What book are you reading, and what do you think of it?

Started by kphoger, February 15, 2020, 07:54:46 PM

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ZLoth

From Variety:

Amazon Music Unlimited Adds Access to Audible's Entire Catalog of 1 Million Audiobooks — but You Can Listen to Only One Title per Month
QuoteAmazon Music is bolting on a new benefit for unlimited-plan subscribers: They can now access the 1 million-plus catalog of audiobooks in the U.S. from Amazon-owned Audible. The catch? You can listen to just one book per month at a time.

Starting Tuesday, Amazon Music Unlimited customers in the U.S., U.K. and Canada can listen to one book monthly (of any length) from Audible, in addition to having unlimited access to more than 100 million songs in HD audio and hundreds of thousands of podcasts ad-free (including the entire slate of Wondery's shows).
FULL ARTICLE HERE

From How-To Geek:

Malicious Site Links Are All Over Amazon Music and Audible
QuoteAmazon, Amazon Music, and the Amazon-owned Audible audiobook and podcast service are being used to lure people to various illicit sites that promote suspicious schemes.

The news comes soon after a report revealed that threat actors have been exploiting Spotify to distribute pirated software, game cheats, and spam links. Now, Amazon's music and podcast services are being abused to urge people to follow external links, leading them to dubious sites and Telegram channels. There, victims are encouraged to participate in suspicious "forex trading" schemes and even download pirated software via a bunch of links to "warez" sites.
FULL ARTICLE HERE
Don't Drive Distrac... SQUIRREL!


ZLoth

Don't Drive Distrac... SQUIRREL!

elsmere241

Quote from: ZLoth on November 24, 2024, 10:45:28 AMFinished Thunderball, it is a pretty good Bond book.

Now listening to Mr. Lincoln's T-Mails: How Abraham Lincoln Used the Telegraph to Win the Civil War.

That's a good one.

I just finished On Tyranny: Twenty lessons from the twentieth century by Timothy Snyder.

ZLoth

Completed Mr. Lincoln's T-Mails: How Abraham Lincoln Used the Telegraph to Win the Civil War. This book shows that Abe Lincoln was an early adopter of then-new technology (the telegraph) and how he used it to manager (or, in some cases, micromanage) the Union troops during the Civil War.

Now listening to Tower 57.
Don't Drive Distrac... SQUIRREL!

ZLoth

#129
My mother and I completed Harry: A Biography of a Prince which is a pretty interest biography of Prince Harry up until the books publishing in 2018. Obviously, things have changed since then. We then listened to NPR Road Trips: Roadside Attractions which is a compiliation of previous NPR reports, and are now listening to When to Rob a Bank...And 131 More Warped Suggestions and Well-Intended Rants.

Meanwhile, I completed Tower 57 which is a pretty good Science Fiction dramatization including radio, and start St. Nick.. a crime novel with each chapter being a title of a Christmas song.
Don't Drive Distrac... SQUIRREL!

ZLoth

Finished St. Nick, It's a bit of a redemption story involving a suspended cop who ends up working as a undercover Santa with mall security who rediscovers Christmas. At the end, it feels like a Hallmark feel-good movie. I got a laugh out of the football team name... the San Diego Sea Lions.
Don't Drive Distrac... SQUIRREL!

elsmere241

Right now I'm in the middle of Edison's Ghosts: The untold weirdness of history's greatest geniuses by Katie Spalding.  I just wish she wouldn't use so much profanity.

ZLoth

Currently listening to the Celebrity Performance of The Spy Who Loved Me as performed by Rosamund Pike. This is considered the worst Ian Flemming James Bond book to the point when the author only allowed the title to me used in the movies. I can see why... 007 doesn't appear until part three of the book.
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elsmere241

Quote from: elsmere241 on December 05, 2024, 10:54:50 PMRight now I'm in the middle of Edison's Ghosts: The untold weirdness of history's greatest geniuses by Katie Spalding.  I just wish she wouldn't use so much profanity.

And that's about as far as I got with it.  The crude humor and profanity were just too much.

ZLoth

I finished The Spy Who Loved Me as performed by Rosamund Pike and I can see where Ian Flemming was going with this book with a different perspective. From my perspective, it isn't a bad book, but it isn't a great book either.

I've just started the non-dramatized version of It's Superman!
Don't Drive Distrac... SQUIRREL!

ZLoth

From Good EReader:

Hoopla Reveals Most Borrowed e-Book and Audiobook Titles in 2024
QuoteHoopla revealed via a press release the digital titles that were borrowed the most in the US this year. The library platform said it used data gathered from more than 10,000 public libraries to comes across the titles that were most in demand. The company categorized the information into various segments which includes e-books, audiobooks, and comics, among others.

"At the end of each year, it's always fun to reflect on our most popular titles and what content patrons gravitated towards most over the course of the year," said Jeff Jankowski, founder of Hoopla Digital. "These reflections also help ensure we're providing the best content possible to public libraries and their patrons. Having a variety of formats and an extensive catalog allows patrons to immediately explore all kinds of content and genres – without having to wait out extensive hold times."
FULL ARTICLE HERE
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elsmere241

I reached back a bit and read The Fourth Grade Wizards and Sixth Grade Can Really Kill You by Barthe DeClements.

ZLoth

It's Superman! was a pretty good listen involving Superman's origin story.
Don't Drive Distrac... SQUIRREL!

vdeane

#138
The new online serial by Wildbow (J.C. McCrae), SEEK, began a few weeks ago.  It's proving to be an interesting sci-fi setting that's both utopian and dystopian.  It looks like we're wrapping up the first arc and we now have banner art for the three main characters.

QuoteDespite our best efforts, few survived faster than light travel.  None survived the trip back.  So we took a different approach altogether.  We started bringing the universe to us.

There's no point.  What hasn't changed in the last four hundred years won't change in our lifetimes.

There's no point.  We've solved it.  Everything humanity needs, it has.  We've reached the finish line.

There's no point.  Turn off the lights, close your eyes, and cover your ears, nightmares come manifest.

Three storylines from three individuals, worlds and eras apart.

The serial's first chapter can be found here.
Please note: All comments here represent my own personal opinion and do not reflect the official position of NYSDOT or its affiliates.

elsmere241


ZLoth

#140
My mother and I listened to the following books while driving yesterday:
  • A Brief History of Holiday Music (Out of print) - Discover the fascinating journey of Christmas music through the centuries, led by world-renowned music historian Robert Greenberg. Christmas music has had an immensely rich history, heavily influenced by the church, cultural traditions like the Germanic Yuletide, and even drinking songs. Hear some of the first Christmas music ever composed and gain new insight into the beloved Christmas classics we still sing today.
  • NPR Road Trips: Family Vacations
  • How Chefs Holiday
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vdeane

I got the entire Chronicles of the Avatar series for Christmas, so today I started The Rise of Kyoshi by F.C. Yee.
Please note: All comments here represent my own personal opinion and do not reflect the official position of NYSDOT or its affiliates.

ZLoth

#142
Just finished the celebrity performance of On Her Majesty's Secret Service as read by David Tennant.

Now listening to Faster: How a Jewish Driver, an American Heiress, and a Legendary Car Beat Hitler's Best. I'm about 28% through now with the setup information.
Don't Drive Distrac... SQUIRREL!

ZLoth

From The Guardian:

Listen up! Why 2024 was the year of the audiobook
With download figures at a high, all-star Hollywood voice casts and Spotify's entry into the audiobook streaming business, the format is enjoying a surge in popularity

FULL ARTICLE HERE

From The Indian Express:

Best of books: The year I switched to audiobooks and why you should too
Now that it's been established that audiobooks are, in fact, 'real' books, why not take advantage of the little gaps in your day to listen to one

FULL ARTICLE HERE
Don't Drive Distrac... SQUIRREL!

ZLoth

My mother and I listened to the following books today:
  • Jingle Bell Pop
  • NPR Road Trips: Fairs and Festivals
  • Hi Bob! (Out Of Print) - You heard "Hi Bob!" 256 times as characters greeted him on The Bob Newhart Show. Get ready to hear it again - from real-life comedy all-stars! This Audible Original production pairs the paragon of comedy with six of the funniest famous people he's inspired: Will Ferrell, Jimmy Kimmel, Lisa Kudrow, Conan O'Brien, Judd Apatow, and Sarah Silverman. Bob Newhart matches wits with a handpicked cast of entertainment luminaries as they exchange never-before-heard personal anecdotes and, yes, jokes. Using his trademark deadpan and signature charm, Bob banters with his celebrated guests, drawing out their most interesting stories and telling his own. Listening is such a kick - you'll understand why Bob has been a wellspring for contemporary comedy talent.
Don't Drive Distrac... SQUIRREL!

ZLoth

I finished Faster: How a Jewish Driver, an American Heiress, and a Legendary Car Beat Hitler's Best just before midnight, making it the last book I listened to in 2024. This book mainly covers European automotive racing in the 1920s and 1930 and some of the key figures, including Adolf Hitler's efforts in turning the auto racing into a political one with every German victory into a source of German national pride.

Now, I'm onto the twelfth James Bond book You Only Live Twice (Celebrity Performance) to kick off 2025.
Don't Drive Distrac... SQUIRREL!

ZLoth

Almost completed You Only Live Twice (Celebrity Performance). This is not only a dark James Bond novel, but only has minor resemblance to the actual movie. This book follows the events of On Her Majesty's Secret Service, but the movie precedes it. No wonder one of the screenwriters, Roald Dahl, called the book "rubbish". Yes, that Roald Dahl.
Don't Drive Distrac... SQUIRREL!

ZLoth

Don't Drive Distrac... SQUIRREL!

ZLoth

Just finished The Walls Have Ears: The Greatest Intelligence Operation of World War II. This is a fascinating insight into a long-classified WW2 operation where German POWs were "interrogated", but their rooms were "bugged" and their conversations in their rooms were monitored for comments that proved valuable in the allied operations.

On to the celebrity performance of The Man with the Golden Gun.
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ZLoth

Just finished The Man with the Golden Gun, and it's one of the weakest Ian Fleming 007 novels. It was completed prior to his death in August 1964 and released the following April. It is supposed to come after You Only Live Twice, and while it has a good opening, it fails to deliver. Not surprisingly, the book doesn't closely resemble the book, and the movie wasn't that great either. I'm pushing ahead with Octopussy and The Living Daylights, and Other Stories which is the final Fleming book.
Don't Drive Distrac... SQUIRREL!



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