Tortured Tech

Bookworm - The Words Awaken

31 December 2017

2017 reading list

Following on from 2014, 2015 and 2016.

Unless stated otherwise, I read all these books on my Kindle… Those marked :free: I read courtesy of my Kindle Unlimited subscription, :pound: means they weren’t available that way.

I’ve also added prices (Kindle version followed by the cheapest physical copy, normally a paperback) so I can see what is the financial pay-off of a Kindle but my suspicion is that it’s not about the money (and it doesn’t all go in the Kindle’s favour).

Finally I’ve added a :star: to my favourite book of the year. And any that are worthy of the moniker I’ve marked :shit:

  • :star: :free:/£16/£20 for the trilogy The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins
    • Kindle Unlimited strikes again. I’ve wanted to read this book since watching the films and it’s been long enough now that I’ve forgotten what happens so I’ll be able to enjoy the story for the first time. Again.
    • The Hunger Games - Catching Fire is the follow up and bizarrely is no longer available on Kindle Unlimited. Good thing I read it whilst it was then…
    • The Hunger Games - Mockingjay is still available on Kindle Unlimited.
    • The entire trilogy is very enjoyable and not unsuitable for my 11 year old daughter. Which is a bit of luck since she was ahead of me the majority of the time we were reading it :wink:
  • :pound:/£5/£7 Childhood’s End - Arthur C Clarke
    • A worthwhile read from this legend of sci-fi.
  • :pound:/£10/£17 The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke - Arthur C Clarke
    • Meh. I was hoping for something better if I’m honest; perhaps it’s that the stories really are so old they’re obviously dated. But that can give you an appreciation for just how forward thinking this man was, must’ve been remarkable to read at the time!
  • :pound:/£4/£7 Room 13 - Robert Swindells
    • Apparently a children’s classic … from the 90’s :confused: Anyway it’s an ok read but I wouldn’t go out of my way unless you’re checking its suitability for your own kids!
  • :gift: Twilight - Peter James
    • (paperback - a present) Rather darker, more morbid anyway, than the other books of his I’ve read. An enjoyable page-turner for sure.
  • :pound:/£5/£8 Perfect People - Peter James
    • An excellent book - a real departure from the Roy Grace series I’ve read but none the less entertaining for it. Are designer babies closer than we think? Are they inevitable? This story explores the potential upsides and, although it gets a little silly, suggests some downsides too.
  • :free:/£3/£12 Supercarrier, :free:/£3/£12 Juggernaut - Scott Bartlett
    • Entertaining enough books if you’re prepared to suspend disbelief. Which I am so I enjoyed them - roll on book 3.
  • :pound:/£10/£14 Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls - Francesca Cavallo
    • Ok, I haven’t read all of it. In honesty it was a reaction to a crisis - I’d finished the book I was reading and this was all that was on my Kindle that I hadn’t read. I’d bought it for my daughters thinking it’d be up their street. It’s not quite what I expected but my youngest has already finished it (there’s not much to each story) and my eldest hasn’t yet bothered. It’s ok, certainly worth reading if you’re unaware how much women have contributed to society but haven’t been granted the publicity they deserve. If you’re already enlightened then it’s a bit … meh.
  • :free:/£3/£20 Starship Liberator - David Vandyke, B.V.Larson
    • I wanted another space story & this fit the bill. I found it a bit dull to start with, nearly gave up about 1/3 through as the characters were almost permanently battling something but carried on as the story was just good enough. I’m glad I did as I’m now looking forward to the next book.
  • :free:/£4/£14 Albion Lost - Richard Fox
    • Another space-based adventure. Another one where I ended up looking forward to the next book. Which isn’t yet out…
  • :free:/£2/£9 Steel World, :free:/£4/£9 Dust World, :free:/£4/£9 Tech World, :free:/£4/£10 Machine World, :free:/£3/£9 Death World, :free:/£4/£10 Home World, :free:/£5/£10 Rogue World - B.V.Larson
    • You guessed it, more tales of space-based derring-do. Humans are but a small part of this Galactic-dominated galaxy under threat of total annihilation at any stage. And then the Cephalopods arrive. Decent stories, well told, though started a bit heavy on the fighting there are enough ideas to keep the reader interested.
  • :free:/£2/n/a Reckoning - Scott Bartlett
    • The third of The Ixan Trilogy. Unavailable in physical form - it’s Kindle or nothing here! A reasonable if unsurprising finish to the story whilst leaving it open to follow-ups.
  • :free:/£2/£12 The Void War, :free:/£2/£11 A King’s Ship, :free:/£2/£11 Return to Haven, :free:/£3/n/a The Price of Liberty - D.J.Holmes
    • Another suite of stories of space-farers dealing with their sub-optimal faster-than-light drives whilst arguing over which Earth country is allowed to colonise remote systems. Nearly gave up as it didn’t have me instantly hooked but ended up having a reasonable story line. All four books are littered with spelling mistakes and typos though (so I’m not sure whether it’s fortunate or otherwise that I found Kindle’s report content error functionality after I’d finished this series … but perhaps I shouldn’t bother anyway).
  • :pound:/£5/£9 Nano - Robin Cook
    • Reminded me a little of Crichton’s Micro as it’s about nanorobots. A good read - Robin Cook may be a good source of fiction … but it looks like I’ve moved away from Kindle Unlimited, I wonder for how long?
  • :pound:/£3/£2 Mutation - Robin Cook
    • A strong reminder of Perfect People with its central genetically enhanced character. But who’d argue it can’t ever happen?
  • :pound:/£3/£12 Mindbend - Robin Cook
    • A vision of how drug companies could take over the world. A good read if a smidge far fetched.
  • :pound:/£15/£26 The Eon Series: Legacy, Eon and Eternity - Greg Bear
    • I seem to recall reading a Greg Bear book a couple of decades ago (yikes!) and enjoying it. That’s what spurred me on to buy this trilogy. Maybe I shouldn’t have - the first book is slow - but I persisted and got through it only to find the second book far more engaging. The first is a prequel after all; my experience is that the author oughtn’t have bothered. Unfortunately that experience is mirrored in the third - don’t bother.
  • :pound:/£5/£10 Daemon, :pound:/£5/£10 Freedom - Daniel Suarez
    • Billed as a book for fans of The Matrix (FWIW one of my favourite films), on loan from a work colleague Daemon didn’t disappoint - an excellent look at what might happen if we suspend disbelief only slightly. The sequel was soon downloaded and consumed via Kindle and it followed the usual order of things by being not quite as good as its predecessor … but still a good read.
  • :pound:/£10/£8 The Midnight Line - Lee Child
    • Yes they’re formulaic. Yes I enjoy them. Another entertaining Jack Reacher.
  • :free:/£4/£11 Genesis, :free:/£4/£11 Nemesis, :free:/£4/£11 Legacy - Ken Lozito
    • An interesting look into humanity’s possible future - a touch dystopian with a hint of Passengers about it but entertaining enough.
  • :pound:/£3/£7 Ancillary Justice - Ann Leckie
    • Perhaps it’s just my preference for grab-you-by-the-throat stories but I found this very slow going. I assume the only purpose of the single-gender language used is to try and prove a women are just as capable as men point (which they are) but instead simply confuses. It’s a shame because there are some interesting split personality / AI ideas.

Kindle - is it worth it?

When I bought my (paperwhite) Kindle, along with its cover, it cost me £150…

To read all these books (excluding the, physical, gifts) would’ve cost me £338 vs £154 for Kindle versions so I’d’ve saved £184 even if I’d bought them all. Kindle Unlimited has saved me £50 over buying e-books so it’s failed to cover its £8/month cost AND tends to bias my reading towards the relatively limited set of books available on the subscription - I was quite loathe to buy e-books when I started!

Of course that means if I ever stop paying the subscription I won’t have access to the books whereas if I’d bought them, they’re mine forever. If I’d bought physical versions of course they’re mine to hand on to future generations … but how interested are they going to be making space for the novels I read? Is it simply a burden, especially of physical storage, to be avoided? Is a simple list good enough?

That’s still not the full story though - since my wife and both kids also have Kindles they can share the Kindle Unlimited subscription. The kids make decent use of that, my wife hardly at all. I haven’t kept track (and can’t be ar*ed to check back) of the books they’ve read this way over the year but it’s a significant number (which probably averages 1 every fortnight or so depending on when they remember to ask me to search for Kindle books for them - there’s no way I can see to allow them access to (limited categories of) books on Amazon without using my account which is annoying) and goes a long way to mitigate the subscription cost further. Although that’s also swayed by the aforementioned is it free bias.

So financially the Kindle is worth it - it’s paid for itself in the first year of having it. From a convenience point of view it’s definitely worth it - not only do I no longer have to find bookshelf space to store books (we’re basically out of storage space) but I can also download the next book in a series on the way home if I finish unexpectedly quickly (several books have a habit of including the start of the next in the series so the story finishes at around 90-95% read). A lack of physical books also has its downside though - visitors are stuck browsing the same old collection…

Kindle Unlimited is less persuasive, I’ll keep it going for a bit but I should probably knock it on the head.

Of course the best way would be to go to a library but I’m not in that habit and it’s definitely not as convenient. e-book libraries exist - you can download a book (for free), read it then return it when you’re done. It’s still a hassle to get the books onto the Kindle though (by which I mean it’s a bit harder than doing it via Amazon).

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