Showing posts with label eBooks. Show all posts
Showing posts with label eBooks. Show all posts

Monday, 30 November 2020

Physical Book or EBook on St Andrew's Day


p> I am currently reading two Clive Barker books , "Imajica" (my favourite ever book) and "Coldheart Canyon" (rather excellent) the former on my Kindle Fire the later a hardback edition . The former I'm only a quarter through (though this is the biggest ebook I have ever read) and the latter I am 90% through though it's half the size of of "Imajica" but I still find physical books easier to read than ebooks although ebooks are very convenient.

With a device like a Kindle you can carry a library with you and if you have an internet connection you can add to that very easily , but it must always have power, but that does allow you read in the dark, but reading is dependent on the device having power and working.

ebooks are great for reference books of any form as they allow you to easily search and can be updated and annotated, though you can do the latter with physical books. 

Both formats have their benefits and I benefit from both, although I have added to my ebook library with numerous free volumes which I have yet to read , whereas with physical books I think I whether I have somewhere to put them (I don't but that never stops me).

Today is St. Andrew's day and I have a feeling that Scotland will soon be leaving UK much to the delight of the Scots and Little Englanders, so maybe we will go for the excellent "Little Britain" by Dreadzone.

Saturday, 6 June 2020

Every Piece Of Vinyl ....


I was looking at all the books I have,  and was thinking "Will I ever read all of these?" . The same goes for DVDs and CDs . With the digitalisation of music, plus streaming , and the phenomenal fall in price music has become easy to buy without listening to it.

People used to make tapes and that had to be done in real time , but now it's just a playlist and if there is little effort in producing it then there will be little attention payed to it by listener. I see loads of playlists shared each day , but will take more notice of a single song in some format or other.

Digital media is so easy to aquire , put aside for future listening, then never revisit. Books are slightly different in that you may put them aside, but usually you have them displayed in a bookcase or something and always tend to buy them with at least the intention of reading. That is not always the case with digital media, and you can include ebooks with that , so easy to acquire and so easy to forget about.

I have bought very few ebooks but have acquired a lot as many are public domain and available for free or very cheaply.

Back to vinyl , every record I have has been played at least once, and many times more often. Buying vinyl creates a sort of tangible connection with the music, the covers are often an adventure in themselves (thinking Hawkwind's "In Search of Space" and Jethro Tull's "Thick as a Brick" newspaper cover).

I have a few picture discs including Kate Bush's zoetropic picture disc of "Running Up That Hill" and the Star Wars and Jack White " Lazaretto"discs with the etched holograms all of which need lights or strobes to bring out the images, but I can't find the Kate Bush one although I posted it on instagram a few years back, maybe I will try doing it again soon and put it on Youtube.

So what should I share this time, we'll go with "Paranoid" by Black Sabbath because of the Vertigo Swirl which is one of the best simple optical effects I have ever seen , and you don't get that on digital, sometimes it's great to watch the record just  play.

Sunday, 26 April 2020

A Library ...


I've just finished "A Shadow On The Wall" by Jonathan Aycliffe which I wrote about in my last post here and like many of his books, you are just coming down from the relief of everything being resolved ... and then in the last line of the book you realise it might not be.

So I went looking for another book to read and decided on a Daniel Easterman and then noticed "Not The End of The World" by Christopher Brookmyre , which looks interesting and one that I had got from Barter Books in the old Railway Station in Alnwick. The book looks good and I can't remember reading it, again this is possibly my magpie mentality kicking in , buy or acquire and then forget about it.

A sad incident was when my mum gave two sets of impressive Encyclopedias which our family had had for years , to my younger (disowned by me) brother , saying she didn't want any books in the house because she didn't like them. My girls would have loved and used those books, but  sometimes things don't happen as you would want them to. I used them for schoolwork and research although now we generally have the internet which is brilliant if used properly.

I was then thinking , that because of my imperfect memory, I probably don't have to buy another book ever, there are some which I had forgotten about and many that I  remember which I want to revisit, I'm thinking "The Adversary" series by F Paul Wilson , six books starting with "The Keep" and finishing with "Nightworld" , plus various William Hope Hodgson , and these are all books I have.

Although there are bookcases round the house , effectively this is a small personal library, and the do look good but book are there to be read or referred to , but I often see people's books and big libraries and think "Have these books been read, or are they just there for show?" , and I know not all of mine have been read and I have slightly shifted my perspective to discover what I already know that I have.

I think everywhere should have physical books although I now put the bigger tomes on my Kindle as it's easier to read them that way , essentially five hundred pages or less , physical book , over that Kindle. There is a complete HP Lovecraft collection on Kindle for 75p here although for some reason individual books are more expensive.

Going off on a tangent I'm going to share a live take of the beautiful "Book of Love" by Stephen Merritt , but here's the Magnetic Fields take and a Peter Gabriel take from "Scratch My Back" which is stunning.


Tuesday, 16 July 2019

An Acorn


Thanks to reading 2023 I am considering buying Yoko Ono's "Grapefruit" but it seems to me perfectly suited to an ebook reader, though is not (yet) available in ebook format. However the follow up "Acorn" is, so I bought it and have started skimming through it on my Kindle app on my Google Pixel phone , and am enjoying what I am seeing.

The only book I have ever read on my phone is "The Art of War" by Sun Tzu and that is a book that can actually be dipped into, although a polar opposite of Yoko Ono's writing. I am also trying to read "Ulysses" by James Joyce though that is much ard going.

The joy of "Acorn" and lot's of Yoko Ono's writing is that you can take a little or a lot and it will still satisfy. Some people will be left cold but we cannot all like the same thing.

I do hope "Grapefruit" is released as an eBook as I will definitely purchase it , it would be nice to have it with me most of the day, when I'm on the bus , or in a hospital waiting room (my annual diabetic check up tomorrow), but I do have "Acorn" , "The Art of War" and a "QI" compendium to keep me going.

So why don't we go with "Walking on Thin Ice" by Yoko Ono ?

Wednesday, 10 April 2019

#AprilSongs #10 Wednesday Morning 3AM


It's looking cold out this morning, well it is April, and the weather is British. As it's Wednesday the #AprilSongs installment is "Wednesday Morning 3AM" the slightly subversive title track from Simon and Garfunkel's 1965 debut album. I  have always loved Simon and Garfunkel even though Paul Simon stole Martin Carthy's arrangement of "Scarborough Fair" and they produced a remarkable body of work, with Simon producing an amazing body of work after they split.

Art Garfunkel is a wonderful interpretive singer but reliant on other songwriters, but I suppose you could say the same of Rod Stewart.

I recently bought an ebook on how to get lots of readers for your blog and essentially it said don't write for yourself, write for a target audience so that may explain why my readers have dropped to single figures, as essentially it's a diary which features things that catch my attention. I'm not going to change and am quite happy that this blog enables me to go back and find things that I remember recording and sometimes find things that I forgot about recording. So it is doing the job that I want.

So off we go to work once more,

Friday, 23 November 2018

I See Red


If you read my last post you may think this is a continuation of it but it's not really. The title is stolen from a Split Enz song and yesterday I was reading a QI book on my phone which told me when we blush our stomachs turn redder too, and the acid in your stomach would actually burn you skin if it had direct contact, it seems we have more in common with Alien and Predator than we think.

I love reading, especially things that stimulate my imagination or tell me interesting things that I don't know (and the QI books are excellent for that). I suppose Science fiction and fantasy stimulate my imagination although then again I have read a lot of biographies and straight science books (though often these swamp my minimal intellect). The QI books are ideal for ereaders to drop in and out of although mty youngest daughter does most of her reading on the move on her phone.

We have hit another Friday and it's Black Friday. I used think this was named because of some terrible thing that has happened but apparently when companies go into the black from profits in the financial year. We are only half way through the financial year!! Personally my own Black Friday for the financial year of 2019 will be sometime in 2029 thanks to continues wage suppression, and I am very well paid compared with a lot of people I know (though not well paid for what I do, although the fact that I am so conveniently located, the people I work with are great and the work is interesting are major mitigating factors).

So without further ado we will continue on our merry way. Have a great Friday.



Saturday, 28 July 2018

Trash


Well we got  thuder and rain last night, sort of ironic as I'd just taken delivery of a garden sprinkler, but you know that was going to happen. It's still hot and muggy and a couple of times this week I've had to change my clothes twice in a day.

I switched on 6Music and Chris Hawkins was going to play a seldom heard Roxy Music classic. I wasn't too sure what it would be, but it turned out to be "Trash" the lead single from their first comeback album "Manifesto" . The opening two songs were worth the price of the album on their own, and the single "B" side features a slow take on "Trash" ("Trash 2") but I liked the brooding"Manifesto" title track even better, and still do. Roxy could never hang on to bassists so I think that's Gary Tibbs in the video who also was in Adam and The Ants if I remember rightly (mentioned in "Ant Rap").

It's early Saturday morning and rain has stopped for now. Today I am going to hit the Library to see about downloading their eBooks and visiting the Newcastle Food Bank to see what they need for the School Holidays. I can't believe that we are one of the richest coutries in the would an government policies force people into food poverty. The thing is my disposable income is getting less as well and that sort of thing is very bad for the economy, when disposable income drops, the economy shrinks, and companies cut back on workforces further reducing economic capacity.

Anyway it's weekend, and as usual I'm up early instead of just lying in, but it is so hot that sleep is not really an option. I will spend some time noodling on keyboards and guitar in the hope of actually getting some songs down to put on Soundcloud.

Today I am determined to not buy any vinyl. My collection is complete. Really.

Though I saw this beautiful limited edition copy of "Anthem of The Sun"  by The Greatful Dead in Beyond Vinyl yesterday so just had to have it. My instagram post of it is here.

Have a great Saturday

Thursday, 13 October 2016

Not Too Rolling Stoned - #ALifeInNumbers #19


Between now an 30 I have all my posts sorted. Number 31 is looking awkward as yet I can't find a song with the number 31 on the title or song but I will do , I have eleven posts to do this.

One of the things with these posts is that I want them to be songs worth listening to, and up to now I have a achieved that, but am aware I may get situations like with 31 where the only song is by Joe Dolce or Black Lace , in that case what would I do , but I will try and ensure that doesn't happen. I'm was thinking about putting this into an ebook but then again the blog is a sort of ebook anyway, and i am wondering how I would incorporate video into an ebook, I'm sure it must be possible.

Anyway we hit Number 19 , and for this I'm going for The Rolling Stones "19th Nervous Breakdown", a classic single that again should be in everyone's collection. It's archetypal Stones , instantly recognisable and while it's close on 50 years old it has more than stood the test of time and still sound contemporary and current.

My own situation is that I think I am improving, but last night I felt much better, but then went back,  but I am hoping to return to work tomorrow.

Wednesday, 16 December 2015

Inspired or Easily Distracted?- Well I'll Be Damned


Well I hit the 100K reads and hit the 1,000 posts , my target was New Years Eve. I wasn't certain I would do either, I couldn't thing how I would write enough posts then came up with the Odyssey58 idea which meant that I would reach the target. I'm not sure what gave me the idea apart from my love of music and the fact that it was my birthday . I so some hits are robots but I know a lot of friends do read this , so that is a great reason for keeping writing.

Obviously 200K and 2,000 posts are next targets , but I need something to write about and to inspire me , and I do have lots of inspiration.

Odyssey58 is going to be combined with what I've written for my first book to produce my first ebook. I have a song ready that I need to to properly but the first cut is on SoundCloud here . This was just recorded to my phone , made up as I went along.

Anyway so I have lots of things to look forward to going forward , just hope I can keep people interested, I do love my friends , and I love you for reading and being there for me .

Choosing the music for this I decided on Love's Alone Again Or but then found that The Damned had covered it in 1987 and very good it is , although the video I am sure is an inspiration for the Enya / Prodigy mash up video which is still my favourite mash up of all time.

See how all these threads come together?

So am I easily distracted or inspired? Who Knows




This is the state of the site at the moment:

The Figures

Tuesday, 17 November 2015

Is Music Getting Worse? - #52 - 2008 - Utah Saints - Something Good 08


Most of the the musical Odyssey songs have been chosen from the top 100 singles in the UK for that year., but in 2007 and 2008 I have run into a musical brick wall. Don't get me wrong I know that loads of great music was about in these years but these blog posts are written to give a feeling of spontaneity . If you have to research what you like you have a bit of a problem. I do have something special for 2011 if my mind remembers. Music is not getting worse but the cjarts are definitely not looking too good .

I Love Kate
So trawling through 2008 and  I saw this remix from the 90's which includes a Kate Bush sample Cloudbusting (my favourite Kate Bush song)  , which I always thought was called Cloudbursting , but what do I know. Anyway The Utah Saints Something Good is always worth a listen
from

Have a brilliant Tuesday everyone and buy my ebook when it comes out probably about January.