The OF Blog: A partial list of those who inspired me to purchase e-books recently

Sunday, July 24, 2011

A partial list of those who inspired me to purchase e-books recently

Although print reading is still dominant over e-book reading, I have been purchasing several e-books recently, especially after getting an iPad just over a week ago.  Now, the majority of these e-books have been freebies from Project Gutenberg (such as Oscar Wilde's De Profundis) that I might not otherwise been aware of in the first place, but an increasing number have come from seeing the titles mentioned elsewhere.  Here's a partial list of those e-books and those responsible for making me aware of them:

Marjorie Bowen, The Bishop of Hell and Other Stories (free, Kindle for iPhone/iPad) - first saw this mentioned in the 2006 Big-Ass Fantasy List compiled on Jeff VanderMeer's old blog.  Finally got around to downloading it in June.

Minister Faust, The Alchemists of Kush ($2.99, Kindle for iPhone/iPad) - Jeff's the responsible party, as his signal boost first caught my eye and I downloaded it the day of release last month.  Very good story.

Hanan al-Shaykh, The Locust and the Bird:  My Mother's Story ($11.99, Kindle for iPhone/iPad)- Ian Sales mentioned al-Shaykh to me and this is the e-book I chose to purchase.  Outstanding memoir/biography of a Lebanese mother and her struggles to find true love.

Chris Adrian, The Great Night:  A Novel ($11.99, Kindle for iPhone/iPad) - The New Yorker's brief article on it a couple of months ago led me to purchase it.  Not as good as The Children's Hospital, but still a good novel to read.

Sadegh Hedayat, The Blind Owl ($8.59, Kindle for iPhone/iPad) - Paul Smith raved about this novel to me months ago on Twitter.  I bought it in April and perhaps I should rave about it as well.

Rikki Ducornet, Netsuke ($11.99, Kindle for iPhone/iPad) - Jeff's again at fault.  Still, it was a pleasant read.

Gustave Flaubert, Salammbô (free, Kindle for iPhone/iPad) - Paul got me to read this, although I read it in both the original French and then in English translation to fill in the comprehension gaps.  Excellent Flaubert story.

Nick Mamatas, Starve Better ($3.99, Kindle for iPhone/iPad) - Actually, it was Nick himself mentioning it on Twitter that got me to buy it at a discounted price.  Interesting non-fiction piece; plan to re-read it before weighing in on it, though.

Gérard Nerval, Sylvie (free, iBooks) - It was a combination of Umberto Eco and Paul Smith that got me to read this tale in both French and English.  Outstanding.

Grans G. Bengtsson, The Long Ships ($9.87, Kindle for iPad) - Abagail Nussbaum just blogged about this in a post on recent reads and her reaction spurred me to check this out, which I hope to do later this week.

Cormac McCarthy, Sunset Limited ($11.99, iBooks) - Shaun Duke I believe was the one who recommended this one to me.  Better than average McCarthy, or just simply outstanding – your pick.

Frank Turner Hollon, The God File ($5.99, iBooks) - Brian Lindenmuth recommended this one to me and now I shall pass that recommendation onto others.


If I bothered to list the past three months' of recommendations that I purchased in print form, the list likely would double, but this should suffice for now.  Any of these you want to read or recommend to others?

1 comment:

Roland said...

Frans G. Bengtsson, The Long Ships is very good and highly recommended. I read it in the original Swedish though, so I can't say anything about the translation. In Swedish it was written in a slightly elderly language with lots of dry, understated humor. Very funny!
Is the English version the first book only or both of them?

 
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