• There has been a recent cluster of spammers accessing BARFer accounts and posting spam. To safeguard your account, please consider changing your password. It would be even better to take the additional step of enabling 2 Factor Authentication (2FA) on your BARF account. Read more here.

The BOOK Thread

12 rules for life
Jordan B Peterson

Very heavy-handed but incredibly meaningful
 
In the Enemy's House by Howard Blum--the hunt for Soviet spies after WWII, including the Rosenbergs and others who gave away A-bomb secrets. It's a spy story, a code-breaking story, and an odd-couple story about a badass FBI agent and a nerdy cryptanalyst at a predecessor agency of the NSA.

The book also led me to other titles by the same author that look pretty good.
 
Hello readers. Has the subject of e-readers or kindle been tossed around in this thread?
I am interested in purchasing one, I wear glasses yet still can not see great and I am interested in reading books again!
Any suggestions would be appreciated.
 
Love my Kindle- especially when traveling. MUCH easier on the eyes vs. an iPad/Android tablet and pretty much on the equivalent to dead trees.

Also, If you're an Amazon Prime member and select the "~5day shipping" they'll often give you $1/shipment towards ebooks. I almost never have to pay for books anymore.
 
Which Kindle do you use? Is the screen fairly large?
I do have prime membership and I would appreciate the free books...
 
Currently using the Voyager, although I've used the Paperwhite and various older models. I love the Voyager, but honestly the Paperwhite model is 95% as good. The text on both are a bit crisper then on the $80 model, but it's not like the cheap model is crap by any means.

IMHO the Paperwhite is the price/performance winner by a large margin. Don't forget Amazon has a good return program and there are a bunch of free books available so it's easy to try it out with little to no risk.

I've never wished for a larger screen (the 6" is just fine) and you can change the font size to match your vision- you can go really big actually. The OMOTON case for the Kindle are inexpensive and work great.

The trick to get lots of free book credits (also good on video games and movies) is:

1) Buy a bunch of crap on Amazon. I almost never walk into a store so that's easy for me.

2) Check out one item at a time. Most, not all orders are good for the bonus credit.

3) If you're buying multiple of the same thing and actually want it 2-day, order all but one via the slow-credit method and the last one via 2-day Prime. About 80% of the time all of the things end up shipping together so I get both the $1 credits and free two day shipping.

4) Sadly, you don't always get the $1 credit. Sometimes it's a credit for something else ($5 on Amazon Now for example). Usually it will go back to the ebook credits if I a) buy something using the slow ship option AND b) wait a few hours.

Anyways, I just spent a week relaxing in Mexico and between diving, hiking and drinking I finished:

The Terror - Dan Simmons
Way Station - Clifford Simak
The Gunslinger (The Dark Tower Book 1) - Steven King

And half way through Book 2 of The Dark Tower series. All on the Kindle. Would of been a real PITA if I had to drag all those books on the plane.

Quick reviews:

The Terror was awesome- as I've come to expect from Simmons. Great mix of historical fiction and horror. Haven't started watching the mini-series yet, but it's also supposed to be good.

Way Station was the second book by Simak I've read (the other was City) and I guess after City I have to say I was a bit disappointed. City really set a high bar and this just couldn't compete.

This was actually the second time I read The Gunslinger. Wanted to re-read it before diving into The Drawing of Three/Book 2. Amazingly, these are the first two books I've read by King and so far I've been really enjoying his prose and the story. Definitely a bit more fantasy then I'm used to reading, but I love a good spaghetti western and so far it's really kept me guessing.
 
An all time Favorite of mine is

Fairey Tale, Raymond E. Feist,

I must have read it a dozen times the last few years.
 
I found out the other day one of the other guys in our office likes to read Sci-Fi books like me. We were talking and I mentioned that I read a ton of books and use an app called OverDrive that links to my local library and I can check books out on the device of my choice. Seeing as I have my phone with me all the time I have it on there. You just type in your library and put in your library card info and you are on your way. I am reading way more books than I used to and I am branching out into other genres and authors I normally would not shell out the cash to try.
 
Sharxfan said:
...Seeing as I have my phone with me all the time I have it on there. You just type in your library and put in your library card info and you are on your way. I am reading way more books than I used to and I am branching out into other genres and authors I normally would not shell out the cash to try.
Click to expand...

Are you reading stuff on your mobile? That does not work for me.
 
Butch said:
Are you reading stuff on your mobile? That does not work for me.
Click to expand...

Yup. My eyes are about the only thing that have not gone south on me as of yet. But you should be able to put the OverDrive app on any Android or iOS device. I would bet you could probably side load it on Amazon device if I remember correctly I think they use a version of android.
 
Can't remember if I already posted this here, but there's a trilogy that starts with the book Red Rising that's worth a read. I just started watching The Expanse and it reminds me of that book.
 
Last edited:
was extremely disappointed when I tried to hand a Arthur C. Clarke book "Collection of his best" to either of my early 20's kids.:

Both said something to the affect of "no one reads books anymore. We can get anything we want online...."

:cry
 
Pollan%20Clouds-edited.png


A Strait-Laced Writer Explores Psychedelics, and Leaves the Door of Perception Ajar

Very interesting stuff.
 
Last edited:
Thanks for linking the article! I had seen some headlines that Pollen wrote a book about psychedelics, but didn't go any farther than that. He's such a great communicator. Hopefully he can convince some people that psychedelics aren't evil. A societal shift in this direction could be a great leap forward for human health.
 
I just finished "Noir" by Christopher Moore. More Moore great fiction with some nice ties to reality.

Set here in the bhey area...

Another hard to put down, fun read.
 
The Mirage Factory: Illusion, Imagination, and the Invention of Los Angeles...

Gary Krist. Movies, water and religion...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top