Kindle Literature

Monday, December 26, 2016

Ready Player One Review

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline follows the teenage Wade Watts in the year 2044. Even though the story takes place in the future it primarily deals with the past; the 1980s. Feel free to read on, I will not include any spoilers. Everything so far is found on the back cover or in the first chapter.

The story is addicting. Cline is good at giving little pieces along the way that keep you reading. I have read the book every chance I can get. The book is 400 pages long and keeps you engaged the whole way!

The story revolves around the future dystopian society that the earth has turned into, due to many of the current issues: climate change, energy crisis, burning fossil fuels, wealth inequality, and more. A dystopian society is a horrible society that is the opposite of what we strive for. It can be thought of as the opposite of a Utopian society, which is perfect. Dystopian stories have been popular for a few years now. Think of the Hunger Games, The Giver, Divergent series, and The Road to name a few.

In the dystopian society there exists a utopian escape, the massive multiplayer online (MMO) game that everyone plays OASIS. The creator of OASIS created a competition before he died. Whoever finds the clues hidden in the game will inherit the fortune left after his death. For people in a dystopian society, this is their only chance to move up in life.

Wade is one of millions of players looking for the clues to the contest. He is an average nerd with a good heart living in a terrible situation, like most of humanity. The 1980s play a big part because the inventor of OASIS grew up in the 80s and that is the only hint available for the clues. They discuss 80s culture, music, movies, trends, and everything else. The 80s are making a comeback, if not in the real world definitely in literature and television.

If you are on the fence about the story, definitely check it out! You will find something to love in either Wade, his experience, the 80s, or nerd culture. There is also word that this will be made into a major motion picture directed by Steven Spielberg.

One of the best books of 2016. One of the hardest books to put down I have read in a long time. Download a sample and get hooked.

The book is available in paperback, audio book, and on your kindle.

Ready Player One (Kindle Edition)

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Sunday, July 3, 2016

2015 Literary Book Award Winners

The book award winners for 2015 are in. This post covers the Nobel Prize in Literature, The Pulitzer Prize, The National Book Award, and the Man-Booker Prize for fiction.

The Nobel Prize in Literature 2015

The Nobel Prize honors an author “for outstanding contributions in the field of literature.” It is awarded annually. The past winners from the US include Sinclair Lewis, T. S. Elliot, William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway, John Steinbeck, and Toni Morrison to name a few; some heavy hitters in American Literature. The award is a big deal since only one author wins per year for a body of work.

This year the away went to Svetlana Alexievich a Belarus author and journalist. She was born in the Ukraine and writes about life during and after the Soviet Union. She was awarded “for her polyphonic writings, a monument to suffering and courage in our time.” What that means is that she writes many voices together at the same time in her novels and biographies. She mixes in reporting and interviews to create a collage of a wide range of voices. She is notable also for her criticism of political regimes in the former Soviet Union and in Belarus where she lives now. A very brave thing to do in a land torn by civil war and powerful regimes.

She has very good reviews on Amazon. Here are some of her works in English.

War’s Unwomanly Face
Zinky Boys: Soviet Voices from the Afghanistan War
Secondhand Time: The Last of the Soviets

The Pulitzer Prize

The Pulitzer Prize for fiction is awarded yearly to an American author writing about American life. Some past winners are many of the same from the Nobel Prize; Willa Cather, John Steinbeck, William Faulkner, and Ernest Hemingway.

This year the award goes to Anthony Doerr for All the Light We Cannot See.

The National Book Award

The mission of the NBA is to celebrate the best American Literature, expand its audience, and enhance the cultural value of great writing in America. Some notable past winners include William Carlos Williams, Norman Mailer, John Updike, William Faulkner, and Thomas Pynchon to name a few. This award goes to a book and is presented to the author. Many authors have won for numerous books.

The 2015 winner for fiction is Adam Johnson for Fortune Smiles: Stories.

The Man-Booker Prize

The Man-Booker Prize while it remains relatively unknown in the US, is the major award an author can win next to the Nobel Prize. The award takes submissions from many countries and requires that the book me in English and published in the Commonwealth Nations, read former British colonies.

All the awards are a big deal to win, but this one is a step above because it includes many more authors and countries. Some notable winners include Julian Barnes and J. M. Coetzee, two great authors.

The 2015 Man-Booker Prize winner is Marlon James for A Brief History of Seven Killings.

This book also won many other awards and was included in numerous best of the year book lists. Marlon James is the first Jamaican to win the prestigious award and the first on this side of the pond, I believe. The book looks fantastic. It is a fictional account of an attempt to take Bob Marley’s life. It has been described as complicated and difficult, so bring your A reading game.

Those are the winners for the 2015 book season. Have you read any of these books yet? Let us know on our Kindle Literature Facebook page. Don’t forget to like the page for future posts.

Wednesday, May 6, 2015

How to Read More: Tips and Tools

Reading Shelf

As an English graduate student, I have a ton of reading to get through every week; academic articles, stories, novels, books, research, and many other minor things. I was recently talking to another student who was asking me how I manage. Talking with him for a while I realized that I have learned some secrets to getting more reading done! Not really secrets, but I do have some tips and tools that I utilize to get my reading done that I think everyone who wants to read more can use. I prioritize reading, make lists, use text to speech, listen to audio books, and annotate.

Prioritize Reading

First thing I do is that I prioritize reading. I have a wide array of texts to read regularly. I am not a speed reader, but I have studied speed reading and practice it when time is of the essence. By prioritizing reading I have trained myself to get into the proper mind set. I can always find time to game or check in on social media, but I would not get all the reading I have to do done if I did not make it a priority. I make lists of articles I have to read for class and have a due date for when I need to finish them. When I have something on my to do list, it is easier to get it done and I enjoy checking it off. When I have some free time I pull up the Kindle app on my phone and open my pleasure reading book, instead of Facebook. Sometimes I get on Facebook, I am not a robot, but since I prioritize reading over many other things, being on Facebook will make me feel bad while reading my article will make me feel accomplished.

Make Lists

I love the feeling of checking off an item from my to do list. I feel accomplished and I can reward myself with some slacking off time. Reading is a task on my to do list. I enter appropriate due dates for when I have to have something finished. I do not have a separate to do list for readings, reading is a task just like everything else I have to get done. Make it manageable. I enter an article as a task or a number of pages. For instance, this week I have three articles to read and each one is entered as a separate task that I can check off. I also have three books I need to read this quarter, for preliminary reading on my thesis. I maintain a separate list of everything I have to read for that and I enter book and page numbers into my to do list. Reading ten pages, one chapter, or one article is manageable. Reading a book is not something I can check off my list quite as easily. I use any.do because it is simple to manage and available across all platforms. I compiled a massive list of the 100 best novels in English, which is a good place to find something worthwhile to read.

Text to Speech

For all the planning and prioritizing I do, I sometimes can only concentrate for so long. Some articles I have to read are quite useful but boring. For the times I cannot muster the attention span I use text to speech software. Another tip about text to speech is that it helps you edit your own writing. Reading a text out loud helps to hear any type of grammatical mistake as well as errors. It is built right into Microsoft Word and is available for free from many places. I use natural reader on my computer (available for both Mac and PC) and it is free.

http://www.naturalreaders.com/

Natural Reader has better voices on it than plain text to speech and you can purchase premium voices if you like. I enjoy Hazel, a British female voice, at three times the speed. I read along as it reads to me and I get the material through multiple senses at once, hearing and seeing. This helps me to retain more of what I am reading. Also, I have to keep reading, I can’t stop. Hazel is relentless, I have to pay attention to her. Even I can only read for so long and Hazel keeps me more engaged because it is a more active reading experience. On the Natural Reader website you can also paste anything you want it to read out to you if you do not want to download and install the free program. The free version does have pop ups that ask you to upgrade to premium but it is not necessary. I have learned to use the nuisance of the pop up to keep me on track. I reward myself with a short break after five or six pop ups.

If you have a Kindle Keyboard http://amzn.to/1QnLYS6 like I do, you can use it to have it read almost anything to you. The new Kindles do not have text to speech. I send articles to my kindle and read on there when I want to read and listen at the same time.

Custom Skin on Kindle

Audio Books

The main complaint I hear from people about text to speech is the robotic voice is hard to understand. I think Natural Reader helps out with this but for those that just can’t get used to it, there is the traditional audio book. These have been around for ages in the form of books on tape. Now they are a small mp3 file that almost any electronic device can read. I use Audible on my phone for when I am walking or driving to school. I always have my phone with me and it is convenient. Check whichever app store you use and it should be available. Audible has a great special that allows you to try the service for 30 days and gives you two free ebooks as well.

Try Audible and Get Two Free Audiobooks

Try it out and see if this works for you. This is another way to get more reading done tailored more for on the go moments. They also offer free books available to download. Here is one I recently read, that I think has a lot of value in it. It came highly recommended and it is completely free right now as an audiobook.

Recession Proof Graduate.

Project Gutenberg also offers free Audio books. They have both text to speech and human reader versions.

Annotate

After you read a lot you might begin to forget some specifics. As a grad student I need to be able to engage with the material and recall it for class discussions. The best way to engage and find particular passages is to annotate what you are reading. There is even a name for writing in the margins, Marginalia. To me annotate means to make some kind of note or mark in the text. If you find something interesting highlight or underline it so that you can find it later. I like to respond to my text and I write reactions in the margins. I write things like awesome, haha, cool, and useful. I also like to write down questions that come up as I am reading. I write them close to the text that inspired them. The more you write the better and be specific. Whatever system you use make sure you understand it. Don’t make it too convoluted or cryptic. You want it to be able to transport you to when you originally read the text and felt a response. I also write down important passages that I think I should remember in my notebook. Kind of like a reading journal. A reading journal is what some people use to keep track of everything they read in one place. Instead of placing marginalia in different text, they compile all their reading notes and comments in a reading journal. This can be a great habit to develop. Since school and work are both related for me, I have one notebook that I write class notes, reading notes, and work notes in. I have a little system in place to help me track my stuff. I recently found the Bullet Journal method http://www.bulletjournal.com/ and it works well for me.

Conclusion

Everyone has different habits and tricks to get more done. These are the ones that I have used for years to help me keep up with a heavy reading load. I would recommend you try them all out and see which ones work best for you. I personally use all of them and I find it is the best solution for me. If you have any questions feel free to drop me a line or tweet me. Thanks for reading and let me know if any of this helped!

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Thursday, December 25, 2014

2014 Literary Awards

The year’s book award winners are a great place to find books to read and discover new authors. Check out the links and try some samples on your Kindle.

Nobel Prize in Literature

The highest recognition an author can receive is the Nobel Prize in Literature. The award is given to writers for their body of work. Some notable past winners are: Sinclair Lewis, William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway, and John Steinbeck.

The Nobel Prize in Literature 2014 was awarded to Patrick Modiano "for the art of memory with which he has evoked the most ungraspable human destinies and uncovered the life-world of the occupation".

Suspended Sentences: Three Novellas (The Margellos World Republic of Letters)

Dora Bruder

The award is open to writers from around the world. This year, Patrick Modiano, a French novelist was awarded the prize.

The Pulitzer Prize

The Pulitzer Prize for fiction is “awarded for distinguished fiction by an American author, preferably dealing with American life.” There are also many other awards ranging from journalist to nonfiction. The Award was founded in 1918. Some previous winners are Willa Cather, John Steinbeck, William Faulkner, and Ernest Hemingway.

The 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction goes to Donna Tartt for The Goldfinch.

The National Book Award

The National Book Award’s mission is to “celebrate the best of American literature, to expand its audience, and to enhance the cultural value of good writing in America.” This book has a long and varied past and is one of the major awards given to American writers. This is another great place to find books to read and they do a lot of outreach to communities and in supporting public appearances by writers. Faulkner, Pynchon, Updike, McCarthy, and Franzen are some of the past nominees and winners.

The 2014 National Book Award for Fiction goes to Phil Klay for Redeployment.

The Man-Booker Prize

The Man Booker Prize for Fiction is a literary prize awarded each year for the best original full-length novel, written in the English language, by a citizen of the Commonwealth of Nations, Ireland, or Zimbabwe, according to Wikipedia. This is a very big deal. This is the biggest of the English Language awards given. They have a long list which they announce very early on and then a short list is selected out of that.

This is a major award to follow because it includes many countries that speak English and covers a diverse range of topics. I discovered a couple of my favorite writers while reading these novels, Julian Barnes and J.M. Coetzee.

The 2014 Man-Booker Prize winner is Richard Flanagan with The Narrow Road to the Deep North.

Friday, December 19, 2014

2013 Literary Awards

English: Image of American Writer Adam Johnson. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The year’s book award winners are a great place to find books to read and discover new authors. Check out the links and try some samples on your ereader.