Booklorn

Free ebook: Wishcraft

Anysia — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 16:21:29 +0000

We were discussing business plans on one of the freelancing email lists that I’m on and talk turned to life plans. Someone mentioned Wishcraft as being a book that they found really useful and reread every few years.

Despite the cheesy name, I decided to check it out since it is now a free download (it was originally published by a major publisher over 30 years ago).

If you’re doing exactly what you want for a living and have no regrets or unfulfilled dreams, then this book is NOT for you. If you have dreams, but don’t know how to make them come true, this book IS for you. If you don’t know what your dreams are, this book IS for you.

Unlike most books of this type, this book is based on the premise that we are flawed individuals and that we don’t need to turn into perfect superbeings in order to live the life that we want (good thing too, because that’s never going to happen with me). This book is for the procrastinator, the person who starts a diet on Monday and has fallen off the wagon by Wednesday (if he or she even lasts that long).

The first part of the book is focused on discovering what your dreams are. The premise is that we are told too soon as children to be practical–stop dreaming, stop being silly, stop thinking grand thoughts. Even if we are allowed to keep dreaming, most of us are not taught how to explore our interests. That’s part two of the book: how to get from dream to reality.

Everyone should check out this book and since it’s free there’s no excuse not to.

Free Ebook: The Painted Darkness by Brian James Freeman

Anysia — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 15:39:37 +0000

It’s been ages since I’ve posted a link to a free ebook (mostly because I don’t have time to go looking for them anymore), but I did find this one as I was perusing the Early Reviewers list over at LibraryThing.

Apparently you can download The Painted Darkness by Brian James Freeman in ebook form or stream the audiobook for free. No need to even sign up for a mailing list or give any information of any kind.

I haven’t read it yet and I don’t know if there is any kind of expiry date on the file, but it appears to be DRM-free (based on being able to open it in Preview on the Mac).

Let me know what you think if you read it.

Readers’ Choice: What Should I Review?

Anysia — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 16:15:43 +0000

Contrary to all appearances, I’m not dead and this blog is not abandoned. I’ve been reading and not reviewing and now I have a stack of read books so high that I don’t know where to start.

That’s where you come in.

These are the books in my review stack and I need you to help me pick which one to review next (seriously, this blog has fallen victim to my decision paralysis so pleeeease help me out here):

I also have a couple DVD sets to review:

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Thank you, you’re awesome (but you already knew that, right?).

Non-book gift ideas for readers

Wanna see my desk? Sure you do.

Anysia — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 15:18:29 +0000

If you’ve been to the Kittling Books blog, you’ll know that every Wednesday Cathy features the desk of a book blogger. After months of procrastination and thinking that I’d one day have a clean desk, I sent Cathy a picture of my desk the way it is.

Those who’ve ever seen my desk will wonder at its cleanliness. The rest of you will likely wonder how I can work in that mess (which I actually tidied a little bit–you don’t want to see the uncensored version).

Go check it out and I’ll see you there.

No related posts.

The Big Picture by Kevin Coupe and Michael Sansolo (Review)

Anysia — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 16:08:43 +0000

One-line review

Movies are used to illustrate various business lessons, which makes the lessons easier to learn for those of us whose eyes glaze over when faced with learning business concepts.

What drew me to the book

I work for myself online–much of it related to writing, editing, and web sites. The business side of things is something that I learn as I go (business was conspicuously missing from my college curriculum). Since textbooks and business books generally put me to sleep, I was interested in The Big Picture: Essential Business Lessons from the Movies because it sounded like a more entertaining way to learn.

My thoughts on the book

The Big Picture: Essential Business Lessons from the Movies does a good job of pulling business lessons from a wide range of movies (1941-2009). A different lesson, given as the chapter title, is taken from each movie (though some chapters use more than one movie). I have not seen all of the movies, but I have heard of many of the ones that I haven’t seen and I still got the point of the lesson from movies that I haven’t heard of at all.

The wide range of movies is nice because it helps reach a wide range of people rather than a particular generation. There are plenty of movies from different genres as well.

This is the kind of book that, as an employee, you wish your manager had. Or as a student, you wish your instructor had. It’s an easy read, but it’s also a valuable reference for instructors, managers, and speakers because it provides a handy resource of stories that help convey particular business lessons in a way that people will actually understand.

The movie theme is carried out very well in this book from the terminology used for the sections (called “Takes”) to the renaming of the preface and conclusion to “Establishing Shot” and “Final Shot.” The theme is continued in the design elements throughout the book (not just the cover). Each chapter title page has a director’s chair with the name of whichever co-author wrote that particular chapter. A little box that looks like a ratings box is also included, but instead of a rating it includes the business themes for the movie being discussed. I appreciated the attention to detail in keeping the theme front and centre for the reader without overdoing it.

Find this book online

The Big Picture: Essential Business Lessons from the Movies: Amazon US | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository

Dexter by Design: A Novel by Jeff Lindsay (Review)

Anysia — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 17:57:11 +0000

One-line review

Lindsay takes a chance by breaking the covenant with the reader that Dexter is a “good monster”; the result doesn’t really work and leaves me wondering if I should continue reading the series.

What drew me to the book

Once I start reading a series, I continue until it no longer holds my interest. I started the Dexter series simply because I was intrigued by the fact that Jeff Lindsay (the author) had managed to write a serial killer who was the good guy, a serial killer who only kills other serial killers. It seemed an interesting way to get the reader to side with a serial killer as a protagonist and I wanted to see how the premise was executed.

My thoughts on the book

In this book, Dexter finds himself on his honeymoon in Paris watching bizarre performance art that amuses his Dark Passenger (that would be his serial killer side). He and new wife Rita then return to Miami where a serial killer with an artistic bent makes himself known to Dexter, drawing Dexter into some very un-Dexter-like situations.

I always have difficulty getting into the Dexter books. It’s been the same for each one, but I’ve kept with them because, as I said above, I’m intrigued by the premise. I have the same difficulty getting into the DVDs of the TV series so I think the problem lies in with the use of Dexter’s point of view, which is (or claims to be) detached from the rest of society. It keeps the reader at a distance and it’s not something that works well for me.

Up until now I’ve been relatively happy with the books, but Dexter by Design deviates from the premise that attracted me to the series in the first place and the plot just doesn’t hang together for me.

The performance art in Paris at the beginning of the book is very graphic, bizarre, and attention-getting so I expected it to be tied into the plot at some point, but the connection never appeared which I found annoying. Without the tie-in to the rest of the book, the beginning seems gratuitous and a throwaway scene just to get the readers attention, which seems like lazy writing to me.

The other thing that bothered me about this book is the abandonment of Dexter as a good guy who only kills bad guys. Gone is the meticulous, careful killer who chooses his targets carefully. This Dexter makes mistakes, kills the wrong people, and is saved only by the most convenient of circumstances in the end. It could be argued that having Dexter deviate from his meticulous ways is a sign of growth in the character, but it simply didn’t feel like that as I was reading the book. It felt like an attempt to keep the series interesting that failed by changing the wrong things.

I’ll read the next book, Dexter is Delicious, to see if the series gets back on track but if it doesn’t then I’m done with these books.

About the book author

Jeff Lindsay is the creator of the character Dexter Morgan and the writer of the Dexter series books. He doesn’t appear to have an official presence on the web other than his publisher (too bad, it would be interesting to read a blog of his experiences).

There are three other books in the Dexter series and a new one, Dexter Is Delicious, out in September:

Find this book online

Dexter by Design: Amazon US | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository

Selling book reviews on Amazon.com?

Anysia — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 17:55:34 +0000

This was supposed to be a book review, but I was distracted by something that is, to me, completely incomprehensible. I’m hoping someone will be able to make sense of it for me. I went to Amazon to get the book cover for the review I was writing and while searching for the paperback release date, I came across this little curiosity:

If you click the image, it will take you to the search results page this image came from.

This search result (March 16, 2010) tells me two things:

There is a new Dexter book coming out in September. (I’ll give Jeff Lindsay a chance to redeem himself but the ice he is skating on is thin.)
Someone is selling book reviews on Amazon for $10 each. (And no, it’s not me)

Now, the incomprehensible item is the second one. This person has 59 book reviews for sale via digital download on Amazon. As much as I would love to get paid for reviewing books, I’m not seeing a viable business model in this particular approach. Consumers don’t buy book reviews, publishers do (by publishers I mean magazines, newspapers, web sites, blogs, etc. rather than book publishers).

Since Amazon doesn’t provide a mechanism for selling the rights to republish content like Constant Content does, the goal here must be to sell to consumers. The problem is that consumers don’t pay for book reviews. Particularly consumers who are browsing an online bookseller that displays free reviews right on the same page as the book. Especially for books that are on the bestseller list and get plenty of reviews on their own.

Am I missing the brilliant business plan here or is selling book reviews to book buyers on Amazon as pointless as it appears? The one customer review on these book reviews (and no, it’s not me) sums up my thoughts when I stumbled across these reviews for sale:

What the hell are you people smoking, and can I have some?

At $10 per review, I should be charging you $10-$40 dollars/month to view this blog. When you’ve finished laughing at that notion, feel free to leave a comment.

Quick Fixes for Business Writing by Jim Taylor (Review)

Anysia — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 16:23:59 +0000

One-line review

An indispensable book on editing for the layperson that applies to more than just business editing–the cover does not do the content justice.

What drew me to the book

Jim Taylor, the author of Quick Fixes for Business Writing, was giving a workshop on his eight step editing process through the Editors Association of Canada (EAC). I wasn’t inclined to go until other editors (some with 30 years of experience) raved about previous workshops by Jim Taylor. I reconsidered, but ultimately couldn’t make it but there was mention of a book based on the workshop so I tracked that down at my local library.

My thoughts on the book

I have a confession to make: You know the person who judges a book by its cover? I have to admit that’s me. The cover of Quick Fixes for Business Writing has a very low-budget feel to it that would have put me off without the background that pushed me to check out the book in the first place. It’s also double-spaced (which seems an odd choice to me) and has neither a table of contents nor an index. The content, however, is great. So great that I actually ordered my own copy from the publisher (they only sell direct) for my reference library (that would be the bookcase next to my desk).

So why did I like this book?

It helped me get a handle on one of the toughest problems of editing, which is fixing a piece of writing without imposing your own style and voice onto it. This book’s subtitle is An Eight-Step Editing Process to Find and Correct Common Readability Problems and that’s what makes it valuable: It gives you a system to assess a particular writer’s most pressing editing needs as well as a system for pinpointing what types of things need changing and why. The why is important because as an edit becomes more invasive it becomes more noticeable to the writer (and many writers will question why you are rearranging or changing their words).

This book is written for the layperson, in particular the business manager who has to edit reports or other documents written by subordinates and co-workers. The eight steps move from least invasive (changes least likely to be noticed by an author) to most invasive (rewriting sentences and rearranging paragraphs). It is written in a straightforward and conversational way that guides you through what to do, how to do it and why to do it.

Although the focus of the book is editing business writing, the principles and steps can be adapted to other types of writing. If I’m faced with editing my own writing, I now pull the book off the shelf and start going through the eight steps. Having the steps prevents that paralysis phase of not knowing where to begin–especially with a long piece of writing.

About the book author

Jim Taylor can be found online at his blog.

Find this book online

Quick Fixes for Business Writing: Productive Publications US | Canada

The Forty Rules of Love: A Novel of Rumi by Elif Shafak (Review)

Anysia — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 16:40:20 +0000

One-line review

Knowing yourself and living with your choices are major themes explored in way that has broad appeal despite the story’s focus on spirituality which would normally limit the audience.

What drew me to the book

Quite simply, this description is what drew me to the book, “An American housewife is transformed by an intriguing manuscript about the Sufi mystic poet Rumi.” Hey, this is a book blog, so of course I like the idea of being transformed by a book (I’m still looking for the one that will transform me into a happy skinny millionaire ).

If you’re not familiar with this book, the short plot synopsis is that a housewife gets a job evaluating unsolicited manuscripts send to a literary agency. In an extreme bit of good luck (seriously, if you’ve ever read from a slush pile you’ll know how unlikely this part of the book is), she is handed a manuscript submitted by a writer half way across the world that is not only good but also life changing. As she starts reading the manuscript, she realizes that the manuscript story mirrors her own and is inspired to start a correspondence with the author. She starts to believe that the author is playing the role of the mystic in her life (as Rumi does to a character in the manuscript she reads) come to set her free from a life she is realizing she really does not like.

My thoughts on the book

I really like The Forty Rules of Love: A Novel of Rumi. It is very well written and will appeal to many people, especially those who feel stuck in their lives or are looking to transform themselves like the main character.

The 40 rules of the title are actually the rules of religious love. It’s a good thing that was left out of the title or I would not have considered reading it. As presented, these 40 rules are really the rules for loving yourself which is what makes the appeal of this book broad rather than narrow.

The book has two stories, one that takes place in the past and is presented as the novel that the main character in the present is evaluating for a literary agent. Normally when I read books that have two stories like this, I find that one or the other is not engaging and, in fact, one story could be removed entirely without affecting the book too much. In The Forty Rules of Love: A Novel of Rumi both stories interested me and came across as two indispensable halves of a whole.

The main character is a woman who is waking up to the fact that she has been living for other people, just making do, and not really questioning what she is doing with/getting out of her life. I was surprised by the way her story turned out (in a good way, but I won’t spoil it for you). I simply could not figure out where the author was going to take this woman’s story and I’m glad that there is no cop-out happily-ever-after in this book.

About the book author

Elif Shafak has written several other books, including The Flea Palace, Bastard Of Istanbul, and The Saint of Incipient Insanities. Elif Shafak can be found online at her official site.

Find this book online

The Forty Rules of Love: A Novel of Rumi: Amazon US * Amazon Canada * Amazon UK * Book Depository * Barnes & Noble

Free Ebook: The Last Days of Vegas

Anysia — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 16:37:03 +0000

From the author of The Hungarian Game comes The Last Days of Las Vegas, a free ebook download. I’ll let Roy Hayes introduce his novel:

Many years ago I wrote a rather sardonic espionage thriller, The Hungarian Game, that became a minor best-seller. Somewhere around 500,000 copies were peddled in a number of languages worldwide, and it earned some favorable reviews as well. (And a few brickbats – but let’s not touch that one, okay?)

I didn’t write a sequel because I felt I’d said all I had to say on the subject.

A few years ago, however, the political situation and the systematic corruption and dismemberment of America’s intell community in the runup to war made me realize I did have more to say on the subject. And so I returned to my trusty Underwood, adding a few more wry comments by way of a rousing adventure yarn, The Last Days of Las Vegas.

You can download a copy of The Last Days of Las Vegas by Roy Hayes either from the author’s site or from Scribd.