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  More Books from the Bargain Table - The Kindle2

  Rick 11:26 am on February 8, 2010 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Books (2), History, native history (2), Rick Hendershot

  I was investigating the Kindle the other day. In case you don’t know, the Kindle is a digital tablet designed for reading books in digital form and is sold (exclusively I think) by Amazon.com

  This technology has been in development for quite a few years, and the Kindle is already in its 2nd version (Kindle2), so it is approaching maturity, and obviously quite a few people like the idea.

  Like many others I enjoy what you might call the “tactile experience” of holding a book, turning pages, etc., but when you stop and think of it the idea of having to print out millions of paper pages just to read stuff we can get on our computer screens, iphones, blackberries and digital book readers doesn’t make a lot of long term sense.

  So it’s not the gadget-envy associated with the Kindle that interests me, and it’s definitely not the name. It’s more the idea of being able to download entire books in digital form and read them immediately without having to wait for the physical books to be shipped from somewhere a thousand miles away.

  Turns out you can do that now. There is a version of the Kindle software you can run on your PC or Mac. So you can buy the Kindle version of a book – if it is available – and then just read it on your PC. No Kindle required.

  Recently I went looking (on Amazon) for a number of books on Native American History. There were quite a few listed, and many were available for between $2 and $6 as used copies from various dealers.

  I plodded through the selection process and when I was done the books were about $15 and the shipping about $75. So I looked to see if Kindle versions were available.

  Nope. Just a few of the more obscure ones. So I cut my order back to the bare essentials and ordered the old fashioned Amazon way. About a week later I had one of my books. I’m still waiting (about two weeks later) for the others.

  Apparently the age of the Kindle has not yet arrived. At least not for the kind of books I am interested in.

   

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  Books from the Bargain Table

  Rick 7:06 pm on January 5, 2010 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: 1421, Books (2), China, Gavin Menzies, History, reading

  In case you haven’t noticed, I like buying (and reading) books. Usually history or “ideas” books like Blink by Malcolm Gladwell or Traffic by Tom Vanderbilt, or 1491 by Charles C. Mann (a really awesome book if you are interested in the history of the Americas).

  Often I buy books when I’m travelling somewhere. Some airports have pretty good bookstores. For example a year or so ago I was stuck in Tampa waiting for my golfing buddies who were coming in on another flight. They were delayed about 4 hours because of a thunderstorm, so I had a lot of time to read. That time I found Mao: The Unknown Story by Jung Chang and Jon Halliday. This was one of the best books I’ve read in years, and really opened my eyes to how much of a rotten bastard Mao was. I’m currently reading it for the 2nd time (yes, all 700+ pages), and it has inspired me to find out more about China.

  Last week, for instance, on the bargain table at Chapters I found The Long March: The True History of Communist China’s Founding Myth by Sun Shuyun. The mythic “Long March” is also covered in Mao, but Shuyun’s version is much more sympathetic. Too sympathetic in my view. However I will comment on that at a later date.

  Also speaking of China and airports, about three years ago on my way to Prince Edward Island for another golfing trip, at the Toronto airport bookstore I found 1421: The Year China Discovered the World, by Gavin Menzies. This was another absolutely eye-opening book, and I recommend it highly. Menzies’ claim, in a nutshell, is that a massive Chinese expedition took place in 1421 at which time Chinese navigators sailed to virtually every continent (except, apparently, Europe), and mapped every place they visited. Menzies claims that Columbus had copies of these maps, as did Magellan, and virtually all the other Portuguese, Spanish and English explorers.

  I don’t want to get off topic here. The topic was “Books from the Bargain Table”. All I really wanted to say was you can find some good books for cheap on the bargain table at one of the bigger book stores. As I’ve mentioned, last week it was The Long March, and this week (yesterday) it was The Greatest Lies in History by Alexander Canduci.

  That one wasn’t particularly cheap ($17.99), but I thought it was worth it because it contains some nicely condensed information on some topics I am currently researching: Mao (perhaps history’s greatest bald-faced liar), and the subjugation and forced migration of Indian tribes in the southeastern U.S. during the early 1830s. There’s some other good stuff in there too, but that will also be fodder for more posts in the future.