Category: Books

Autobiography Research

On By Michel McDonaldIn Books, eBook, Gay, NookLeave a comment

I went looking on the Rainbow ebooks website for an autobiography and they don’t have that category so I searched in biography which is empty. So I went to the borders website to find a gay autobiography in e-book format but unfortunately there are 34,537 biographies. They have many categories so you can narrow down your search but there were none in the “gay” category so I thought…. GOOGLE!

Note: I searched Borders because I have $15 borders bucks from doing surveys with e-rewards.com and I’m tired of only being able to get $25 Game Stop cards. I was never really interested in the other rewards they offer but now that I have a Nook I figure I might as well get some ebooks out of it.

So I went to the Google search engine and typed “Autobiography of a gay person” and this is what came up.

glbtq >> literature >> Autobiography, Gay MaleIn its first century of existence, gay male autobiography has become increasingly more open, frank, and unapologetic…

Edward Carpenter’s “My Days and Dreams” was published in 1890. Like other early gay male autobiographies, the book was reticent about its author’s intimate relationships.

This is the very first autobiography of a gay person and it was published in 1890. You know what first came to mind? A book that was published in 1890 is now out of print which means… It’s FREE!

I turned my Nook on, went to the shop menu, chose e-books then typed in the name of this book and it was the 2nd thing in the list and it said it was from Google and it was free!

So now I get to do my research from a pioneer. Although, his experience is going to be totally different from mine given the fact that they were from BLOODY 1890… but still. It will help me anyway.

Resting Eyes Today

On By Michel McDonaldIn Books, eBook, NookLeave a comment

I’ve been reading every day this month and even though I feel like I’m in a race to read as many books as I possibly can, I think I need to give my eyes the day off today.

Ok so it’s not a race but I just feel like I’m on vacation when I’m reading. Vacation from the problems of the world, of my world. It’s an escape. But for today I need to rest.

If I go blind from over reading then what point will I have made by spending $160 on a Nook?

Earlier in the week I posted a poll asking how long it takes people to read and because only 5 people took the poll (thanks a lot) I didn’t get a definitive answer.

It’s interesting though that a friend of mine who got me wanting to read told me that she reads funny. She will be reading many books simultaneously. Like she’s reading 13 books right now. She has finished 9 of those 13 books but what she does is she reads a chapter in 1 book then goes and reads 1 chapter in another book and so on and so forth. And that’s all in 1 month too.

It takes me 4 days to read 1 book and I can usually read 4 books per month because after I finish reading a book I take a few days before going to the next one. I can’t imagine how fast she must read that she can go through 13 books in 1 day by reading 1 chapter each. That would take me the whole entire day and by the end of the day I would be too blind to do anything else.

I have astigmatism, I have trouble focusing my eyes after looking at a book so close for a certain amount of time. It’s like when I play video games on my PSP, after playing for so long, when I look away from it everything is blurry. That’s usually when I know it’s time to stop. Or when I’m sitting there with my PSP so close to my face that I can’t see anything in my peripheral vision. That’s why I like to play with the PSP hooked up to the TV.

It’s too bad I can’t hook the Nook up to the TV to read it lol. Then again what would be the point of e-ink if I’m reading from the tv.

I do use the large print when I read. I should probably use the biggest print which is extra extra large. Maybe that would be a lot easier on my eyes but that only means more page turns which means more battery usage. I’ve been using large only because of the time it takes to turn the page, it’s not too long but it’s long enough that I don’t want to have to turn it as much.

So from now on, I will use extra extra large as if I’m in my 80′s lol. What happens when I am in my 80′s? I will need a magnifying glass to go with it or maybe the Nook of the future will be as big as the wall with a remote control for turning the page. I’d still need to use extra extra-large though lol. I can see me in my 80′s with coke bottle glasses like Professor Farnsworth from Futurama.

Or maybe by then (if I’m still alive) I will be totally blind but hopefully voice recognition will be a lot better. I can grab my future nook like gadget, push the button on top and hear a sound like I turned on the computer then hear a voice greeting me. “Hello Mr. McDonald. What would you like to read today?” then I say “I’d like to continue reading the last book” then it starts reading to me in a calming voice, not electronic like the Kindle. That would be ideal for my blind 80-year-old ass in the year 2050 lol.

I said I was going to give my eyes a break today, what the heck am I doing blogging? Sheesh!

Crewel Lye

On By Michel McDonaldIn Books, XanthLeave a comment

I finished reading the 8th Xanth Novel today called “Crewel Lye: A Caustic Yarn”.

This was sort of different from the rest of the Xanth novels that I read. This time the story was all about Jordan the ghost. He was telling 5-year-old Ivy the story of his life and how he died.

In order for him to tell his story they had to clean the magic tapestry with a homemade cleaner (which was a crewel lye) but he died because of a crewel lie. See the pun? I forgot where it was but there was a reference to spinning a yarn (telling a story) but it was caustic? LOL I don’t remember now. The puns are getting a bit confusing.

I really hate giving too much of the story away just in case anyone hasn’t read it so I’m just gonna say that I liked it. Of course I like all of the Xanth novels so it’s hard for me to say anything else.

I don’t know what it is about these books but they are so easy and fun to read. During the time that I’m reading them, I feel like I’m in the story. Have you ever seen The Neverending Story? That’s the way it is except I’m not actually in the story lol. But I feel like I’m there watching instead of reading from my bedroom.

So that’s 8 Xanth novels down and 25 to go until they release the last 2 books then it will be 27 to go. My next book will be New Moon, the 2nd Twilight book. I bought it from the grocery store on December 3rd (impulse buy) and I still have yet to read it so it’s next on my list to read tomorrow.

Information OVERLOAD

On By Michel McDonaldIn Books, eBook, NookLeave a comment

I have been reading a lot of books lately, I’ve made it a point to read every day.  When I finish 1 book then I start another the next day. It can take me 4-5 days to read a book depending on the difficulty and/or length of the book.

The last 2 months I’ve been reading an average of 4 books per month and this month since I bought my Nook I’ve already read 3 books. Although 1 of those isn’t available in e-book format so I had to read it from the actual book but still. We’re somewhere in the middle of the month and I’ve already read 3 and I can see myself reading 2-3 more.

I wonder if I read so many books if they might blend together in my brain and then I won’t remember what I read from which book.  I might think that what happened in the David Eddings novel might have really happened in the Piers Anthony novel and vice versa.

Just as long as I don’t think what happened in the Marguerite Labbe novel happened in the Xanth novel, then I’ll be fine because that would really confuse me lol.

Tomorrow I start reading “Crewel Lye: A Caustic Yarn” by Piers Anthony. By the way, if you have not read any Xanth novels by now based on my past recommendations, you should.  They are so good.  There are 35 in the series although only 33 available for sale and only 17 available in e-book format.

And if you haven’t read any of the Rainbow eBooks yet you should start with “My Heart is Within You” by Marguerite Labbe.  Next month I will be on the final book of the Triquetra Trilogy which is sad because I kinda wanted that series to be longer but that’s ok, she has written other books.

Maybe since I’ve become such a Nook worm (get it? cause I have a Nook… no?) I should dress up as a worm with glasses for Halloween, although instead of reading a book, I’d be reading a Nook lol.

Haunted By Your Soul by Marguerite Labbe

On By Michel McDonaldIn Books, eBook, Gay, NookLeave a comment

I just finished the book Haunted by Your Soul today which is the sequel to My Heart is Within You by Marguerite Labbe.

The first book is about this ancient vampire named Kristair who is looking for a vessel. He finds Jacob at a football game and stalks him for months before getting the courage to meet him. Although Jacob knew what game was being played and he played along wanting Kristair just as much.

At the end of My Heart is Within You, Kristair dies. In this sequel he has ascended but that doesn’t stop him from wanting to be with Jacob. He finds a way to be with him even though he is a ghost.

These 2 novels have been my very first gay novels that I have ever read and I just loved them. They were heavy on the sex scenes in both books (yes, a spirit and a human found a way lol) and I was just fine with it.

What’s funny is that the author is a married woman with a son. You would never think that a straight married woman would have those gay sexual thoughts in her head but there you have it.  I was aroused by a straight woman.  Be lucky because that is the first and last time you will ever hear me say that.

What drew me to these books out of the hundreds or thousands of gay e-books out there was one word.  Vampire.  My main search was Vampire because I’ve always wanted to read a gay vampire story and this was perfect.

The way Mrs. Labbe writes her version of vampires was perfect for me.  I love vampires and what makes me love them is that every writer adds something new to the vampire mythology which keeps me on my toes because I never know what new rule will apply.  In her vision, ancient vampires have some special powers like walking through walls and mental telepathy despite the distance, magic heart, memory and soul transplants.  You name it, this vampire can do it.  It also gives younglings the ability to do their own tricks like disappear completely from view.

I won’t reveal to anyone how this one ends, you’ll have to see for yourself.  I will be buying the final book in the trilogy the first week of October and reading it towards the end of the first week once I’ve finished reading the 2nd Sookie Stackhouse novel.

The final book is called Our Sacred Balance which from what I understand, Kristair is now human.  No longer a vampire he has no way of defending himself since he doesn’t have the super powers he had in the first novel and all the power he had given to Jacob is all but gone.  The vampires are after these two helpless humans.  I can’t wait to find out what happens in the conclusion of that story.  For some odd reason I wish that it wasn’t the last of their story.  I wish it wasn’t a trilogy at all.

Haven’t Been Blogging Much Lately

On By Michel McDonaldIn Books, eBook, Nook, PSPLeave a comment

I don’t know why I haven’t been blogging much at all lately.  Ever since I got my Nook I have been reading constantly, even more than I used to read when all I had were just books.

But, the novelty will wear off soon I’m sure and I will go back to the way things were and feel as though the Nook is just another thing in my life instead of the only thing in my life.

When I first bought my PSP it was the same way.  I was constantly playing video games.  I couldn’t care less about anything else going on around me lol.

Anyway, I do have many books that I’m planning to read, when I say many I mean over 100 but I’m pretty sure that I will have to take days off here and there because of how horrible my eyes are.  The more I read, the worse my eyes get.  Or… I wonder if the more I read, the more my eyes will get accustomed to reading?  I hope the latter.

(Poll) How long does it take you to read a book?

On By Michel McDonaldIn Books, eBook, Nook, PollLeave a comment

I love to read but I have 3 issues with it that cause me to read slower than the average reader. 1) Dyslexia 2) ADD and 3) Learning disorder. Because of those 3 disadvantages it can take me up to a week to read 1 novel. I wonder without those issues, how long does a normal person read a 250-300 page novel.

QuestionsView Results

If you can’t see this poll, please visit http://www.sodahead.com/fun/how-long-does-it-take-you-to-read-a-book/question-1219071/

eBook Conversion and Creation Made Simple

On By Michel McDonaldIn Books, eBook, NookLeave a comment

I have been wracking my brain trying to figure out how to fix the James Potter fan books for my Nook. The James Potter Series of fan books by Norman Lippert based on the J.K. Rowling Harry Potter series are only downloadable in PDF format from the website.

So what needs fixed? If I try to read a PDF file on my Nook, it turns whatever page that has an image into an image itself making it unreadable.

How can I fix this that will be less work for me? That has been the question on my mind for days and I finally figured it out tonight.

First I used Calibre to convert the PDF file to ePub file for Nook. Then I went into Sigil, I opened the ePub file that Calibre created.

Here is the tricky part that I didn’t understand at first. What I had to do was find the Prologue page, highlight the word Prologue then made it Header 2 and same with all the chapters. That will help the e-book reader find where the chapters are to create a table of contents.

The first letter of the first paragraph of the Prologue page and every chapter thereafter is missing. Why? Because in the PDF file that letter is bigger than all the rest so when Calibre converted the PDF file to ePub it lost those letters.  I had to figure out what the letter was then type it in.

Page numbers are all over the entire document which means I had to click Edit then Find and type in the first number (1) and find it then I could either replace it with nothing or when it found the number I could click it and delete it manually. Then 2, then 3, etc. Sometimes the number would be mixed in a paragraph and the rest of the paragraph was down on the next line so I had to bring it up.

Yes, it’s a huge pain in my rear but I really want to read these books.

There are a lot of .xhtml files so what I’ve done is when there is a new chapter I click the Sigil logo which is the create chapter button which basically creates a new .xhtml page. The previous page that I had just edited all the numbers out of is now its own chapter in its own file so I renamed that file to Prologue.xhtml. This makes it easier for me to go back to each chapter if I need to edit them further.

This is a painstaking process and it has taken me a couple of hours just to do 10 chapters and I have several more chapters to do tomorrow but I am willing to put in the work to get this done because I really want to read these books. It’s just too bad that the author of these great fan based novels didn’t think to create a file for every persons needs for e-book readers. .ePub is the most common e-book file there is, much easier than a PDF file. I mean seriously, who wants to stare into their LCD screen for hours reading an e-book?

I seriously hope that these books are worth the effort I’m putting into them.

Another thing about editing an e-book is that I didn’t know how to create a chapter that didn’t start with the word “Chapter”, I thought it HAD to have the word Chapter but apparently it doesn’t because these chapters don’t. Also the Prologue page isn’t called Chapter and now it shows up in the table of contents in the Nook for PC program.

So, I have a ton of work ahead of me tomorrow to get the rest of the first James Potter novel converted to .ePub so that I can read it.

This also helps me with my own e-book that I am writing. I wasn’t sure how to create the chapters and now that I have this new information I can do it without any issue and actually I think I might just write the darn thing in Sigil instead of using MS Word. I think it will make it so much easier to write.

I can also now write my Cookbook with diabetic recipes from the SparkPeople website that I can store in my Nook so when I need to find a recipe I can find it easily. What will make it easier is being able to make a chapter named “Entrée’s”, “Sandwiches”, “Salads” etc. instead of Chapter 1…

Thanks Sigil for making my life so much easier.

My First Nook Book Completed – Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris

On By Michel McDonaldIn Books, eBook, Nook, TVLeave a comment

Well I finally did it. I finished reading my very first Nook book which was Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris. It’s the first Sookie Stackhouse novel that True Blood is based upon.

The first e-book I ever read was on my computer last month but this is the first e-book that I’ve read on my new Nook. It was certainly an interesting experience.

It took me 4 days which is the usual for me if I read 2 or more chapters per day. The first day I read 2 chapters, the 2nd day 2 chapters, yesterday 2 chapters then today, the 4th day I read the final 5 chapters.

I did get many chances to look up the definitions of many words which thrilled me to no end because I just can’t stand reading a book and not knowing what the meaning of a certain word is. I start feeling stupid because I don’t understand. I dismiss it without even trying to find out then I’m lost.

What’s even funnier is that while I was reading this entire book, I was reading it with a southern accent in my head with the characters voices/accents. And each character had a different accent so I had to keep switching voices and accents. Sometimes I had to cheat and look at who was talking before reading the paragraph so I could make sure that I wasn’t using Sookies voice for Arlene or Eric’s voice for Bill etc. But it didn’t end there because when I would talk to people either on the phone or even talking to Darrin or the dog I would still have a little trace of that southern accent.

What was cool about this book was that while I was reading it I already knew what was going to happen before it happened because I’ve seen the show and I remembered it. Unfortunately, some of the things changed.

SPOILER ALERT!!!

Like for example, Tara Thornton and her mother were not in the book, Miss Jeanette wasn’t in there and she didn’t die at the end in Andy’s car and Bill never turned Jessica and he never went on trial, instead he got some kind of vampire promotion in the vampire world that he lives in. Also, there was another vampire named Bubba who was never in the show and he was there when Sookie was getting beat up by Rene who didn’t even die at the end of the book.

My friend Alyce told me that this book was not like the shows and I thought that she was saying that it wasn’t like the shows meaning it had nothing to do with Bon Temps and Bill and Sookie etc. But what she meant was that it read for Sookies point of view the entire time and so you never read anything that happened to anyone in this book that was not around Sookie.

In other words, you are reading from her viewpoint and no one else. Since she can’t see what’s happening to other people, neither can we (as the reader).

I definitely enjoyed it even though it was very different from the show in that respect. I feel like I got a taste of an alternate True Blood. Which by the way, they never mentioned the words “True Blood”. They always said “synthetic blood” and Bill apparently hated it, he preferred to drink Sookie instead.

I loved this book and can’t wait for the next one. I plan on buying each book once every month until June and by then I will be on the 10th book. I don’t want to read all of the books at once, I have many other books that I want to read of different stories so I have to give those books a chance too.

My Nook Battery

On By Michel McDonaldIn Books, eBook, NookLeave a comment

Before I go on a rant, I would just like to say that I love my Nook. I’ve had nothing but fun with it since I got it on Friday night. Yes, I have had some irritations but the more I play with it the more I understand it and love it.

With that said, I just want to say how I am questioning their “10-day battery life” statement. I’ve only had it since Friday night which is when I first charged it. The next day the battery had started going down so I plugged it in again so I am really counting from that moment which would be Saturday afternoon when it was at full capacity which for some odd reason was only 97% when the light went off and it stopped charging.

So that would be 3 days that I have been playing with it when it went from 97% battery life down to 24%. It’s supposed to be 10 days, not 3.

Note that they said 10 days IF the wi-fi is turned off. The Kindle wi-fi has a 30 day battery with wi-fi turned off and it only uses the battery when you turn the page right? So I think that this is 10 days because every time you have to look up a word it turns the LCD screen on which uses battery so that’s why instead of 30 days it’s only 10 days.

How much time do they estimate per day that you should use the Nook to give you 10 days of battery power? 1 hour per day? 2 hours?

Maybe I’m using it more than they would have estimated that a person would use it and that’s why it’s sucking so much energy from the battery.

I think what’s happening is that every time I don’t understand a word I look it up which turns the LCD on. And before I start reading I usually go into the daily to see what they have in there. I pick up my Nook several times per day and look at stuff in the Nook store. So maybe I am over using it.

I mean it doesn’t really bother me that much that it’s only been 3 days and I’ve already used 75% of the battery because I can certainly plug it in every few days. It’s the principle that they say “10 days” without a charge that gets me because I’m seriously wondering just how long they expect a person would be using this thing.

Look, I’m a reader, I love to read… a lot. I’m gonna be using this thing for hours at a time, maybe 4-6 hours per day. It’s gonna get its use whether I’m reading a book, magazine or newspaper or just browsing the Nook store. So I guess if I over use it like that I’m gonna have to expect to charge it every few days.

I guess I’ll just have to deal with it lol.