BTT: Niche

This week's prompt at Booking Through Thursday, asks:

“There are certain types of books that I more or less assume all readers read. (Novels, for example.)

But then there are books that only YOU read. Instructional manuals for fly-fishing. How-to books for spinning yarn. How to cook the perfect souffle. Rebuilding car engines in three easy steps. Dog training for dummies. Rewiring your house without electrocuting yourself. Tips on how to build a NASCAR course in your backyard. Stuff like that.

What niche books do YOU read?”

Would you believe that I can't think of a thing? I read very few non-fiction books and even very few magazines. But I do read lots and lots of novels. The majority of the books that I read are mysteries (cozy and hard), science fiction, and fantasy. Actually, fantasy is a fairly new genre for me. At some time in the lost-from-memory past, I must have run across a fantasy novel that I didn't enjoy—probably a swords-and-sorcery type— and disliked it enough that I blamed the whole genre rather than that particular book. But, after encouragement at BookObsessed, I picked up a couple of recommended books and I'm now making up for lost time.

Two other genres have been added to my menu because of the folks at BookObsessed: PUF (paranormal and urban fantasy) and Historical Fiction. And, with both of these, there are a lot of very good books available from the used book stores. While I have to plop down top dollar for the newest book from Janet Evanovich or Orson Scott Card, I can satisfy myself picking up the backlist from PUF authors like Charlaine Harris and Kim Harrison or historical fiction writers such as Sarah Dunant and Philippa Gregory.

So, unfortunately, while this week's Booking Through Thursday prompt didn't really apply to me and my reading, it did prod me to think about the types of books that I've been reading.

Kindle: Samples

In Monday's post, I talked about how I use features of Amazon's Kindle to mark books that I might want to read in the future. While the “Save for Later” list is available, I don't find it particularly convenient since I tend to avoid using the Kindle's Whispernet to browse the Amazon bookstore. Rather, I am most comfortable browsing and shopping through my laptop and its Firefox browser.

Therefore, I currently have 51 samples on my Kindle. Once I have bought a book—or decided from the sample that I just don't want it—I delete the sample. Any samples still on my Kindle act as a reminder when I'm trying to decide what to read next. Here's a sampling of the samples on my Kindle; books that I want to buy and read. Eventually.

Blue Smoke and Murder by Elizabeth Lowell

Blue Smoke and Mirrors by Elizabeth Lowell is one of the earliest samples I downloaded; well at least the earliest that hasn't been deleted. This particular book draws some of its characters from St. Kilda Consulting, a company formed by ex-military and ex-law enforcement officers who accept jobs in the shadowy world where official agencies can't operate. St. Kilda was introduced in Always Time to Die, which I read in late 2007, and pops back up in The Wrong Hostage, which I read last year. This particular series combines strongly written suspense with romantic attraction. Amazon classifies the books first as “Mystery & Thrillers” and second as “Romantic Suspense”. I don't care what they call it, it's just a genre that I enjoy, and Lowell is an author whose books I always enjoy. There's another book in this series that I should read before Blue Smoke and Mirrors, so I need to add Innocent as Sin to my wishlist.

Mysteries, Thrillers, and Suspense

There are a number of other samples of mystery novels on my Kindle—some romantic, some cozy, and some just straight mystery or thriller. Notable are:

Fantasy and Science Fiction

I'm a long-time fan of science fiction and have recently starting reading fantasy. There are many SF/F books that I want to read eventually, and I have the following samples on my Kindle:

Mysteries!

Today, I completed the fourth book read in June and the fourth mystery in June. Yes, every book I've read so far has been a mystery. Therefore, I'm going to make sure to pick another genre for the next book. Year-to-date, I've read 22 mysteries—the one genre that dominates my reading list. Well, if you were to combine the science fiction, fantasy, and paranormal books, they'd add up to 23 and be just slightly ahead of mysteries.

The Ghost and Mrs. McClure had been on my wishlist for a long time before SciFisstrs sent it to me as a Boxing Day present last December. I'm fortunate that she included two others in the series and I can read more about Pen (short for Penelope) McClure, co-owner of a mystery bookshop, and Jack Shepard, the former PI and ghost who haunts her shop.

The other mysteries read thus far in June are The Price of Silence by Kate Wilhelm, Heartsick by Chelsea Cain, and The Art Thief by Noah Charney. I posted a review of Heartsick a couple of days ago, and put a very small review of The Art Thief on Goodreads.

The Edge of the World, Kevin J Anderson

Today's Orbiteer newsletter from Orbit books carries an announcement that Kevin Anderson's first fantasy novel, The Edge of the World was released this week. And, the newsletter asked for bloggers to help promote the book by posting the widget you see below. It's my pleasure to do so—for several reasons. First, is that I have enjoyed several of Anderson's SF novels, particularly his Craig Kreident novels from the 1990s. Second, Orbit books has been very generous in offering a $1.00 e-Book each month and it's nice to have a chance to pay back the favor.

I will point out that not only is The Edge of the World available as a trade paperback, the e-Books are available for Kindle and Sony readers.

 

Update: 19 April 2012——Well, they've removed the video from the Internet and the widget no longer works. So I'm replacing it with a copy of the book's cover.

Books and Travel

You never know what you'll run across when following random links on the Internet. While reading some old blog posts, I ran across an amazing fact which I've since confirmed by a Google search.

Such was his love of learning that the scholarly grand vizier Abdul Kassem Ismael (935-995) of Persia never left home without his personal library. On his many travels as a statesman and warrior, Ismael traveled with 400 camels who carried his 117,000 volume library wherever he went. Even so, his personal librarians could locate any book almost immediately, because the animals were trained to walk in alphabetical order.

It appears that this is a true fact since it has been quoted in Isaac Asimov's Book of Facts, A History of Reading by Alberto Manguel, and The Library Book: The Story of Libraries from Camels to Computers a book for young readers by Maureen Sawa.

I wouldn't attempt to carry my entire library with me, but I never take a trip without carrying several books along. In fact, I have a small box about 10x15 inches—with books in it arranged spine up so I can see the titles—which goes into the trunk of the car when hubby and I leave the house on one of our cross-country driving trips. Right now, the box has 14 books from various genres so that I have some variety to choose from. But, the box is impractical for a trip that doesn't involve taking the car.

Enter the Kindle and Sony PRS-505 readers. Each one of these is loaded up with over 100 titles—a mixture of contemporary novels and classics. Talk about options! With a couple of SD cards, it would be possible for me to carry 117,000 titles with me just like grand vizier Abdul Kassem Ismael. It might be more difficult for me to locate a specific title because neither the Kindle nor Sony offer robust organization or "folders" for the books. If I had a laptop or netbook with me as well as the readers, then I could easily locate the book I wanted to read and push it to one of the readers. Not as good as traveling with personal librarians and camels trained to walk in alphabetical order, but I guess it beats having to feed the lot of them.

HeartSick by Chelsea Cain

It took me just over four months to reach the end of this fascinating mystery suspense novel. First, one must note that I have been “reading” the unabridged audio CDs rather than a text edition. Second, I only listen to books on CD when I'm alone in the car. When there's someone else in the car (like my husband), I let him drive and I stick my nose in whatever book I'm reading at the time. Besides, he wouldn't enjoy listening to my books. On Friday, I had to drive myself to the office in town and that gave me the opportunity to listen to the ninth and last disk.

Heartsick wraps one murder investigation around another as Detective Archie Sheridan pulls together a task force to find out who is kidnapping teenage girls, murdering them, and dumping their bleach-soaked bodies around the Portland area. It's been two years since serial killer Gretchen Lowell kidnapped Archie, tortured him, and then surprisingly released him and turned herself in. Archie bears both physical and emotional scars, abusing painkillers and other prescription drugs and barely making it from day to day. But now there's a new serial killer and Archie must pull himself together if there's any hope of catching him and ending the string of murders.

Many reviewers have drawn a comparison between HeartSick and Silence of the Lambs, which I can't really address since I never read the books about Hannibal Lecter, nor saw the movies. All I know about them is from the previews I saw on television. I believe, however, that one way in which the two are similar is in the ongoing relationship between Lowell and Sheridan as he visits her prison weekly. Lowell has promised to disclose the locations where she buried other victims—some 200 or so if she is to be believed. She uses this promise as a means of manipulating Archie—continuing her sadistic torture even though she is securely incarcerated. Archie feels, however, that he's the only one who will get this information from her and she might even be able to give him some insight into the mind of the newest serial killer he's tracking.

In addition to the law enforcement professionals and psychologists on the task force, a young reporter, Susan Ward, has been assigned to follow Archie around and profile the processes that he goes through to track down and apprehend this murderer. The current investigation is intermingled with flashbacks to Archie's own torture and suffering, tying the two cases together. Relationships are also intertwined.

This was a fascinating suspense novel, and I'm particularly glad to discover that there is a sequel available today and a third in the series will be released in September. I'm putting Sweetheart and Evil at Heart on my wishlist.

Heartsick is available in a Kindle edition, hardcover, mass market paperback, and audio download as well as the CD edition I read.

Book swapping -- an update

I am an active member of a group of book swappers who hang out in an online forum at BookObsessed, which means that there is a constant flow of books into and out of this house. Yesterday's mail brought a real bonanza from fellow swapper CdnBlueRose.

The first books I pulled from the package were #2, 3, and 4 in Alan F. Troop's “Dragon DelaSangre” series. When CdnBlueRose offered these in the October 2008 SFF swap, she apologized that she could not include the first book in the series. Since I was thrilled with the description of the books, I told her not to worry because I was sure I could find a copy of book #1 somewhere. And, I did. I bought the Kindle edition of The Dragon DelaSangre on 28 October 2008, and read it in January 2009.

The saga starts with The Dragon DelaSangre. From its back cover:

For centuries, they have lived among us.

A secret race as old as time, they have inspired our greatest legends, our grimmest fairy tailes, and our grandest nightmares. Changelings by day and slayers at dark, they call themselves People of the Blood. Mankind calls them Dragons. But few have survived to this day and none have stepped forward to tell their story. Until now.

The Dragon DelaSangre speaks

Here at last are the private confessions of one Peter DelaSangre...of his isolated youth on an island off the coast of Miami...of the pleasures he finds in fortune, fine art, and music, and the hunt for human prey...of his lonely balancing act between the worlds of humans and Dragons, neither of which feels like home...and of the overwhelming need that will finally give his life purpose: to find a female of his own kind.

Dragon Moon is the second book in the series and continues the story of Peter DelaSangre. The back cover of Dragon Moon reads:

The confessions of the Dragon DelaSangre continue....

Four long, lonely years have passed since the murder of Peter DelaSangre's beloved wife. Although he is devoted to caring for their young son, Peter longs for a mate, someone to fill the void left by his wife's death. But only one female can satisfy his deepest desire: Chloe Blood, the younger sister of his dead wife. Intending to claim her as his bride, Peter travels to the wilds of Jamaica and settles on a lush tropical estate, where he plans to bide his time until Chloe comes of age.

But there are those who do not take kindly to Peter's arrival. And they will stop at nothing to make sure that Peter doesn't leave Jamaica alive.

Third in the series is The Seadragon's Daughter. It's back cover tells of another dragon race:

For three years, Peter DelaSangre and his beloved Chloe have lived in peace, nurturing their young children in relative happiness—until people begin to disappear from boats and islands off the coast of Miami. Rumors from the mainland force all eyes onto their private island retreat. But something more threatening than mere unwanted attention lurks in the watery depths surrounding the DelaSangres, waiting for the opportune moment to strike.

Suddenly, a mysterious young female appears near Peter's island. Her name is Lorrel. She is part of a sea-dwelling dragon race thought extinct for decades. And despite her seeming innocence, she will force Petre to confront his family's cold, dark past, and his own vulnerability—and threaten to separate him from his loved ones forever....

The fourth and last—at least for now—book in the series is A Host of Dragons. The back cover piques my interest, saying:

Two years have passed since Peter DelaSangre's return to his secluded island home. And although his wife remains cold and jealous about the seductive seadragon who took him away, life is peaceful there. That is, until a strange sailboat carrying twelve mysterious foreigners docks nearby. Soon Peter's daughter has been kidnapped, his ancestral archives have been ransacked, and a massive, sinister corporation called Oudere Raad has set out to destroy the family fortune.

It is only a matter of time before Peter discovers the frightening truth tying these events together. And the visitors, led by his most formidable opponent yet, have come on a mission....

Next was a book which I won in last November's Fantasy swap, Heart of Stone by C. E. Murphy. Turns out that it is the first of a trilogy, so I have even more to look forward to. The blurb on the back of the book says:

Okay, so jogging through Central Park after midnight wasn't a bright idea. But Margrit Knight thought she'd encounter a dark new world filled with magical beings—not to mention a dying woman and a mysterious stranger with blood on his hands. Her logical, lawyer instincts told her it couldn't all be real—but she could hardly deny what she'd seen...and touched.

The mystery man, Alban, was a gargoyle. One of the fabled Old Races who had hidden their existence for centuries. Now he was a murder suspect, and he needed Margrit's help to take the heat off him and find the real killer. And as the dead pile up, it's a race against the sunrise to clear Alban's name and keep them both alive....

Interestingly, prior to joining this online group, I rarely read fantasy novels and hadn't read any of the paranormal fantasy or paranormal romances that are so popular (and prevalent) these days. The first paranormal book that I read was Dead Until Dark, the first in Charlaine Harris's “Southern Vampire Mysteries” series starring Sookie Stackhouse. This series has been made into a television series on HBO called True Blood. I'm struggling to stay a bit ahead of the series, but that's probably a good subject for a future blog post. The first paranormal book that I swapped was Magic Burns by Ilona Andrews. I sent it to BooksnBeer and in return, I received Staying Dead from Xeyra.

And last, but definitely not least, CdnBlueRose included an extra book for me which she selected from my wishlist: Predator by Patricia Cornwell. This is the fourteenth book in Cornwell's mystery series starring forensic examiner Dr Kay Scarpetta. When I finish reading this one, there are still two more books for me to get and enjoy. And, since J has started reading the series, I will pass this book along to her before I swap it to someone else.

BTT: Sticky

Over at Booking Through Thursday, Laura posted this week's prompt: “This can be a quick one. Don’t take too long to think about it. Fifteen books you’ve read that will always stick with you. First fifteen you can recall in no more than 15 minutes.”

Well, well. This isn't going to be easy, because I tend to forget details shortly after I finish the last page of a book. I'll remember whether I liked it or not and I may remember the basic theme or plot, but I'm not going to be able to give a detailed summary even a day or two after I've finished reading the book. I'm sure that even after I list fifteen books, there are going to be many others that are more deserving to be tagged as “unforgettable”.

1. A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller, Jr.
2. Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein
3. The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula Le Guin
4. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
5. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
6. A Severed Wasp by Madeleine L'Engle
7. The No 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith
8. Full of Grace by Dorothea Benton Frank
9. The Harrad Experiment by Robert H. Rimmer
10. Little Women by Louisa Mae Alcott
11. Pollyanna by Eleanor H. Porter
12. Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder
13. Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
14. Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton
15. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Whew! Did it. And, that's it until next week's Booking Through Thursday.

Kindle: Save For Later

In my wishlist post, I mentioned the “Save for Later” list unique to the Kindle. You can only add books to this list or remove them through the Kindle's network connection to Amazon's Kindle Store. Because it's rare for me to spend much time with the antenna turned on, I don't use this option very often, but it may be interesting to see what I've put onto my list.

The first two books I added to my list were by David Baldacci—Total Control and Saving Faith. (Yes, I know that these links go to the paperback edition pages at Amazon instead of the Kindle editions, but then I figure that there are fewer Kindle users than simply readers and the Kindle users can follow the on-page link to the Kindle version.) The very first book I read on my Kindle was Stone Cold, which I selected because I had just finished reading its predecessor, The Collectors in paperback. My thoughts were that the first book should be one that I was really interested in and which I was totally committed to reading. That way, if I wasn't happy with the reading experience, it would more likely be due to the device than the book.

Next, I added all three of the “Acorna's Children” trilogy: First Warning, Second Wave, and Third Watch. This series by Anne McCaffrey and Elizabeth A. Scarborough follows the adventure of Acorna's twins Korii and Ariin as they travel—through time and space—trying to find the cause of a plague that's endangering galactic civilization and its cure. Since I had already read the first two books in the series in paperback, I didn't want to buy the Kindle editions right away. But, when I get ready to read the third one, I'll buy all three and read them in order. That will provide a nice reminder of what happens leading up to the last book.

And, since I'm such a fan of science fiction, I quickly added all of Elizabeth Moon's “Vatta's War” series. I've particularly enjoyed reading this series since I discovered the first book in 2004. It's now up to five books and I've only read the first two, so there's a lot of enjoyment there once I purchase and download the rest of the series, if not all of it. I read Trading in Danger in 2004 and Marque and Reprisal in 2005. That leaves Engaging the Enemy, Command Decision, and Victory Conditions. And, by the time I finish reading those, perhaps there will be another in the series.

A long time went by before I put any more books on my “Save for Later” list—after all, I just didn't turn on the antenna all that often, and then only to allow book purchases to be transmitted to the Kindle. But, there were occasions when I would not only fire up the antenna, but also view Amazon Kindle's Blog via the Kindle Daily Post link in the Kindle Storefront on the device. And, sometimes I'd see a book that looked particularly interesting and would add the book to my “Save for Later” list. That can explain why I have The Buffalo Soldier by Chris Bohjalian and The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch on my list.

Cheap is good; free is better

It's a new month and there are new specials available for eBook readers. (And I use “readers” to mean both the people and the devices that they use.) Over at the Dear Author blog, I found a notice that Warner Forever—an imprint of Hachette Book Group which publishes romance titles—is offering several titles at the special price of $1.99 during the summer. Four titles are available in June and can be found at the discounted price in both the Amazon.com and Sony eBook stores.

If you are into romance novels, check out one or more of these titles:

• A Hint of Wicked by Jennifer Haymore
• My Wicked Enemy by Carolyn Jewel
• Between the Sheets by Robin Wells
• Too Far Gone by Marliss Melton

And Orbit Books (another imprint of the Hachette Book Group) is offering one title every month for only $1. June's book is Midnight Never Come by Marie Brennan. I'll probably pick that one up, but may wait just a bit. After all, for a couple of days, Amazon sold the May book—Once Bitten, Twice Shy by Jennifer Rardin—for $0.00. If I can pick up this month's book for free, I'm not too proud to click the “Buy Now with 1-Click” button.

Of the 156 books I have purchased for my Kindle from Amazon.com, 82 of them were free and 21 more were under $2.00. And these were not classics and out-of-copyright books such as those I downloaded from MobileRead, the majority of them were current-release titles whose publishers were offering for free as a promotion—usually to get readers to start into a series and like it so much they'll buy the rest.

Last night I picked up two more free books for my Kindle from Amazon.com, and snagged the same two titles from Sony's eBook store for my Sony PRS 505. The first was For Love of Mother-Not by Alan Dean Foster. This book is the fifth in Foster's “Pip & Flinx” series, but it is the first in the chronology. It was written as a prequel to fill in some—but not all—of Flinx's background. Starting with The Tar-Aiym Krang in 1972, the series has finally come to a conclusion with the publication of the fourteenth book, Flinx Transcendent, which wraps up all the storylines that fans have been following for over 30 years. All fourteen books in the series are available for the Kindle, which is great news. Not only do I want to read the end of the series, but I'd like to start over and read it all the way through.

The second book I picked up for free was Magic Kingdom for Sale—Sold, the first book in the Magic Kingdom of Landover series. Originally published in 1986, it's clear that this freebie is being offered as a tie-in to the forthcoming publication of the sixth book in August 2009. Right now, only the first and third books are available in a Kindle edition. I'm hoping that by the time A Princess of Landover is released in August, the rest of the series will be available in electronic editions in the various eBook stores.

Kindle: Wishlists

It's no secret that I ordered a Kindle in January 2007 and received it 6 weeks later—nor that I am a rabid fan of the Kindle and all things related to electronic books. In 2008, of the 140 books that I read, 49 were electronic editions for the Kindle.

One thing that the Kindle has in spades over all the competition is the ease of buying books. Of course there is the obligatory Internet shopping site—using my browser to find a book I want, click the “buy it now” button and Voila! it's queued for transmission to my Kindle over the cellular Whispernet service. If my Kindle's antenna is turned on and I'm within the service area, my new book is downloaded to the Kindle and ready to read in just a few seconds. But that's not all, I can use the Kindle itself to browse the store and select books to read—no computer or Internet required. I've bought a book while traveling on the The Carolinian Route between Washington DC and Richmond. I've bought and downloaded a new book while seated on an AA flight waiting for the rest of the people to hurry up and get aboard so we can take off. Talk about immediate gratification!

But not only does Amazon make it easy for me to buy a book right now, but it provides a very easy way to build a wishlist of titles I want to read later. Actually, there are two different ways I can make note of a title that sounds interesting so that I can revisit it later and make a decision whether to purchase it.

Save for Later

The first Wishlist facility is the Kindle “Save for Later” list. When using the Kindle to browse the Kindle bookstore, when I see a likely title, I can click on the “Save for Later” option and Amazon will add this book to my growing list of books I want to buy; but just not now.

Here's how it works: I usually take a quick look at the “Kindle Best Sellers” and “New & Notable” links in the Kindle storefront. Today, I again noticed The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society in the list of best sellers. Since the paperback edition just came out, I figured maybe the price had dropped and sure enough, it's now selling for $7.70 instead of the $9.99 it had been at for so long. That's enough for me to add it to my Save for Later items.

First, I need to follow the link to the book's own page in the Kindle store. I move the cursor to the “Save for Later” link and select it. In just a second, I see confirmation that the book has been added to my list. I can review my list at any time by selecting the “Menu” link from any place within the Kindle store and then picking “Save for Later items”. And there it is— at the top of my list.

Samples

The second way that I keep up with books that I might want to purchase later is to download samples. This has two benefits: not only do I get to read a portion of the book to help me make up my mind, but I can also ask for samples through my Internet browser or through the Kindle's Whispernet connection. But, the only way to transfer a sample to the Kindle is through the Whispernet. When I'm outside the USA or just in an area where the Whispernet is not available, I can transfer any books by downloading to my PC and then pushing to the Kindle over the USB connection. This is not true for samples—they are only delivered through the Kindle's own wireless network.

Samples are usually a chapter or two, which is enough to whet my appetite and let me know if the book is one I'm likely to enjoy. I did download some samples from the new Offbeat Guides being offered for the Kindle and was disappointed to find that the samples didn't include the Table of Contents. It seems to me that it would be important for a sample from reference book to include the TOC; particularly when the book description doesn't contain much detail. Needless to say, I didn't buy those books and will look at other options for travel guides.

The coolest part of the samples, however, is that at the end are two links to the Kindle store. The first will allow you to buy the book right then and the second link will take you to the book's description for further review.

To be continued

So, what books are on my “Read for Later” list? And which samples have I downloaded as reminders to buy books later? Those sound like good ideas for later posts.