Enjoying Free Books
Colin M | March 3, 2008 | 12:00 amIn the past three weeks, instead of doing all the studying / schoolwork I am supposed to have been doing, I have, among other things, also read three really great new books. Too great, in fact, in that I read the latest today in one 8-hour sitting. (Well, technically I did move from the couch to the chair, and paused to bake some chicken for supper… but I read the thing straight through, nonetheless.)
The books were, in the order they arrived for free:
- Mistborn, by Brandon Sanderson
- Old Man’s War, by John Scalzi
- Spin, by Robert Charles Wilson
I thought about putting mini-reviews up here, but I don’t think I have anything amazing to add to the descriptions you can find elsewhere, other than to say that all three are very different books, but I enjoyed all three greatly. Of them, Spin had me hooked the most, seeing as I was compelled to read it straight through. If you like Science Fiction, I highly recommend it; very cool futurist technology ideas (and scary to think about those that are feasible…), and also very neat ideas about how a society might react in the face of a looming yet not immediate apocalypse (in this case, known with certainty to be some 40 years distant).
The most important part:
How you, fellow science fiction / fantasy lover, too, can get free digital books like these to read, on a weekly basis. Check out the publisher Tor‘s new program, called “Watch the Skies.” They’ll send out free digital books once a week, and also enter you in a drawing for something or other.
It’s way too hard to read books on the computer. How do you do it?
I don’t know, actually. I like the 2-page continuous layout in OS X’s Preview application, but in all honesty, once I get into a book, I don’t really pay attention to the words, pages, etc. I do tend to like regular books with physical pages to turn better, but I got used to ebooks a couple years ago too, probably from reading so many websites :)
I got the books myself but I can’t stand reading them on my laptop. Or my desktop. I spend all day staring at computers and reading a paper book is where it’s at. Besides I like to read as I go to sleep or while lying down and a laptop just doesn’t cut it.
I might get into ebooks if I had something like an Amazon Kindle, though I do have a problem paying the same amount (or more) for an ebook compared with something printed. I just love the feel of paper (that and e-stuff has no printing costs).