The Book Pirate

NEAT!

Blurb for the back cover:
“A coming of age story but with math”

In An Abundance of Katherines, Colin has just been dumped by his girlfriend Katherine. This would make the nineteenth occasion such an event has happened. All his past girlfriends have been named Katherine and all have dumped him. But after the nineteenth time, Colin has had enough and decides to use his child-prodigy status to develop a mathematical theory to determine if when a person in a relationship will be dumped by the other. He hopes that he will be able to figure out a way to get K-19 (the 19th Katherine) to take him back. This is all fine and dandy, but Colin’s best friend Hassan gets tired of his obsessiveness over K-19 and takes him on a road trip that ends in Gunshot, TN. They decide to stay awhile and befriend Lindsey who shows them what life is like in Gutshot.

The problem I faced with this book is that I read it right after finishing Paper Towns. I loved Paper Towns so I went in to this book with high expectations which is a mistake. That’s not to say this book is bad by no means. Paper Towns and An Abundance of Katherines are different books with similar writing styles. AAoK is more of a dramatic piece as it deals with Colin’s struggle to come to terms with his newly single status. This is really a coming of age story but with math involved. The Lindsey character is a catalyst that forces him to view life differently and leads Colin and Hassan on various adventures. Hassan is there for the comic relief and to provide some insight on how Colin’s thought process works.

I liked the book but felt that reading two different books by the same author back-to-back prevented me from reading them without comparing them to each other. AAoK is an enjoyable book and you should probably read it if you are a fan of John Green or are looking for a story about a road trip.

20 in 2009 Challenge: 4/20

http://www.thisisnottom.com/??????

Not sure if this is book/pirate related or not. Thisisnottom.com has popped up on the internet and has been driving me crazy lately. Every Monday a new Youtube video is posted by someone who is not Tom and it is up to the viewer to follow the clues. At the end of the clues is a bit of a story. I’m still not sure what the point of all this is but it’s easy to get wrapped up in. I recommend starting from the start, or you can just jump in and figure out this latest video.

It’s over! This past school term has been brutal for me. Taking three English classes at a time (in addition to a foreign language) may not be the best idea for one’s mental health. I think I only got one book read in the past three months that wasn’t required for one of my classes. I started Slaughterhouse Five in January and finished it yesterday. Now I am on spring break. I hope to tackle Christopher Moore’s Fool and at least one other book. I also need to catch up on my book blogging because in case you haven’t noticed, content has been kind of lax as of late. So, until I have something worth wild to say, may I recommend you check out Machine Man. It is a project from Max Barry who currently is on my Top 5 Author’s list. Each one of his books (The Company, Syrup, Jennifer Government) are well worth reading again and again. Machine Man is Barry’s attempt to put out a story via the internet in short increments. I think it’s being released at one page a day. Bite sized fiction anyone?

I’m a big fan of the Lemony Snicket Series of Unfortunate Events book series. I think they are fantastic books and will stand out as classics 30 or some odd years from now. Snicket has a new book that just came out called The Composer Is Dead. And while I am hardly the target audience for children’s picture books, I do think that it is worth checking out the next time you find yourself in the childrens section of your local bookstore.

For the past month or so, my English Criticism class has been constantly been getting sidetracked and have talked in great length about Slumdog Millionaire instead of the assigned reading. Today, having failed to read the assigned essay about Heart of Darkness, I was not allowed to voice my opinion on the book and whether or not the author is racist. However, when we transitioned in to Slumdog, the instructor it seems has many opinions about the film. The film that she has not seen.

My question is: Do I point out that she is commenting on a film that she has not seen?

Having failed to become a published author before the age of 24, I am a little unfamiliar with the whole process. Luckily I stumbled across this Youtube video which explains everything pretty well. It’s full of fact this non-published people may not be aware of. For example, did you know that it takes ten to thirty years to write a fiction book and that all editors and authors communicate solely with Twitter? Fascinating!

After coming under attack from the US Authors Guild, Amazon has decided to give authors and publishers the option to disable the “Read-To-Me” feature on the Kindle 2. With “Read-To-Me” the Kindle will read the books on your Kindle aloud thus freeing your hands for other things such as knitting or, I dunno, reading another book. The guild argued that this feature will impact the billion-dollar audiobook industry. By giving authors and publishers the option to disable it, Amazon feels that they will feel more in control and will quit complaining.

Marc Acito briefly mentioned this feature when I saw him a few weeks ago and how it isn’t doing any favors to the author who gets paid for the audiobook rights.

As a reader, I can not possibly imagine this feature being useful. Sure we can make it talk, but the reading wont be able to do the slightly different voices for each character, provide tone or dramatic pauses. In my mind it would probably sound like a robot reading to you.

I found this Youtube video which demonstrates this technology. Unfortunately, it’s in a book open room with lots of cameras clicking and is hard to really make out the quality of the reading.

Anybody with a Kindle 2, what are your thoughts on the Read-To-Me feature?

Source:
http://tech.yahoo.com/news/afp/usitinternetkindleamazoncopyright