Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (e-book)

Everyone's favourite stoner Disney movie (why doesn't Google Chrome recognise this word?) now has a review on this blog.

For a story that began as an improvisation told to three children on a river trip, Alice in Wonderland is a very good book filled with sheesha-smoking caterpillars, permanently-smiling cats and mock/false turtles. Not forgetting a King and Queen of hearts and pelicans used for croquet mallets.

The story, of course, begins with Alice spotting a white rabbit in a waistcoat which runs down a rabbit hole and she just HAS to follow this curious rabbit, doesn't she?

What follows is a story of a girl who goes from standard size to mega-small to long-necked who explores this Wonderland of the aforementioned animals. She gets to hear stories of turtles who danced with lobsters, meet children who transform into pigs and a Cheshire cat which has the ability to appear and disappear upon its will.

As the story goes on, things just seem to get weirder until the climax in which Alice finds herself at a trial against an unnamed character which has written some strange verse when the full pack of cards rises into the air and falls onto her.

This was a book I'd wanted to read for some time, and when I found the free e-book of it, I felt obliged to download it.

Although this was originally told/written for children, I reckon adults would also take pleasure in reading such a story (Wikipedia does say that adults enjoy it also). It's like some sort of legal acid trip put into words (let's face it, when have you EVER seen a caterpillar sitting on a mushroom, puffing away on a hookah when sober?)

Certainly worth the 9kb and short amount of time it took to download, AIW is one for everyone. It also read very well on the e-reader. Download was legal as Carroll is now dead and copyright has since disappeared.

Total rating: 4 out of 5

Downloaded at: http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/ where you can thousands of ebooks available to print, PDF and epub formats.

Review of the Sony PRS-350 Reader

As of around 12 midday today I own a Sony pocket e-reader. And, to be honest, I'm glad.

Although I do prefer proper books, I found myself spending a hell of a lot of the things, even on ones I could have downloaded for free.

After some research today looking for some Shakespeare for my course I came across the Adelaide University website which offers absolutely hundreds of free ebooks which has since lost their copyright and are therefore legally obtainable for free.

In the past hour I've downloaded over 200 books which, if put into cash could end up costing almost £400 - the price of 2 Sony e-readers. I now have a massive collection and I'm only on 'B'.

This e-reader was definitely a great purchase and although comfortable to read with and easy on the eyes (it uses the e-ink technology) I can't say it'll replace real books which I'll still be buying.

What I purchased for convenience to prevent having to carry around large amounts of books has since become an excellent purchase.

So, what is this e-reader like?

Well, as previously mentioned, it uses the recent e-ink technology which gives the feeling that I'm reading a real book. Reason for this is that the light doesn't distort or block out the text which means, excluding the brushed metal casing, a comfortable read.

It also has a large memory. As mentioned above, I have over 200 books stored on it already which has used up just 90mb approx of 1.5gb memory (one book is around 20kb in size). This obviously means I'll be able to carry around possibly 1000s of books at a time - a lot more than my uni bag or bookshelf will hold.

Book transfer works just like an iPod would - plug in the reader, install the reader library and drag and drop. You can even drag the books into a library ready for the next time you plug in the reader (although, rather than auto-update, you need to select the books from the library and drag them over to the reader - takes 2 seconds to do, though).

It's also an incredibly light piece of kit so it feel like you're holding less than a book when reading. Battery (apparently) lasts for 10,000 page turns, so if you fancy reading Ulysses 10 times, you don't even need to charge the thing once.

Sadly it doesn't come with a case or cover so they need to be purchased seperately but it does come boxed and wrapped in one of those foam bags which does a decent protective job.

Obviously this'll never feel or smell like a new or old book but it was a worthwhile purchase and maybe one which I should have done a long time ago. Oh, and it was also free on the UEL Progress Bursary :D

Now that I'm spoilt for books reviews should become frequent again.

I won't buy a kindle but...

Since the Kindle came out and everyone was banging on about it (even some of my lecturers who have been in this biz for however long) I decided I'm not going to get one for 3 reasons: 1) I dislike e-books anyway, 2) I don't fancy sitting on a train flashing a 150 quid piece of slate while I can get the same book in paperback for £2.50 and 3) I'm a person who prefers to not be like everyone else or one of those generics you see in the high street on a daily basis (i.e. I refuse to upgrade to a Blackberry or buy an iPhone and besides, after hours of research I discovered that my Nokia C3 does pretty much the same thing as a BB minus the messenger and I've not had 1 thing to dislike about it (apart from waking me up at 7 in the morning but that's UEL's fault really, not mine or the phone's).

A bit arrogant, yes, but oh well.

However(!), since starting uni I've been forced to buy a number of books which can cost well over a tenner sometimes and then having to remember which book to take to which lecture etc etc. Now, after a small bit of thought until my head started to hurt I thought it might just be easier and a bit cheaper to buy an e-reader from Asda priced at just £54. Okay, not a bit but one hundred big ones.

People go on about the Kindle using this e-ink which prevents the sun from not reflecting on the screen or some bollocks like that. Why not just block the beam with your hand?

So the Kindle has WiFi, a music player, Wikipedia, 3G (I still have no idea what that is yet everyone bangs on about it) and probably some sort of vending machine - pretty much what that thing in your pocket called a smartphone has. With this in mind, can't you help but wonder why someone would buy this piece of junk?

Rant over. Flame away.

Demian by Hermann Hesse

Another one of those rather strange books, the blurb on Hesse's Demian

"In Demian he (Hesse) chronicles with clear-sighted humanity the growth to maturity of Emil Sinclair, who falls under the influence of Max Demian, a strangely self-possessed figure. As Sinclair progresses through orthodox education and philosophical mysticism towards self-awareness, he always has the image of Demian before him - right up to the climatic moment of confrontation with destiny on a blood-drenched battlefield"

This was yet another book I mindlessly picked up off of the shelf and, attracted by the blurb, decided to take it out. And a good decision that was.

As the blurb reads, we are shown (in first-person narrative, of course) the events of Sinclair's life as he grows from a scared child into an adult. However, his life doesn't travel smoothly. He suffers from various -isms, meets strange people and wonders what's going on in his life.

This was quite a fast read with only 150 pages, but the small amount of pages managed to tell a large amount of story with twists, changes, happiness and sadness (no, I didn't cry!)

I currently have another Hesse book on my pile of loans which I only picked up for the name without checking the author so that'll be reviewed soon (hopefully).

With us now being at the end of the review (if you read this far), I'll be giving this book another 4 out of 5.

Good Morning, Midnight by Jean Rhys

Firstly, apologies for not updating this blog recently, I was reading another book but due to it's deepness I needed a quick break and decided to read Good Morning, Midnight which was very short (150 pages) and quite a light read for it's time so it was a good 'clear the head' book.

Along with this I've been doing a lot of writing for a few websites and trying to sort a few things out.

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The main plot follows a week in the life of our protagonist who likes to call herself Sasha. Through the week she has work problems, man troubles and likes to drink a lot which usually results in her crying. In everyday life, Sasha is a person many people would find extremely annoying and be that person in the pub which you avoid. In Good Morning, Midnight however, I couldn't help but like Sasha.

Along with Sasha we have a few other characters including men who want to be with her, a weird man who lives next to her and another man who she seems to want to be with but chooses not to. Yeah, I was a bit confused here also.

Throughout the dialogue there were many phrases written/spoken in French which I didn't understand a word of. However, sometimes before or after this was said, another phrase was said which, when studying both, could have been the same phrase repeated in English. I guess I'll never know unless I spend hours researching.

When I picked this book up whilst browsing the library I didn't really know what to expect. I thought maybe I'd be reading a piece of trashy chick-lit but I was wrong. This book was on the edge of chick-lit but it also had class and a decent story worthy of being put onto the "literature" shelf in Oxfam. I get the feeling that I'll be reading some more of Jean Rhys' work in the future.

Put simply I'll have to say I really enjoyed this book and despite the protagonist being a person with man troubles, I feel that any changes may risk ruining the book. This one gets a 4 out of 5 from me.

Nirvana Bites by Debi Alper

A quick note here: I was reading Anne Rice's 'Interview With the Vampire' for 3 days but just couldn't get into it so I gave up on that one and cracked the spine of this book on Saturday night.

This is, yet again, another book I picked up in Poundland and another good yet light read.

Nirvana Bites is a book which is hard to put into any one category as it involves humour, crime, trash, weirdness and drugs so it's a book for anyone really.

The story tells of a BBC Researcher who is at risk of being uncovered as a participant in the 'alternative' world of S&M. After the protagonist manages to stop the BBC worker from being kidnapped she goes to extreme lengths to protect him and find out who is guilty of the kidnapping attempt.

What follows is the activities of household which calls itself 'Nirvana'. There are deaths, attacks and crazy characters as the team go to lengths to uncover the whole scandal and as they dig deeper they find that it is all because of a secret fascist movement in London which will go to extreme lengths to remain a secret. We soon find out that all is not what it seems with 'Stapled Stan' the submissive BBC employee.

This is a book which moves nice and fast with page-turning chapters, quirky characters and anarchistic activities. If you're looking for a light read with a good storyline then this is a book to read if it can be found. Although not one which invokes loud screams of laughter, it is a book which produces a smile.

Although likely to be put onto my "For sale" pile this was an very enjoyable book and one which I'll give a rating of 4 out of 5.

The Crime Trade by Simon Kernick

Another book from one of my very favourite writers and the one which marks my reading of all of his books (excluding one being released in February), 'The Crime Trade' is the story of a major drug deal/sting gone wrong. resulting in six deaths. From here on, the SOCA team have to uncover the source of a leak which caused the sting to go wrong.

What follows is another journey through the London criminal underworld with the reader being introduced to a number of slimy characters who would happily grass up a fellow criminal for a bit of money until the all-important final shootout resulting in deaths and the truth of who planned the leak being released.

Although not as lively and exciting as Kernick's other books, this was still a good read despite the aforementioned lack of action and mystery. However, with Mr. Kernick having connections to the criminal underworld and the Serious and Organised Crime Agency this book shows us what genuinely goes on under our noses (although there will obviously be the odd exaggeration here and there) without us knowing.

Those grotty pubs you grab an afternoon pint in in London could possibly be a criminal haven and the houses you mindlessly walk past could be drug dens. However, I'm not going to claim a novel as gospel.

As I've mentioned previously, this isn't one of simon Kernick's best novels but still a good read which can be completed in just a couple of sittings and also one which I really managed to get lost in with it's deep descriptions and back stories.

I'll have to give this one a rating of 3 out of 5