The Passage by Justin Cronin

The Passage
by Justin Cronin
Ebook (B&N)
978-0-345-51686-2
Ballantine Books / Random House

Rating (on a scale of 1-5, with 5 being best)
Plot: 4.5
Characters: 3.5
Writing: 4
Final: 4
       
Comments: I bought this on a whim, and I can't remember which tweet or blog post piqued my interest. I'd seen a lot of both regarding this book, but one in particular pushed me over the edge and got me to buy it. I knew very little about it and I had no idea how long it was. To be honest, I don't know if I would have ended up buying it as a print book. I would have known right off the bat how long it was, and that can sometimes kill a whim. Most distressingly, I didn't know it was the first of a trilogy! I got to the end and thought "Huh. Either I really missed something or that was a pretty vague way to end that." (Obviously, I am a genius.)

I really enjoyed the story--it was suspenseful and creepy. Way too long, though. I can't believe there are two more whole books coming: on the one hand, like the idea of getting back into this world; on the other, I just think "Ugh. 800 more pages?"


See also the review by Bibliolatry: The long, mostly interesting (but very long) passage.

Publisher's description

“It happened fast. Thirty-two minutes for one world to die, another to be born.”

First, the unthinkable: a security breach at a secret U.S. government facility unleashes the monstrous product of a chilling military experiment. Then, the unspeakable: a night of chaos and carnage gives way to sunrise on a nation, and ultimately a world, forever altered. All that remains for the stunned survivors is the long fight ahead and a future ruled by fear—of darkness, of death, of a fate far worse.

As civilization swiftly crumbles into a primal landscape of predators and prey, two people flee in search of sanctuary. FBI agent Brad Wolgast is a good man haunted by what he’s done in the line of duty. Six-year-old orphan Amy Harper Bellafonte is a refugee from the doomed scientific project that has triggered apocalypse. He is determined to protect her from the horror set loose by her captors. But for Amy, escaping the bloody fallout is only the beginning of a much longer odyssey—spanning miles and decades—towards the time and place where she must finish what should never have begun.

More effing reduxes

This essay has been sent around, linked to a lot by those in publishing, and I'm sorry for the repeat; I believe even Jana has linked to it! However, it explains the economics of pricing e-books and why Amazon would make the moves it does wrt cloth copies and pricing. Here. It explains the debate on pricing from the publishers' POV.

E-books, pricing, availability, frustration redux redux

To combat (I imagine?) the newer publisher strategy of making some e-books available only in Barnes and Noble e-reader format (and not Kindle at all), I believe Amazon is selling cloth or paper versions of the books at Kindle prices.




Thus, the latest book in Ariana Franklin's Mistress of the Art of Death series is priced as follows:

Barnes and Noble
E-book: $12.99
Cloth: $18.68

Amazon
E-book: None available
Cloth:$9.99. Yes, that's NINE NINETY NINE.

Another example: Nora Roberts, Bed of Roses, paperback. Both sellers have the book in paper and e-versions, but Amazon's prices are still less expensive, and the paper version and e-version cost the same.:



Barnes and Noble
E-book version: $12.99.
Paperback: $9.36
ISBN-13: 9780425230077
Publisher: Penguin Group
Pub date: October 2009

Amazon
Kindle version: $7.35
"Deckle edge" paperback version: $7.35
ISBN-13: 978-0425230077
Publisher: Berkeley Trade [owned by Penguin Group] (October 2009; original edition)

I don't know what to say about this other than
1. E-book buyers could benefit from searching both Amazon and B and N, because there is a price war.
2. I've got the insanely cheap cloth version of the Franklin book at home now.

Finally, an article
"In some circles, the iPad was known as 'the Jesus tablet.'"
--Ken Auletta, Publish or Perish: Can the iPad topple the Kindle, and save the book business? from The New Yorker, April 26, 2010

[link] Dear Author's iPad eBook App Roundup

Dear Author did a nice comparison of the currently available iPad eBook apps:

There are several ebook reading applications.  There is no perfect reading app despite the iPad having multiple advantages over eink devices.

I haven't used Kindle on the iPad yet. And I'll continue to not use it if it insists on displaying everything right justified. I've read a little bit on the iBooks app, but not enough to have an opinion on it yet. All I can say is that nothing has annoyed me so far. I'm really waiting for the Barnes and Noble eReader app which, according to Dear Author, is awaiting approval from Apple.

New York Times on e-books, iPads

Today's New York Times contains David Pogue's funny review of iPad: The Apple iPad is basically a gigantic iPod Touch. The review is in two sections: one for tech-heads, one for "regular people." The upshot seems to be that while regular people will probably love the iPad, tecchies are less enthusiastic. (Perhaps this is true of all things in life.) Some quotes from the review follow.

On the iPad book reading app, from the tech part:

There’s an e-book reader app, but it’s not going to rescue the newspaper and book industries (sorry, media pundits). The selection is puny (60,000 titles for now). You can’t read well in direct sunlight. At 1.5 pounds, the iPad gets heavy in your hand after awhile (the Kindle is 10 ounces). And you can’t read books from the Apple bookstore on any other machine — not even a Mac or iPhone.

The book reading app, from the regular person part:

The new iBooks e-reader app is filled with endearing grace notes. For example, when you turn a page, the animated page edge actually follows your finger’s position and speed as it curls, just like a paper page. Font, size and brightness controls appear when you tap. Tap a word to get a dictionary definition, bookmark your spot or look it up on Google or Wikipedia. There’s even a rotation-lock switch on the edge of the iPad so you can read in bed on your side without fear that the image will rotate.

I want to fast-forward three to five years ahead, when the little bugs are fixed and the price is low and I can just go get one of these. Or, you know, an iPhone. It's hard waiting for technology to smooth out!

Another NYT article, this one on how since e-books have no discernable covers when you are reading them (all an onlooker can see is the device you're using to read), the e-book thus takes away a certain instant visual marketing/advertising component from publishers. It's here.

I can say that I've had several conversations with people who have Kindles, mostly on planes. Usually, we are discussing how much we enjoy the device, or how much we like the other person's carrying case or whatever. What we're reading at the time tends not to get mentioned.

I have to say, I love trying to see the covers of other people's books. Perhaps e-book readers need a back window, one that shows the cover or title of the book you're reading. Or not. As much as I love seeing what other people are reading, I love even more the fact that e-book readers enable me to "anonymously" read or buy any old trashy thing I feel like. In general, I probably shouldn't worry about that kind of thing, but that's another topic for another day.

Current Obsession: iPad

Just look at Kobo on the iPad:


Kobo on iPad from Kobo on Vimeo.

I have the Kobo app on my iPod Touch, but I don't really use it. It's nice for browsing books and it has a very pretty interface. Browsing is nice because there are so many categories: what they call browse is all arranged by subject, where discover has all sorts of interesting categories like what's new, NYT bestseller, in the news, hidden gems, and many more. However, I haven't actually read anything with Kobo.

And here, of course, is the iBooks app (image from Apple):

I mean, am I really supposed to be able to resist this?

Silver Wedding by Maeve Binchy

Silver Wedding
by Maeve Binchy
ebook
978-0-440-33760-7
Delta / Random House

Rating (on a scale of 1-5, with 5 being best)
Plot: 3.5
Characters: 3
Writing: 3.5
Final: 3.33
       
Comments: I had read a couple of Ken Bruen books in a row and was in dire need of a little Binchy.

Publisher's description

There was never any question that Deirdre and Desmond Doyle would celebrate a gala twenty-fifth anniversary. Naturally, their daughter Anna, would plan their grand affair. Of all three Doyle children, Anna knew exactly what their mother wished--even as she lived her own secret life. Will Brendan, the rebellious son, even bother to return to London? Will Helen, the hapless would-be nun, embarrass them all? This is Deirdre’s day, a triumph for a woman obsessed with keeping up appearances, her silvery revenge after “marrying down” twenty-five years ago. She’s determined to show them all: the maid of honor, still unmarried, still gorgeous, now a successful London business woman . . . the best man, once Desmond’s close friend, now his boss . . . their reluctant priest, who harbors his own guilty secret.

As family and friends gather, a lifetime of lies takes its toll. But what begins as a family charade brings with it the transforming power of love--and truth.

The Guards by Ken Bruen

The Guards
by Ken Bruen
ebook
0-312-32027-2 (paperback)
St. Martin's Press

Rating (on a scale of 1-5, with 5 being best)
Plot: 4
Characters: 4
Writing: 3.5
Final: 3.83
       
Comments: As you can see, I'm reading the Jack Taylor novels completely out of order, thanks to my inability to consistently find them as ebooks. What's even worse, I had to read the Kindle edition of this one and the formatting was so horrible. I've never seen formatting any where near this bad in either eReader or Barnes & Noble eReader editions. Check it out below: I know it's blurry (it's a picture of my iPod Kindle app taken with my Pre), but you can still see the huge gaps between the words, which means you're constantly turning the page. And that brings up another complaint: I hate having to "swipe" the screen to turn the page. Such a hassle. Why not allow me to just touch the screen like every other ereading app? Come on, Kindle. Help a girl out.

Publisher's description

Jack Taylor's life is spiraling downward. Dumped from the Garda Siochana ("the Guards"), Ireland's elite police force, he now passes his days drinking in a friend's bar. Enter Ann Henderson, a woman searching for her missing daughter. Jack agrees to take on her case, learning about Ann's daughter as well as other young women who have recently disappeared . . .

The Dramatist by Ken Bruen

The Dramatist
by Ken Bruen
ebook
97-8-142-99023-6
Minotaur / St. Martin's Press

Rating (on a scale of 1-5, with 5 being best)
Plot: 3.5
Characters: 4
Writing: 4
Final: 3.83
       
Comments: Don't read Ken Bruen if you don't want your heart broken--his books hurt. This one actually made me gasp audibly at the end.

Publisher's description

The impossible has happened: Jack Taylor is living clean and dating a mature woman. Rumour suggests he is even attending mass . . . The accidental deaths of two students appear random, tragic events, except that in each case a copy of a book by John Millington Synge is found beneath the body. Jack begins to believe that "The Dramatist," a calculating killer, is out there, enticing him to play. As the case twists and turns Jack's refuge, the city of Galway, now demands he sacrifice the only love he's maintained, and while Iraq burns, he seems a step away from the abyss. 

Beat the Reaper by Josh Bazell

Beat the Reaper
by Josh Bazell
ebook
978-0-316-04030-3
Little, Brown and Company / Hachette Book Group

Rating (on a scale of 1-5, with 5 being best)
Plot: 4.5
Characters: 4.5
Writing: 4
Final: 4.33
       
Comments: Super fast-paced, foul-mouthed, with graphic descriptions of violence and medical procedures. Fun!


Publisher's description

Dr. Peter Brown is an intern at Manhattan’s worst hospital. He has a talent for medicine, a shift from hell, and a past he’d prefer to keep hidden. Whether it’s a blocked circumflex artery or a plan to land a massive malpractice suit, he knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men.

Pietro “Bearclaw” Brnwna is a hit man for the mob, with a genius for violence, a well-earned fear of sharks, and an overly close relationship with the Federal Witness Protection Program. More likely to leave a trail of dead gangsters than a molecule of evidence, he’s the last person you want to see in your hospital room.

Nicholas LoBrutto, aka Eddy Squillante, is Dr. Brown’s new patient, with three months to live and a very strange idea: that Peter Brown and Pietro Brnwa might--just might --be the same person . . .

Now with the mob, the government, and death itself descending on the hospital, Peter has to buy time and do whatever it takes to keep his patients, himself, and his last shot at redemption alive. To get through the next eight hours--and somehow beat the Reaper.

10 Questions with Josh Bazell (on Goodreads--I'm not sure if you need to be a member to see this)

Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn

Sharp Objects
by Gillian Flynn
ebook
978-0-307-35148-7
Shaye Areheart / Crown / Random House

Rating (on a scale of 1-5, with 5 being best)
Plot: 4
Characters: 3.5
Writing: 3.5
Final: 3.66
       
Comments: Something about this book just didn't quite work for me. There are some interesting ideas and images here, but there was just too much--too bad Tim Gunn wasn't there to tell her to bring her editing eye to this project. In the video below, the author describes intending the book to have a fairy-tale quality to it so maybe that explains the excess.

Publisher's description

WICKED above her hipbone, GIRL across her heart
Words are like a road map to reporter Camille Preaker’s troubled past. Fresh from a brief stay at a psych hospital, Camille’s first assignment from the second-rate daily paper where she works brings her reluctantly back to her hometown to cover the murders of two preteen girls.

NASTY on her kneecap, BABYDOLL on her leg
Since she left town eight years ago, Camille has hardly spoken to her neurotic, hypochondriac mother or to the half-sister she barely knows: a beautiful thirteen-year-old with an eerie grip on the town. Now, installed again in her family’s Victorian mansion, Camille is haunted by the childhood tragedy she has spent her whole life trying to cut from her memory.

HARMFUL on her wrist, WHORE on her ankle
As Camille works to uncover the truth about these violent crimes, she finds herself identifying with the young victims—a bit too strongly. Clues keep leading to dead ends, forcing Camille to unravel the psychological puzzle of her own past to get at the story. Dogged by her own demons, Camille will have to confront what happened to her years before if she wants to survive this homecoming.

E-books, pricing, availability, frustration, redux

Lifehacker has a poll up asking How Much Would You Pay for an E-Book? I chose the answer, "Like dead-tree books, it completely depends on the book." Sure, I like paying less for books, but I'm not stuck on the $9.99 price. The way I think about it is if it's a book that I would be willing to pay hardback prices for in print, I'm willing to pay more for the e-book. If it's something I'd read as mass market in print, I want to pay less. Other things that matter to me are quality (I hate to see a badly formatted e-book, no matter what I paid for it) and I'd love to be able to lend e-books.

The availability thing really annoys me, though. Here's what happens if a book that I want as a e-book isn't available in that format: I find one that is. And who knows if I will remember to check again later to see if that book is now available? There are a lot of books out there, and I want most of them. So you're going to make it harder for me to get yours? Fine. There are plenty of others.

My frustration with availability isn't just about publishers holding e-book releases of new titles. It's also very frustrating when a couple of titles in a series are available as e-books and the rest aren't. Please, publishers, pay attention to this sort of thing. If I like an author, I'll happily blaze through an entire series. But so many ridiculous obstacles get in my path. My advice:

• somewhere, somehow, on your site (and within the books, whether print or e-) make it so that I can see the books in a series listed in order (and make it clear that they are listed in order).
• make all of the titles in the series available in the same formats. And when moving to a new format (such as e-book), consider starting with the first one. I guess I could see why you'd want to publicize the new format for the latest one, but when you do it would be great if the previous titles were also available.

What do you think? Is it $9.99 or nothing for you? Any book-buying (e-book or print) pet peeves you'd care to share?

E-books, pricing, availability, frustration

Here. Amazon wants its publishers to continue to offer all new e-books for $9.99. Macmillan decided it needed to charge more, from 12.99 to 14.99. Initially, Amazon took Macmillan titles off its site and stated that it would stay the course and not raise its prices--but ultimately, Amazon capitulated.

I am not going to lie. One big reason I went with Kindle over nook was because I preferred the lower prices offered by the Kindle. It is very frustrating to me when new books (such as The Swan Thieves, as I mentioned before), are not available electronically on their pub dates. (You have to wait three mos. or around there for some new titles to be available.)

But would I pay more to get a new e-book title on time? I don't want to. It depends on the book. Maybe. If I have to, I guess I will, but it makes me angry. It's frustrating as a user to see a good deal slipping away, whether or not it's a good thing for publishing as a whole.

Finally, in preparation for the future, I am trying to fight instinctive revulsion response to the name "iPad," but the struggle is a hard one.

Barnes & Noble Ebook/Ereader Survey

Part of the B&N survey

I stumbled across this survey yesterday. It's a Barnes & Noble survey they link to from their main site. Here is the link. In case that doesn't work, you can find it from the Barnes and Noble ebooks page: look for the "Send Feedback" link in the list on the lefthand side.

What a smart thing for them to do! I love it when I have something to say as a customer and a company makes it easy for me to say it.

Now everyone please go over there and ask them to add a Pre app. :)

Most Important Feature in an eReader

If I had to choose just one feature as the most important in an eReader . . .

Would it be a logically and thoughtfully designed interface? Or ease of purchase (aka Project Don't Make Jana Get Out of Bed)? Or a large quantity of available content? Or price? All of these matter to me.

But I'm going to have to go with a logically and thoughtfully designed interface. I keep trying to give my Kindle (v1) a try, but the clunkiness of the object itself combined with the rotten navigation scheme keep sending me back to my iPod Touch.

Of course, having "the whole B&N ebook catalog at my fingertips" wouldn't hurt, either.

This post is part of a contest through BBAW (sponsored by IREX) to win an IREX eReader.

[link] TeleRead: How THIS e-book fan buys

A Sony Reader user from Canada reviews some ebook sites, including Fictionwise, eReader (one of my faves), Smashwords, and Baen Books.

How THIS e-book fan buys | TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home

[link]8 Apps for iPhone readers

eBook Roundup: 8 Apps for iPhone readers

2007 also marked the introduction of the iPhone; it took about a year for eBook apps to appear on the iPhone. Now there are so many of them that finding the right one for your purposes can be a confusing prospect. I would like to clarify all this a bit by categorizing the four types of eBook apps, at least so far, and letting you know what you can expect from each.

(via tuaw)

OR Books, a new progressive publisher, will try e-books and POD to bypass bookstores | TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home

OR Books, a new progressive publisher, will try e-books and POD to bypass bookstores | TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home

Very exciting: I love the model and the list of authors they've worked with is very promising as well.

OR Books from OR Books on Vimeo.

See also: BoingBoing article

Ebook Reader Roundup, part 1: Devices

Let's start by looking at the dedicated reading devices . . .

Kindle 1: Here is my original Kindle review. I’d also add that the more I think about it, the more I am opposed to carrying an extra device just for books. It says a lot about the coolness factor of the iPod Touch that I’m willing to carry an extra thing around (and I know that it is a multi-purpose device—I just happen to use it primarily for books). It also helps that it is very small.




Sony Reader: I’ve only ever seen one and I didn’t really read anything on it, but I flipped through a book on it. From what I could tell, though, it has many of the drawbacks of the Kindle. Primarily, to me, the fact that it’s only good for reading.

However, I could see my parents using something like a Kindle or Sony Reader. Particularly my dad: he likes to read newspapers (currently reads some online, some in paper) and books and mainly does so at home.

Time for some multi-purpose devices . . .

Palm Treo: I have been reading on my Treo for years. My current one is a 700p (I'm looking to upgrade, but can't pull the trigger on the Pre yet). The biggest selling point for this approach is that I always have a book with me, because I always have my phone with me. Since the eReader mobile site launched, I don't even need my computer—I can purchase and download directly to my phone. The downsides are the very small screen (which doesn't bother me, but I know it matters to many people) and the poor text resolution (which I didn't notice until I started reading on the iPod, but I'm getting ahead of myself).



iPod Touch: My new favorite thing—so pretty, so shiny. As I just mentioned, the screen on this thing is just gorgeous: it's big and both text and images look great on it. Also, there are so many great books and book apps available for the iPod/iPhone—and many of them are free! Makes my little heart flutter just thinking about it. By far my favorite reading device to date. It's also great for social networking (I use the Facebook and Tweetdeck apps), and the browser is quite nice. But are there any downsides? Yes. For one, I'm at the mercy of wifi availability since I have an iPod and not an iPhone. Also, (again, since it's not the iPhone) it's an extra thing to carry around.


Coming soon . . .
Ebook Reader Roundup, part 2: Apps

Catching Up: Three Books I Finished Recently

Three quick reads, all enjoyable. Especially the one by Elinor Lipman, who is new to me (via Laura Lippman).

Picture Perfect by Jodi Picoult
ebook 1-4295-3335-8
iPod Touch, eReader Pro
copyright 1995

As Picture Perfect begins, it is daybreak in downtown L.A. A woman suffering from amnesia is taken in by an officer new to the L.A. police force, after he finds her wandering aimlessly near a graveyard. Days later, when her husband comes to claim her at the police station, no one is more stunned than Cassie Barrett to learn that not only is she a renowned anthropologist, but she is married to Hollywood's leading man, Alex Rivers.

A Date You Can't Refuse by Harley Jane Kozak
ebook 978-0-307-58871-5
iPod Touch, eReader Pro
copyright 2009

Wollie Shelley isn't happy about taking the job as a "social coach" at MediaRex, but the FBI makes her an offer she can't refuse. If she agrees to infiltrate the company, they'll guarantee that her schizophrenic brother will have a home at the federally subsidized halfway house he's come to love.

So Wollie launches into teaching three foreign celebrities how to cope with the customs of Beverly Hills, improve their English, and become Oprah-ready. And when a coyote-chewed corpse appears in the MediaRex compound, Wollie realizes that her colleagues are concealing some serious secrets of their own.

The Dearly Departed by Elinor Lipman
ebook 1-58836-013-x
iPod Touch, eReader Pro
copyright 2001

With her latest work, Elinor Lipman expertly serves up her usual delicious dish of entertainment. When the story opens, the not-so-sunny Sunny Batten has just received news that causes her to be even more morose than usual: her mother, Margaret Batten, has died in a freak accident with Margaret’s alleged fiancé, Miles Finn. Thus Sunny returns to the small New Hampshire town of King George and to the charity bungalow on the edge of the country club’s golf course where Margaret raised Sunny by herself. While at the funeral, Sunny catches her first glimpse of the brash Fletcher Finn, Miles Finn’s son and self-described possessor of “a heart of plutonium.” And who can’t help but notice, as they sit together at the graveside, the resemblance between Sunny and Fletcher, “the flagrant display, wherever one looked, of Miles Finn’s genes” [p. 79]?