Decisions, Decisions

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

My vision is failing so I'm filling my Kindle with books I think are best, and books I enjoy enough to re-read.

My Kindle has 200 books so far, and every pay day I buy two more. Two fifty is my goal. Today I bought FREE FALL by Robert Crais, and a Vietnam memoir.

Robert Crais published many books but FREE FALL is my favorite. GREAT EXPECTATIONS is my favorite Dickens. THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA is my favorite Hemingway. Elmore Leonard's westerns fill a dozen berthes, because his westerns are The Best. Donald Westlake got one spot tho I've read and enjoy most of his books. Sinclair Lewis contributed ELMER GANTRY. Three by Tolstoy. Two by Hugo. Four from LeCarre. None by Stephen King. One by Poppy Z. Brite, in fact several by lesbian authors such as Patricia Highsmith, Donna Leon, Forrest, et al.


Most major, 20th Century wars rate a dozen spots. 19th Century events rate one or two spots for quality reads. I studied our Civil War since 1961 but limit the Kindle reads to 5 or 6.

 

[oggbashan]

I have been buying CDs of books from eBay. So far this week I have had delivered:

150+ Western and Cowboy
700+ SciFi
15,000 Fiction

Total cost including postage about £15 (say $20).

I load them onto my desk top and then transfer them to the mini SD card in my Kindle clone. Some don't display clearly but 90% of them do. The other 10% can display if I open them in Word and play around with formatting.

I also download classic literature from Project Gutenberg - they're free!

https://www.gutenberg.org/

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

I have been buying CDs of books from eBay. So far this week I have had delivered:

150+ Western and Cowboy
700+ SciFi
15,000 Fiction

Total cost including postage about £15 (say $20).

I load them onto my desk top and then transfer them to the mini SD card in my Kindle clone. Some don't display clearly but 90% of them do. The other 10% can display if I open them in Word and play around with formatting.

I also download classic literature from Project Gutenberg - they're free!

https://www.gutenberg.org/

What you suggest works well for large short story collections.

 

[oggbashan]

What you suggest works well for large short story collections.

Many of the books on my CDs are full length Victorian novels by authors such as Dickens and Jules Verne.

I cannot use the library function on my Kindle Clone. It has hysterics from overload, but the search function works.

 

[redzinger]

You've reminded me I need to clean my Kindle out. However, I hardly ever use it nowadays, just for hospital appointments where there's no WiFi. And for reading Golden Angel's latest.

 

[colddiesel]

My eyes aren't too bad tho' I'm pushing 80. The Kindle is a godsend with the capacity to increase the size of the letters.

However, when I stay at my place in Western Queensland, there is a small aboriginal community on the property and some of the kids come over and read to me. I pay them to do so rather than give them charity, and maybe it helps with their reading. My favourite is a ten year old girl who has a lot of spirit in her. She was reading me a PD James a few weeks back and stopped suddenly with a few pages to go. "If you wanna know who done the murder it'll cost an extra two bucks."

We argued some but I eventually gave in - I didn't want to spoil the fun and tell her I had read the book before, years ago.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

My eyes aren't too bad tho' I'm pushing 80. The Kindle is a godsend with the capacity to increase the size of the letters.

However, when I stay at my place in Western Queensland, there is a small aboriginal community on the property and some of the kids come over and read to me. I pay them to do so rather than give them charity, and maybe it helps with their reading. My favourite is a ten year old girl who has a lot of spirit in her. She was reading me a PD James a few weeks back and stopped suddenly with a few pages to go. "If you wanna know who done the murder it'll cost an extra two bucks."

We argued some but I eventually gave in - I didn't want to spoil the fun and tell her I had read the book before, years ago.

I recall the first young girl who said to me, GIMME A DOLLAR AND I WONT LAUGH AT YOU. My aunt bought me a lovely red suit all the girls laughed at. The event taught me all I needed to know about females: They make you look ridiculous then charge you not to laugh.

 

[Desiremakesmeweak]

Eyes - bilberry, blueberry, reflexology, anti-histamine maybe, also grapefruit, proper sleep and don't focus ALL THE TIME on just one spot or area.

 

[Everyday_Man]

Are you downloading books in audio?

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Are you downloading books in audio?

No, not till I hafta.

 

[Everyday_Man]

No, not till I hafta.

are audio books standard now?

I've downloaded some (many) but ... it's not the same, I find I get easily distracted when I listen.

I also find I get easily distracted when I try to read now a days ... and I used to love to read.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

are audio books standard now?

I've downloaded some (many) but ... it's not the same, I find I get easily distracted when I listen.

I also find I get easily distracted when I try to read now a days ... and I used to love to read.

I have no idea about audio books. My kids like them but my techno skills stopped about 1993. I struggle opening all my pill bottles.

 

[Everyday_Man]

I have no idea about audio books. My kids like them but my techno skills stopped about 1993. I struggle opening all my pill bottles.

send me said medication ... I'll open them for you... haha

 

[oggbashan]

I had an appointment with my doctor this morning. I arrived five minutes early. Unusually the practice was running late. I had to wait twenty minutes beyond my booked time.

Normally two or three minutes is the maximum wait.

I took my Kindle Clone with the 20,000 books on it. I read two novellas by Raphael Sabatini during that short wait.

 

[redzinger]

Eyes - bilberry, blueberry, reflexology, anti-histamine maybe, also grapefruit, proper sleep and don't focus ALL THE TIME on just one spot or area.

My gran always used to bang on about eye exercises - she said that as the eye was a muscle, it should respond to exercise. I can't remember the exercises she used to do, but her eyesight was always pretty good. (She had no truck with most of the medical fraternity since they told her as a newly-married young woman that she would never have children. She popped four perfectly-healthy babies out.)

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

I've collected many of the Kindle books on my list. Today I bought THE STREET OF NO RETURN by David Goodis, his best book, in my opinion. I also found his short story, THE PROFESSIONAL MAN not on Kindle, then found stories by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, THE PARDON, and one by Dashielle Hammett, THE SCORCHED FACE. None of them on Kindle. All three are sublime short stories.

Aha! I found BLACK PUDDING by David Goodis, another 5 star story.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Another jewel fell into my hands, OVER THE RIVER AND THROUGH THE WOOD by John O'Hara. Its a brief erotic piece about a dirty old man who walks in on a naked young woman who left her bathroom door unlocked.

O'Hara's porn was never detailed or explicit yet he always gets across lots with few words at all. O'Hara hadda genius for using ordinary things and activities to express complex interactions.

 

[redzinger]

Have I missed something? What's happened to JBJ?

 

[sr71plt]

Have I missed something? What's happened to JBJ?

It's possible that Laurel's recent rule addition for the AH has made him feel it's not worth it to post on the AH.

 

[NOIRTRASH]

There are now 182 books on my Kindle. My goal is 250. That's 68 books more to identify. Seconds ago I added 4 books by Pete Dexter to the list. Some of my existing Kindle books are for reference, so I prolly need to discount them. I aint gonna be making compost or Whoopee at The Home.

Likewise all the Dickens novels are on the Kindle, and most need to depart except GREAT EXPECTATIONS. No Hemingway or Steinbeck or Faulkner so far, but two each for Tolstoy and Turgenev. Five by LeCarre. Five by Cooper.

Too many books are as appealing and durable as newspapers. I prefer a read with more utility than toilet paper and handy wipes.

 

[NOIRTRASH]

I deleted anuther 20 of the Kindle books, leaving 162, then added one new one, a collection of stories by crime writer Talmage Powell. He was a local talent with a local flavor. Before there was trailer trash there were carnies.

Things aint lookin good for my goal of 250 outstanding reads. I'm demanding. I'm deleting books the rest of the world worships. I may hafta settle for 200.

An outstanding read is simply one you cant get enough of. Some writers do it once, few do it twice. LeCarre did it once with his first novel, CALL FOR THE DEAD.

 

[Desiremakesmeweak]

My gran always used to bang on about eye exercises - she said that as the eye was a muscle, it should respond to exercise. I can't remember the exercises she used to do, but her eyesight was always pretty good. (She had no truck with most of the medical fraternity since they told her as a newly-married young woman that she would never have children. She popped four perfectly-healthy babies out.)

Yeah they told my mother she had cancer and six months to live - 35 years later, she died of an infection contracted in a hospital from botched surgery AND a stent left in where it shouldn't have been left.

(The eye complex has muscles but there are many aspects that are not muscular but specialised tissue; even so, there is a spectrum of support treatments and even directly positive cure avenues available from fairly simple resources. Not to mention of course that it is claimed there are sophisticated full cures via stem cell procedures around the corner.)

 

[NOIRTRASH]

Yeah they told my mother she had cancer and six months to live - 35 years later, she died of an infection contracted in a hospital from botched surgery AND a stent left in where it shouldn't have been left.

(The eye complex has muscles but there are many aspects that are not muscular but specialised tissue; even so, there is a spectrum of support treatments and even directly positive cure avenues available from fairly simple resources. Not to mention of course that it is claimed there are sophisticated full cures via stem cell procedures around the corner.)

One of my tasks with the state health dept involved investigating medical negligent child deaths and non lethal negligence. The work required crocodile hide as the MDs are real gladiators. I lost most of my respect for MDs because so many are incompetent and corrupt. I think medical corporations drive the outrageous medical care prices.

My MD works for a corporation. She recently sent me for a kidney test most often used to diagnose cancer. I asked her, YOU SUSPECT CANCER? She denied it, and I responded with, YOURE SCREWING MEDICARE IF YOU ARENT SUSPICIOUS FOR CANCER. And the tests came back negative. We both knew I had no cancer.

 

[SamScribble]

On the subject of decisions, have you considered deciding on a name, James?

James is one that might work.

 

[lovecraft68]

On the subject of decisions, have you considered deciding on a name, James?

James is one that might work.

I suggest

Johnson B James.