forum: Devices
Today 07:24 PM
by jhowell (#11) Go to first new post
Forum: Lounge
Today 07:13 PM
by twowheels (#37608) Go to first new post
Today 07:13 PM
by JSWolf (#8) Go to first new post
Today 07:11 PM
by ownedbycats (#5) Go to first new post
Today 06:59 PM
by John F (#8800) Go to first new post
Forum: Amazon Kindle
Today 06:56 PM
by jackm8 (#27) Go to first new post
Forum: Sigil
Today 06:44 PM
by KevinH (#11) Go to first new post
Forum: News
Today 06:40 PM
by jackm8 (#2) Go to first new post
Forum: Lounge
Today 06:18 PM
by Hemmi (#152084) Go to first new post
Forum: Plugins
Today 06:17 PM
by ownedbycats (#642) Go to first new post
Today 06:15 PM
by Comfy.n (#18) Go to first new post
Forum: News
Today 06:04 PM
by jhowell (#344) Go to first new post
Forum: Onyx Boox
Today 06:04 PM
by tlobbos (#4) Go to first new post
Forum: Onyx Boox
Today 05:59 PM
by Renate (#118) Go to first new post
Today 05:55 PM
by Fbone (#31972) Go to first new post
Forum: Feedback
Today 05:50 PM
by pdurrant (#1734) Go to first new post
Forum: Onyx Boox
Today 05:50 PM
by Renate (#94) Go to first new post
Today 05:28 PM
by tubemonkey (#74) Go to first new post
Forum: News
Today 05:22 PM
by Paperbackstash (#19) Go to first new post
Forum: Editor
Today 05:22 PM
by foosion (#3) Go to first new post
Unutterably Silly The Person Below You-Fun Game (DrDln)
Forum: Lounge
Today 03:36 PM
by Sirtel (#3670) Go to first new post
Unutterably Silly Change One Word (Nyssa)
Forum: Lounge
Today 03:28 PM
by DNSB (#56091) Go to first new post


All times are GMT -4. The time now is 07:33 PM.
MobileRead.com is a privately owned, operated and funded community.