So I've been reading a lot of books on my Kindle... Getting the Kindle has helped me to reverse the trend of me browsing for books - both in the library and online, then borrowing/downloading the books, and then not reading them. Still, that only applies to the digital books...
I can't help snatching books off the book shelf in the library... But when I get home... There's so many other things vying for my time that I pretty much never get to the books. Plus these days, I'm getting lazy to bring books out to read... Either I read stuff on the phone or I'd take my Kindle...
Which brings me to the main point of this post. The procurement of eBooks.
I love the email system of the Kindle - you can set an email for your Kindle, and just mail the books to your Kindle. I personally use Calibre to organise my eBooks and mail them to my Kindle. It also can convert PDFs and ePUBs to the Kindle Mobi format. Doesn't work for all PDFs though, sometimes the resulting format is just unreadable.
But regarding the procurement...
Now that's just troublesome. It's even more troublesome for me to buy eBooks than to download illegal copies. Why? Because of location restrictions. Amazon doesn't sell eBooks in Singapore. Neither does Apple. You need complicated things like VPN to buy Kindle books from Amazon. Apple? It's even worst. You need a US payment method - credit card or debit card - before they let you download anything from the US app store. Used to be that I could download free apps without a payment method... I just tried the other day. Nope, they won't let me do that anymore. *sigh*
Amazon puts ads on your Kindle - you can pay extra to disable the ads, but I've come to like those ads. It's usually some advertisement for a book, and the ad only appears when you 'turn off' the Kindle - it's an eink display so keeping the screen on practically uses no battery - so the ads are really no intrusive. I've actually found quite a few of the books advertised interesting. And I would have purchased them if I could. You know, like without having to do all the VPN, gift card crap. If I had to go to such lengths to buy a book... I could spend a similar amount of time to get the book through some other methods... (And really, the alternative is really fast if you know where to look.)
I remember a Chinese essay regarding music piracy I had to write over a decade ago. Back when the concept of piracy was in it's infancy and I was still using things like Kazaa to get my songs. The problem then was that there was a lack of legal means to get digital music, and that many teens, myself included, has no access to a credit/debit card to buy our songs online. So what do we do then? You can't stop us from listening to songs. We just pirate. The credit/debit card problem is still there for many teens, especially in an Asian country like Singapore where parents can be pretty strict. But the next barrier is that of geographical location. After years of negotiation, Netflix has finally landed in Singapore, Malaysia, and a bunch of other countries in the region. Some dramas/movies are not available here due to copyright laws or other legal restrictions, but being able to get on Netflix without VPNs and other web trickery is definitely an improvement.
Sure there are loads of legal hoops that cooperations need to jump through, but as consumers, we don't care. Well, those who do care a little more would go through the trouble of tricking Amazon to think that we are in the US. But the rest of us would just do it some other way. And that other way does not involve publishers/authors getting a single dime.
It's simple. Give us an easy way and we'll be a lot, A LOT more inclined to do things legally. If I can get the book in two clicks, without even leaving my Kindle, why would I take the time to search for the book online, download said book, load it into Calibre, convert it into Mobi if it's in the wrong format, then email it to my Kindle?
Till the day it's easy for me to buy Kindle books on Amazon!
Showing posts with label Books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Books. Show all posts
Saturday, April 30, 2016
Thursday, January 22, 2015
Books/Drama: Murder on the Orient Express
So I've read the book and watched the drama.
Of course this post is full of spoilers, so if you don't want to know, please don't read on!
Well for one... previously when I translated the news article, it was said that on the first night the story would follow the book closely, while the second night would be a twist. (And I swear, the Japanese word used was twist, straightforward, right out of the dictionary.) Of course, when you say twist, I thought it meant that they would be changing the story... maybe changing the tricks they used to commit the murder... or changing the murderer(s)... etc... Well granted, now that I've read the story it is quite hard to actually change the story while still making sure it's as good, or even better as compared to the original. Still... the words used by that news article...
Well it turns out that the second night isn't really what I would call a twist at all. Since it in no way 'twists' the main plot. Inside, the second night drama shows a 'behind the scenes' view of how the entire incident happened. Starting from 5 years ago when the Goriki family (or Armstrong, if you're using the names from the book) was killed. How the servants of the house left etc.... how they came together one by one and decided to carry out the unthinkable - kill the murderer with their own hands. They showed how Nino worked for that Murderer (sorry, I just suck big time with remembering names), how they got the Goriki former bulter to serve as his valet. How Nino got so frustrated at having to work for such an uncouth man and nearly wanted to quit but was persuaded not to... how the less educated servants got so frustrated at the lack of progress with their plans... how last minute changes occurred when the Countess wanted to take part as well - initially the plan was that her husband would take her place, and the wife would stay at home... how Nino made the mistake of burning the letter instead of bringing it back, which eventually led to their whole plan being revealed...
All in all I'd say it was an extremely well thought out drama. I could not spot any loopholes, or logical flaws (granted, they are following the plot of a well established writer after all). I think the behind the scenes story fitted well with the main plot, it was neither dull nor boring, and it was most interesting to see how the 13 of them executed their plans (and changed their plans as they realised Suguro Takeru, the famous detective, was on board) and committed the murder.
The drama was, as you probably already know, localised as taking place in Japan, instead of Europe as set in the book. Still, everything was well considered by the script writer/director and the localisation of the story was done with utmost care. For example, in the book the secretary had let Poirot known that the murdered speaks only English, but he had replied the train conductor in French. In the drama, Suguro asked Nino where the murdered is from, to which Nino replied that he had inferred that the murdered was from a particular locaility in Japan because of his dialect, whereas Nino had replied the train conductor in a different dialect. In the book the passengers were from various countries, but in the drama they were from various parts of Japan. The character names were properly considered too. The name association trick with the governess was reproduced by referring to a place in Japan when the real name of the governess and the fake one made up by the countess was put together. The oil spot trick too. In my opinion erasing a radical off the word worked better than changing a H to an E. You can tell that they had put in a lot of effort to make sure the drama included as much of the things mentioned in the book as possible. Still, as with all drama/movie adaptations there are parts that have been left out. For example, Poirot on Taurus express was completely eliminated, and with that elimination we do not get to see the govorness being distraught at the possiblity of not catching the Orient Express. Well in fact this whole Taurus Express thing was not only omitted, but it was changed, deleted, gone. The governess was shown as departing from the house with several other members of the group of 12, with the group departing at various different times. So no Taurus Express in the drama. Also missing was the writing of names/address when Suguro/Poirot was interviewing the suspects. The collection of passport was missing too, which does make sense because they were not travelling overseas in the drama. Only the count and countness had their passports with them in the drama. And no writing, so we didn't get to see who was left and who was right handed. Those were the two most obvious differences that I can recall at the moment... Ah one more. In the book the dead man's clothes were taken off for the doctor to examine the wounds, but of course they would not do that in the drama so as to make the show more family friendly.
Edit: Just remembered one more difference... In the book another carriage was added onto the train in a the station, and the company director moved to a room on the newly added carriage, freeing up his room for Poirot. In the drama that whole part was neglected, no new carriages were added on. The director merely moved to the 3rd class. As there's no new carriage added on, after the bloody knife was found, the actress wasn't moved to a new room simply because there was no new room to move to.
The acting was also superb. Not just Nino... but everyone else's too. A star studded cast indeed!
All in all I enjoyed both the book and the drama very much. I would certainly say that the drama has done the book justice, and I'd recommend you to watch the drama when you are free (and when subs are out I guess?). I'd definitely like to let my parents watch the drama (since there's Chinese subs) when there's a chance.
Alright! That's all for now! It's really late already and it's high time for me to head home!!!
Of course this post is full of spoilers, so if you don't want to know, please don't read on!
Well for one... previously when I translated the news article, it was said that on the first night the story would follow the book closely, while the second night would be a twist. (And I swear, the Japanese word used was twist, straightforward, right out of the dictionary.) Of course, when you say twist, I thought it meant that they would be changing the story... maybe changing the tricks they used to commit the murder... or changing the murderer(s)... etc... Well granted, now that I've read the story it is quite hard to actually change the story while still making sure it's as good, or even better as compared to the original. Still... the words used by that news article...
Well it turns out that the second night isn't really what I would call a twist at all. Since it in no way 'twists' the main plot. Inside, the second night drama shows a 'behind the scenes' view of how the entire incident happened. Starting from 5 years ago when the Goriki family (or Armstrong, if you're using the names from the book) was killed. How the servants of the house left etc.... how they came together one by one and decided to carry out the unthinkable - kill the murderer with their own hands. They showed how Nino worked for that Murderer (sorry, I just suck big time with remembering names), how they got the Goriki former bulter to serve as his valet. How Nino got so frustrated at having to work for such an uncouth man and nearly wanted to quit but was persuaded not to... how the less educated servants got so frustrated at the lack of progress with their plans... how last minute changes occurred when the Countess wanted to take part as well - initially the plan was that her husband would take her place, and the wife would stay at home... how Nino made the mistake of burning the letter instead of bringing it back, which eventually led to their whole plan being revealed...
All in all I'd say it was an extremely well thought out drama. I could not spot any loopholes, or logical flaws (granted, they are following the plot of a well established writer after all). I think the behind the scenes story fitted well with the main plot, it was neither dull nor boring, and it was most interesting to see how the 13 of them executed their plans (and changed their plans as they realised Suguro Takeru, the famous detective, was on board) and committed the murder.
The drama was, as you probably already know, localised as taking place in Japan, instead of Europe as set in the book. Still, everything was well considered by the script writer/director and the localisation of the story was done with utmost care. For example, in the book the secretary had let Poirot known that the murdered speaks only English, but he had replied the train conductor in French. In the drama, Suguro asked Nino where the murdered is from, to which Nino replied that he had inferred that the murdered was from a particular locaility in Japan because of his dialect, whereas Nino had replied the train conductor in a different dialect. In the book the passengers were from various countries, but in the drama they were from various parts of Japan. The character names were properly considered too. The name association trick with the governess was reproduced by referring to a place in Japan when the real name of the governess and the fake one made up by the countess was put together. The oil spot trick too. In my opinion erasing a radical off the word worked better than changing a H to an E. You can tell that they had put in a lot of effort to make sure the drama included as much of the things mentioned in the book as possible. Still, as with all drama/movie adaptations there are parts that have been left out. For example, Poirot on Taurus express was completely eliminated, and with that elimination we do not get to see the govorness being distraught at the possiblity of not catching the Orient Express. Well in fact this whole Taurus Express thing was not only omitted, but it was changed, deleted, gone. The governess was shown as departing from the house with several other members of the group of 12, with the group departing at various different times. So no Taurus Express in the drama. Also missing was the writing of names/address when Suguro/Poirot was interviewing the suspects. The collection of passport was missing too, which does make sense because they were not travelling overseas in the drama. Only the count and countness had their passports with them in the drama. And no writing, so we didn't get to see who was left and who was right handed. Those were the two most obvious differences that I can recall at the moment... Ah one more. In the book the dead man's clothes were taken off for the doctor to examine the wounds, but of course they would not do that in the drama so as to make the show more family friendly.
Edit: Just remembered one more difference... In the book another carriage was added onto the train in a the station, and the company director moved to a room on the newly added carriage, freeing up his room for Poirot. In the drama that whole part was neglected, no new carriages were added on. The director merely moved to the 3rd class. As there's no new carriage added on, after the bloody knife was found, the actress wasn't moved to a new room simply because there was no new room to move to.
The acting was also superb. Not just Nino... but everyone else's too. A star studded cast indeed!
All in all I enjoyed both the book and the drama very much. I would certainly say that the drama has done the book justice, and I'd recommend you to watch the drama when you are free (and when subs are out I guess?). I'd definitely like to let my parents watch the drama (since there's Chinese subs) when there's a chance.
Alright! That's all for now! It's really late already and it's high time for me to head home!!!
Books: Empire of the ants by Bernard Werber
I thought I'll take some time to share the first ebook that I read this year. I came across this book when surfing Quora, a new favourite hangout of mine. It's a great site. People ask questions and others answer. The best thing about this site has to be the wonderful community there. There are rarely any trolls, or troll answers... that and the fact that the system is good and quick enough to remove any of such nonsense. The result is that the site is full of really high quality answers. People answering things from their own experience, or experts giving detailed answers from their own knowledge. You should give it a try if you're free...
So well, the book. It's originally written in French, but since my knowledge of French is non-existent, I could only read the version that's been translated into English. It's actually the first out of three books, but I could not/have not located the other two books in English. I'm not even sure if the other two books have been translated into English...
There's a wikipedia page for the book here, with a little info on the plot... (lazy to summarize, sorry)
Overall what I really like about the books were all the parts describing the behaviour of the ants. The social aspects, the biology, the anatomy of the ants... random biological facts interlaced with an intriguing story. Well as wiki mentioned, the story is about two parallel world - the ants and the humans. I very much preferred the story about the ants rather than the humans, though the human world can't be neglected because it is the humans that provides all the mystery that the ants encounter. I enjoyed the way the ants were portrayed. Fiction based on a good dose of facts. Things are exaggerated of course, but not so much that it would be impossible for you to imagine it happening. All in all it makes a very compelling read. I'd very much love to read the next two books, since the first book did kind of leave things in a cliffhanger. Hopefully the other two books have also been translated to English...
So well, the book. It's originally written in French, but since my knowledge of French is non-existent, I could only read the version that's been translated into English. It's actually the first out of three books, but I could not/have not located the other two books in English. I'm not even sure if the other two books have been translated into English...
There's a wikipedia page for the book here, with a little info on the plot... (lazy to summarize, sorry)
Overall what I really like about the books were all the parts describing the behaviour of the ants. The social aspects, the biology, the anatomy of the ants... random biological facts interlaced with an intriguing story. Well as wiki mentioned, the story is about two parallel world - the ants and the humans. I very much preferred the story about the ants rather than the humans, though the human world can't be neglected because it is the humans that provides all the mystery that the ants encounter. I enjoyed the way the ants were portrayed. Fiction based on a good dose of facts. Things are exaggerated of course, but not so much that it would be impossible for you to imagine it happening. All in all it makes a very compelling read. I'd very much love to read the next two books, since the first book did kind of leave things in a cliffhanger. Hopefully the other two books have also been translated to English...
Monday, March 19, 2012
NLB e-Books - you gotta love them!
Some time back my dad was talking about this school using overdrive and some other company to digitalize their library books… than he told me that NLB uses overdrive too… that sparked me to go check out NLB's e-books…
Yeah i know they've got ebooks for quite a long time, but somehow it just never occurred to me to check them out…
I've not checked out the non-fiction books yet… but i did manage to borrow the whole dragon series of 4 books, and finish them within two days… (ok, i've read the 1st two books long before, so i didn’t re-read them..) The adobe digital readers thing was kinda slow the last time round tho… no matter how i tried i couldn’t return the books… just tried it again today and i finally managed to return the books.
The great thing about ebooks is that you don't have to spend time physically going down to the library, and carry back/carry around a thick, unwieldy book. You can just read it on your computer, your phone, or better still, the iPad. You don't even actually have to return the book manually - they will automatically be returned when the 21 days loan period is up. However there's a limited number of copies of the ebook that the library can loan out at a go though… so if you're done with the book you could just do others a kind deed and return the book - it only takes a click anyway. PLUS, you're still capped at 6 books (digital + physical combined) at any one time so if you want to borrow more books, you gotta return the old ones 1st.
Borrowed 4 Terry Brooks books just a few minutes ago… shall try and finish them… now that its on my phone too maybe i'll read on the train/bus?
ah so tired today… ><
gotta try see if they have my favorite science non-fiction books are in the list someday… I'm not really keeping my hopes up though… its easy to have story books in the e-format, but non-fictions books might be a bit rare… oh well we'll see.
EDIT: seems like there aren't any… oh wells...
Friday, July 01, 2011
would you D.E.A.R.?
so after writing half of the post on English, i took the chance to take a trip to the library after gng out with my mum on wedn... i picked up... 5 books. one of which i finished in a couple of hours, and returned in today (opps i mean yesterday) when i went out to meet mich.
borrowed the books from jurong regional library, my favorite hunt for books (near my place, big library, great air con, few ppl and all)... but i was quite disappointed that day. i rem last time there were loads of science books... physics + chemistry + bio... when i went on wedn tho, the science books got reduced from 1.5 - 2 rows of books, to like half or a third of a row!!!! like where did all my books go!!!!! T.T (kk, they aren't MY books, but they are MY favorite TYPE or books) gosh... i'd check it out again next time and see if its still like this... ><
anyway i've read finish one book, and half of the other... both are really interesting books so i'll give a brief intro of the books.
Here's the book i finished reading:
And Thereby hangs A Tale by one of my favorite authors, Jeffrey Archer. it’s a collection of short stories, some inspired by real stories, while others are fragments of his imagination. I first came across this author in sec 1, when his famous A Twist in a Tale appeared in my reading list. I've read most of his books, and I while I find his novels a great read, I can't help but agree that this guy is a genius when it comes to short stories. The great thing about short stories is that you can put down the book any time. If you've not read any book by Jeffrey Archer yet, you really must give it a try. I'd recommend you go for the short stories, they are so nicely written, i'd describe them as epic.
I only borrowed one fiction story book this time, the other four are what i call science story books. yeah they go under non-fiction, but many of these books are written with the general public in mind. Stripped of as much jargon as possible, and presented in a light hearted, enjoyable, and easy to understand manner. Many of these science story books i have read attempts to describe science/math as applied to everyday situations, such as the book i am about to describe.
How Many Socks make a Pair? by Rob Eastaway
He wrote a part 2 for this book, which i picked up w/o even realising they were by the same author... indeed, both books give a very light hearted take on a subject that many of us, including myself, hates - mathematics. For me i don't hated math in sec/jc, as i could no longer see the big picture... like the whole application thing was missing... concepts got way too abstract... like all the differentiation and integration stuff... i didn’t like algebra much from the start... and the way those topics were presented didn’t help. thankfully, all of that is avoided in this book. it really shows the math that can be found in everyday life, shows the beauty in math, and presents the reader with puzzles to solve and simply experiments to try. definitely a great read. perhaps i'll post some puzzles from the book here next time. if i can't remember to do so before i return the book that is.
i've read so many science story books over the years, many of their names i've forgotten - until i next see them in the library that is. i'll introduce some of the books i've enjoyed next time... of those that i can remember their names that is.
i love the holiday period, cos that's when the library will double ur loan quota, under the Drop Everything And Read aka D.E.A.R. campaign. well the doubling of the quota has been around for quite a long time, but i'm not sure if the D.E.A.R. is as old. last time i borrowed way too many books at one go and ended up returning a lot of them unread... so this time i decided not to be some ambitious and to just pick four (which i still exceeded by 1 in the end)
alright, its getting really late. i'll probably read some pages of my books and off the lights. Would you D.E.A.R. with me too?
borrowed the books from jurong regional library, my favorite hunt for books (near my place, big library, great air con, few ppl and all)... but i was quite disappointed that day. i rem last time there were loads of science books... physics + chemistry + bio... when i went on wedn tho, the science books got reduced from 1.5 - 2 rows of books, to like half or a third of a row!!!! like where did all my books go!!!!! T.T (kk, they aren't MY books, but they are MY favorite TYPE or books) gosh... i'd check it out again next time and see if its still like this... ><
anyway i've read finish one book, and half of the other... both are really interesting books so i'll give a brief intro of the books.
Here's the book i finished reading:
And Thereby hangs A Tale by one of my favorite authors, Jeffrey Archer. it’s a collection of short stories, some inspired by real stories, while others are fragments of his imagination. I first came across this author in sec 1, when his famous A Twist in a Tale appeared in my reading list. I've read most of his books, and I while I find his novels a great read, I can't help but agree that this guy is a genius when it comes to short stories. The great thing about short stories is that you can put down the book any time. If you've not read any book by Jeffrey Archer yet, you really must give it a try. I'd recommend you go for the short stories, they are so nicely written, i'd describe them as epic.
I only borrowed one fiction story book this time, the other four are what i call science story books. yeah they go under non-fiction, but many of these books are written with the general public in mind. Stripped of as much jargon as possible, and presented in a light hearted, enjoyable, and easy to understand manner. Many of these science story books i have read attempts to describe science/math as applied to everyday situations, such as the book i am about to describe.
How Many Socks make a Pair? by Rob Eastaway
He wrote a part 2 for this book, which i picked up w/o even realising they were by the same author... indeed, both books give a very light hearted take on a subject that many of us, including myself, hates - mathematics. For me i don't hated math in sec/jc, as i could no longer see the big picture... like the whole application thing was missing... concepts got way too abstract... like all the differentiation and integration stuff... i didn’t like algebra much from the start... and the way those topics were presented didn’t help. thankfully, all of that is avoided in this book. it really shows the math that can be found in everyday life, shows the beauty in math, and presents the reader with puzzles to solve and simply experiments to try. definitely a great read. perhaps i'll post some puzzles from the book here next time. if i can't remember to do so before i return the book that is.
i've read so many science story books over the years, many of their names i've forgotten - until i next see them in the library that is. i'll introduce some of the books i've enjoyed next time... of those that i can remember their names that is.
i love the holiday period, cos that's when the library will double ur loan quota, under the Drop Everything And Read aka D.E.A.R. campaign. well the doubling of the quota has been around for quite a long time, but i'm not sure if the D.E.A.R. is as old. last time i borrowed way too many books at one go and ended up returning a lot of them unread... so this time i decided not to be some ambitious and to just pick four (which i still exceeded by 1 in the end)
alright, its getting really late. i'll probably read some pages of my books and off the lights. Would you D.E.A.R. with me too?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)