Reading rut

rut ¹

  (rŭt)

An uninspired routine or pattern of behavior that one continues unthinkingly or because change is difficult.

(From http://www.thefreedictionary.com)

It seems to me that its very easy to slip into a rut, doing the same thing again and again or sticking to something familiar as its more comfortable.

If feels like I've been in a bit of a rut with my reading habits over the past few months. With RL being busy, the time available for reading for pleasure has been in short supply, and I feel I've fallen into the trap of not leaving my comfort zone as as the risk of wasting time on a non enjoyable book felt to high.

Well, with the new year just beginning I've decided that enough is enough and took a late resolution to revive an old system which has served me well in the past.

1) Read one new book for every old favourite or one by a familiar author.

2) Read at least one new book every week.

In the past these two goals have been a great guideline as its led me to discovering a lot of new authors that I now enjoy and has give me a lot of things to think about.

The second one is quiet critical, as being a news junkie it too easy to spend all my time following the feeds and realize that’I've not actually read a 'pBook' book in a while. 

So I've kicked off this resolution by readings couple of books that have been in my reading pile for a while. 

What I'm going to attempt to do now on a regular basis is put in a short review of the book, and hopefully keep myself honest.

iPad for the News Junkies

Ok, Ok I admit I’m a new Junkie. More accurately I’m an information junkie. No day is complete without scanning the web and more specifically a few dozen websites and news sources I track to get the info I want.

Now to keep track of this I’ve transitioned to RSS and more specifically to Google Reader, to keep track of and to scan multiple sources as efficiently as possible a couple of years. As it is Web based it stays in sync across multiple platforms so I can easily jump from my PC to my Smartphone to my iPad and back again, while always being in sync.

Now the thing is that while I like the full version on the PC and love the mobile iPhone version (in fact my preferred version) the mobile version does not work that well on the larger screen of the iPad. So one of the first things I went looking for on the iPad App store was for RSS readers that could sync with Google Reader.

The First one I found was Reeder. It is definitely the most visually appealing and the most responsive in terms of navigation. Added to the multiple ways in which you can interact with the content, ranging from the Reader basics such as Starring, sharing, etc to more advanced features like in app email to share articles or saving the article to services like Instapaper, ReaditLater, Delicious and Pinbard as well as posting to Twitter.

It syncs with Google and downloads the headers so that you can scan and process the items, even offline. However the Sync is also the issue that causes the most problems and at times is the most frustrating part of the experience. It appears that of you have a lot of unread items, Reeder is unable to sync up unread items and as such the count is not displayed correctly leading to situations when you think you have seen all the unread items, but a large section has just not been synced to the device.

So while I do use Reeader regularly I’ve gone out and tried some alternative RSS readers that also sync with Google Reader. One that was being mentioned a lot was River Of News, So I went and downloaded it. The Look and interface is pretty similar to the full Google reader interface on the PC with touches of the iPad Mail interface so you can pretty easily jump right in.

Still while the interface is nice, it just doesn’t have the Visual flare and flexibility of Reeder so that still remains my go to RSS reader.

I did try out another RSS Reader, Feeddler RSS Reader Pro and I actually paid for the pro version as the options looked well worth it. The interface is similar to standard Google reader. One interface element however drives me up the wall is that the item don’t show the article summary or text just below it  which means that I need to tap the item name to read the summary and then tap again if i want to go to the article on the web. I’ve found no way to change this so this app sits mostly unused.

This takes care of the feeds, but there are times that you just need to read a newspaper, especially as many papers don’t have RSs feeds and even then many that do don’t put all the articles on the web.

Now I travel a lot, and try to keep up with news from a number of countries and regions. As such having access to English language newspapers is usually a luxury, with the International Herald Tribune the only one that is usually available. While I like the Trib, I cant rely on it for as my only source, so I do try to get a hold of other papers when ever I can.

Now a short while ago, someone clued me in to the existence of PressDisplay and their PressReader App. PressDisplay is a service that provides access to thousands of publications from around the world in multiple languages. It provides a complete replice of the newspaper, Ad’s and all to provide a very real newspaper like experience.

Now while the service is great and can be accessed via a web browser or native apps for iPhone, iPad, Blackberry, Windows Mobile, Pc and Mac with an Android client in the works it is not free.

With a basic subscription starting at $10 for a daily subscription to a single paper to $30 a month for unlimited access to all papers. While that does steep, and did cause me to put it aside when i first saw it, thinking about it further led me to consider that a justifiable expense. I usually pay $1 daily for the IHT anyway so for the same amount I can have that as well as a few hundred more papers. So for the last few days I’ve been skimming 15-20 papers a day reacquainting with some my old favourite papers and columnist.

So combining these two sources with the podcasts i follow I’m able to sustain my information addiction. So As i’ve mentioned in my previous posts, the iPad is turning out to be pretty good Media consumption device.

I’ll post about the apps I use for Document and Ebook reading in another post in this series in a few days.

eReading

I've slowly been transiting to digital reading as I run out of place to store books.
(There is only so much space in a house to store books, and I reached the limit ages ago. :p)

What does that mean ?

Well, it means that instead of buying a printed copy, i buy a eBook version and download it to my computer or reader to read.

By Reader I mean dedicated eBook readers like the Sony Reader, Cybook Gen3, Amazon Kindle, etc.

I'll be posting follow up post on the different readers available, and my thoughts on the pluses and minuses of each.

If you are interested in eBooks or Digital reading the best place to go for information and help is

Http://www.mobileread.com

And the Wiki there at

Http://wiki.mobilread.com

Clancys Conondrum

When Recently going over my Tom Clancy Collection, It got me thinking about how the nature of his books has changed.
Iin the Beginning while his books such as Hunt for Red October were quiet action paced, and not that much different from other thrillers out at that time, they did contain the elements that went on to become Clancy Classics, such as the depth in detail, the characterization and the multiple story arcs.

However it seems that over the last few years, he seems to be in a rut, churning out a lot of Fat detailed books, but loosing the tight well though plots that made even the thickest book a joy to read. What started in Debt of honor and in reached its peak in Teeth of the Tiger, has done what I thought was unthinkable a few years ago. It made me apathetic to his new books.

While I still enjoy his older books, with Red Storm Rising still on my all time favourite list (Having worn through 3 copies) No longer do I recommend his as one of my must read 'Authors', now just suggesting a specific book or two.

I've decided to now include a recommend for a Beg, Buy or Borrow with every Post, so Todays recommend is

Buy for Red Storm Rising by Tom Clancy

Welcome

Hi People (Don't I Sound Important ;-) )
Before I start My posting, Lets have a short session of Who am I?

Hmm
Bought up on Ladybird
Encountered Enid Blyton at an Early Age
Devoured Hardy boys & Nancy Drew
Moved on To John Grisham
Visited WW2 with The Eagle
Plotted conspiracy With Jeffrey Archer
Satisfied my detail Fetish With Tom Clancy
Discovered science Fiction with Asimov
Enjoyed its original flavor With E.E. 'Doc' Smith
And Tasted its age with the later works on Heinlein
Obessed Over the Fate of Middle earth With Tolkin
Imagined the beauty of the Bellinum in David Eddings works
And the Scale Of the Wars Of Midkermia with Raymond Fiest
And Finally Discovered the Joy Of Satire and Wit with Pratchett

So Who Am I????????

BBusyBookWorm at you service. 8-)
posting For The First Time